Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a depth psychologist, wilderness rites guide, ecotherapist, and author. As the founder and president of Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute, he has, since 1981, guided thousands of people through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, professional river runner, and mountain-bike racer. His doctorate in psychology is from the University of Colorado at Boulder. While a psychology professor at SUNY-Albany in 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a “call to adventure” that lead him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. He is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (New World Library, 2003) and Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (New World Library, 2008). Register