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Dr. Brian Stafford is a former endowed chair of psychiatry who currently practices as a guide to non-ordinary states of consciousness through a variety of practices. At midlife, Brian enacted a ceremonial wilderness fast and left academic medicine soon thereafter.

Currently, he is a wilderness and vision fast guide, eco-depth therapist, retreat facilitator, and Director of the Wild Mind Eco-Depth Psychotherapy Training Program at the Animas Valley Institute.   He also retrained in psychedelic medicine and research with the California Institute of Integral Studies /MAPS CPTR Program and serves as a facilitator and trainer in psychedelic work, especially in facilitating ecological awakening and the journey of soul initiation. 

As an adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute – where he teaches human development, psychopharmacology, and psychedelics –  he directs the Pacifica Extension Certificate Programs in Depth Psychology and Psychedelics: Treatment and Transformation in an Animated Cosmos.  He is the author of numerous articles and chapters and is completing his first book: Pathways to Ecological Awakening and Eco-centric Consciousness: Finding Our Way Back Home and into the Future. 

Brian resides in Ojai, California; Cape Town, South Africa; and the Costa Brava of Spain. He guides vision fasts, eco-depth retreats, and ceremonies worldwide and offers wild mythopoetic talks to anyone who will listen. He is completing his first nonfiction book, Pathways to Ecological Awakening: Finding Our Way Home and into the Future.