Date & Time Details: February 7-11, 2023 - Start Time 8am End Time 5pm

Location: Taft Gardens, Ojai, California

What to Bring: : This is an all-camping program. Participants are responsible for bringing their own personal camping equipment, and for personal transportation to and from the program.

Meals : This program will no longer be catered. Participants also responsible for bringing their own breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. For dinners, the group will be divided into meal teams to plan, purchase and prepare group dinners using safe protocols.

COVID-19: To protect the health of you, your fellow participants, and our guides, please review our COVID-19 POLICIES AND PROTOCOLS. We also ask participants to be especially vigilant in the weeks leading up to the program to avoid exposure to the virus.

  • $1,000.00 – Total Program Cost

Wild Mind Intensive (NEW DATES) – February, 2023

February 7 - 11, 2023

With Brian Stafford, MD, MPH

Based on Bill Plotkin’s book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 5-day intensive 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 even know exist until we discover how to access them, cultivate their powers, and eventually integrate them into our everyday lives. In this intensive, we’ll access these depths and potentials — which we call the four facets of the Self, or the four dimensions of our innate human wholeness — and also the four sets of fragmented or wounded subpersonalities that form during childhood.

Rather than attempt to eliminate our subpersonalities (which is not possible) or to beat them into submission, we’ll cultivate the four facets of the Self and uncover the gifts of our subpersonalities. Our goal is to fully embody our multifaceted wild minds, commit ourselves to the largest, soul-infused story we’re capable of living, and serve the greater Earth community.

Discover:

  • how to recognize and consciously cultivate the four facets of the Self — your innate human wholeness
  • how to identify the subpersonalities that supported you in childhood and adolescence to adapt to the challenges of family and social life, but ultimately became barriers to your full and authentic humanity
  • practices and guidelines for cultivating relationships between the Self and your subpersonalities, enabling you to heal your subpersonalities, discover their gifts, and foster Self-actualization
  • how each facet of the Self provides essential resources for the underworld journey (the descent to soul), its radical transformation of personal identity, and for living as a visionary artisan of cultural evolution.

We’ll explore the landscape of the psyche through a variety of practices, including creative expression, self-designed ceremony, solo exercises while wandering on the land, group work, movement, voice dialogue, journaling, and deep imagery work.

This is an all-camping program for those who desire to camp. Participants will be meeting at Taft Gardens each morning for the Program and camping each night at Lake Casitas Campground (a 5 minute drive from the Gardens). Price includes campground fees, however participants can arrange their own nightly lodging if desired.  

We invite participants to arrive at the Lake Casitas campground the evening before we commence (February 6th)to get settled.

 

TAFT GARDENS, OJAI, CALIFORNIA

taftWith maintained paths and seating areas, the 15 acres of curated gardens inspires visitors to learn about the majesty of nature and it’s complexities. Hand painted botanical tiles mark the path of the Docent Guided tour through the South African and Australian Gardens. Sculptures adorn the garden with curated art pieces inspiring each visitor to explore the connection between themselves and their environment.

 

 

Guide

Brian Stafford, MD, MPH
Brian Stafford is a guide to the wilderness of nature, wildness, and soul. Called out of academic medicine to serve as a guide to the depths and to serve as an agent of cultural awakening and transformation, he guides with humor, playfulness, fierceness, compassion, discernment, and a deep remembering of the fullness of what each human life can, should, and was meant to be. A native of Colorado and the former holder of an endowed chair and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, he is currently a guide, Board Member, and Training Director of the Wild Mind Training Program at Animas. He…
Learn more about Brian Stafford, MD, MPH