Visitors are now able to access Esalen as well as other businesses and trails in northern Big Sur via twice-daily convoys on Highway 1 operated by Caltrans.
Convoys run only at 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each day. These are the only opportunities to travel into and out of Big Sur, so visitors must plan accordingly.
Esalen faculty represent a spectrum of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives — our faculty members have included Premal Shah, founder of Kiva.org; Robert Walter, Joseph Campbell’s longtime editor; mindfulness researcher Shauna Shapiro; and Wisdom 2.0 creator Soren Gordhamer.
Browse all past and present faculty below, or use the site search to look for someone specific.
Nancy Levin is a master coach and best-selling author of several books including Setting Boundaries Will Set You Free (Hay House, January 2020) offering in-depth coaching programs and trainings designed to support clients with permission to put themselves first.
Nancy Lunney-Wheeler, MA, is noted for her work combining Gestalt with music, and with Systemic Constellations. Out of her background in vocal coaching and music theater, she has also developed her popular workshop “Singing Gestalt.” For 30 years Nancy served as director of programs for Esalen Institute, where she now serves as senior advisor.
Nancy Slonim Aronie is an NPR commentator, was awarded teacher of the year from Harvard University, and is the author of Writing from the Heart and Memoir as Medicine. She is the founder of the Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard and teaches nationwide at esteemed institutions such as Esalen, Kripalu, and the Omega Institute.
Nancy Winston, L.C.S.W., has been practicing psychotherapy for over 40 years in New York City, Connecticut, Vermont and Florida. She has extensive training with Milton Erickson in hypnosis and psychotherapy, years of study in sensory awareness with Charlotte Selver, and using cybernetic principles in group and family therapy. Winston has developed a unique approach to psychotherapy working with conscious and unconscious communication, blending the principles of hypnosis with the practices of sensory awareness, neuroscience, and linguistics.
Nancy has led workshops and trained therapists in hypnosis and other forms of transformational practice worldwide. She has worked with performers, actors, musicians and professional athletes and was a long-time workshop leader at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA.
Nancy is a member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association; a Founding Member of the Forum for Psychotherapy Cybernetics; and an Instructor for trainees in clinical hypnosis. She has also been an invited faculty member and supervisor at numerous institutes and medical centers in Europe, Canada and throughout the United States, including Mt. Sinai Medical Center’s Dept. of Psychiatry in NYC.
Neil Sharp, MD, finds the neuroscience, learning, and creativity of the Anat Baniel Method forges his diverse passions into a common purpose. He has collaborated with Ms. Baniel since 2006, teaching private sessions, groups, and doing research. He also is a professional musician.
Neil Wadhawan’s classes are playful and challenging, featuring him drumming while simultaneously instructing. His classes draw upon his father's teachings, and his formal music and philosophy studies. Neil is based in San Francisco and holds retreats around the world.
Nichol Chase, ERYT-500, YACEP, TSM, BM, is a teacher, musician, and yogi for whom singing and movement is integral to life. She is a Garrison Institute Fellow and a faculty member and teacher trainer for The Mazé Method.
Nicholas Wilton is an artist whose paintings are sold internationally. He is the founder of the ArtLife Creativity workshops and classes, and he established the Creative Visionary Mentoring Program, which offers artistic, business, and creative coaching to artists.
A musician and dancer for over 20 years, Nick has seen the immediate effect of music on people physically, psychologically and emotionally. He is a constant student of global music and culture, and understands that music is one common language between all humans.
Nikki Mirghafori, PhD, is a Buddhist teacher and AI scientist. She teaches internationally and serves as a stewarding teacher and on the board of directors at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Roxanne "Nikki" Myers is a yoga therapist, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, certified recovery specialist, and founder of CITYOGA School of Yoga and Health. Nikki is the co-founder of Y12SR, the Yoga of 12-Step Recovery.
Nilima Bhat is founder of Sampurnah: The Wholeness Practice. She facilitates personal transformation through self-awareness, self-leadership, and self-empowerment. After a successful multinational career, she was certified as a yoga teacher and became an integrative medicine coach and spiritual guide.
Nina Merrens is a global leadership expert with 20 years of experience. Based in Munich, Nina founded Intercultural Communication, facilitates leadership seminars for the United Nations, and is a consultant on organizational culture for large private-sector clients worldwide. She teaches intercultural sensitivity at a leading German university.
After first chanting as a child with her grandfather in India, Nina Rao has led chanting since 1996 and recorded two albums. She is a wildlife lover and podcast host.
Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers, is a social entrepreneur, author, philanthropic advisor, and activist. Her purposes include regenerative leadership, women’s leadership, indigenous wisdom and social practices, anti-racism, and healing relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth. Her book, Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, won two Nautilus awards.
Nina Wise is a performance artist and founder of Motion Theater, a form of autobiographical performance. Her provocative and original works have been honored with seven Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards and three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.
Niralli D’Costa, LMFT, MA, Is a holistic psychotherapist, professor, and facilitator of transformative explorations in consciousness. Niralli teaches on themes of social justice, embodied spiritual practice, and reweaving our human relationship with the natural world at a range of institutions.
Nita Gage, DSPS, trained with R.D. Laing at the Philadelphia Association in London. She also trained with shamanic teachers and specializes in integrative psycho spiritual healing, and is a teacher with Hoffman Institute. Nita is the author (with Linda Star Wolf) of Soul Whispering: The Art of Awakening Shamanic Consciousness.
Nkechi Deanna Njaka is a neuroscientist, choreography artist, and leading mindfulness meditation guide. She self-identifies as a BIPOC/WOC. As a wellness entrepreneur, she is the founder of The Compass, NDN lifestyle studio, and co-founder of the sleep app DreamWell.
Noah Mazé has a fierce and compassionate dedication to yoga that inspires and holds space for students to journey deeper into body, heart, mind, and spirit than they ever could have imagined. Noah teaches internationally and online, and lives with his family in Los Angeles.
Nora Bateson is president of the International Bateson Institute, Sweden. She is a filmmaker, lecturer, researcher, writer, and educator. Nora wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning documentary An Ecology of Mind. She lectures and teaches internationally, and has advised for EU policy makers, created curricula for schools, and written for several journals.
Nora is passionate about teaching people to come more deeply into contact with themselves and others through the art of touching with presence, sensitivity and listening hands. She draws on twenty-three years of exploring body, mind, heart and soul as an Esalen® Massage practitioner and international teacher with focus on massage and embodiment.
As co-founder of the organization Wildtender, Noël Vietor is dedicated to helping people relate meaningfully with the land, themselves, and each other. Noël finds joy and meaning through mindful hiking, nature drawing, wildcrafting, and raising her young daughter on a Big Sur ridge-top.
Oliver Bailey is a practitioner and instructor of Esalen® Massage. His background includes training in Gestalt Practice, neurolinguistic programming, intuitive work, and meditation.
Oren Jay Sofer is a nationally recognized teacher of meditation, mindfulness and nonviolent communication. A member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council, he holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication, and co-author of Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Adolescents. Oren is co-founder of Mindful Healthcare and the founder of Next Step Dharma, an online program focused on meditation in daily life.
Palika Rewilding is a threshold midwife who listens and tends at the fecund undomesticated edges of Mystery, Earth and Love, for the songs, pearls and shadowed gems of the human heart and psyche longing to re-enchant it's living and dreaming in harmony with Earth.
Pam Houston is the author of six books including Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, Cowboys Are My Weakness, and Contents May Have Shifted. She teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts, UC Davis and is co-founder of Writing By Writers.
Pamela Kramer is President of ITP International, a non-profit organization that stewards Integral Transformative Practice and the work of its founders, George Leonard and Michael Murphy. She is an ITP Mastery teacher and presents workshops at venues in the US and abroad.
Dr. Pam Kryskow is a clinical instructor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Specializing in alleviating the complex modality of pain, she successfully synthesizes her training in family, rural, emergency, pain, counselling and functional medicine. Her wealth of experience in conventional medicine augmented by her deep knowledge on the safe use of MDMA, psilocybin and other psychedelics, places her at the forefront of this new, rapidly emerging paradigm. Her specialized interest and research in the applicability of microdosing has proven formulative in this growing practice.
Pamela Joy, MA, left her high-tech career at Apple and Facebook to found Down To There to help the world talk more openly about sex, recently sharing her own personal journey and research on this topic at TEDx Palo Alto.
Pamela Weiss has been practicing Buddhism since 1987, including several years of Zen monastic training and teacher training with Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock. Pamela leads a weekly sitting group at SF Insight and offers retreats and workshops internationally.
Paméla Espinoza is an Esalen® Massage practitioner/teacher who weaves the interconnective relationships of the body through spiral patterning and movement. She has been involved with the healing arts since 1972.
Paola di Florio, founder of Counterpoint Films, is an Oscar, Emmy and Sundance Jury Prize-nominated writer, director and producer. A Kriya Yoga practitioner and NYU graduate, she is certified in vinyasa, kundalini, and in pranic healing.
Q'ero Shamans don Juan and don Pascual are traveling from the high Andes to share the wisdom of the Q’ero, the Quechua-speaking Andean people of south-central Peru. The Q’ero preserve a sacred prophecy of a great change, or "pachacuti," in which the world would be turned right side up, harmony and order would be restored, and chaos and disorder ended.
Patrice Hamilton has worked in the fields of education, counseling, and bodywork for over 30 years. She feels fortunate to have lived and worked at Esalen from 1996-2002, followed by opportunities to lead residential and public programs.
Patricia Berry, PhD, is a Jungian analyst who worked with James Hillman for more than 20 years in developing Archetypal Psychology and its focus on myth and image. She is the author of Echo’s Subtle Body: Contributions to an Archetypal Psychology.
Patricia de Jong, Rev, is an ordained minister and community leader with experience in educational and graduate institutions. She works as a consultant to emerging leaders nationally and coaches in spiritual nurture and transformation. She is deeply involved in justice and peace issues.
Patricia James is a traditionally trained Cheyenne pipe carrier and priest. She is a cross-cultural expert whose work is informed by nearly four decades of mentorship and initiation in Indigenous spiritual traditions and transpersonal healing modalities. Patricia is an instructor for the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Certificate Program in Psychedelic Therapy and Research (CPTR).
Patrick Anderson is an executive coach and transformative facilitator. He is the cofounder of the T12N Institute, which offers specialized coaching and programs, including the flagship Coaching Mastery training for leaders who are making a foundational shift in their lives.
Patrick Douce, one of Moshe Feldenkrais's first American students, has been associated with Esalen since 1972. Since 1986 he has lived some months of each year in Bali, developing programs with Indonesian Silat martial-arts-for-health schools.
Patrick Stockstill brings reverence, humility, and playfulness to the Esalen Massage® classroom. He taught yoga, massage, and anatomy in the Bay Area for a decade before relocating to Washington state, where he continues to teach and practice Esalen® Massage.
Paul Denniston created Grief Yoga™ blending movement, yoga, breath, and sound to process and release pain and suffering. Paul has taught thousands of counselors and health care professionals Grief Yoga™ to help empower their clients around the world.
Paul Grilley has taught yoga since 1979. His asana classes integrate skeletal variation and the importance of fascia. He teaches meditation informed by the theories of his teacher Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama.
Paul Heussenstamm is a painter and teacher from Laguna Beach, California. His vibrant sacred art incorporates principles of many religious traditions, among them Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. For him, mandalas open the doorway into the symbolic language of the soul.
Paul Selig is a conscious channel, intuitive, and empath. His books include I Am the Word, The Book of Love and Creation, The Book of Knowing and Worth, The Book of Mastery, The Book of Truth, The Book of Freedom and Beyond the Known: Realization.
Paul Sibcy is a founding faculty member of Process Acupressure who has been teaching and practicing since 1984. A founder of Palo Alto's Integrated Healing Arts and Pathways to Self Healing, he is the author of Healing Your Rift with God.
Paul Stamets is a speaker, author, mycologist, medical researcher, and entrepreneur. He is considered an intellectual and industry leader in fungi habitat, medicinal use, and production. He lectures extensively to deepen understanding and respect for mushrooms, showing how these organisms can improve the health of both people and the planet.
Paul Wehrman is a guest practitioner of the Esalen Massage crew, and former resident of Esalen. As a Deep Bodywork specialist, he resides in Santa Barbara, California, where he maintains a private practice and teaches Yin Yoga.
Paula Shaw, a professional actress and acting teacher for more than 40 years, has conducted workshops for those interested in expanding their self-expression, well-being and creativity in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK.
Paula Wild is a yoga teacher and certified Yoga Therapist who has taught trauma-informed yoga workshops from a perspective of accessibility and inclusion for over a decade. Her passion and expertise lies in offering yoga and mindfulness practices in the outdoors with a focus on our deep connection to nature and the Five Elements.
Pawan Bareja, PhD, teaches mindfulness and trauma classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She has trained professional care providers in India. In her private practice as a trauma resolution practitioner, she works with a diverse population of clients.
Peggy Horan has practiced and taught Esalen massage for over 5 decades. She is a recognized teacher of mindfulness meditation. She teaches Esalen massage at all levels and is on the Teacher Training faculty. She is a long time family resident of Big Sur. Her practice includes coaching to support others on their spiritual journey.
Peggy Rubin is founding director of Sacred Theatre in Ashland, Oregon. She leads workshops in Living Life as Sacred Theatre and Sacred Studies of the Divine Feminine. Since 1987 she has also been the principal teaching associate of Jean Houston.
Perry Holloman has been a teacher and practitioner of Esalen Massage, Deep Bodywork, and body-oriented approaches to Relational Gestalt Process work for more than 30 years. He teaches in the US, Asia, and Europe and makes his home in Big Sur.
Pete Guinosso, E-RYT 500, teaches yoga that is grounded in breath and intention, and always leaves room for playfulness and fun. After intensive training with renowned yoga instructor Ana Forrest, Pete founded his own yoga school and draws on his years as a scientist to approach yoga with a sense of wonder and curiosity.
Peter Bregman writes, coaches, and teaches, mostly about leadership. He is CEO of Bregman Partners, a company that helps successful people become better leaders, create more effective teams, and inspire their organizations to produce great results. He is a best-selling author of Leading with Emotional Courage, 18 Minutes, and more.