Workshops

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concept of “self versus nature” to discover how to live in harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and this is your opportunity to examine what that means while sharing healing wisdom, practices & ceremonies. This workshop will offer you tools to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns and to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul, as we explore the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental-emotional and spiritual bodies.

How can we honor the gifts, and heal the wounds that we have inherited from our ancestors? How can we identify any social, cultural, racial, religious, and historical energies that may be influencing our lives? We will explore all of this, and discuss the importance of ceremonies, sacred altars, and medicinal plants.  You will have the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing and “doctoring” ceremony, and a water blessing prayer ceremony.

You will be invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.

We are all interconnected in this giant web of life, and every day is a gift in the service of unconditional love for yourself, your community, humanity, and our planet. If you feel the call to be a part of a new humanity that lives in harmony and balance upon this Earth, we invite you to join us in this celebration of life.

Note: Please bring a journal to write in, and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.

Special Note on Gift Economy:  For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feeling of gratitude, value, and desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.

BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops. For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com

Our clown is the authentic, curious, and playful version of ourselves. Clowning as a life practice is the balancing of our light and shadow while laughing at our attachments. Clown is about being soft, brave, and available to the moment. This workshop is an immersion practice that explores our deepest, most vulnerable, creative self.

Using tools found in improvisation, meditation, altered states, and movement practice, we will explore clowning as a spiritual practice. The work begins with exercises that help you drop into the body and descend from the mind to access the clown state. With the foundation of a sacred container, we will engage in primarily nonverbal, physical games and rituals that give birth to organic impulses inspired by the child within. There is no pressure to perform, but an invitation to get lost inside yourself, an openness to go beyond your comfort zone, and a willingness to play within the moment.

There is nothing to learn but rather much to uncover — to allow us to move through life in a more open state, with a greater connection to ourselves and the world. This workshop is physical, open, and accessible for diverse bodies. Come unravel the clown within! Please come unprepared and ready to explore.

Recommended Reading: Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir, Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work and how they don’t work. —Michelle Obama

The pelvis is a powerful part of our body and is foundational to our overall health. The tissues and bones of our pelvis encompass our reproductive, eliminatory, and digestive organs. They shift and change according to stress, infection, pregnancy and birth, hormonal changes, lifestyle, and trauma. When it is in balance, we feel at ease; when out of balance, it can significantly impact the quality of our life.

This retreat will focus on pelvic health along the span of the reproductive spectrum, from preconception through menopause. A broad range of topics will be covered, including:

• Pelvic floor anatomy and self-care practices
• Menstrual health
• Sexual health
• Nutrition and the digestive system
• Mindfulness
• Mental health
• Yoga and other movement practices
• Community building and journaling activities
• Hormones and fertility

Our goal is to help our participants increase their knowledge, self-awareness, and literacy on the workings of their body, pelvic floor, fertility, and sexual health during different spans of their lives. Participants will discover an array of resources, a community of women to support them on their journey, lifelong education, and self-care practices that are accessible and supportive for their body and pelvic health.

Recommended Reading: Wild Feminine by Tami Lynn Kent, Dr. Sonia’s Guide to Navigating Pelvic Pain by Sonia Bahlani, Hello, Down There: A Guide to Healing Chronic Pelvic and Sexual Pain by Alexandra Milspaw, Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and Tending to Your Womb by Anietie Ukpe-Wallace

Participants must bring their own set of tune-up yoga massage balls for use during the workshop. They can be purchased here.

You are invited into a practice of becoming whole through movement, stillness, and deep rest. Explore ritual, respect, and regulation as our equation for remembering and embodying wholeness within a supportive community.

Each day, our sessions will blend movement, stillness, quietude, nature exploration, and time for silence and reflection. Guided meditations and yoga nidra will help soften patterns of stress and restore clarity. Afternoon sessions will include dharma talks, medicinal wild plant classes with healing herbal remedies, and embodiment practices to reconnect you to your inner cycles and the subtler rhythms of the earth.

Glean accessible ways to craft ritual in your daily life, strengthen resilience through self-regulation, and deepen respect for your body, mind, and environment. Expect to be supported as you expand your sense of trustworthy connection through both personal and communal practices.

You will be invited to expand your perception of, relationship to, and belonging with the living earth through:

• Asana practice and embodiment practices
• Meditation
• Yoga nidra
• Earth wisdom, wild plant and tree medicine, nature walks, and herbal medicine making classes
• Plant allies and sit-spot practice
• Ritual

By the end of our time together, you’ll be invited to carry home a resource of embodied tools and expanded perception to integrate into your everyday life. Return to balance in moments of challenge and anchor yourself in wholeness even in the midst of change.

Recommended Reading: Hold Nothing by Elena Brower, Living Ritual by Tracee Stanley, and The Quiet Teachers by Ally Bogard

Explore foundational Esalen® Massage principles reimagined in the side-lying position — quality of touch and presence, long integrative strokes, and passive joint movement, all adapted to offer a new perspective and experience. When limited to prone and supine options, practitioners and students often miss ways to effectively work with those who would benefit from alternatives. This position allows the giver to simultaneously access the front and back of the receiver while moving the limbs in a variety of ways. The side-lying position is especially satisfying for pregnant clients and those uncomfortable on their back or front because of health challenges. Many receivers prefer this relaxed posture, which provides easy access to the ribs and enhances the breath.

Students will apply the flowing Esalen® Massage strokes with more precision, safely and gently turn the client on the table, add depth with the forearm, and mobilize joints with stretches. Effective alignment for giver and receiver, draping, and daily self-care will be emphasized as we focus on Esalen® Massage as an awareness-based practice.

Each class will consist of brief experiential lecture-demonstrations and supervised practice at the table —with plenty of time for feedback, questions, and self-reflection. This class is designed for those who enjoy giving massage and are looking for something more, as well as birth doulas, healthcare professionals, and practitioners seeking new horizons who also wish to reconnect with nature while being embraced by Esalen’s dramatic seacoast setting.

21 hours CE credit through the EMBA; CAMTC transcript credit available.

Since falling in love is biologically natural, but sustaining love is biologically unnatural, Soul Mate focuses on the art and discipline of sustaining love. You begin with learning how to appreciate your partner so specifically and frequently that your partner feels fully seen and loved.

You then practice both the art and discipline of hearing your partner’s criticisms without becoming defensive. For example, so you don’t have to fear “walking on eggshells” before sharing a concern, your partner first learns how to prepare her or himself to emotionally associate your criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved.

Soul Mate is designed as the next evolutionary shift beyond active listening. Active listening allowed the criticizer to feel heard, but failed to teach the person hearing the criticism how to emotionally associate the criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved. The problem? Unless the receiver of criticism feels safe the person sharing their concern cannot feel safe.

You will learn a series of practices you may integrate into your everyday life:

• Six methods of sustaining a “conflict free zone” for 166 hours of your 168-hour week.
• A “Caring and Sharing Time” the remaining two hours by practicing six mindsets that allow you to not feel defensive when criticized.
• “Eleven Wisdoms” as a foundation for deepening your love.
• The four “depleters of love,” aka the “Four C’s” (Criticisms, Complaints, Controlling, and Complacency)
• How to use your new skills with your children, parents, work colleagues and people you differ with politically.
• How to use music and dancing to revitalize your love (to be practiced by dancing before each session)

To sustain your practice after the workshop, I invite you to free, ongoing, group follow-up calls to resolve stumbling blocks. If you wish to review the insights and exercises at any time, you will also have the option of purchasing a Zoom and book version of the course.

This workshop is for couples of all genders and sexual orientations.  Developed over the past 30 years, the workshop is also used by many health professionals in their work with clients and patients.

Recommended Resources: Role Mate to Soul Mate by Warren Farrell (BenBella: July 2024); additional video content on warrenfarrell.com.

Rejuvenate the body and the mind with the deep relaxation that can be found through non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) and yoga nidra. Whether you need a break from constant pressure, are navigating a life transition, or wish to delve deeper into your mindfulness and meditation practice, this retreat will provide space and time for contemplation and reflection.

Non-sleep deep rest, a term coined by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, refers to a waking state of deep relaxation. Evidence suggests reaching this state through NSDR protocols, such as yoga nidra, can reset dopamine levels, reduce cortisol, and provide numerous physical and mental health benefits — including better sleep and enhanced neuroplasticity. We will dig into this and other research during the course.

Together, we’ll go on an inner journey to connect to both ourselves and our life paths — and emerge refreshed and deeply rested. This will be a large-group experience, and we will practice lying-down guided protocols throughout the weekend.

This is a beginner experiential course and does not require knowledge of yoga nidra theory or history. There will be lots of chances to journal and connect with one another as we enjoy the natural beauty of Esalen and our time together!

Recommended Reading: The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing What’s Right in Front of You by Kelly Boys

Embody the power of fall by exploring the many ways to let go and let loose. Discover how to be at ease this season through yoga, soft foam rollers, movement, and stillness.

Surprise yourself with a fresh and creative way to move into release. Autumn is a natural time to liberate old energy and go inward. It’s a season to unwind the restless patterns of body and mind and reset them to a slower pace of time, rhythm, and kinesthetic connection.

As we practice yoga, we’ll shake loose through movement, cultivate deep sleep habits, and roll into release to bridge the contrasts of holding and letting go for inner calm. We’ll explore stillness with movement and long-held poses with fluid vinyasa. We’ll awaken positive muscle memories with relaxation and alignment techniques and learn how to lean more deeply into the bones for emotional and physical strength.

This fall, open into harmonious practices of asana and savasana to increase comfort before moving toward the dark of winter, longer nights, and deeper sleep. Together, we’ll replenish the body with grounding energy by calmly mirroring the trees to awaken inner peace — standing tall through the process of release.

Please bring your own soft foam roller. The recommended roller is 36” in length by 6″ in diameter. It must be long enough to support the whole spine.

Gestalt is, at its heart, an awareness practice. It invites us to be present with what is. From that presence, insight, emotional regulation, and inner guidance begin to emerge.

Gestalt practice helps us connect with what is real and true for us, beyond old patterns, habitual self-judgment, or the impulse to fix ourselves. In a field of shared inquiry where judgment softens, authenticity has space to reveal itself. Integrative Gestalt Practice™, developed by Perry and Johanna Holloman over the past 30 years, combines deep awareness with embodied exploration. It offers practical tools for navigating relationships, life transitions, and meaningful inner questions with clarity and integrity.

During this workshop, you will:

• Learn Gestalt-based self-inquiry practices that deepen awareness and authentic connection.
• Engage in breath and movement-based exercises to access embodied wisdom.
• Strengthen your ability to recognize and follow your own inner guidance.
• Work in dyads and triads to practice deep listening to one another and your own soul’s unfolding wisdom.
• Participate in group processes that foster presence and genuine community.

Several participants will also have the opportunity to engage in individual “open seat” sessions — live, facilitated personal inquiry processes with Perry and Johanna, supported by the attentive presence of the group. Witnessing and participating in one another’s work are often powerful catalysts for insight, as shared themes and human experiences resonate across the group field.

Join us for a week of embodied inquiry, meaningful connection, and renewed contact with your agency and inner guidance.

Recommended Reading: Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Frederick S. Perls and Steve Andreas and The Unfolding Now by A. H. Almaas

This workshop includes an additional $50 in faculty tuition.

What if the love you’ve been searching for is already here — waiting to be remembered?

In this retreat, you’ll explore self-compassion as a lifeboat home — a steady refuge when self-criticism, striving, or overwhelm take hold.

Rather than trying to “fix” yourself, you’ll be invited to gently shift your relationship to experience, discovering the loving awareness that is already present beneath conditioned patterns that do not serve you.

Through a blend of contemplative practice and experiential inquiry, you’ll find how self-compassion can serve as a bridge — from a limited sense of self to a more spacious, connected way of being. To the heart of who you are. We’ll explore how this practice of compassion can be more than a temporary balm and can become a doorway into deeper remembrance.

During our time together, you will be invited to:

• Engage in nondual guided meditations and self-compassion practices that support emotional resilience and inner steadiness.
• Explore experiential inquiries that gently reveal patterns of self-judgment and striving.
• Learn practical ways to meet difficult emotions with warmth and clarity.
• Participate in group discussions that foster connection, insight, and shared humanity.
• Learn how to integrate self-compassion into daily life as a sustainable, embodied practice.
• Deepen your experiential understanding of nonduality.
• Find new ways to access the heart of who you are.

Throughout the week, you’ll be supported in reconnecting with a sense of wholeness. Rather than attempting to fix an illusory and limited self, our time together will support us in having a direct experience of remembering, not “improving,” who we really are.

Recommended reading: The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together, by Caverly Morgan & A Kids Book About Mindfulness by Caverly Morgan

Join us for deep release and renewal as we pause to align with autumn, acknowledge the sacred cycle of life, and move gracefully through this transitory season.

Autumn is a time of letting go and accepting the impermanence of things. For many spiritual traditions, it has long been an opportunity to slow down and reflect — to consciously participate in the process of closing one chapter and starting anew.

During this period of great change, our yoga and meditation practices can help us feel more grounded, rooted, supported, and nourished. We can create more intentional pauses and open to the sacred present moment as it is while we also fortify our inner resources, nourish our health and wellbeing, and expand our capacity for compassion and connection.

With an emphasis on rooting while opening change, we will work with multiple practices to meet this moment of transition and transformation. Each class will focus on balancing the nervous system while weaving together heart-based practices with slow flow yoga, somatic movement, deep restorative relaxation, and Metta meditation. Plus, we’ll incorporate inner reflection, seasonal rituals, and journaling options to help us flow through fall with reverence and ease.

More than ever, we can benefit by pausing, releasing stress and tension, and restoring our energy and nurturing ourselves in order to better nurture our world.

Garth Stevenson will add deeply healing vibrations with his double bass to help us cultivate the balance between grounding and releasing into the spaciousness of the season.

Throughout this retreat, we will practice outdoors and embrace the Autumn elements to truly be with life’s changes and arrive more fully in the present moment.

Recommended Reading: The Power of the Pause By Jillian Pransky

This workshop includes an additional $125 in faculty tuition.

Many of us are overextended yet underfulfilled. In this highly experiential workshop, you’ll be guided through the Wise Effort Method, a powerful, ACT- and wisdom traditions-informed process to reclaim your energy and direct it toward what matters most. Through values mapping, group work, and real-life behavior experiments, you’ll be invited to identify what’s draining you, strengthen what sustains you, and design wiser ways of showing up in your life, relationships, and work.

Explore three Wise Effort practices designed to help you reconnect with what truly matters. We’ll begin by getting curious and gently mapping where your energy is actually going right now, noticing what may be keeping you stuck, and discovering what truly matters to you. From there, you’ll open up, practicing radical acceptance of what is so you can open up to more of who you are. Finally, you’ll focus your energy, designing and committing to a life that reflects your values in key areas such as work, relationships, health, and creativity.

This retreat centers on interactive practices: partner and small-group exercises, live coaching demonstrations, and gently guided reflection time.

Participants will be invited to:

• Explore three ways of relating to the world that keep us stuck in unwise effort.
• Clarify core values.
• Learn and practice skills to open up and focus your energy on what matters most to you.

Recommended reading: Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Energy on What Matters Most by Dr. Diana Hill

The Artist lives within everyone! Art can be made out of just about anything! It’s a time to leave the critic behind and allow oneself to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit. It’s also a time to enjoy the company and camaraderie of like-minded peers. Now is your time to discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and to find out how meaningful and grand a shared, creative experience can be.

In this transformative workshop, we will use repurposed material in a whole new context of re-creation.

Come experiment with a vast array of reused materials to create mixed-media mosaics, sculptures, and collages. There will be an assortment of recycled glass, metals, wood, plastics, paper, photographs, fabrics, and old artifacts — bits and pieces of the past and present.

In a beautiful, nurturing, supportive setting, we will reclaim and shape society’s scraps and discarded objects into re-imagined meaning. Find your own inner voice of expression as you delve into the process of creating art out of different materials and mediums,  and learn new skills.

Not only will you have the opportunity to explore your own expression and immerse yourself in solo creations, but we will also engage in a collaborative group project to enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.

There is a transformative joy that comes from engaging with others in the artistic process. It opens doors unseen and forges deeper bonds between people. This exciting, shared experience teaches us how beautiful it is to break down barriers and collaborate.

This workshop is geared toward anyone with the desire to create. From the beginner to the advanced, this is a time to explore new possibilities. Together, we will:

• Explore our own creativity and immerse ourselves in solo artistic expression.
• Engage in a collaborative group project and enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.
• Leave the critic behind and allow ourselves to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit.
• Discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and how meaningful and grand a shared experience can be.

If there are any recycled materials, special mementos, poems, or photos you would like to bring and include in our creations, please feel free!

This workshop includes an additional $115 for workshop materials.

The myths that built this world — the ones that tell us who belongs, who leads, and who is worthy of care — are losing their hold, and the body knows it. Long before the mind catches up, the body has been carrying the weight of these stories: in the armor we wear, the patterns we embody, and the creativity we withhold.

This workshop is an invitation to go beyond the veil and begin the ancient, necessary work of returning to yourself. Over the course of our time together, you will be guided through a layered journey of the myths that have shaped us and the medicine waiting on the other side.

Our journey weaves in four directions:

• Unlearn — surface the cultural stories embedded in your posture, your patterns, and your pain, and begin to loosen their grip.
• Transform — reorganize the patterns of control, scarcity, and separation that have run your inner life, and feel what opens when they no longer do.
• Recover — reclaim the wisdom, histories, and ways of knowing that dominant culture has obscured or erased.
• Co–create — practice, together, what it actually feels like to move from a different story entirely.

This is the work that makes the other work possible — the foundation beneath every vision, every relationship, every act of courage toward a different future. Designed for those who sense that the world will not change until we do.

Who are we to tell our stories? How can we grant ourselves permission to write the truths we’re compelled after being told we shouldn’t?

Designed for creatives of every stripe and at every level, this workshop is a generative and inspiring experience that empowers participants to unpack their right to tell the stories that make them who they are in a world that asks them to stay silent. It is designed to enable participants to embrace the stories that are theirs to share, write them with authenticity, clarity, and compassion, and cultivate the courage it takes to transform their stories into art.

This immersive program will lead participants through a supportive exploration of the craft of personal storytelling — how to short-circuit the fear that prevents creation, how to begin and persevere after being told you can’t, and how to transcend the constraints that keep vital stories from being written.

Over the course of a week, participants will engage in exercises that marry creative exploration with practical writing techniques, including:

• Exploring strategies for overcoming creative self-doubt.
• Navigating shame-based emotional obstacles that prevent writers from reclaiming ownership of their stories.
• Structuring narratives in ways that resonate deeply not only with themselves but also with readers.

The workshop will address the psychological and emotional aspects of memoir writing, helping participants recognize internal barriers and develop practices for sustained creative confidence. Attendees will be given tangible tools to continue their work beyond the retreat and to lay the foundation for a memoir or personal project grounded in their deepest intentions.

Open to writers of all levels. Attendees will be encouraged to share their work in a safe, creative, productive environment designed for creativity, courage, and personal growth.

Recommended Reading: Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create by Elissa Altman, Motherland by Elissa Altman, Poor Man’s Feast by Elissa Altman, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief  by Victoria Chang, Writing Past Dark by Bonnie Friedman, and Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.

The Shame Triangle is an inner dynamic of parts that many of us carry without even realizing. It includes three primary roles: an Inner Critic that attacks, a Shame Part that absorbs the blow, and an Inner Escaper that tries to avoid pain while showing up in many forms: overfunctioning, perfectionism, and overachieving on one end, and dissociating, zoning out, using substances, or lashing out on the other. Together, these parts form a closed loop that keeps us stuck in survival strategies, disconnected from others and our deeper truth, and unable to fully access the Self.

Rooted in Internal Family Systems (IFS), narrative therapy, and the transformative power of Parts Work, this workshop guides participants to access Self-energy — the calm, clear presence within that can witness and transform our inner dynamics. We’ll explore how the Shame Triangle forms, how it functions internally, and how it is shaped by larger social, cultural, and intergenerational influences.

As the Shame Triangle softens, it gives rise to what we call the Inner Love Triangle, where the Inner Critic becomes an Inner Coach, Shame opens into Raw Experience, and the Escaper evolves into an Inner Nurturer — a dynamic grounded in support, truth, and clarity, where previously conflictual parts become powerful allies.

The workshop includes:

• Guided parts work.
• Somatic practices and narrative inquiry.
• Relational exercises in pairs and small groups.
• Live demonstrations of working with parts.
• IFS sculpting, a dynamic group process similar to Family Constellations that makes internal parts visible and experiential.
• Legacy unburdening for the aspects of the Shame Triangle that are inherited rather than personally acquired.

Discover a clear map of how shame operates within, where it originates — both personally and collectively — and how to transform this inner structure to support lasting change and self-leadership.

Note: Familiarity with Internal Family Systems, parts work, or somatic practices is helpful but not required. Participants at all levels can find meaningful entry points into this work. Those currently in crisis, in early trauma recovery, or without access to adequate support are encouraged to consider whether the timing is right for this work

Recommended reading: Transforming the Shame Triangle: From Shame to Love Using Parts Work by Jessica Fern & David Cooley

Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying is one of the oldest and most comprehensive systems of concentration in the Buddhist tradition. Sometimes called the Elephant Path, this approach was originated by the great Buddhist master in 506 A.D., and it is now the main method of training the mind in the Tibetan tradition.

In this weekend meditation retreat, participants will learn the stages of the Elephant Path using the body as the primary object of concentration. Students will also receive an introduction to the basic stages of ordinary insight. By the end of our time together, students will have all the instructions necessary to successfully incorporate a robust meditation practice into everyday life.

Training the mind in this way can lead to a direct experience of equanimity and can put the student in a range of practice wherein pointing out the real nature of the awakened mind is possible.

No experience with meditation is required. If you have your own preferred meditation pillow and mat, please bring them.

Our instinctual nature shapes how we move through life — how we seek safety, connection, and passion. Yet this powerful aspect of us is often misunderstood or overlooked, even in spiritual work. In the Enneagram tradition, our instincts are seen as three fundamental drives — Self-Preservation, Sexual (Attraction), and Social (Adaptation) — that influence how our type expresses itself. Each of these is further divided into three zones for practical understanding and clarity.

The Instincts are not just an overlay to your Type; they are the engine of your personality. They determine how you engage with the world, how you seek safety, and how you love. Without understanding the Instincts — the biological and physical zones of our being — we are trying to navigate the Enneagram without the foundation. They are the core of our relationship with self and others.

Each of us relies more heavily on one instinct, while the others tend to be underdeveloped or neglected. The “instinctual stack” profoundly affects our attention, relationships, and personal growth. Learning to recognize these patterns brings greater balance and presence to our daily lives.

In this workshop, we will clarify and deepen our understanding of the Instincts, seeing them at work in our personal experiences. Through experiential exercises, movement, and meditation, we will observe how the instincts show up in real time — how they support, limit, and shape our awareness — and practice engaging them with curiosity rather than resistance.

Open to both newcomers and longtime students of the Enneagram, this is an accessible and grounded approach to understanding how our most basic drives can become allies in living with greater awareness and authenticity.

Recommended reading: Wisdom of the Enneagram by Russ Hudson & Don Riso ;
The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram by John Luckovich

Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for an unforgettable journey into the sacred traditions of Native American instrument making and music. This immersive, hands-on workshop invites you to reconnect with the spirit of sound by crafting three profound instruments: a Native American bamboo flute, a 16″ elk-hide medicine drum, and a gourd crystal rattle.

Designed for beginners and enthusiasts alike, this workshop begins with an exploration of the Native American flute. You’ll not only learn to play this sacred instrument — with guidance on breath control, finger positioning, and melodic phrasing — but you will also craft your own Native American-style flute using bamboo. Through this experiential journey, you’ll discover the flute’s power to express emotion, foster introspection, and create a deep sense of connection.

Next, delve into the sacred art of drum making as you create a 16” elk-hide medicine drum — a profound instrument that serves as the foundation of a trilogy of sacred tools in Native traditions. Guillermo will share the cultural and spiritual significance of the medicine drum and its role as a vessel of healing, rhythm, and spiritual resonance. Using traditional techniques, you will stretch the elk hide and lace the drum by hand, crafting a one-of-a-kind instrument that carries your unique spirit and purpose.

Lastly, connect with the power of resonance as you create your own crystal rattle using ethically sourced gourds, crystals, and natural materials. By blending traditional techniques with your personal intention, you’ll craft a sacred tool for healing, ceremony, and transformation.

No prior musical experience is necessary — just an open heart and a willingness to listen deeply. All materials will be provided, including tools and components for flute, drum, and rattle making.

This workshop has a $225 material fee, which covers all materials for instrument making.

“To feel is to heal. To contact is to awaken.” — Dick Price

Human beings are relational by nature. We are an intricate web of anatomy, energy, space, and time that takes shape through our life experiences. Our physical structure, function, and sense of self are reflected in our fascial layers and formed by our early development, by principles of self-organization, and by how we engage with our environment.

When we fall into habitual patterns, parts of ourselves become undeveloped, unseen. If our bodies are given a setting in which to relate to gravity, others, and our environment with curiosity and attunement, we can be free to move and relate with more choice and ease.

Using the grounds, waters, and spirit of Esalen as our laboratory, Kate and Dwight will use the Feldenkrais Method and Gestalt process as a guide to contact and nurture the influences of the subtle body – our relationship to ground, gravity, and the space between.

In this workshop, participants will:

Identify the habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating ease in our lives.

Investigate how the subtle body is influenced by the principles of emotional anatomy, tensegrity, neuroplasticity, and self-organization through experiential movement.

Be guided through Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons tailored toward the subtle body and creating more sophistication in functional movement.

Explore sensation, weight, gravity, and relationship through movement and contact.

Learn tools of Gestalt Relational Process to increase presence and awareness and integration of ourselves.

Recommended Reading: Feldenkrais, The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion; Gladis, Tales of a Wounded Healer: Creating Exact Moments of Healing; Bodywise: An Introduction to Hellerwork for Regaining Flexibility & Well-Being.

What if personal power isn’t something you earn by doing more, but something you reclaim by being more fully yourself? How might your life and relationships shift if you could lead from your truth? What if your body became your inner compass, a steady and trustworthy guide through life?

This is an invitation into the wisdom of the body.

Somatic research affirms what embodied traditions have long known: the body holds the keys to authenticity, presence, and lasting change. By attuning to inner signals, noticing patterns, and returning to center, space opens for truth, choice, and alignment. This is not about pathologizing. It is about becoming.

Through trauma-informed facilitation, participants will engage in solo reflection, partnered exploration, small group practice, and collective experience. Grounded in somatics, embodied and Authentic Relating, breathwork, vocal activation, and expressive movement, this work moves beyond concept into direct experience, where insight can be felt, practiced, and integrated in real time.

Over the course of the immersion, we will explore:

• Somatic theory and practice for emotional tracking, inner listening, and aligned action
• Solo and relational practices rooted in the body’s wisdom
• Centering and resourcing tools to meet challenge and pressure with greater resilience and ease
• Expression through voice, movement, and the language of the body

We’ll blend seated, standing, and movement practices, adaptable for all bodies, identities, abilities, and lived experiences.

What does it mean to remain human in the new age of artificial intelligence? In this immersive weekend workshop, we’ll explore this profound question together, journeying from awareness to empowerment to integration as we discover how to shape our relationship with AI while preserving what matters most.

Through hands-on AI demonstrations, creative labs, and experiential exercises, we’ll witness firsthand both the remarkable capabilities and profound implications of this technology. We’ll experiment with AI as a creative collaborator, experimenting with the technology in conscious ways. With somatic practices, guided meditation, and time in nature, we’ll envision the future we want, free from tech industry narratives about what’s “inevitable.”

Each session will blend practical exploration with deep reflection. Through live talks and demonstrations, group dialogue, and creative experimentation, we’ll explore AI’s current capabilities while staying grounded in embodied practices. Throughout the experience, we’ll integrate insights through authentic sharing and meaningful connection with one another, and with ourselves.

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your personal AI Code of Practice, create conscious engagement with technology, and forge genuine connections with fellow participants. This workshop offers resources and perspectives to support you in bringing these meaningful conversations to your own communities, helping others find empowerment rather than overwhelm in our rapidly changing world.

Stuckness often lives deeper than thought. Many of us sense we are capable of more: more freedom, impact, honest expression, more generative relationships, more alignment with the life and work calling us forward. And yet, inherited rhythms live in the body: rhythms of culture, survival, and belonging that shape what feels safe, possible, or forbidden.

Join this weekend workshop on noticing the grooves you have inherited, shifting the patterns that no longer serve, and practicing new ways of being. In music, rhythm organizes movement, feeling, and attention. In life, our rhythms shape how we relate, create, lead, heal, and become.

During our time together, we will:

• Use reflective writing and prompts to identify inherited rhythms, default responses, and outdated survival strategies.
• Practice embodied awareness, conscious breathing, and gentle movement to cultivate presence, choice, and inner spaciousness.
• Engage in storytelling, witnessing, and peer coaching circles to be seen clearly, listen deeply, and practice new ways of relating.
• Explore music, rhythm, and creative play as tools for shifting automatic responses and rehearsing new possibilities.
• Create simple integration rituals and commitments that support continued becoming in life, leadership, relationships, and healing practice.

This experience is for anyone feeling stuck, limited, under-expressed, or ready to ask what’s next with more courage and clarity. It is for those seeking to move beyond inherited grooves and practice a more embodied, communal, and choiceful life. One rooted in creative healing and collective possibility.

For thousands of years, autumnal holidays such as Samhain, Hallowe’en, and Vetrnætr have served as ceremonial foundations — connecting pre-modern peoples to landscape, ancestors, and ritual time. Many cultures believe “the veil thins” during this time, letting enchantment flood back into our world. The time is rife with opportunities to renew sacred relationships with the Earth, ourselves, and beings seen and unseen.

As the deciduous trees draw inward to direct energy into their roots, we too may feel drawn to our deeper inner worlds. The Big Sur wilderness — Esselen Tribal territory — is a fertile habitat for mind and spirit, and a potent domain for ritual to support transformation during this liminal season. Approaching the landscape as our teacher and guide, we will engage with the natural world in an embodied ecological context and explore the mythological and psycho-spiritual dimensions of land connectedness.

Drawing from their own European earth-based kinship traditions while holding a larger frame of pancultural land relationship, facilitators Fletcher Tucker and Micha Merrick will offer daily encounters with the medicinal, ecological, and ritual dimensions of plants found across the Northern Hemisphere. Diverse practices, including sound journeywork and guided meditations, will aid us in cultivating enhanced awareness, interconnectedness, and ceremonial reverence.

Rooted in the Gestalt tradition of Esalen, we will build a container of safety and heart-centered community to connect meaningfully with ourselves and one another. Over five days of presence, play, and practice on the land, we will depart from modernity’s anthropocentric paradigm and descend into the ancient, potent, animate world of kinship and enchantment.

Important notes: This retreat will include one full day of immersion in the Big Sur wilderness, with a hike up to three miles. Please be aware that the hiking terrain can be steep, rugged, and sometimes strenuous. There may be prolonged sun exposure. Participants must be able to hike and carry what they need for the day: two liters of water, a pack lunch provided by Esalen, and sun protection. Other workshop sessions will be mostly situated outdoors on the Esalen property.

This workshop includes an additional $60 for Materials and Park fees.

Join us for a deeply nourishing sound immersion where sacred resonance becomes a gateway to transformation. In this weeklong workshop, we work with alchemy crystal singing bowls — instruments of subtle energy and crystalline intelligence — to harmonize the nervous system, soften emotional residue in the biofield, and awaken a more grounded, joyful state of being.

Each day includes spacious sound journeys designed to support theta brainwave states and foster deep relaxation, subconscious clearing, and intuitive insight. As we attune to the bowls’ harmonic field, we invite a gentle re-patterning of the nervous system and access to peace, presence, and embodied vitality.

Through practices in mantra (a Sanskrit word meaning “mind tool”), movement, voice, and reflection, we’ll explore how sound can:

• Clear energetic stagnation.
• Cultivate inner calm and self-trust.
• Interrupt and rewire habitual stress loops.
• Open pathways to awe, clarity, and inspiration.

You’ll experience seven alchemy crystal bowl sound journeys, heart-opening vocal practices, and a co-creative session in the Art Barn. We’ll also share journaling, partner work, and restorative space for integration.

Held within the elemental beauty of Esalen, where ocean waves, mineral springs, and towering trees invite deep renewal, this retreat offers space to soften, realign, and reconnect with your true self.

Come as you are. Leave radiant from within.