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.
Shadow Training – May, 2025May 7 - 11, 2025
The application deadline for this program has passed, and the program is FULL. Please feel free to sign up for the waitlist and our guides will reach out if a cancellation occurs. The Shadow is the hidden side of our psyches, with both its “positive” and “negative” aspects. The Shadow is not what we know about ourselves and don’t like (and perhaps keep hidden) but, rather, what is true about us but know absolutely nothing about … and would deny if “accused.” During this training, we’ll develop our skills, as nature-based soul guides, in being with and working with: •…
The SAIP Residential – May, 2025May 13 - 18, 2025
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. ROFO RANCH, SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO RoFo Ranch is located on 40 acres of land under the shadow of the Sleeping Ute Mountain, several miles down McElmo Canyon near Cortez, Colorado. …
Coming Home to an Animate World: A Way of Ceremony and Conversation – August, 2025August 11 - 15, 2025
The application deadline for this program is June 2, 2025. The guides will review all applications after that date and will be in touch with all applicants afterward. Coming Home to an Animate World: A Way of Ceremony and Conversation is one of our most exhilarating and imagination-expanding intensives, and it’s foundational to all the work we do at Animas. Think of this intensive as a green doorway, an opening to a wilder consciousness shaped by forest and owls, clouds, cliff and dreams — a passage from a lifeless universe to a cosmos breathing with mystery and invitation, singing and…
Sweet Darkness - October, 2025October 7 - 12, 2025
The application deadline for this program is July 1st. Please submit your application and our guides will be in touch with you after that date. SWEET DARKNESS: The Initiatory Gifts of the Shadow, Projections, Subpersonalities, and the Sacred Wound is Animas Valley Institute’s most intense six-day immersion. Accordingly, we require that people have participated in previous Animas programs before applying to Sweet Darkness. During Sweet Darkness, we will do some Core Wound work but first we will gather our four facets of wholeness — internal resources that support us in traveling effectively into uncharted territory. Then we will experientially enter the realm of our greatest vulnerabilities and core sensitivities. Through…