Workshops

Intimacy is to the soul as food is to the body. It creates a sense of connectedness that provides access to dimensions of the self that are unavailable during ordinary states of awareness. Being present in this way reminds us that we are not separate beings, alone and adrift in the world, but inextricably connected — unconditionally whole, complete, and sufficient as we are.

Intimate connections are necessary to experience deep fulfillment in life. When that need goes unfulfilled, we may experience loneliness, malaise, moodiness, agitation, or depression. Intimate moments occur unexpectedly, showing up as surprising gifts. Many of us don’t realize that we have considerable influence in creating the conditions that can promote — and even compel — the experience of intimacy.

Loving feelings alone do not assure that intimacy will be present in a relationship. Feeling love and experiencing intimacy are distinct and separate phenomena. When the sexual element is added to that equation, the result can be ecstasy, which means “to be driven out of one’s mind.” Intimacy doesn’t result in insanity, but it can make us feel like we are losing contact with ordinary reality. Entering this other world is not for the faint of heart. It requires the heart of a lover and an adventurous warrior’s spirit.

The course will include interpersonal exercises, lectures, mindfulness practices, and time for Q&As. You will be supported in identifying blocks of resistance, both the conscious and unconscious. You will be given guidance and tools to neutralize the barriers impeding your quest for deeper, more loving connections.

This workshop explores ways of representing and befriending our inner experience. Therapies that work all start from a basic sense of calm and safety. The calmer we are, the more we can allow ourselves to know what we know, and to feel what we feel.

Trauma changes the way the brain processes information and the body engages with the world. Trauma makes people afraid to know what they know and feel what they feel. This is expressed in heartbreak, and the state of being out of sync with oneself and one’s surroundings. This course explores how, because of altered biological systems, traumatized people continue to be trapped by their history and react to current experience in a myriad of ways as a replay of the past, and shows ways to break the cycles of re-enactment and suffering.

We will study and experience the capacity of EMDR, yoga, Internal Family Systems, sensorimotor practices, psychodrama, theater work, and neurofeedback to help people overcome a traumatic past and regain the capacity to be fully alive in the present.

Bring a notebook. Wear clothing that allows free movement as you are able.

Recommended reading: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van de Kolk

We sleep one-third of our lifetime, an average of 20 to 25 years. Dream yoga is a practice that spans every moment, waking and sleeping. It is a powerful tool of awakening used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Foundational practices in dream yoga change the practitioner’s relationship to all experiences, develop conscious awareness and often lead to lucidity in dreams. Unlike in the Western psychological approach to dreams, the ultimate goal of Tibetan dream yoga is the recognition of the nature of the mind or enlightenment itself.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will discuss the relationships between dream and waking, and dream and death. He will show how the causes of dreams are related to the six chakras, and how we can heal blocks in the chakras. He will teach the “four preparations” for sleep and the uses and methods of lucid dreaming.

Recommended reading: Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep and Rinpoche, Sleep & Awakening the Sacred Body.

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As life changes, we also must change — yet this isn’t guaranteed. Too many of us get stuck at our thresholds. Nature, creativity, and ritual can help us cross them gracefully, helping us ground, listen, and orient to what is changing.

Join us for a transformative workshop designed to provide the skills and understanding needed to create your own modern rituals, with a special focus on the healing modality of Morning Altars. By working with nature and the incredible power of the land at Esalen, we will reawaken our creativity, open to possibility, and witness what is changing in our lives.

Guided by award-winning author, artist, teacher, and ritualist Day Schildkret, you are invited to:

• Learn the ins and outs of this ancient technology to expertly navigate change.
• Learn the power of “symbolic action” to align your psycho-spiritual experience.
• Craft your own modern ritual to mark your personal threshold and rediscover yourself.
• Discover the 7-step Morning Altars practice, using nature, art, and ritual for understanding and meaning.
• Experience the support and witness of others who are also experiencing loss, celebrations, and change.
• Create custom “Threshold Altars” that provide reflection, refinement, and direction.
• Discover the meaning-making skills needed to traverse your life thresholds with renewed grace and purpose.

This workshop is designed for anyone in a life transition who wants to learn creative ways to ritualize it. Crafted with great care, this experience welcomes all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Threshold moments are meant to be crossed together. Join us if you feel your transition has become protracted or need greater support and attention to skillfully move to your next chapter.

Recommended Reading: Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change and Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art, and Ritual by Day Schildkret

This workshop includes a $30 material fee.

Join LaVerne McLeod and Melanie DeMore for a weekend of exploration and celebration of Black History Month as we express ourselves, connect, play, and honor humanity.

Together, we will explore what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes to understand and empathize with viewpoints that might differ from our own. We will build a safe container of trust and get curious about what might be lying beneath the surface —  while moving toward resilience and empowerment.

Using empathy, songs, visualization, and movement exercises, we will connect and relate to one another, letting go of what no longer serves us and learning effective responses to life’s challenges.

In this workshop, LaVerne McLeod will lead the group in  empathetic practices that call forth bridging gaps of separation. In celebration,Melanie DeMore, a vocal activist, will lead soulful ballads to energize spirits and exemplify the rejuvenating power of healing through music.

This workshop is highly recommended for all races, identities, gender expressions, and nationalities. It can be a creative catalyst for educators, therapists, and artists that leads to one’s own inner healing. Those in leadership roles working with diverse populations may find this workshop to be a source of empowerment. Together, let’s connect our heart centers to the path that nourishes and heals us.

‍Recommended Reading: Corn Hollow, 2nd edition by LaVerne Hillis McLeod and The Crossroads of Social and Climate Justice by LaVerne Hillis McLeod.

Join Janet in this nourishing and revitalizing weekend, designed to replenish the nervous system and adrenals, boost the immune system, and ground our hearts and minds in simplicity. We will drop down through body-mind-spirit to find space between effort and surrender, allowing our internal systems to release toxins and integrate the powerful wellness generated by our bodies through our physical practices. Slow and fluid movement, restorative postures, meditation, pranayama (breathwork), and chanting will refill the mind, body, and spirit.

We will create space in our body for introspection and move out of the cyclical fight-or-flight response to cultivate sustainable power, rest, and healing.

We’ll practice:

• Slow yoga to build sustainable power.
• Restorative postures for regeneration.
• Meditation toward stillness.
• Pranayama to balance hormones and the whole being.
• Chanting to awaken the heart’s longing.

Please bring an eye pillow. If you are driving, please also bring a sandbag and bolster.

CE Credit Available: 10 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

Restore.

It can take time and great effort to move away from the ego affirming busyness of modern day life toward a reflective stillness. In this workshop we will cultivate this slowing, deepening, and going within.

In a community setting, we will allow ourselves to dive below the surface of our thoughts and identities to know ourselves more intimately and untether from the chords that hold us to old behaviors and belief structures. Our practice will include:

• Slow nourishing yoga movements.
• Restorative postures to cultivate regeneration.
• Meditation, mantras, writing, and intentional silence.

With the power of this land, the healing waters, strength of community, and nourishment of slowing down, we will move toward a listening, supple, healing body.

Please bring an eye pillow, and if you are driving, please also bring a bolster and sandbag.

CE Credit Available: 25 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $200 faculty tuition.

Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and reflect. We rarely allow ourselves the opportunity to stop and look at what is changing — or discover what we truly need to feel fulfilled.

This very interactive workshop will include lots of experiential exercises. Though we will cover valuable theory and there will be plenty of reflection time, this will not be a series of talks/lectures. There will be movement, coaching, a little dance, and lots of opportunity to share insights. Active participation is strongly encouraged; however, participation will always be voluntary.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to challenge,nurture and express ourselves. Participants will have the opportunity to learn what brings them joy and purpose, and then cultivate a vision to serve as a foundation for both the next year and next phase of life.

We will engage in a progression of individual and group exercises focused on reflection, movement, and listening to our inner wisdom. We’ll discover how to navigate major life transitions and learn skills to access our intuition. We will uncover the behaviors that support our overall success, and reveal which ones undermine our goals and fulfillment. If you are passionate about having a more powerful and authentic impact on the world around you, this program of renewal will be especially valuable.

We are all born as natural storytellers. Our need to tell stories is primal for it connects us with our deeper selves and with one another. Most of us lose this inherent ability as we grow up, and our stories often become subjected to grades and criticism, which can make our voices shrivel, even disappear. This loss manifests in all sorts of ways, such as feeling disconnected from one’s self, feeling purposeless, or experiencing a constant sense of malaise and dissatisfaction. This workshop is about reclaiming that sacred and unique part of ourselves.

Over the course of the week, you will be led through a series of oral storytelling exercises passed down through generations from the historic city of Shushtar, Iran. Being witness to these stories opens people up to their own hidden stories.

Finding your voice and telling your authentic story is a courageous act. As a group, we will move through a gentle and vulnerable process to build and bond as a community and witness the re-emergence of long-hidden voices. Everyone has a story to tell, and every story counts in our collective container. Join us for a week of self-discovery and connection. All are welcome.

Recommended Reading: Please listen to Sob by Firoozeh Dumas, available on audible.com or Amazon.  Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas is recommended but not required.

Have you noticed the painful effects of self-judgment? Do you feel tormented by negative critical self-talk and the harsh words of the inner critic?  Are you prone to judging everything you do as not good enough, not quite right, or not up to some impossibly high standard? Do you find yourself harshly judging your meditation, your practice, or your other spiritual practices?

If you wish to be free from the influence of the inner critic, this workshop offers tried-and-tested methods for overcoming the challenges of self-judgment.

During this course, you will be shown:

• How to recognize judging thoughts.  
• To deal effectively with inner critic attacks.
• How to distinguish between negative judgment and wise discernment.
• The importance of self-acceptance, self-compassion, and  love as antidotes to the critic.
• The need and role of humor in helping us with the critic.
• To cultivate forgiveness in response to judgment.

The course will be a combination of talks, interactive exercises, mindfulness, self-compassion, loving kindness techniques, and meditations. This will be a practical and experiential course taught with lightness, compassion, humor, and the need to not take ourselves too seriously.

Recommended reading: Make Peace with your Mind – How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic, by Mark Coleman

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

“If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for?”  –Alice Walker

How can  art contribute to healing while staying centered in the creative process? What kind of art-making responds to the therapeutic experience? What does it mean to live an aesthetic life? And what is possible when we do?

In the early 1960s, a new interdisciplinary approach was developed to explore and respond  to these questions: The Halprin Life/Art Process. This work influenced the worlds of dance, environmental design, theater, and psychology.  This workshop will be an immersive experience in that approach to the creative process, movement, and healing art. It is aimed at those who identify as artists as well as those who are simply lovers of art seeking to open the doors of their own creativity.

We will enter into an exploration of art-making as a way to encounter and explore themes, challenges, and dreams that are informing our lives. Maps and methods will be taught that are easily accessible and applicable to personal and professional practice.

The opening welcome session will create an environment of group collaboration, including intention setting, play, and collaboration. Each day that follows will emphasize different mediums, including movement/dance, drawing, and poetry/narrative. On the fourth day, we’ll develop ritual performances for participants to present artwork dedicated to something personal and meaningful.

Participants may expect to leave with the following:

• Specific models to facilitate embodied art-making
• Examples of art as a healing force
• A communication tool that supports giving and receiving feedback
• Community building exercises
• A personal art practice that supports living an aesthetic life

Participants must bring the following: Writing materials and a special writers journal, a box of  varied and well  supplied Craypas pastels/water colors if desired.

Belonging is an essential part of the human experience. Throughout human history, we have encountered intense polarization and separation due to religious, ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation differences. This unique workshop, led by renowned documentary filmmaker and community therapist Lee Mun Wah and diversity educator and body-based psychotherapy practitioner Yi-Li Godfrey, explores how to foster community and connection in the spaces we engage with. Together, we will examine the forces that divide us, the roots of our fears and biases, and ways we can come together with a deeper sense of authenticity, connection, understanding, and belonging.

Through personal stories, filmed vignettes, and interactive exercises, participants will explore:

• The art of mindful listening, responding, and inquiry.
• The importance of exploring our differences.
• What belonging means to each of us and why it matters.
• How to use curiosity to develop empathy and authentic connection.
• What power is (and isn’t) and how to use it to create change.

Join us on a journey toward understanding, respect, and belonging. Through practical tools, reflective exercises, and meaningful dialogue, we can all be architects of change, working to create a more inclusive and connected world.

This workshop is ideal for educators, staff, administrators, therapists, social workers, DEI professionals, human resources teams, corporate leaders, parents, counselors, and anyone passionate about creating inclusive spaces.

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey, as we gather together and explore the healing wisdom of the “Americas.” We will learn about the importance of ancestral lineage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and we will examine what this means in the context of our modern daily lives as we share healing wisdom and practices together. This is your opportunity to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns, and to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing & “doctoring” ceremony and water blessing.

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 will 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, then 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

Love Yourself For Everyone Else’s Sake

Mark Abramson designed the course as a deep dive into self-compassion after seeing students achieve self-kindness from work with his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic at Stanford University. Thirty years of teaching have taught Dr. Abramson that bringing kindness and compassion to one’s self is truly the most altruistic of all practices.

Imagine always being able to count on your own mind being kind to you — no matter what challenges life presents. That is your birthright, and now is the time to claim it! Immerse yourself in this mindfulness-based approach to self-love and compassion.  

Mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative practices have entered all spheres of our society, including corporate settings, sports,  performance, medicine, and psychology. Science has confirmed that ancient mental and physical training systems, such as meditation practices, confer health benefits for immunity, brain architecture, and pain management, as well as mental and physical resilience.

During our time together, you are invited to:

• Learn mindfulness meditation practices.
• Connect and experience your own loving attention.
• Learn to take back control of your body/mind to create a more peaceful you.

Throughout the weekend, you will have the opportunity to unite your body, mind, and soul into a self-nourishing whole person while strengthening your ability to give love to others by first loving yourself.

Recommended Reading: Love Yourself For Everyone Else’s Sake by Mark Abramson

When you engage with another — whether a lover, friend, or colleague — are you doing what they want you to do or what they allow you to do? What is the difference, and why does it matter?

Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent is a groundbreaking model of relating that brings greater clarity and authenticity to our relationships in all areas of life. It creates a practice of separating out receiving and giving, which will challenge you, surprise you, and teach you a lot about yourself! As you become exquisitely aware of your desires and limits and how to communicate them, you will be free to make more embodied choices.

In this small group workshop uniquely crafted for Esalen, we will build on the somatic experience of the Wheel of Consent and its natural outgrowth of personal empowerment. We will expand our views to look more closely at our own power and how we can use it well.

This workshop will include curriculum, discussion, and practices to support participants in:

• Learning how to take action for yourself or for another, and knowing the difference.
• Understanding who is doing and who it is for, and knowing the difference
• Noticing, trusting, and valuing both your desires and your limits, which leads to empowerment and self-responsibility
• Learning what power is (and isn’t), making friends with it, and using it beneficially.
• Accessing parts of yourself that have been hidden away that are ready to be seen, appreciated, and healed.

The Wheel of Consent is best experienced somatically — in the body. We will include the option to learn through touch, and, of course, you never have to experience touch you do not want — ever.

Recommended reading: The Art of Receiving and Giving: The Wheel of Consent, by Betty Martin

This workshop includes $50 of additional faculty tuition.

“Breath is a force, a medicine, and a gateway to the unconscious mind and the very essence of our Being.” – The Holloman’s

Join us for an immersive experience where ancient breath practices intersect with contemporary Gestalt to unleash the transformational power of awareness. For millennia, diverse yoga traditions have harmonized breathwork with mindfulness to nurture psychological healing and spiritual growth. Today, science is validating the profound impact of breathwork and embodied awareness on stress management and immune resilience. Visionaries like Bessel Van der Kolk champion the fusion of breath, movement, awareness development, and educated touch in healing trauma.

This twelve-day full immersion training at Esalen provides a sanctuary for professionals seeking to infuse Gestalt and breathwork into their practices as well as for anyone on a journey of self-discovery. Participants will learn about and experience different forms of breathwork. Extended two-to-three-hour breath sessions can open expanded states of consciousness for self-exploration of deeper, authentic dimensions of our being. We will begin our days with shorter “daily-dose”breath practices (50 minutes) which can be used for at-home exploration. Integrative Gestalt is a powerful tool supporting self-inquiry helping us to understand and metabolize our experiences as we journey together into realms of altered consciousness through breath.

In this training, we will explore:

• Using breath alongside educated, attuned touch and body awareness in working with individuals and groups.
• Engaging in three longer 2–3-hour Hologenic Breath meditations to delve into our unconscious minds and altered states of consciousness, complemented by morning sessions of shorter 50-minute “daily dose” breath practices for ongoing use at home.
• Learning the art of self-inquiry through Integrative Gestalt to cultivate “presence-based consciousness” in our everyday lives.
• Applying breathwork and Integrative Gestalt techniques to address trauma and restore our innate capacities to self-organize and heal.

Embark on this transformative journey crafted to nurture your personal healing and spiritual growth. Acquire essential skills to expand your practice, whether you’re a professional who wants to enhance your expertise or an individual dedicated to deepening your self-inquiry.

Healing ourselves is a journey of return. During this weekend workshop, you will be invited to learn about the practice and traditions of “curanderisma” (folk medicine) to bring forth awareness and attune us to our individual healing journeys. Through meditative and contemplative practices, touch, prayer, plants, and natural elements, their work honors a lineage of centuries-old wisdom to bring a sense of well being to those seeking renewal.

This workshop will include:

• Optional morning movement and mediation practice.
• The Point of Origin: A session focused on the navel and abdominal massage for somatic release and greater self connection.
• Barridas (Plant Sweepings): Foraging and working with plant and herb bundles to cleanse energies.
• Empathic Connection: An exploration with our intuition, revealing how to listen and connect with each other, and ourselves, more deeply.
• Limpia con Huevo (Washing with an Egg): A lesson sharing the practice of clearing and divining one’s energies with the use of an egg.
• Evening Moon Meditation and Flowering Bathing.

Through Margaret and Michael’s teachings, you're invited to connect to your own innate healing potential and have the ability to support others with love and intention.

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Join herbalist, medicine woman, and plant spirit teacher Marysia Miernowska for a nourishing, magickal weekend journey of intimacy with the Earth to receive physical and spiritual healing from medicinal herbal infusions and awaken the energies of spring’s renewal within us and all around.

In a safe and sacred container, you will be guided in:

• Shamanic tea meditations.
• Drinking herbs for the spring.
• Entering restorative states of embodied meditation.
• Connecting to the land and elements.
• Making herbal medicine from the land and Esalen gardens to take home.
• Making flower essences.
• Plant identification of nourishing medicinal herbs, many likely growing around you.
• Earth-based rituals and journal prompts.
• Wildcrafting and gardening.

By communing with safe, healing, and nutritive wild medicine infusions, participants will flood their bodies with the restorative nourishment of the wild earth. While journaling and meeting plant spirits through shamanic tea meditations, we’ll create safety in the body and nervous system and receive insight, inspiration, energy, and replenishment for a personal awakening that mirrors the energy of spring.

By restoring the ancient knowledge of folk healing and plant medicine, we hope to heal the separation between ourselves and nature and awaken a collective passion to protect this Earth we all call home.

This workshop includes a $40 materials fee.

The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life. — Esther Perel

In any meaningful relationship, mistakes, tough emotions, challenging conversations, and misunderstandings are inevitable. Great relationships aren’t devoid of conflict; rather, they navigate it with care and efficiency.

Truly fulfilling relationships hinge on our ability to skillfully navigate conflict. With the right tools and skills, upsets can be transformed into generative conflict — moving through ruptures in ways that deepen trust and connection. Imagine a roadmap to harmony, a toolkit of resilience, and a foundation of unwavering confidence. This workshop harnesses the transformative power of the revered 6-step REPAIR process, created by Dr. Hazel-Grace, to master the art of conflict resolution, rebuild trust, and foster deeper connections.

In this workshop, participants will:

• Learn and practice the comprehensive 6-step REPAIR process.
• Deepen resilience for self and co-regulation.
• Discover grounding techniques before going into REPAIR.
• Practice the 5-step PERMISSION framework to set up REPAIR conversations to win.
• Explore five actionable pathways to restore trust and connection.
• Walk away with skills they can apply right away in their relationships!

Hazel-Grace cultivates a dynamic learning environment through relatable and vulnerable storytelling. They foster a supportive and collaborative community by facilitating authentic relating games and practices that promote meaningful connection. Their attentive care for the group’s collective nervous system ensures an atmosphere of ease and nourishment.

Listen as Hazel-Grace shares about their REPAIR Process in this short video. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into The REPAIR Process, watch this 20-minute video for a larger overview.

This workshop includes an additional $5 for materials.

The Brahmavihārās (divine abodes) are profound practices that uncover your natural capacity to live your life easefully with love, connection, wisdom, and joy. In this experiential workshop, we’ll use daily guided meditation practices, storytelling, song, relational mindfulness practices, self-directed neuroplasticity, yoga, and somatic play to explore the classical Buddhist Heart practices known as the “boundless states” or the “four immeasurables.”

In this workshop, we will explore the four Buddhist virtues and ways to cultivate them, including:

• Loving-kindness (metta) practices for self-acceptance, relational healing, gratitude, forgiveness, and kinship with all beings.  
• Compassion (karuna) practices for tenderness, resilience, an open-heart to suffering, and a greater sense of our shared humanity.
• Sympathetic joy (mudita) practices for enthusiasm, authentic joy, generosity, and celebratory participation in life.
• Equanimity (upekka) practices for wisdom, perspective, clarity, and an unwavering sense of trust.

Our days will follow a nourishing schedule of experiences and reflections balanced harmoniously with relaxing meals, community connection, and starlit soaks in Esalen’s healing baths. Music, nature, poetry, shadow work, journaling, breathwork, and ritual will all be artfully woven into our time together.

Whereas some spiritual practices are aimed at otherworldly enlightenment, the four divine abodes help us awaken to the beauty, clarity, and vast possibility available right here in our complex, often messy, mundane, and wholly sacred human experience. They are a pathway to unburdening ourselves of self-doubt, resentment, and regret. They guide our way home to that wellspring in our hearts from which unconditional love flows, where we contact our wholeness, discover radical acceptance, and remember our belonging in this world.

No matter who you are, where you are on your spiritual path, or what you’ve been through, discovering renewal is possible. Join us if you long for a deep, playful, tenderizing workshop that may touch your heart and leave you forever transformed.

We all have a story to tell. But turning your life into an engaging and meaningful narrative requires both keen self-awareness and a working knowledge of basic storytelling. This experiential workshop invites writers at all levels, from personal journalers to published authors, to cultivate the skills needed to tell the most compelling — and truest — story.

We’ll begin each day with a short burst of early morning free writing, taking advantage of what author Ruth Ozeki calls “the liminal state,” when the brain is most flexible and the internal judge is still asleep. Everyone will be invited to share their morning writing in small groups that foster a safe and supportive environment.

We’ll follow with a mix of craft talks, incorporating examples from published works, and several sessions of prompted free writing to help us sharpen our skills and access the deepest part of our own stories.

Time will be set aside every afternoon to share our writing with the group at large. Workshop participants will leave with a clear sense of where their story lies — and how to get it on the page.

Perimenopausal and menopausal transitions are more than biological phases to endure; they are sacred passages that forge a woman into her fullest expression — as a truth-bearer, a pathfinder, a beauty maker, and a new creation.  

When the monthly cycles end, you’ll undergo tremendous transformations in your body, mind, emotions, and psyche. Crossing this monumental threshold awakens your inner sage, a wild knowing sacredly woven from deep intuition and your soul’s language.

Join Jovinna as she weaves a web of story, nature, movement, and community to capture the magic of this time of life. Anchor the new story for yourself and future generations, infusing meaning and sacredness into this wild and inspired time.  

Over the weekend, there will be:

• Practices of yoga and Conscious Dance to recharge the body and mind.
• Time to be immersed in nature and connect with your elemental being.
• Rituals and ceremonies to honor these important thresholds of transformation.

Let this be a time of celebration with reverence and levity as you meditate in the field of endless possibilities without your old roles, identities, and patterns.

Please bring a journal, a small piece of cloth that represents your old self, and an article of clothing that you’d like to wear for the ceremony of renewal.

BIPOC Scholarship: Jovinna offers one BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for this workshop.  For more information on how to apply, please contact her at jovinna@gmail.com.

This workshop includes an additional $35 faculty tuition.

Be inspired by the flame / where everything shines as it disappears. – Rainer Maria Rilke

What part of your life could use some breath, space, movement, flow, and a sprinkle of humor? Where in your work or relationships are you called toward a more passionate participation — or a deeper letting go?

What if you had ways to show up when faced with change, impermanence, loss, and the whole everyday mess of the human condition while remaining in touch with the deathless presence in which everything dances?

Join us in a leading-edge exploration integrating conscious movement, somatic inquiries of embodied gestalt, and the stillness of nature for a transformative process that touches body, heart, and spirit.

In this workshop, we will:

• Dance, inspired by a wide range of music and the great sound of silence and supported by the benevolent presence of earth and sky.
• Build resonance with the life around us by moving from the inside out — alone, in pairs, in trios, and as a group, sometimes indoors, sometimes in nature.
• Explore and express what is alive inside us through movement, awareness practices, and sharing in pairs and in the circle.
• Experience in motion all the landscapes of relating — to self, to the world, and to the great mystery that we also are.
• Learn skills for stress reduction, relaxation, and renewal through somatic awareness and practices.
• Spend time on the land in sitting and walking meditation, allowing ourselves to dissolve a little into space.

By relating to one another in real time in the presence of the natural world, we can not only return to a semblance of sanity but also find ourselves healed and held in the great heart of belonging. This workshop is open to everybody willing to move, pause, listen, and relax, relax, relax one timeless movement at a time.

This workshop offers 10 CE credits for therapists and social workers. Zuza Engler is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) to sponsor continuing education programs for LMFT, LCSW, and LPCC. Please email angel@zuzaengler.com for more details about CE credits. There is a $25 fee for the certificate.

The Body of Belonging invites you to explore feelings of kinship, acceptance, and community on a somatic level, identifying the elements most significant to you. Through gentle yoga-inspired movement, breathwork, sound, and meditation, we will engage in self-inquiry practices within a group setting. Together, we will create a safe and brave space to experiment with accessing a sense of belonging. Drawing from ancient and Indigenous wisdom, we will work toward dismantling the individualistic ways of being that contribute to our growing sense of separateness.

Loneliness is an epidemic eroding the fabric of who we are as a collective. It is so prevalent in the United States that the surgeon general has issued an advisory to call attention to the importance of social connection for individual and community-wide health. The hyperindividualism that has been promoted as our best way of “succeeding” has left us feeling lost and alienated. In our overfocus on self, we’ve lost sight of how connection, community, and a felt sense of belonging are central to our well-being.  

Participants will be invited to connect with their individual needs as it relates to belonging. They will build skillfulness in advocating for belonging by centering and nourishing connection and community to realize the resilience that comes with healthy interdependence.

At the very heart of “belonging” is the word “long.” To be-long to something is to stay with it for the long haul. It is an active choice we make to a relationship, to a place, to our body, to a life because we value it. Even knowing that it may not be all that we hope it to be, we are keeping the long view of what is possible, and our life becomes an offering to making it so. ― Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home

There is an irony in living in a world with so many “things” to pursue and so many of us feeling a deep sense of disconnection and alienation. Our fierce individualism often leaves us separate from our bodies, one another, and the Earth. “Belonging” is always an integral strand in our many deeply woven threads to self, our communities, and the Earth. We long to belong, and we are created for connection. Building places of belonging begins with the self, trickles out to our wider circles, and ultimately connects us to the entire world.

This five-day workshop will dive into the dynamics of separation and belonging across these many dimensions, utilizing a mix of teachings, dialogue, and embodied experiences. We will draw on the richness of ecopsychology and the playfulness of the 5Rhythms® moving meditation, and we’ll engage in restorative time in contemplation in the natural landscape of Esalen. While holding the difficult emotions and realities of our present times, we will nurture curiosity and hone our intuition to evoke a sense of belonging within ourselves, with one another — across our uncomfortable differences — and with all sentient beings.

Participants in this workshop will experience:

• 5Rhythms moving meditation
• Contemplative meditation
• Teachings within ecopsychology and ecological and social awareness
• Community dialogues
• Time in nature
• Dreaming and journaling

Participants should be prepared to work with challenging material, to encounter difficult and joyful emotions, to engage in experiential practices, including the 5Rhythms movement meditation, and to play within a respectful, compassionate community. We will investigate the ways in which we form connections with others and our various communities, and we will experience the deep fulfillment that comes from greater connectivity.

Recommended Reading: Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet by Jeanine M. Canty, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner, Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth

This workshop has an additional $100 of faculty tuition.