Laura Gunion
Laura believes that humans have tremendous potential, much of it hidden and unconscious. As a mentor, wilderness guide and naturalist, it is both her privilege and responsibility to support others as they encounter their true nature. She feels it’s essential that we grow, not only for ourselves, but also to create cultures that will benefit future generations. She insists on bringing the soulful and sacred into daily living. Her curiosity, acute listening, and precise questioning support people in living boldly and courageously. Laura has been a mentor at Wilderness Awareness School since 2002, and continues to love instructing at their 9-month adult program, Anake Outdoor School. She lives in the woods above Duvall , WA, where she shares land with Bewick’s Wren, black bear, and many other wild ones.
Events with Laura Gunion
Exploring your Wild Mind: An Online Experience of the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche - October, 2023October 22 - 27, 2023
Based on Bill Plotkin’s book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 6-day program is an experiential exploration of our human psyches as unique expressions of the universal forces and patterns of nature. We will work with what we call the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche, which is, among other things, a comprehensive inventory of what can be right about a person, a “shadow” version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), mainstream psychology’s list of what can go wrong with people. Our wild minds possess astonishing resources, untapped potentials and depths that we might not…
Sweet Darkness - January, 2024January 30 - February 4, 2024
Sweet Darkness: The Initiatory Gifts of the Shadow, Projections, Subpersonalities, and the Sacred Wound, is Animas Valley Institute’s most intensive short program. Because of this, we require that people have participated in other Animas programs before applying to Sweet Darkness. In October 2022, we will be extending Sweet Darkness into a 6-day immersion. Before diving into Core Wound work, we will begin by gathering our facets of wholeness, our internal resources that allow us to travel into uncharted territory. Unlike in many modalities, we will strive to get close to the ways we are vulnerable and the ways our sensitivity…
Wild Mind Shadow Training - February, 2024February 5 - 10, 2024
Participants in the Wild Mind Training Program, who have taken Sweet Darkness, are free to register (please contact [email protected]). We welcome others who are interested to apply. The Shadow is the hidden side of our psyches, with both its “positive” and “negative” aspects. The Shadow helps ensure our survival by keeping the lid on elements of our psyche – both negative and positive – that feel dangerous or unacceptable to our ego. But it can also impede our blossoming by keeping that lid on too tight or too long. Many of the psychological resources we need in order to co-create…
Sonoran Desert Quest – March, 2024March 25 - April 5, 2024
THE ANIMAS QUEST This contemporary Western embodiment of the ancient, pan-cultural vision fast is a dynamic wilderness rite for all who are seeking greater depth and clarity about life purpose and meaning. As a rite of initiation, the quest is a ceremonial descent to the underworld, in which you die to your familiar way of belonging to the world, uncover the passion and wisdom of your soul, and retrieve the gift that is yours alone to bring to the world, enhancing personal fulfillment and genuine service. The Animas Quest catalyzes the encounter with soul by temporarily displacing everyday consciousness through…