Laura Blakeman, Ph.D.
Laura Blakeman is a southwest desert-dweller who draws from her unique trans-disciplinary background in the performing arts, and her lifelong study of human flourishing, to invite worldview shift for individuals and collectives across the corporate and cultural sectors. She spent the early part of her life working as a somatic educator, producing dance events, live art immersions, and land-based programs that centered marginalized ways of knowing, doing, and being. Her academic work has bridged integral, developmental, and eco-depth psychology, complexity and systems theory, and transformative learning. Her doctoral thesis explored beauty as a catalyst for change. She is a co-founder and creative partner at the Wolf Willow Institute.
Events with Laura Blakeman, Ph.D.
An Animas Quest at Beauty Mesa – July, 2026July 14 - 25, 2026
This Program is FULL. Please sign up for the waitlist. THE ANIMAS QUEST This is an all camping 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…
Soulcraft Journey - September, 2026September 17 - 24, 2026
Under the spell of magically labyrinthian Utah canyons, we invite you to convene with a band of wanderers, tricksters and pilgrims for a unique journey of soul. This September, we will gather for a Soulcraft Journey where, as a small community, we’ll enact a wild pilgrimage of soul through a dream-like landscape, and offer the canyons our attentions, unrestrained blessings and praise, our laments, tremendous questions, and our madcap and sacred ceremonies. Our consciousness-changing pilgrimage practices will move deeper into our bones and breath — and thus be more firmly rooted in us when we return to our everyday lives.…
Sweet Darkness - October, 2026October 8 - 13, 2026
The Application Deadline for this program is July 10, 2026. Please submit your application by that date, and our guides will be in touch with everyone afterward. Thank you! 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…