Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.
Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision fast. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a call to adventure, leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook), Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development through the entire lifespan), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (an ecocentric map of the psyche — for healing, growing whole, and cultural transformation), and The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (an experiential guidebook for the descent to soul). He has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Events with Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.
Nature & The Human Soul Intensive Online - January, 2026January 14 - February 26, 2026
Anchored in pan-cultural four-directions wisdom, contemporary depth and archetypal psychologies, and forty years of nature-based soul guiding, the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel (SDW) is a new ecopsychology of human development and cultural transformation. It’s a blueprint showing how richly we can grow and mature when soul and nature are embraced as our wisest and most trustworthy guides. It includes an integrated set of developmental guidelines that can help every human mature into an adulthood of visionary leadership — precisely what we need in this century if we are to create a just, compassionate, and sustainable world. A life-span model of development…
Soulcentric Dreamwork Training - May, 2026May 4 - 8, 2026
The application deadline for this training is March 2nd. Please submit your application and our guides will be in touch with you after that date. This training program is open to those with a background in soul work and lots of previous experience doing their own dreamwork, as well as experienced dreamwork facilitators. Ideally, you will already have participated in an Animas Dreamwork Intensive. For those primarily seeking guidance in working on your own dreams, please join us for our Soulcentric Dreamwork Intensive (Dancing with DreamMaker), later in June, 2026. There are many methods of working with dreams. Soulcentric Dreamwork…
The SAIP Residential – May, 2026May 10 - 15, 2026
This SAIP Residential is for SAIP trainees only. Once a year, during a six-day gathering, SAIP participants have the opportunity for advanced training and personal soulwork with the SAIP mentors. This gathering is for participants in the Soulcraft Apprenticeship & Initiation Program only. For more information about our SAIPien Program, CLICK HERE. TEMPLE OF THE HOLY EARTH We will be camped in northcentral Washington on private land at an altitude of 1700 feet beside a wild river in a deep canyon in the foothills of the North Cascade Mountains. With…