Doug Van Houten
Body, Art & Soul
Nature-based Guide to Soul
Artist
Somatic & Movement
Ancestral ~ Soulwork
Where soulwork, creativity, wholeness, embodiment, ancestral tending, and mentorship constellate in the dark — opening portals into the unseen depths of your life. Cross the threshold and surrender to the mystery that dreamed you into being.
Awaken to your Soul-Centered Life
Nature-Based Body, Art & Soul invites you to step into your wholeness, awaken dormant capacities, and cultivate a life that flows from your soul. This work isn’t about fixing what’s broken—it’s about transformation, exploring your inner wisdom, and stepping into your full aliveness.
Rooted in nature-based initiation, our programs guide you through encounters with wild nature, expressive arts, and ancestral wisdom. You explore the terrain of body, mind, heart, and soul, uncover hidden gifts, and learn tools to access intuition, nurture creativity, and connect deeply with life’s rhythms.
Over time, you emerge as a fully embodied visionary, capable of bringing your unique gifts into the world. This path is for those ready to step beyond old patterns, awaken their deep longing, and live with courage, passion, and purpose.
Through this work, you will learn to:
Connect deeply with your own inner guidance and intuition
Access creativity and imagination as tools for personal transformation
Embark on guided journeys with dreams, ritual, and symbolic work
Integrate body, mind, and soul through somatic practices
Develop resilience and clarity in navigating life transitions
Cultivate embodied relationships with nature and ancestral wisdom
Expand awareness of your personal mythos and life story
Bring artistic expression into everyday spiritual practice
Doug Van Houten
THE SINGULAR DREAM that has been a perennial guide for Doug’s own guiding practice is one where humans thrive in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth, know our cosmic origins, and see ourselves as integral and yet necessarily unique participants in the ongoingness of the universe. His lineage of teachers and inspirators includes: Bill Plotkin and the Animas Valley Institute, Joanna Macy, Matthew Fox, David Whyte, Mary Oliver and Brian Swimme to name a few. In co-creating wild, ceremonial and soulcentric spaces for human development, Doug draws upon the wisdom of deep imagery and dreams, somatic and embodied knowing, poetry and art-making, and many pan-cultural, soul furthering, nature-responsive practices. Doug’s true calling manifests in a devotion to supporting others to transform themselves toward wholeness and maturation as they descend into the mystic wellspring of their imaginations, drink deeply from soul’s source, drench in their own unique grief and gifts and return to outpour their particular powers in service to what Thomas Berry called, ”The Great Work” of our time. In addition to guiding and mentoring Doug expresses his own soul’s longing as a visual artist, a wily wanderer, an intuitive dream tracker, an occasional beekeeper, a heart-centered activist, an emerging yogi and cosmic dancer.
Doug is a senior Soulcraft™ guide with the Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org). He also guides programs & mentors individuals on the land at the farm that he lives on in Goshen, Kentucky (20 minutes outside Louisville) and at a distance using Skype or phone.