Wild Mind Training Residential – November 14-18, 2026
Artwork by Doug Van Houten
A residential, face to face, fully catered training held at Baanya Biami - Camp of Great Spirit Staughton Vale Victoria - 1.2 hours south west of Melbourne.
This residential is limited to trainees in the Wild Mind Training Program (WMTP) (and SAIP Program) only. You must be enrolled in the WMTP (or SAIP) to register for this residential.
You can find more information about the WMTP here.
NOTE: All Wild Mind Trainees will receive a link to register for this program from the WMTP Director. Please reach out to Brian Stafford if you have not received it.
Maximum of 20 participants.
Program Fees - Soulcraft ANZ Inc is a not for profit, volunteer association. Programs fees incur 10% GST at checkout (for Australian residents):
Early Bird: $1,695 - paid in full at registration.
Full Price: $1,895 - with a $500 minimum deposit to hold your place - (paid in full by October 9, 2026).
Concession: $1,595 - a current concession card is required.
We encourage you to pay the full price if you have the means to do so. This will enable us to cover costs and offer concessional places to those in need. If you are challenged financially, please contact us to discuss.
The Wild Mind Training Residential is the core of the WMTP steeped in the Nature Based Map of the Human Psyche.
In this 5-day training, participants hone their skills in listening, tracking, deepening, mirroring, and creating invitations to help others cultivate their wholeness and heal their wounded and fragmented subpersonalities. We also practice the skills of council, dreamwork, and Shadow work, and further develop our understanding and use of the Nature Based Map of the Human Psyche. Included is an introduction to the use of the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel.
Designed for human development guides, the WMTP is a professional training in the use of the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche to support others to cultivate their innate wholeness and to acquire the skills of Self-healing.
The objectives of the Wild Mind Training Residential are to:
provide training in the NBMHP model and in the skills of facilitating nature-based wholing and Self-healing
support trainees in their personal cultivation of wholeness and Self-healing
support the career development of professionals called to guide others toward wholeness.
Note - the WMTP is not a training in underworld guiding. Learning to facilitate the descent to soul is the mission of Animas’ Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program — SAIP. An application and acceptance into the Wild Mind Training Program is required for this Residential.
Continuing Education Credits are available for an additional fee. Please inquire.
As author Gary Snyder notes, "To speak of wilderness is to speak of wholeness." To have a wild mind is to have a wholemind. People with wild minds are those who have cultivated and embodied their innate human wholeness — the full rainbow spectrum of capacities, talents, and sensibilities that constellate our evolutionary birthright.
~ Bill Plotkin
Venue:
Baanya Biami ‘Camp of Great Spirit’ - 220 Marshalls Lane, Staughton Vale, Victoria. Baanya Biami is located 80 minutes south west of Melbourne; 50 mins south of Ballarat, or 40 minutes north of Geelong. It is nestled on 150 acres of bushland, surrounded by over 21,000 acres of the Brisbane Ranges National Park - where you will find over one fifth of Victoria’s native plant species, over 170 native bird species and an abundance of native wildlife. There are short and long public walking trails meandering through the National Park taking in the rivers, gorges, and cliff top views.
Your Guide:
Brian Stafford MD MPH: Brian 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 humour, 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 paediatrics, he is currently a guide, Board Member, and Training Director of the Wild Mind Training Program at Animas. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as an expert in psychedelic preparation and integration. He is an avid outdoorsman, teacher, writer, mentor, partner, and parent. He delights in helping individuals rewild and ensoul their lives by assisting in the dissolution of their current life so that they may discover and live from their deeper life, their soul-life. Brian currently makes his home in Ojai, California.
Food and Accommodation:
The program is fully catered, providing amazing vegetarian food by chef Ashley Mariani. We will pass on any dietary restrictions advised by you at registration. If you have not already let us know of any dietary restrictions that apply to you, please forward to us as soon as possible.
Lodgings and bedding requirements:
Most of the accomodation is in bunk rooms (2 people per room) with shared bathroom facilities. Several camping places are also available.
