Workshops

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 weekend, 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.

“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.

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

The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.“

— Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

All beginnings have seeds — the starting point for new growth and new branches of our lives, the sources for new chapters. This is what annual cycles and seasons promise: As our intentions and ambitions sharpen, we get to discern what parts of our lives we will continue, what we will leave behind, and what we will start. Whether we are feeling stuck at a crossroads in life or at work, transitioning through relationships, or starting a new project, now is the time to seed self-renewal.

In this week-long workshop, we will turn to the teachings of nature for guidance and inspiration, attending to five key resources for regenerative growth:

• Seasons, the distinct stages of renewal
• Seeds, key possibilities for growth
• Soil, nurturing people and places around us
• Starlight, spirited visions that guide us
• Sprouts, our shared gifts for the world

Through highly interactive journaling prompts, paired and small group discussions, guided movement meditations, and other practices for renewal, participants will discover tools to clarify hopes and dreams, release old beliefs and behaviors, and chart new strategies for curating the future. Join us as we internalize a powerful framework from nature to refresh our worlds and seed possibilities for life to come.

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.

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.

Rhythm is our universal mother tongue. It’s the language of the soul. — Gabrielle Roth

Enhance your life through movement and join an inspiring 5Rhythms® workshop led by international teacher Douglas Drummond with master djembe drummer Sanga of the Valley and the talented Nick Ayers, a dream team for live percussion and recorded sound.

We’ll come together with reverence and respect at Esalen Institute on Esselen territory. This uniquely moving meditation experience will be deeply rooted in the powerful themes of reconciliation and resiliency, serving as a vital medium for healing and empowerment.

We will explore our own intentions and, by working in reciprocity with the themes of reconciliation and resiliency, will foster a sense of community and connection while cultivating our own inner strength.

This workshop invites individuals of all experience levels to embark on a potent journey toward expanded harmony for embodied receptivity, strength, and perseverance through the transformative 5Rhythms practice.

Together, we will do our best to create a safe-as-possible container to nurture empathy, forgiveness, and trust for healthier relationships and thriving communities. Let’s move together and create a brighter, more resilient future. Your presence is vital.

Recommended Reading: Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth

This workshop has an additional $60 of faculty tuition.

This workshop invites you to explore the creative spirit that resides within each of us. Whether you are an experienced artist or simply seeking to uncover your potential, this meditative experience promises to be enriching.

We will begin with colored pencils to open our hearts and let creativity flow naturally. Then, with acrylic paints, participants will create a personal mandala (an integrated image of wholeness), Sri Yantra (a mystical diagram used in Hinduism that represents the union of the masculine and feminine divine energies), or designs of their choice. By the end of the workshop, you will have finished a unique and beautiful piece of art.

The practice of painting is both healing and meditative, and this journey is meant to expand our consciousness and ability to deepen our connections with nature and our inner selves. It is a gentle entry into the left brain hemisphere to open our capacity for creative experiences. Our time together is designed to provide the foundation for painting as a sacred art, to introduce participants to their possibilities as an artist, and to help them walk down the artist’s path — one paved with joy, insight, and awareness.

This workshop includes an additional $25 for materials.

Learn to activate the right side of your brain to unlock the insights necessary to break through self-limiting patterns. Based on a Nobel Prize-winning discovery in neuroscience, this methodology helps you think outside the box and live a more creative, productive, happier life.

William Donius, author of the New York Times bestseller Thought Revolution, spent a decade researching and developing this brain-enhancing methodology. He has taught these skills to a wide range of people, from students and corporate executives to scientists and artists. This innovative approach inspires more creative solutions than conventional thinking or brainstorming sessions. Through easy-to-learn exercises, you can discover ways to harness your intuition and uncover profound insights about yourself that make change possible. You’ll develop practical tools you can apply each time you face an important decision or obstacle in life. You can go home with new ways to unlock your own inner genius and create the life you long for.

Please bring a notebook or journal and a pen.

Recommended Reading: Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius by William Donius

This workshop has two options on length of stay: a traditional weeklong of two nights or a long weekend of three nights. The extended stay workshop will include more workshop content which is reflected in the extended stay schedule.

What if sleep could be more than just crashing into your pillow at the end of a long day? What if it could be a portal to transformation and self-discovery? In this workshop, we’ll dive into the ancient Daoist art of sleep alchemy, where the Wudang Hibernating Dragon and Five Dragons Sleeping methods teach you how to transform snoozing into a practice of subtle awareness and metaphysical transformation.

Rooted in the Wudang Daoist Sanfeng lineage, these techniques harmonize body and soul, turning your nightly shut-eye into a discipline of deep peace. The cosmic journey would be incomplete without Daoist stories like Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream and Lü Dongbin’s Yellow Millet Dream, classic tales of metaphysical gaslighting that explore just how slippery the boundaries of reality and illusion can be.

We’ll also talk about practicalities within a Daoist framework, like how your food choices, lifestyle, and daily habits can affect your sleep quality. Expect to walk away with tools for cultivating transcendent rest, resilience, and an appreciation for Daoist cosmology. Along the way, we’ll keep it relaxed — the Dao is at ease. Sleeping in class is encouraged, though snoring will be punished with five hundred years in Daoist hell.  

Participants will practice introductory Wudang sleeping methods to enter, sustain, and deepen sleep states. By the end of the workshop, you will be intimately familiar with practical techniques to deepen sleep, enhance well-being, and dream the dream of life more deeply and lucidly.

Join us for this weeklong wild clay pottery intensive. As a group, we will go through the whole process of making pottery from the wild, including processing clay, mixing various wild clays, and finding and testing clay in the field. We’ll learn how to hand-build pots using various techniques, including pinch pots, slab work, coil and scrape, corrugation, and more. We will find and create mineral paints from the landscape and make our yucca brushes to design and paint our pots with our own artistic expressions. Finally, we’ll prepare a kiln to fire them and go over several different methods for firing earthenware pottery.

Together, we’ll enjoy daily discussions about the metaphysical side of pottery, working with the clay, and balancing the elements. We will slow the process down to see what lessons emerge and what energy and opportunities the materials draw from us, both as individuals and as a group — an opportunity for personal growth and team building through the creation process!

While seated on the grounds of Esalen, we will connect to and draw inspiration from the landscape and the ancient ones who came before us and may have also made pots for function and beauty with the same materials long ago.

This workshop includes an additional $30 for materials.

Selah is the call of grace to make art at the edge of the world. At the end of the world. — Bayo Akomolafe

We are often reminded that for social change to be transformative, it must be scaled up. It must be big, written in bold fonts across the night sky. Unambiguously clear. We are told that this is how differences come to bear; this is how the “new” shows up — with a messianic roar that rends the clouds asunder. With a splash that makes headline news.

The Selah retreats are a turning to grace. A concourse outside of the normal vicissitudes of citizenship. A tuning fork for grace. Grace is movement: finding safety in leaving safety.

The Selah retreats are an attempt to create art together – art without subjects or objects. The art we make isn’t a finished product, an imposed goal, a pre-designed fabrication, or a project for museum installations. The “art” is undefined, incomprehensible, composed of many griefs and many questions, a tracing of the slightest tremors of perception, a lingering at the material precipices of normal perception, a working with failure to craft gestures that might sensitize us to different differences.

The question at the heart of the Selah retreats is how do we become good hosts to “this monster” — to awkward grace? What could it look like to nourish the minor, to sing to it, to bring something incomprehensible into the world?

Surrounded by story, song, poetry, reading together, and crafting work, we will seek to build mbaris, an Igbo indigenous aesthetic of art, communal responsibility, and experimentation at the edges of crisis. These simultaneous streams of vocations that soften the neurotypical gaze will travel alongside the teachings and guidance of Bayo Akomolafe.

The intellectual and spiritual quest to understand the Universe and our place in it is at the core of science, religion, and spiritual traditions. We are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals trying to make sense of the world. For millennia, we have told stories in the form of myths and through religions that have offered countless explanations. In recent centuries, science has provided a new story, one based on evidence and independent of cultural traditions.

Today, science tells us that we are but one among tens of millions of species housed on one planet among many orbiting an ordinary solar system, itself one among billions of solar systems in an ordinary galaxy located in a cluster of galaxies not so different than billions of other galaxy clusters, themselves whirling away from one another in an accelerating expanding cosmic bubble universe that very possibly is only one among a near-infinite number of other bubble universes in the multiverse. Is it really possible that this entire cosmological multiverse exists for one tiny subgroup of a single species on one planet in a long galaxy in that solitary bubble universe?

In this workshop, we will explore how to find meaning in this apparently meaningless Universe and how to find the sacred and the spiritual in a secular age. Topics will include science and skepticism, science and religion, death and life after death, morality and meaning, the randomness of life and what it means, why we think everything happens for a reason, finding purpose with or without God, why bad things happen to good people, the nature of evil, finding purpose in tragedy and adversity, and the varieties of spiritual experiences.

Guest faculty Ralph Lewis is a Psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. In his work, Ralph helps people seek meaning in the face of severe and tragic adversity. In addition to having extensive clinical experience with complex and subtle psychiatric and psychological conditions, Ralph is a regular columnist for Psychology Today and is the author of Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Should Care Even if the Universe Doesn’t.

This seminar-style workshop is open to all. Bring your curiosity, skepticism, and an open mind.

Recommended Reading: Michael Shermer, 2015. The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom.

A weekend of transformative exploration to bridge physical movement with the subtle layers of internal flow, connecting body, energy, and perception. This retreat goes beyond traditional practices and invites participants to discover the intelligence and freedom inherent in all forms of movement — not only in the body’s gestures but also in its inner energy and shifting perspectives.

Together, we’ll blend imaginative, expressive movement (Bohemian) with grounding, introspective practices (Gravity) to create a holistic and adaptable approach accessible to anyone, regardless of age or experience. Through a fusion of yoga, somatic therapy, and movement meditation, we will explore both dynamic and deeply relaxing states, accompanied by carefully curated ethnic, electronic, and instrumental music that supports our journey.

The experience fuses a diverse array of techniques, including:

• Body language listening
• Movement meditation
• Imaginative and somatic movement
• Breathwork
• Fusion dance
• Sound baths
• Yin Yang yoga

Led by multidisciplinary artist Yemi A.D., founder of Moonshot Platform, these sessions are uniquely designed to unlock the body’s stored energy, release long-held tensions from unconscious movement patterns, and open up space for creativity, joy, and inner freedom.

When the wisdom of the sky and the wisdom of the earth are braided through the human heart, then there will be a rainbow of people.

This prophecy of the Indigenous peoples speaks to the practice of braiding together traditional (earth) and contemporary (sky) knowledge to create something new that embraces both rather than replacing one or the other. Through this braiding, or weaving, we can learn to live modern lives guided by ancient wisdom, bringing the sacred home to ourselves.

In this experiential workshop, we will engage in cross-cultural practices and non-ordinary states of consciousness through trance drumming, guided journeys, and ceremony. These practices have been shared by Indigenous cultures over thousands of years to deepen connections to the self, cultivate a relationship with the planet, and find more balanced ways of being. You will be introduced to different techniques designed to ground and integrate these non-ordinary states and discover how to incorporate these teachings into your daily lives.

This workshop will cover the components of ceremony, including:

• Purification herbs
• Sacred altars
• Circle work
• Space holding
• Methods of connecting with ancestors

In our time together, we will explore the braided way. You’ll have the opportunity to reconnect with wisdom practices that forge sacred space for self and community. Come ready to restore, reveal, and leave inspired!

Participants are encouraged to bring a Journal for note taking, a blanket or wrap for floor work, and a water container.

Learn to tap the source and break through creative barriers during this hands-on workshop. Together, we’ll explore a variety of mediums and techniques to find entry into creative expression, including:

• Color blocking
• Watercolor sketching
• Observational image making
• Timed free writing
• Abstracting from nature

The poet Rumi speaks of a river of joy that courses through the world. Through these creative practices, we invite that river to flow freely through us and the powerful energy of Esalen’s natural environment to fill us, dissolving internal blocks and flowing through our hands onto the page.

The core of this workshop is inspiration and energy, but we’ll explore techniques and design principles that will inform your aesthetic and native mark-making language in an intuitive way, without fear of criticism or failure.

We’ll provide multimedia sketchbooks to fill with your artistic experiments. They’ll serve as a repository, a totem, a teacher, and a reminder of what you can achieve when you dip into the river of joy.  The blank white pages, which you will fill with a treasured collection of artistic ideas, will be a metaphor for our process.

Whether you are a seasoned professional in the arts or you’ve never picked up a paintbrush, these immersive sessions will awaken the artist within and help you make peace with your inner critic.

There is a $60 material fee for this workshop. All essential materials, including acrylic paints, watercolors, paintbrushes, writing pens, collage materials, sketchbooks, and painting surfaces — everything you need to participate fully in each exercise. Feel free to bring your favorite pens, brushes, or other art-making tools.

Recommended Reading: Drinking From a Cold Spring, a Little Book of Hope, and Color Duets by Erin Lee Gafill

Part writing workshop and part tantric retreat, this unique practice week explores the relationship between personal writing and subtle body practices.

Religious historian and Tantric practitioner Sravana Borkataky-Varma will lead experiential sessions largely stemming from Hindu Goddess Tantra practices. Award-winning author and scholar Erik Davis will then guide the group in reading and writing exercises, developing skills and techniques that will help us creatively express our embodied experiences.

Exercises and opportunities will include:

• Chakra and subtle body meditations.
• Reading short texts to understand how writing engages subtle embodied experience.
• Using elements of writing, including metaphor, poetry, and spontaneous  language, to capture and express your own inner work.
• Techniques to develop an ongoing writing practice that supports a deepening engagement with meditation and embodied life.

Over the days, we will collectively cultivate a feedback loop between writing, discussion, and inner work. Through this alchemical process, participants will learn to more intimately and poetically clarify their subtle experiences, while at the same time using the power and energy of such practices to fire up and inspire their writing life.

This workshop has an additional $50 of faculty tuition.

Where do you belong in the vast and ever-changing tapestry of the universe? Join Tantric scholar-practitioners Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Edward Cantú as we explore Tantric practices, including the creation of physical mandalas (maṇḍala),  circles, and other shapes with the potential to transform our internal and external environments.

Together, we will immerse ourselves in the latest research on Indic teachings and practices that challenge and reframe our conventional understandings of what Tantra was, is, and can be. Staying true to the roots of Esalen, we will also intertwine discussion with authentic South Asian folk musical performances, songs, and guided meditations for a creative, visceral experience for the mind, body, and heart. We will cast light on Tantra’s connections to a wide variety of vibrant artistic and meditative practices in an eye-opening and unforgettable way.

In this workshop, you’ll be invited to:

• Develop an embodied understanding of Tantra.
• Creatively explore your divine nature and potential.
• Enjoy the benefit of overcoming negative projections and self-generated illusions.
• Learn practical modes of meditation, including internal visualization and externalization through mandalas.

We invite both couples and individuals to join us in this workshop that blends meditation, art, and music with a holistic inquiry into Tantra’s power and therapeutic potential to unlock a happier and more fulfilling life. Bring an open mind as we explore deep questions about our bodies and minds in a safe space and nurturing environment.

Please Note: This workshop is NOT about “Tantric Sex” or experiencing enhanced sexual pleasures, although many discussions will address gender identity and sexuality.

This workshop includes $50 of additional faculty tuition.

**This workshop has two options on length of stay: a traditional weeklong of two nights or a long weekend of three nights. The extended stay workshop will include more workshop content which is reflected in the extended stay schedule.

Joseph Campbell used to celebrate his birthday at Esalen. When asked why, he’d recount how Carl Jung — wondering, “What myth am I living by?” and realizing he didn’t know — wrote, “I took it upon myself to get to know ‘my’ myth, and I regarded this as the task of tasks.”

“That’s what a birthday is for,” Campbell concluded, “and what Esalen is about.” In 1988, the year after Campbell died, his friends recalled his dictum — “What you do, you do with play” — and gathered at Esalen to inaugurate “Campbell Week,” a tradition that has continued annually ever since and morphed into this annual PlayShop.

Who were you? What has inspired your biographical saga? What treasures hide in your basement or attic? Who are you? What’s displayed on your refrigerator? What dangles from your rearview mirror? Who do you aspire to be? What’s on your bucket list? Dare to re-vision yourself and join our springtime rebirth rituals.

You needn’t be familiar with Campbell to relive dreams, rekindle visions, and experience mythogenesis. In this immersive experience, we will use myth-making tools — drums and dance, music and song, medicine bags, and masks. We will play D-PiCT™: The Game of Mythogenesis, and we will engage in small- and large-group activities that provide reflective and expressive opportunities for revisioning the myths that have shaped your life.

Please bring a meaningful but expendable totem, an unsung story, or an evocative song.

As organized religion begins to lose its relevance, a fast-growing community of the spiritual but not religious rises to take its place. We are thirsty for the sacred and long to experience it within the heart of our everyday lives.

In this experiential workshop, we will cultivate a mystical way of seeing to reclaim awe and wonder, not in spite of but rather through the portal of our ordinary lives. By intentionally seeking the presence of the sacred in our closest relationships, work, food, pleasure, loss, and grief, we release false notions that mystical experiences are reserved for the spiritually elite and that intimacy with the divine can only be experienced in a religious context.

Throughout the workshop, we will walk through seven gates to reveal your everyday life as a sacred landscape: intention, attention, surrender, teachers and teachings, community, feeling, and ongoing unfoldment. Teachings from Mirabai will be interwoven with writing exercises, both small and whole-group discussions, guided and silent meditation, and interspiritual chanting.

Your life itself is sacred ground. When you decide to walk the path of the mystic, the mundane shows up as miraculous, the boring becomes fascinating, and your perceived shortcomings turn out to be your greatest gifts.

Recommended reading: Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground, by Mirabai Starr and Wild Mercy by Mirabai Starr

Enjoy a rising tide of empowerment and end your daily guessing game about life. Find the guidance you seek when you say “Yes!” to the Beauty of Tarot.

Join renowned teacher Brenda Rose for this playful and magical journey through the sacred stories of tarot. You’ll gain a meaningful connection with the cards and learn to provide insightful readings.  Stories of the major and minor arcana will be shared in an intimate setting and customized way. The Beauty of Tarot can amplify your spiritual transformation by helping you cultivate more unconditional love and intuitive guidance for your daily life.  

This is an immersive and interactive workshop. The magic of tarot comes alive as you practice giving and receiving readings with your classmates under the supportive guidance of Brenda Rose and her graduate students. We’ll learn vibrant tarot spreads together and discover how both the evident and esoteric tarot stories are activated.

In this workshop, you’ll be invited to:

• Meditate and work with energy practices.
• Engage with each of the tarot cards through their stories and interpretations.
• Practice giving and receiving readings through inclusive, judgment-free and projection-free language.

This immersion welcomes all levels of experience and includes an additional $100 material fee, as each participant receives Brenda’s original deck, The Beauty of Tarot, and a workbook chronicling each card.

Have you always wanted to create large-scale artwork but feel insecure, intimidated, or unsure where to start?

This course is designed to free you and help you breathe, expand, and focus on the integrity and authenticity of your work. You’ll learn new techniques, have fun, and take risks. Using mixed media, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on composition, paint application, color, and surface, enabling you to create bolder, more energetic, and exciting pieces.

Painting on a larger scale comes with both delights and challenges. It is not simply about increasing the size of an existing work; it is about finding your voice in your work and how you express that narrative in your painting. Sometimes, the appeal lies in working loosely on a grand scale; other times, a subject simply demands a bigger space. This course encourages you to embrace changes in your artwork and your own ambition to create an awe-inspiring piece.

Lou will introduce you to the works of great artists who create on a large scale, such as Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Hilma af Klint, and Anselm Kiefer. We’ll explore how and why their works impact us.

You will be introduced to a wide range of painting processes, including experimentation with acrylics, household emulsion, and blackboard paints. You’ll work from photos and printouts of your own creations and delve into the narrative behind your own artwork — examining your story and style and how to translate that onto canvas effectively. A one-hour creative immersion workshop focusing on color, texture, light, and music, both indoors and outdoors, will be included.

Students need to bring the following (including any preparation):

• Good quality printed photographs of their art to upscale and work on during the course.
• Notebook and references to artists you admire.
• Sketchbooks.
• Four jam jars.

This energetic course welcomes participants of all experience levels, from beginners to practicing artists. Whether you’re a developing artist or someone who has always yearned to paint, come and unleash your imagination and explore a greater sense of expression.

This workshop includes an additional $50 for materials.

Push the boundaries of your drawing practice, go deeper, and develop your mark-making, surface development, form, and composition using still life and nature as inspiration.

In this experimental drawing course, you will be encouraged to explore playful techniques alongside more focused observational skills, all while considering scale and composition. You will be guided to work intensely, rapidly, abstractly, and prolifically using a range of materials. You will also learn how to create simple drawing tools and experiment with them. Your sources of inspiration will include still life and nature.

This course is suitable for experienced and beginners alike. Participants will build their confidence by creating artwork with new techniques and a wide variety of captivating drawing mediums, shifting from minimal to maximal approaches to rethink aesthetics. This is your chance to deeply reconnect with your creative practice and enhance your skills while experimenting spontaneously, which often leads to unexpected and exciting outcomes. Throughout our time together, your instructor will provide encouragement and support.

Please make sure to bring your sketchbooks, notebooks, and a camera or a phone with a camera.

This workshop includes an additional $35 tuition for materials.

Imagine reconnecting with a part of you – the Divine Feminine – that brings you back into balance and harmony with yourself and all your relations. This transformative workshop combines social and political knowledge, energy- and earth-based practices, and embodiment exercises to help you release fears, resentment, and pain while inviting intuition, surrender, and flow to create a deeper sense of wholeness in your life. I call this Decolonial Wellness, a way of healing relationships.

At the root of social, political, and economic inequities between men and women is the patriarchal culture’s colonial denigration of femininity. This central conflict in our society is something we learn at an early age and carry in our emotional, perceptual, sensory, and physical selves. Embracing femininity benefits not only women and femmes. Femininity is a spiritual energy and quality of the universe that is necessary to balance and restore us all. The Feminine Principle includes qualities like allowing, intuition, patience, nurturing, connection, mother love, and the generative principle of life itself.  

During the workshop, you will experience:

• Heart-centered journeys to connect with the energy of Mother.
• Light movement with breath, body, earth, and trees.
• Teaching sessions for frameworks of understanding.
• Creative writing for self-reflection and expression
• Group dialogue for connection and affirmation.
• A closing ceremony and celebration to set intentions and launch a new path.

This workshop is an opportunity to see beyond the distortions of patriarchy to something truer about ourselves where our heart’s desires are not at odds with one another. To connect with the Divine Feminine can be a balm and antidote that heals the instilled resentments, hostility, and fear that divide us. The workshop is open to people of all gender identities and expressions.

Come home to your whole body instrument and discover your unique sound!

Isaac and Thorald Koren have been guiding people home to their voices for over 20 years, through their original embodied approach.

They both believe singing and speaking are radical acts of self-expression and that exploring your instrument with full freedom takes tremendous courage. Science confirms the healing power of the voice — that intentional vocal toning creates measurable vitality and joy in our lives and empowers our whole body experience of life itself.

During this weekend exploration of your Embodied Voice, the brothers set a safe space for you to reclaim your power and connection to your body through a series of practical and experiential practices that require no prior musical or singing ability. Through simple and fun exercises, they will help you ground down into the gravity of your whole body instrument and sound out powerfully what it feels like to be you and alive.

The benefits are clear: from finding new freedom and trust in your singing and speaking voice, to moving through voice trauma and learning to use your voice as a sacred healing tool. Practically, whether speaking at a conference, teaching a class, or singing in an arena, we see it as all one center of personal gravity, held deeply in the Embodied Voice you’ve been gifted this lifetime. These are joyful and rewarding practices that you can integrate into your daily life.

The brothers’ method invites you away from performing and welcomes you into a real time experience of your voice, reclaiming a new relationship to your own expressive self, deepening a  connection to the music of the Earth and the resonance of life.

The brothers  invite you to experience your voice as incomparable, unmistakable, fascinating, and wholly distinct. They welcome you to experience your soul’s voice through fun and embodied practices of self-expression, union, and communion.

No musical or singing experience required.

Beginners encouraged!

How might you think about grief, and what are the lessons to be learned about restoring your life? This precise, honest, and heart-centered workshop, led by cultural sociologist and Gomti River ceremonialist Roksana Badruddoja, focuses on exploring grief in a life-affirming way through the sacred wisdom of the Akashic Records and the qualitative feminist writing technique known as autohistoria-teoría.

Over five days, participants will engage in interactive sessions and experiential practices to gain access to the records and explore their grief while developing personal authority and insight. The Akashic Records are an etheric storehouse of all information — every word, deed, feeling, thought, and intent — offering a space for self-repair and healing from personal and intergenerational grief. By tapping into the wisdom of the Gomti River integrated with autohistoria-teoría writing, participants will engage in intentional storytelling by writing a short autoethnographic text focused on a significant grief event, guided by the question: What are you burning to tell the world?

In this workshop, you will:

• Explore the power of consent — physical autonomy and spiritual sovereignty — by awakening your connection with the Gomti Wisdom Keepers of the Akashas.
• Practice techniques that can induce non-ordinary states of consciousness to access the Akashic Records and bring forth visionary messages about how inherited grief shapes your life and how to engage with and interrupt grief.
• Identify and create feminist autoethnographic writing as an intentional tool of cultural storytelling. You may want to bring a journal to support this work.

Ultimately, this workshop aims to empower individuals to transform their grief into healing narratives that foster growth and resilience.

**To fully embrace this work, participants must attend all sessions, believe in a higher ineffable power bigger than us, and be fully open to examining their grief. Required readings will be sent as PDFs upon registration.

Embark on an enlightening journey of self-discovery, guided by the power of intuition and creativity! In this immersive workshop, you’ll uncover your own inner wisdom through the inspiring SoulCollage® method.

Developed by the late Seena Frost, this enchanting personal practice harnesses the magic of images, imagination, and intuition as a way to excavate insight and truth. Through this meaningful, affirming process, we create simple collages representing the many facets of ourselves. With gentle guidance and just a few basic supplies — images, scissors, and glue — these collaged cards become gateways to the strength and wisdom we hold within, unlocking hidden treasures.

During this weeklong workshop, you will:

• Move toward increased self-awareness through card-making, journaling, meditation, group sharing, and other fun activities.
• Connect with your unique self through an exploration of your inner world and creative spirit.
• Leave with the beginnings of your own personal deck of collaged cards, a journal filled with your wisdom, and numerous ways to continue the practice at home.

No prior art or writing experience is necessary, and all materials will be provided. All you need is an open heart and a curious spirit!

Carl Jung said, “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” Join us for an insightful, artful adventure toward empowerment and reconnecting with your inner self!

This workshop includes an additional $20 materials fee.

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.

As life changes, we also must change — yet this isn’t guaranteed. Too many of us get stuck at our thresholds. Ritual can help us cultivate discernment, recognize gains and losses, and conjure possibility. Join us for a transformative workshop designed to provide the skills and understanding needed to create your own modern rituals. Learn to reflect, reimagine, and renew the purpose of your life’s next chapter.

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 to use nature, art, and ritual for understanding and meaning.
• Experience the support and witness of others also renewing their life’s purpose.
• Create custom “Threshold Wonderings” that provide reflection, refinement, and direction.
• Discover the meaning-making skills needed to step into your life thresholds with renewed grace and purpose.

This workshop is designed for anyone in a life transition who wants to renew their life’s purpose. Crafted with great care, we welcome 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.

This workshop include an additional $30 for materials.

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom keeper Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look at our ancestral lineage and how our ancestors continue to influence and affect our lives today.

Gratitude for our ancestors! We are the reality of their dreaming, and we are the tip of the arrow of our entire ancestral lineage, which traces back to the beginning of time.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and this is your opportunity to explore what that means while sharing healing wisdom and practices. This workshop will offer you healing tools to transform and transmute ancestral trauma, as well as other forms of trauma and unhealthy life patterns.

We are all bridges between our biological mothers and fathers. We need to balance these dual origins and lineages so we may live in harmony and balance. This is especially true for anyone who is of multi-cultural, multi-racial, or multi-religious ancestry. We all inherit our ancestors’ talents along with their traumas so how do we heal and embody these within ourselves?  

In this workshop, you will learn how to identify and honor all of your ancestors’ positive attributes and heal the discordant or destructive energies you have inherited from your racial, social, cultural, religious, and/or historical heritage.

Together, we will examine the origins of “dis-ease” in our bodies, minds, spirits, and souls and how to heal and realign them. We will discuss the importance of ceremonies, sacred altars, and medicinal plants in this healing process. You will be offered the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing and “doctoring” ceremony, and a water blessing prayer ceremony.

You are 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.

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 feelings of gratitude and value and their 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.

Creating a profound connection to nature begins with observing and understanding the plants surrounding us, awakening to our symbiotic relationship with them. This workshop offers an opportunity to cultivate an intimate bond with a diverse selection of plants thriving in the Esalen landscape, learning their unique characteristics, stories, and the wisdom they impart. Together, we will embark on a journey to not only identify and appreciate these plants but to honor them through art by extracting their pigments and experiencing their colors in a new light.

Guided by the spirit of place, we will gather plants to create a color palette that reflects the soul of coastal California, immersing ourselves in the earthy, ocean-washed hues that define the land. This living palette will serve as both a tribute to and a recreation of Esalen’s essence, which we will channel into plein air painting — “in the open air” — around the Institute to be fully present in our surroundings and their subtle expressions. Each of the paintings will be alive with their botanical inks, changing and transforming to create a remembrance of the passage of time as they darken. As we gather plant materials for our inks, we will also gather a variety of plant material to make our unique handmade natural brushes.

Each participant will be provided with high-quality materials, including multiple sizes of Arches watercolor paper, a custom handmade porcelain palette, and ink bottles, completing their personal Esalen ink kit. This kit will become a cherished tool for you to bring the beauty and spirit of the natural world into your own art practice, enabling you to deepen your connection to both the Esalen environment and the plants that surround you in your own life. Join us on this transformative journey and embrace a holistic approach to creativity, nature, and mindful expression.

This workshop includes an additional $50 of material fees.

One of life’s great paradoxes is that we all inhabit the same world, yet no single person, living being, or object within it is exactly like anything else. Thus, difference — the sheer diversity of the world’s countless inhabitants — is arguably the most immediate fact of our shared reality.

This seminar style workshop asks: What does it take to properly apprehend the world’s diversity and respond to it with curiosity, open-heartedness, humor, and joy, rather than anxiety, fear, and violence? How can we combat rising xenophobia in our local communities and social spheres by productively engaging with, rather than denying or banishing, alternative perspectives and worldviews? In other words, how can each of us learn to “think like a multiverse”?

Drawing from literature, philosophy, and popular culture, we will consider diversity and heterogeneity not as a problem to be solved or a threat to be feared, but rather as a field of imaginative possibilities for the formation of new relationships across differences.

Each day, we will zoom in on a distinct framework for thinking about diversity and multiplicity. These include:

• Gloria Anzaldúa’s theory of “mestiza consciousness,” a feminist model for thinking about the cultivation of cross-racial and cross-gender bonds.
• The Indigenous kinship worldview, a spiritual cosmology that conceives of human beings as having a relationship of mutual exchange and reciprocity with the planet.
• Cosmopolitanism and radical democracy, a political theory that centralizes the importance of negotiating vastly different points of view on the nature of the “good life.”
• Psychedelic experience, a millennia-spanning, global consciousness-raising practice intended to aid human beings in extending their imagination outward from the self to commune with a wider network of cosmic relationships.

Throughout the week, we will combine the study of key texts in these various philosophies with recent popular media and experiential exercises to practice and integrate these ideas into our everyday lives. We will write about our encounters with non-human plant life on campus, imagine and describe different versions of ourselves across a fictional multiverse, and identify and respond to differences in temperament, personality, style, and tastes within the group.

This workshop will integrate elements of academic or intellectual learning with practical writing and group exercises, and participants are encouraged (though not required) to complete the recommended readings in advance. Much of our meetings will be grounded in facilitated discussion and dialogue about what we’re reading and watching. This discussion-based format will allow us time to process and synthesize new ways of apprehending differences collaboratively.

Recommended Reading:

• Gayle Rubin, “Of Catamites and Kings: Reflections on Butch and Gender” (1992): 11 pages.
• Gloria Anzaldúa, “Preface” and “Chapter 7: Towards a New Consciousness,” in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987): 14 pages.
• Film Screening: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2022) [Available on Netflix]
• Michael Pollan, “The Neuroscience: Your Brain on Psychedelics,” How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018): 15 pages.
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Skywoman Falling,” “The Gift of Strawberries,” and “Learning the Grammar of Animacy,” Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2015): 34 pages
• Jenny Slate, “Treat,” “Introduction/Explanation/Guildlines for Consumptions,” “My Mother,” and “Kathleen: Dog-Flower Face” in Little Weirds (2020): 20 pages.
• Film Screening: My Octopus Teacher (2020) [Available on Netflix]
• David Hollinger, “Preface” to Cosmopolitanism and the Problem of Solidarity: Studies in Ethnoracial, Religious, and Professional Affiliation in the United States (2006): 8 pages.
• Sheldon Wolin, “Democracy, Difference, and Re-cognition,” in Fugitive Democracy: and Other Essays (2016): 16 pages.
• Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation (2014)

With the exception of the novel Annihilation, all readings will be made available in pdf form in advance of the workshop.

The Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor is an ancient Indigenous prophecy from the people of the “Americas,” that spoke of a time when the Eagle and the Condor — representing the indigenous peoples of the North and the South — would reunite once again with their original knowledge, strength, diversity and connection to the Earth. This would signal a new “Pachakuti,” a time of reconciliation, reunification, and healing of the land and its peoples.

Join wisdom keepers Erika Gagnon (Canada) and Claudia Cuentas (Peru), as they bring together sacred aspects of traditional Indigenous wisdom of the Americas, and guide us through several healing ceremonies. Together, we will learn about the importance of ancestral lineage, rites of passage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies.

As we explore the healing wisdom of the Americas, you will be invited to inhabit your own authentic wisdom and power, in some of the following ways:

• Find direct connection with our own natural ability to overcome trauma.
• Find purpose and a more fulfilling life through the powerful lens of clarity, gratitude, forgiveness, and reciprocity.

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. Included in our time together in this workshop is the opportunity to participate in a water prayer blessing, a sound healing journey, and a traditional South American healing ceremony.

We will share healing practices together to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns, and to realign body, mind, spirit, and soul back to vibrant health. We will also discuss the parallels between indigenous perspectives, somatic approaches, embodied practices and art as healing.

Now more than ever, the ancient knowledge of our indigenous earth-based communities is needed to continue existing upon this planet in a healthy and sustainable way — not only for the people of the Americas, but for all beings, all species, and the earth, air, and waters of our beloved Pachamama.

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

Special Note on Gift Economy:  For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika and Claudia embrace 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 them and their ongoing work.

When we experience moments of ecstasy, we taste what life is meant to be. — Gabrielle Roth

The 5Rhythms® maps hold all the information required to lead us where we want to go. What is your destination? There is a science to achieving ecstatic states, and this is the mastery we have come to share. This workshop is designed for all who want to discover these possibilities for entering altered states in a natural way.

"I want to take you to a place of pure magic ... It's the place athletes call ‘the zone.’ Buddhists call ‘satori’ and ravers call ‘trance.’ I call it the Silver Desert. It's a place of pure light that holds the dark within it. It's a place of pure rhythm,” wrote Gabrielle Roth. Her dance and somatic meditation can assist you in navigating your way out of resistance and into ecstasy and help you build a skill set that supports balance, ease, and joy. If you have been looking to increase appreciation, gratitude, and happiness, now is a perfect time to celebrate being alive in the wild, wondrous, natural beauty of Esalen.

This course will include:

• 5Rhythms dance both indoors and outside by daylight and moonlight
• Creating art in nature through group projects with resident artists
• Trauma-sensitive mindfulness, including Dharma talk and sitting and walking meditations
• Live and recorded music
• An evening program guest speaker

Lucia and Douglas, the dancing duo, invite you to join them for a week of dance and celebration under the new moon. Together with our team of musicians and artists, we seek to bring you inspiration and lightness so you return home feeling nurtured and alive.

Leah Song of Rising Appalachia will lead a collective community song practice! Join voices and feel the collective power of unity through song and breath!

Sanga of the Valley, master drummer and living embodiment of the 5Rhythms cosmology, will be joining along with musical savant Nick Ayers.

Martha Peabody, original Gabrielle Roth dancer and founder of the art installation branch of the 5Rhythms, will lead daily community art sessions.

Recommended Reading: Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth, Maps to Ecstasy by Gabrielle Roth, Connections by Gabrielle Roth, Dancing with the Dharma edited by Harrison Blum

This workshop has an additional $100 of faculty tuition.

Through mindful viewing of eight feature films — today’s vehicles of myth and meaning — participants will open their hearts to gratefulness, which can be defined as a general state of resonant appreciation that can be gained from seeing what can be received from others. Recent studies and reviews have shown that experiencing gratitude can enhance well-being, life satisfaction, and overall psychological happiness while creating positive effects. This seminar offers a self-enhancing mindfulness experience through seminal films from Asia, North America, and Europe in which characters experience gratefulness as a path to resilient well-being. The films are being shown to renew these qualities in the lives of workshop participants.

This workshop employs methods developed over the course of 28 film seminars at Esalen co-led by Francis Lu and Brother David Steindl-Rast, including mindful film viewing, contemplative reflection, and group interactions focused on participants’ unique experiences of carefully curated films. This process of learning spiritual lessons from evocative films is in keeping with the teachings of Joseph Campbell —  “The images of myths are reflections of the spiritual and depth potentialities of every one of us…. Through contemplating those, we evoke their powers in our own lives to operate through ourselves.”

The viewing experience will be supported by 4K Blu-Ray video projection on a large screen and surround sound of six loudspeakers.

5.5 CE Credits for Health Professionals are available for an additional $35 fee payable to the workshop leader. For further information about the workshop, please contact Francis Lu, MD, at francislumd@gmail.com.

What if your greatest vulnerability could become your greatest strength? This transformative language arts workshop is designed for anyone ready to level up by unlocking their authenticity.

The curriculum draws from the wisdom in the instructor’s critically acclaimed book, Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, which explores how shame is weaponized in our culture to keep us from knowing our worth and achieving our goals. Through reflective writing, shared stories, and guided readings, participants will explore ways to break free from shame’s grip and reclaim their power.

Through the act of writing and reading inspirational texts — along with learning about the instructor’s journey as a former sex worker and survivor of sexual exploitation and media humiliation — we will explore essential questions about the insidious role that shame plays in our modern lives. We will examine how shame hinders us and discuss effective ways to reclaim ourselves and our communities from its grasp.

Participants will be invited to:

• Learn about their unique shame triggers.
• Develop a greater awareness of how shame functions in our society.
• Cultivate vulnerability by sharing intimate stories in a safe space.
• Practice empathetic listening as others speak their uncomfortable truths.

By developing shame resilience, we can reconnect to our highest goals and purest ideals. We can embody our most authentic self, and embolden others to do the same. The workshop is open to people of all gender identities and expressions and is appropriate for professionals and laypeople alike. No prior writing experience is necessary; all levels are welcome, and all course materials will be provided.

Through mindful viewing of four feature films — today’s vehicles of myth and meaning — participants will open their hearts to encountering the beauty of being in Tao. The word Tao points toward a natural harmony that can be attained within everyday existence accompanied by a sense of the meaning of life itself as a source of resilience. This seminar will offer a self-enhancing mindfulness experience through films by Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, and Wim Wenders in which characters experience the beauty of being in Tao. These films are being shown to inspire similar discoveries in the lives of workshop participants.

This workshop employs mindful film viewing, contemplative reflection, and group interactions focused on participants’ unique experiences of carefully curated films. The viewing experience will be supported by 4K Blu-Ray video projection on a large screen and surround sound of six loudspeakers.

2.5 CE Credits for Health Professionals are available for an additional $35 fee payable to the workshop leader. Click here for details. For further information about the workshop, please get in touch with Francis Lu, MD, at francislumd@gmail.com

Step into a sanctuary of renewal and self-inquiry, a space where caregivers can resource and reconnect with the heart of their service. This is an opportunity to slow down, breathe, and nurture yourself through transformative practices that will replenish your soul and deepen your work with children. Open to a more embodied and authentic way of engaging with children, growing from a place of presence, curiosity, and wonder.

Together, we will embark on a journey of healing and draw from a source of collective wisdom as we explore:

• Heart centered caretaking philosophies.
• Emotional literacy and modeling authenticity for children.
• Self-inquiry on how our childhood healing impacts our work with children.
• Reflection and introspection through journaling and time in nature.
• Deep listening and sharing circles.
• Contemplative and embodiment practices.

On this beautiful and sacred land, we will co-create a safe space to renew. Immersed in the beauty of nature, we will rediscover the childlike joy of curiosity and play, allowing the land to teach us about reciprocity and resilience. In a community of fellow caregivers, we will share stories, engage in experiential practices, and cultivate a deeper sense of connection — to ourselves and our inner world, to the experience of the children we care for, and to the precious earth that sustains us.

We will attune to our inner landscapes, listening for what is calling to be restored. Through the lens of “unlearning,” we will reflect on the beliefs and patterns that shape our caregiving, making space for new ways of being and relating. Inspired by the philosophy of the Gazebo Park School at Esalen, we’ll explore perspectives on caregiving and childhood that invite a more spacious and heart-centered approach.

By honoring the sacred work of caretaking, we will create a field of presence as our process illuminates how healing can profoundly enrich our relationships with children. This is an invitation to nourish yourself — to step into a space of experiential learning and reclaim your inner wonder and wisdom.

This workshop is best suited for guardians, educators and caretakers tending to young children.

Recommended Reading: Gazebo Learning Project, A Legacy of Experimental and Experiential Early Childhood Education Legacy at Esalen by Jasmine Star Horan

This workshop is more than a learning experience — it’s an invitation to connect deeply with yourself and others in a supportive and creative space. Together, we’ll explore the profound potential for healing and growth that arises when art and psychology converge. No artistic experience is necessary; this workshop is about creative expression, not perfection.

Integrating art therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this workshop combines two evidence-based emotional and psychological growth approaches. Creating art stimulates your brain, unlocking new pathways and possibilities. Art therapy offers a dynamic way to visually explore your thoughts and emotions, providing a unique outlet for self-expression and growth. CBT complements this process by helping you identify and challenge dysfunctional thought patterns, empowering you to shift your mindset and embrace change.

• Bring your inner monster to life through art, and then engage with it through conversation to gain clarity and understanding.
• Delve into themes of control, shifting perspectives, and transformation through the power of poetry.
• Draw your own emotional landscape and gain practical tools to continue your healing journey long after our time together.
• Compose your personal Declaration of Independence (to free yourself from what keeps you stuck) and collage your flag representing your new state of mind.

Led by a board-certified art therapist, this fully interactive workshop combines drawing, collage, painting, writing, and group dialogue. Together, we’ll explore the fears, anxieties, and barriers holding you back, empowering you with tools to create meaningful and lasting change.

Since time immemorial, movement, dance, and the expressive arts have provided individuals and communities with a sense of soulful expression, healing, inspiration, spirit, and connection. We now need to reconnect with these ways more than ever.

The Life/Art Process®, developed by Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin, bridges body awareness, art expression, and psychological processes, providing people with an opportunity to experience dance and the expressive arts as a way to learn, heal, expand creativity, and develop new strategies for personal and professional life. This groundbreaking, innovative approach to human development, embodied creativity, and transformative learning began in the 1950s, and the tradition continues today.

Daria Halprin’s work connects dance, somatics, psychology, and artistic practices to foster personal, group, and community development and creativity. In this workshop, movement, dance, drawing, poetic dialogue,  reflective exchanges, and witnessing practices will generate new thresholds of exploration and expression, catalyzing new resources for daily life.

Morning sessions will focus on somatic awareness and individual and group movement exploration to tune the physical body to sensation and feeling. Afternoon sessions will facilitate creative encounters through dance, drawing, and spoken and written narratives to explore our life experiences. Evening sessions will be devoted to questions generated by the day’s work, reflection, and releasing activities, including creative play and meditative art practices.

Participants will be invited to:

• Experience how movement, dance, and expressive arts can be applied to their personal and professional practices.
• Develop body/mind awareness and connection.
• Expand creative expression.
• Experience improvisation and performance.
• Explore old material in new ways and generate new resources to bring into daily life.
• Play with artistic expression as a psychological tool.

Daria will be joined by Guest Musician Miles Lassi. Miles has performed in over 150 cities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia with many different ensembles, ranging from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to national Broadway tours like the Tina Turner Musical. He has also recorded with many award-winning artists.No previous artistic experience is necessary. This workshop is designed for everyone

.Recommended Reading: The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy by Daria Halprin