Our workshops are designed to support you in the challenging work of self exploration, in partnership with some of the leading minds of the day. Join us in discovering the next frontiers of individual and societal transformation.
Interested in a scholarship?
Learn MoreImagine your relationship expressing the true depths of your love and commitment. If you are in love, this retreat is an opportunity to rise even higher in love. If you are in crisis, it is an opportunity for healing on the deepest level. We all carry some degree of negative programming from our past, and there are loving and effective ways to transform this programming into a positive and vibrant celebration of our connection.
During this workshop, you will experience exercises and practices for you to do with each other, therapeutic coaching of each couple by the Vissells, the support of other couples and time for sharing after each practice.
You’ll acquire a collection of tools for deeper appreciation and communication building, including healthy communication of feelings, our partner as a mirror, understanding and respecting each other’s differences, conflict resolution, healing past hurts, sexual wellness, inner child/inner parent, taking responsibility and developing a true inner connection. Take the opportunity to explore these tools with your partner during the workshop and learn to incorporate them into everyday life as you continue to improve your relationship at home. For more information, visit www.SharedHeart.org.
This workshop welcomes couples of all gender and sexual orientations.
.png)
Gestalt Practice at its core is an awareness practice in which we cultivate embodied, present-moment awareness of the unfolding experience of the here and now on a journey toward authentic growth, wholeness, and aliveness.
Drawing from the foundations of Gestalt Practice, wisdom traditions, and contemporary approaches that cultivate awareness, we’ll learn to become increasingly aware of our habitual, reactive, behavioral and emotional patterns — especially those that may no longer be skillful — for a more deeply embodied daily life. We will exercise our emotional and somatic intelligence in parallel to support, respect, and gently turn toward what arises moment to moment — to allow more space and appreciation for silence, sensation, emotional expression, and communication.
During this workshop, we will explore the rich practices and principles of Gestalt Practice. By applying them to everyday life, we’ll begin to experience the simple yet profound potential for showing up more fully and authentically for the daily presentations of living an awake life.
Gestalt Practice cultivates curiosity, equanimity, and acceptance with greater choice for creative possibilities. Rather than focusing on fixing or achievement, this approach offers methods to encourage you to:
Together, we’ll explore the elements of this approach, primarily through experiential personal practices, interactive exercises, and Gestalt Awareness Movement. Practices and exercises will be done solo, in pairs, triads, and groups, allowing participants to grow their awareness and learn how we can deepen our relationships — to self and others. There will be time for some participants to experience classic one-to-one Open Seat practice sessions with Steven in the roles of Initiator and Reflector while in the context of the group. To enrich our understanding, we’ll touch upon the rich history, theory, and neuroscience that supports this approach.
Through Gestalt Practice, we bear witness to ineffable mysteries that can bring us to living life more fully. Participants are invited to show up: choosing to be present, paying attention to what has heart and meaning, and open to what life presents — letting life live through us.
The workshop is appropriate for all levels of experience with the understanding that participants are exploring a model of an awareness gym or lab — not a therapy. A welcome letter will be sent upon registration along with additional information about our time together.
Our ever-increasing intimacy with technology means we live more of our lives with, through, and mediated by it. This carries both opportunities and risks to our social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions. Many are experiencing a sense of soul loss — a contracted disconnection caused by distraction, social comparison, loneliness, and lack of true connection, both inner and outer.
The conscious cultivation of awareness through practices that teach us how to pay attention to our own experience as a witness — to see ourselves as a subject of life rather than an object life is happening to — can be incredibly empowering. Sará King and Eve Ekman offer an alchemical opportunity to meet, map, and transform how we relate to technology and reveal its liberatory potential for enhancing embodied awareness and social justice.
Sará is a contemplative neuroscientist dedicated to research and training our experience of mind and consciousness at an embodied level and weaving loving kindness into our active practice of social justice. Eve is a contemplative social scientist who works through wide-scale application of technologies to increase emotional awareness and compassion.
This weekend workshop will include three main pillars:
These experiential practices ground the concept of “justice” as the act of creating intentional space of love and applying active “loving-awareness-in-action” to ourselves and others. Our capacity to gently encourage and guide our attention back to our body in the present moment and sense what we are thinking, feeling, emoting, and remembering is a superpower that should be developed, not taken for granted.
In a world where we must constantly question the “realness” and authenticity of the stimuli we encounter, developing space that empowers us to know our own experience as valid and real might be one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.
For thousands of years across many cultures, enhanced states of consciousness have been used as a strategy for meaningful transformation and self-exploration — marking life’s major transitions and rites of passage and deepening one’s connection to self, community, and the natural world.
In this workshop, we will gather in the rich field of community for an immersive experience and personal exploration of enhanced states of consciousness. Our time together will include strategies for navigating, integrating, and preparing for these experiences. Holotropic Breathwork® offers language, method, and structure for turning inward and working with deeply personal material as it emerges, uniquely, from one’s own intrinsic intelligence. We will be supported by time-honored practices that are simple, yet powerful. These unique states can offer us unmediated access to the self as a deep source of healing, insight, and evolutionary potential. Participants will experience four Holotropic Breathwork sessions, with two as “breather” and two as “sitter.” Your time assisting others in “non-ordinary state” space will complement your personal exploration. Additionally, contemplative practice, movement, expressive arts, and time in community will support the integration process throughout the week.
Originating from the pioneering psychedelic researcher, Stanislav Grof, and his late wife, Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork is a particularly useful practice for those interested in or training to work in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
This workshop is suited for all those of heart who are curious about exploring enhanced states of consciousness and opening to an evolutionary process of unfolding. New or novice explorers/breathers are very welcome, along with experienced navigators/breathers. The fundamental urge to grow, to heal, and to be transformed in a truly authentic way drives us not outward but inward, toward the depths of our own being, toward a deep mystery within. This inward journey strengthens and nourishes our senses in a way that can revitalize our daily lives with creative and emergent energy.
Recommended Reading: Holotropic Breathwork by Stan Grof
Join bestselling author, Grammy-nominated musician, and award-winning speaker Justin Michael Williams in this transformational and deeply interactive workshop at Esalen Institute. By blending science-backed strategies with empowerment, this session is designed to unlock your full potential and foster a space of connection, wellness, motivation, and confidence.
In this inspiring journey, you will:
Together, we’ll create your personal action plan for 2025 and define your next steps with a simple and proven method that you can take into the new year. This is your moment to reset, renew, overcome fear and self-doubt, and say “yes” to everything that lies ahead. Awaken your true power for the year ahead!
This program has been designed from the ground up to welcome people of all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Join us!
Recommended reading: Stay Woke, by Justin Michael Williams
To encounter someone, something, or someplace implies that it’s unexpected or a surprise. Encountering the moment means coming face-to-face with the unknown. In movement practice, we train ourselves to stay open, curious, centered, and responsive at the front edge of any encounter — counterbalancing those innate primal reactions to fight, flee, freeze, or please.
Rather than withdrawing, playing it safe, or tolerating things you shouldn’t, imagine being adept at staying present and standing your ground clearly and authentically. Picture a world where we are able to express opinions, feelings, discontents, and appreciations skillfully while remaining wholeheartedly open to outcome and change.
In this workshop, within a supportive and challenging environment, we will create “safe emergencies” — situations intense enough to command our attention that are managed with care and support, to help us risk moving beyond habitual self-defeating patterns. Participants can receive real feedback and gain plenty of practice making new choices in relation to others.
20 CE units available for full attendance of this course.
.png)
How we sit, stand, move, and respond to our inner and outer world reflects deeply ingrained patterns wired into our nervous systems since childhood. They reflect our early solutions to physical survival in our family system. Out of awareness, these beliefs and strategies can still run our adult lives, limit our choices, and prevent physical ease and emotional healing.
If you still have pain or limitations from a past injury, it is usually because many other areas in your body had to overwork to protect and avoid using the injured area while you were recovering. These unconscious compensations can create an imbalanced workload and, eventually, new issues elsewhere in our body that prevent complete healing.
Using CFR®, we slowly explore and deeply sense small, gentle movements that bring these hidden patterns into awareness. When our genius nervous system becomes aware of a habit that is no longer useful, it extinguishes it. A greater experience of self-trust and self-worth is uncovered. A new sense of self-love, which comes from paying attention to your details without judgment, usually emerges.
This workshop is for the sedentary who want to become more active, the highly active who want to avoid injury and gain a competitive edge, and the chronically tired and stressed who want to improve breathing, posture, and flexibility. It is for those who have experienced physical injury or emotional trauma and those in helping professions who wish to enhance outcomes for clients and patients.
Our intention is that you will leave equipped with simple yet effective tools for continued self-healing. Your discoveries may lead to a state of awe about what is possible in your body, your movement, and your life.
What role does dominant culture play in how we experience the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and deeper existential mysteries of our bodies?
Roger Kuhn, a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigequeer activist, artist, sex therapist, and somacultural theorist, believes that viewing our bodies through a somacultural lens can help us better understand how dominant culture informs and, all too often, misinforms our relationships to them.
Somacultural liberation is an embodied practice that helps individuals connect with the intersections of their identity. Kuhn’s revolutionary mode of inquiry illuminates the full impact of our cultural reality in shaping both our individual and shared sense of self.
Over the course of the workshop, participants will:
This workshop is ideal for therapists, coaches, healthcare professionals, activists, and anyone interested in exploring the impact culture has played in their personal and collective experiences and the pathways to liberation.
Recommended reading: Somacultural Liberation by Roger Kuhn
Fostering close and connected relationships is one of the most important things affecting the quality of our lives. Cultivating trust and openness with a loved one, whether with an intimate partner or friend, is an essential aspect of any successful, supportive relationship.
This weekend, Perry and Johanna Holloman, intimate partners and friends for over 30 years, will share the most effective tools and practices they have developed to nurture their connection to each other.
The primary tool Perry and Johanna will share is called Gestalt Inquiry. This easy-to-learn, powerful practice provides a safe context for exploring the most meaningful and sensitive aspects of relationships. Perry and Johanna like to think of it as a practice that becomes a continuing part of any successful long-term relationship because it places high value on compassion, respect, and love of truth. As we learn to discover and safely express what is true for us, individually, as a couple, or as friends, we deepen our heart’s capacity for intimacy and connection, which leads to a more fulfilling and meaningful shared life.
During our time together, you will learn practices and resources to integrate into your everyday life, such as:
This workshop is for couples of all genders and sexual orientations. A couple may be any two people with a history who desire a better future together, e.g., friends, partners, married or divorced spouses, parent and child, siblings, and others.
This workshop includes an additional $50 faculty tuition.
Immerse yourself in a restorative workshop designed specifically for male-identifying people of color. This unique experience offers a sanctuary for growth and self-discovery, fostering a supportive community where participants can connect and build meaningful relationships.
Black boys and men of color have limited opportunities to engage in mind-body healing practices, and there are not nearly enough representations of Black male wellness; this workshop provides tools for transformation, healing, and empowerment while also addressing the interconnected issues of mental health, racial disparities, and community well-being.
Danny and Darnell combine meditation, yoga, and reflective writing to create a nurturing space for participants to explore their inner selves and cultivate mindfulness. Through guided meditations and intention-setting exercises, participants will center their energy and focus on their personal growth journey.
This workshop features:
With reflective writing and a closing circle, participants will be able to process their experiences, express gratitude, and set future intentions to carry them well beyond Esalen.
“Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is important to me?”
Asking yourself these questions will activate your inner authenticity and allow you to move forward and live your life in alignment with your truest self. The answers to these questions will help you navigate life’s journey with direction, motivation, and inspiration. Perhaps the greatest regret of the dying is that they lacked the courage to live a life true to themselves.
In this workshop, you will reconnect with your authentic self through a series of exercises — such as guided meditation, self-inquiry, journaling, Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as tapping) — and one-on-one and group sharing and embodiment practices. This curated process is designed to allow you space to get clear about:
With that clarity, you can create your manifesto, a written statement declaring who you truly are. Let that sink in: We will first uncover this hidden self, and then, together, we will manifest this being into reality.
Together, we will explore:
Discover practices to connect and practical tools to reprogram your subconscious mind and heal your connection with your truest, deepest, highest self. You will also learn to apply these insights for authentic interactions with others. As you deepen the embodiment of your native self, you’ll experience the freedom of simply being you. This is one of the greatest victories possible: living a courageous life true to yourself — with no regrets.
Please bring a journal and pen to every session.
Recommended Reading: Everyday Initiations by Anne Van De Water
.png)
Build inner strength and resilience through a blend of gentle and restorative yoga, stress-relief meditation, Yoga Nidra, and focused writing exercises. Participants will embark on a journey to identify and overcome personal and creative challenges.
This workshop begins with restorative yoga sessions to release physical tension and prepare the body for creative work, followed by guided meditations to ground and center us. Writing exercises will help us explore and articulate personal challenges, fostering a supportive community through group discussions and shared experiences.
As the week progresses, dynamic yoga flow sessions are added to energize participants and help them break through mental and physical blocks. Writing exercises complement the yoga sessions, welcoming the expression and release of pent-up emotions.
Through these empowering practices and guided visualizations, participants can cultivate the courage to pursue their creative goals fearlessly and confidently call themselves an artist. By the end of our time together, you will have the tools and confidence to integrate these practices and techniques into your daily lives for sustained creativity, stress management, and a resilient mindset.
A journey to heal oneself and awaken deeply from within. Through meditation, yoga, and time in nature, we will tap into the stories our bodies have to tell and develop skills to nourish ourselves in 2025.
This workshop focuses on the transition from one year to the next as an opportunity to purposefully cultivate a sense of renewal. During our time together, you will be guided to explore and experience what this means for you personally.
Ritual invocations of energy and the power of the Esalen grounds themselves will support your healing journey by providing an intentional space for you to reflect on all you have experienced individually and collectively within your community during the past year.
Throughout the weekend, we will share new ways of grounding and connecting to the sacred energy of nature and the elements constantly surrounding us. This supports the act of renewal, cultivates greater presence, and creates capacity to build and replenish energy throughout the coming year to support continued health and well-being.
In this workshop, all participants are invited:
All people have an innate ability to move toward healthy, satisfying relationships. Old patterns of behavior and fixed ideas formed in early relationships may block our ability to communicate and make contact with the people in our lives.
The Gestalt approach aims to increase awareness of these patterns and our ”unfinished business” by relating in a group that meets our needs for emotional attunement and understanding, that supports us in identifying and expressing our emotions, and which is committed to creating an atmosphere of respect, kindness, acceptance and honesty. These relational experiences support energy, aliveness and good contact.
Over the course of this workshop, we will
We may discover habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating the type of relationships we want, and develop new skills for relating.
The workshop will include time for gestalt awareness practices, and a mixture of didactic and experiential exercises. Each participant will have an individual “open seat” session with Dorothy, with the support of the group.
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.
.png)
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
Across various wisdom traditions, there is a common yet paradoxical invitation: Turn toward what is difficult to find freedom from what is difficult. However, when we find ourselves feeling anxiety, loss, judgment, irritation — the full bouquet of difficult emotions — facing these feelings is the last thing we want to do. Fortunately, there are trainable, evidenced-informed practices to help us transmute adversities into joy and insight. By turning toward our challenges, we uncover the wisdom within them, and they transform into our allies.
Teachers and authors Chandra Easton and Eve Ekman have been teaching these transformative tools together and apart for more than a decade. Easton’s expertise draws from her intimate knowledge and practice of Tantric Buddhism and her teachings on the evidenced-based practice of Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) internationally. FYD is a guided five-step process that transforms our so-called “demons” of difficult emotions into our allies. Ekman’s expertise lies in her application of contemporary psychological science of well-being and emotion awareness, sharing the evidenced-based practice of Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) with the world. CEB draws from contemporary emotion science and develops our emotion granularity by mapping our emotion episodes.
In this training, Easton and Ekman guide participants to transform the mind, which is afflicted by our tendency toward enacting destructive emotions. At the heart of all these practices is an ability to transform adversity and joy into the path of our awakening. In contemporary psychological terms, we investigate our so-called “negative” emotional experiences to identify the stories and patterns that occlude our innate compassionate, pro-social nature.
This weekend will include guided meditations based on FYD and CEB, discussions, and time for integration and practice outdoors, weather permitting.
Suggested reading: Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione & Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron.
This workshop includes an additional $50 in faculty tuition and $5 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:
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 dive deeper, watch this 20-minute Art of REPAIR Mini Course filled with potent takeaways.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
“To live in accord with love is to set your heart on fire. In the crucible of such an inferno all convention burns away. What’s left is an entirely new kind of existence, one full of passion, presence and infinite possibility.” — Setting Your Heart on Fire
What if you could fall absolutely in love with every moment? What if you could use love’s radiance to heal your deepest wounds and break through any personal challenges — career, relationships, family, weight, self-esteem, addiction, anything?
All of this happens naturally when you stop trying to change your life and instead learn to relax into it. This workshop is designed to meet you where you are and then call forth your very best. You’ll discover the simple, practical steps necessary to feel all emotions with willingness and compassion, uncover and transform your limiting beliefs; and create a life of greater ease, joy, and exquisite connection.
This weekend is primarily experiential. It’s designed with the recognition that your heart is already on fire – our job is to remove what’s dampening the flame. The key explorations and practices of the gathering:
Special note: On Saturday night our group will host a Freestyle Dance Jam, with Raphael as DJ, as a gift for ourselves and everyone at Esalen that night. Remember to pack some loose fitting attire and get ready to rock and roll and shake and swing and let it all go!
Recommended reading: Cushnir, Setting Your Heart on Fire, and The One Thing Holding You Back.
Get ready for ecstatic rebirth! This small group workshop is for you if you are prepared and willing to:
Raphael Cushnir creates a safe and gentle environment to help call forth your very best, using tools such as:
The highlight of this retreat is designing a unique transformative experience all your own. You leave with a practical road map for real-life integration, plus benefits you can experience immediately— and for the rest of your life.
Special note: On Tuesday night, our group will host a Freestyle Dance Jam, with Raphael as DJ, as a gift for ourselves and everyone at Esalen. Remember to pack some loose-fitting attire and get ready to rock and roll, shake and swing, and let it all go!
Recommended reading: The One Thing Holding You Back, by Raphael Cushnir
In this transformative workshop, you will explore Maranasati, mindfulness of death, a profound practice for embracing life’s natural cycles of birth and death with greater aliveness, presence, and fearlessness. By facing impermanence directly, you can open your heart to live with deeper intention, presence, and less fear, freeing yourself to embrace life in its fullest expression.
Guided sitting and walking meditations will be at the heart of our time together to help us anchor into the body, quiet the mind, and discover peace amid the ever-changing nature of life. We’ll create spaciousness for silence, allowing insights to emerge naturally. Contemplative practices will guide us as we reflect on powerful meditative inquiries. Reflective writing, such as crafting your own obituary, will offer deeper self-exploration. Creative exercises, like haiku writing, will provide a way to express these insights through art, transforming our contemplation into beauty.
Through small group inquiry, we will share and deeply listen to one another’s reflections, fostering a supportive community connected by our shared humanity. We’ll practice letting go, finding ease with the unknown, and addressing the heart’s unfinished business. As we cultivate metta (loving-kindness), we soften our fears and grief with compassion, gradually transforming them into equanimity and acceptance.
Join us in this exploration of mortality to see death as a wise teacher and life as an opportunity for authenticity, love, and presence. This workshop is open to anyone ready to deepen their connection with mortality and embrace life and death with an open heart.
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.
.png)
When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. In 2022, our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. So many of us today live life in a hectic fog, working too much and noticing too little.
There is a different way. For this weekend workshop, we will disconnect, slow down, and meditate together. We will learn the ancient Zen practice of sitting still, bringing our full awareness to what is now.
Our time together will follow a gentle schedule of sitting meditation punctuated by brief lectures, group discussion, relaxing meals, and soaks in the healing baths, all while exploring the process and practice of mindful living. We’ll be listening to our own bodies, noticing the food we eat, and truly engaging with the people around us – exploring what it means to be fully present.
Together we will explore everything you need to start, revive, or deepen your daily meditation practice. You will receive instruction in traditional Zen Buddhist meditation and we will sit together in guided sessions, practicing what we’ve learned. We’ll work together on everything from the mechanics of sitting posture to the mental barriers we all face. We’ll discuss how to overcome common obstacles to meditation and the many ways to incorporate more mindfulness and presence into our daily lives.
Whether you’re brand new to meditation or even if you’ve been practicing for years, join us in learning how to bring meditation into your life and mindfulness to your work and home – today and every day. Come reclaim a healthier and happier way to be.
Recommended Reading: Buddha’s Office, by Dan Zigmond
Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet. — Buddha
We treasure this life, and yet we rarely can hear ourselves think. We are constantly being bombarded and absorbing information at a dizzying pace. In the 21st century, where stillness and silence are scarce, fast-paced living keeps us bouncing from one task to the next. What might happen if you simply sat and allowed yourself to be? What would arise in the spaces between your thoughts, your breath, and your heartbeat?
Join celebrated teacher, author, and documentary filmmaker Hawah Kasat to explore the depths of silence and solitude. Hawah will guide you with a culturally sensitive soft touch and a compassionate heart toward the bounty of silence. Participants will be guided through silent meditation practices, pranayama (breathwork), asana (movement), and dharma talks, to support the following process:
This retreat is suitable for those who have never taken a vow of silence and want to explore what it feels like to observe it, as well as veteran silent retreaters who want to tune up their senses of awareness and perception.
NOTE: Noble silence will be observed intermittently throughout the retreat days, sometimes for hours at a time. During noble silence periods, participants will be encouraged not to engage in writing, reading, or talking.
This workshop includes a $10 material fee.
Part of a new chapter of Esalen’s history, this seminar-style workshop considers the audacious possibility that reincarnation may be an empirically established fact rooted in robust and compelling scientific data.
Numerous young children from across the world have reported memories of past lives. These cases have been a focus of careful study at the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine over the last 60 years. Over 2,000 cases have been investigated, and in many, the child’s memories appear to match the details of an identified deceased person.
Recently, the Washington Post brought this notion into the mainstream with “The children who remember their past lives,” a meaningful contribution to growing public awareness of reincarnation as a legitimate possibility. Child psychiatrist Jim B. Tucker, featured in the article, is the director of the Division of Perceptual Studies and has worked with nearly 150 families while compiling comprehensive records of past-life memories. He worked closely with the division’s founder, Ian Stevenson, who began gathering data in the 1960s. Clinical psychologist Christine McDowell Tucker focuses on grief counseling and mindfulness meditation. Together, Jim and Christine will share the latest findings and lead discussions about the current research and its implications for us all. Esalen founder Michael Murphy will provide the opening lecture.
This seminar will explore scientific, philosophical, and metaphysical questions about life, death, and meaning, including:
This seminar-style workshop is somewhat new and experimental for Esalen, leaning into our long history as a refuge for people to sort through complexities and find their bearings. It invites our inner reductionists, skeptics, and artful dodgers to rest and allow for new possibilities. This gathering is for those deeply curious about what happens after we die and what it means to fulfill a life’s purpose. It will be both didactic and interactive while exploring meaningful questions and engaging with related meditation exercises.
Please note: Active channeling, hypnotically prompted age regressions, and other exercises to summon past-life memories will not be included in this seminar.
Are you feeling bored, stuck, bewildered, or overwhelmed in your 40s, 50s, or 60s? You’re not alone. Welcome to midlife, a time when many of us feel restless and disenchanted. New studies show that after a temporary bottoming-out of life satisfaction, we often start feeling more content and alive in the core and latter part of midlife; the latest research in the psychology of aging reveals that when we shift our mindset on aging from negative to positive, we can add seven and a half years to our lives.
Chip Conley, founder of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), the world’s first midlife wisdom school, and a leading midlife activist, is helping demystify and elevate midlife as a life stage of profound personal transformation.
During this workshop, we will:
Today’s modern elder is always searching for greater meaning, deeper relationships, new experiences to explore, and ideas to imagine. Join Chip for a rare weekend opportunity to discover a new way of thinking about midlife, an invigorating time of re-imagination, re-creation, reflection, and true growth — on our own terms.
Recommended Reading: Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age by Chip Conley
Trauma is not only about the terrible things that have happened to us but also about what did not happen — such as care, protection, and validation. The only way to create an inner sense of positivity that embraces new possibilities is to have a visceral, real-life experience with what has been missing.
In this workshop, we will explore a variety of theatrical and psychodramatic techniques to help transform our understanding of trauma and instill a deep-seated sense of the nurturing that was not received when it was needed — the support that was lacking. This process has been described in “Filling the Holes: Creating Structures,” a chapter in The Body Keeps the Score, the influential, award-winning work on how traumatic experiences, and the lack of positive ones, shape both the brain and relationships.
This experiential workshop is limited to 25 participants. If you are interested in joining, please send an email with approximately two paragraphs explaining your professional background, prior therapy experiences, and why you wish to be a part of this workshop. Please add “Psychodrama Workshop Participant Submission” to the subject line and send to assistant@liciasky.com.
What does healing mean to you? There is no one-size-fits-all solution for eating, sleep, immunity, and other health concerns. Your body communicates its healing needs to you, but we often lack the knowledge to interpret and respond to these signals.
Health practitioners cannot fully understand your body’s changing needs and signals the way you can. Medical errors are a leading cause of suffering and death, and healthcare systems are strained. Treatments often come with side effects; preventative care and root causes are often overlooked.
You get this. You’ve opened the door to a more holistic way of health and well-being. You’re showing up to make some positive changes, but where do you start? There’s an avalanche of alternative options, and the various parts of you have differing patterns.
Ayurveda teaches you to listen to your body’s needs. Your body heals best when properly supported. Natural remedies and mindful lifestyle choices are safe and effective. Once you understand your body’s patterns, you can personalize your wellness strategy and support.
In an intimate group setting, participants will have the opportunity to focus on their own personal wellness and identify impactful changes needed to support health and well-being. With her empowering East-West mind-body version of Ayurveda, Siva Mohan offers tools and approaches to optimize the core building blocks of a wellness lifestyle: digestion, sleep, immunity, and routine.
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.
Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying is one of the oldest and most comprehensive systems of concentration in the Buddhist tradition. Sometimes called the Elephant Path, this approach was originated by the great Buddhist master in 506 A.D., and it is now the main method of training the mind in the Tibetan tradition.
In this weekend meditation retreat, participants will learn the stages of the Elephant Path using the body as the primary object of concentration. Students will also receive an introduction to the basic stages of ordinary insight. By the end of our time together, students will have all the instructions necessary to successfully incorporate a robust meditation practice into everyday life.
Training the mind in this way can lead to a direct experience of equanimity and can put the student in a range of practice wherein pointing out the real nature of the awakened mind is possible.
No experience with meditation is required. If you have your own preferred meditation pillow and mat, please bring them.
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.
Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world. With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary teacher, participants will explore the beauty of this wild coast — one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world — which includes ancient canyons of redwoods, dramatic coastal beaches, rugged rocky mountains, and soft grassy slopes.
Drawing from nature and using various experiential awareness practices, individuals will be encouraged to open to the landscapes of both the natural world and their inner world. It is said that Big Sur is not just a place but a state of mind. This wilderness experience seeks to merge mind and place, then to embody what is learned.
Participants in this weeklong workshop will venture out into the emerging springtime magnificence of Big Sur on day-hikes between four to eight miles. Steven will draw from a wide range of contemporary and age-old wisdom traditions, borrowing from psychology, meditation, aikido, and the natural sciences to weave together a holistic experience of self and the natural world.
Each hike will begin right after breakfast and conclude in time to enjoy the hot springs and dinner at the Lodge. Evening sessions will include informal sharing and basic awareness practices with attention to incorporating what we’ve learned into our daily lives.
All levels of experience are welcome. Be prepared for the invigorating challenge of physical activity that the mountains of Big Sur require and the opportunity to simply sit still in quiet reflection. More information and a waiver will be sent upon registration. For an equipment list and frequently asked questions about Steven’s workshops, visit FAQs.
This workshop has $80 of additional faculty tuition and $40 for park entrance fees.
The healing path has a trajectory. Gabrielle Roth called this, The Path of The Wounded Healer. It is here that we look closely at our healing process. We mark both where we are and where we want to be. We dance through the five stages of healing in relationship to being the victim, the survivor, the healer, the transformer and eventually the one who rests in compassionate service.
It is my belief that our sacred task in life is to transform the most difficult things we have been through, into our greatest strengths. These are the stories of our resiliency, vulnerability and strength. It is here one may learn how to move with what is and transform it to what we want it to be.
In the Heartbeat Map, we investigate what is moving through the shores of the heart. Through understanding the relationship of the emotional polarities we come to respect and appreciate what we have been through. Without fear, we do not experience courage. Without anger, we cannot experience forgiveness. Without love, we cannot experience grief. Without loss we cannot experience or appreciate the full spectrum of joy. Without all of these qualities, we cannot know the true nature of compassion.
You are invited to join this journey of movement and awareness, focused on how emotions transform the heart. This map is Gabrielle Roth’s living wisdom. I am here to pass this gift on to you to be carried in your own bones and blood.
Each session will be primarily focused on the 5Rhythms® moving meditation (dance practice). We will integrate each movement session with a seated meditation practice, focused on one of the Buddhist Heart Practices (Brahma viharas) which are equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion and joy. Included in the group will be optional sharing and a question and answer period.
Recommended Reading: Sweat Your Prayers & Maps To Ecstacy By Gabrielle Roth and Dancing with Dharma: Essays on Movement and Dance in Western Buddhism by Harrison Blum
This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.
Experience five days of deep rest, reflection, and rejuvenation through movement, guided meditation, and the profound practice of Yoga Nidra. This workshop is designed to restore the body, clear the mind, and shift the habitual patterns that keep us from experiencing a state of calm, clarity, and balance.
Yoga Nidra, which translates to “yogic sleep,” guides you to that liminal state between wakefulness and sleep, where you can systematically release stored physical, emotional, and mental tensions. In this state, you can let go of old beliefs and habits that keep you stuck in the past and fearful of the future. With this practice, you can fully experience your emotions while knowing that there is unchanging, unshakable ground beneath you — a calm inner presence that allows you to see clearly and navigate life with greater ease.
Throughout the retreat, we will work with our bodies and minds, creating clear intentions to shift from living by unconscious, automatic programming and find a new perspective — an aware, deliberate way of being. You’ll explore how to bring this newfound awareness of your true self into your personal life, relationships, work, and moments of solitude and love.
Together, we will cultivate new tools to help us navigate when we feel lost, tired, or confused and forget who we are. These guiding instruments can help us negotiate life’s challenges, welcome them as opportunities, and remember our true nature.
This workshop is a unique opportunity to recognize your wholeness, the truth of who you are, and the inner peace that has always been within you — that unchanging, unshakable ground of being that you are. All that is being asked of you is to show up, lie down, and let go. Yoga Nidra will do the rest.
What to bring: blankets, a yoga mat, an eye pillow, and anything else you need to lie comfortably on the floor for extended periods. We’ll also have opportunities to practice outdoors, so make sure you have layers to stay comfortable in varying conditions.
Recommended Reading: Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, by Kamini Desai; and Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation Healing, by Richard Miller
.png)
In the mountains east of Esalen, an enchanting, ecologically diverse, and psycho-spiritually fertile wilderness awaits. Over four nights and five days, we will engage in a contemporary form of pilgrimage, backpacking as reverent seekers through these ancestral lands of the Esselen Tribe, now known as the Big Sur backcountry. Our journey will conclude at the coastal grounds of Esalen Institute with a weekend of reflection and integration.
Since time immemorial, people have taken time away from the patterns and demands of daily life to walk with intention on sacred trails — pursuing embodied spiritual wisdom, expansion, and community. In our modern era of profound ecological degradation and severance from place-based ways of life, wilderness pilgrimage is a powerful practice for restoring relationship with the Earth and the depths of our shared humanity.
Each day of our wild pilgrimage, we will rise with the sun, carry only what we need, and walk with presence and curiosity to meaningfully encounter our inner and outer landscapes. As we hike and camp, we will learn foundational wilderness ethics and skills to feel at home in the wild. When night falls, we will share stories and meals by the fire and sleep beneath a blanket of stars.
Inspired by Esalen’s co-founder Dick Price, who found healing in the Big Sur wild and the Esalen community, our intimate and intergenerational cohort will embrace mutual support — engaging relational practices from Price’s Gestalt lineage to authentically connect with ourselves and one another.
Our pilgrimage community will include the more-than-human world: ancient redwoods, sandstone boulders, surging springs, playful jays, and all the countless beings of Big Sur. Through guided mythopoetic, ecological, and somatic inquiry, we will expand our literacy of wild nature, awaken our senses, and cultivate embodied awareness of our interconnection.
May the ardor and intentionality of our trek, across 30 miles of rugged terrain, wash away calcified layers from our essential selves to reveal bright resilience and aliveness. When we arrive at Esalen, we will turn our attention toward integration and service. In accord with the ancient spirit of pilgrimage, how will we carry what we’ve gathered on this journey into our lives, communities, and lands back home?
Important Notes:
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.
Dance is one of the world’s most ancient transformative rituals. From the whirling dervish to the Shamans, the waltz to the rave, we dance for joy, healing, and connection — guided by wisdom that transcends the thinking brain.
This five-day retreat is an invitation to come together to awaken the forgotten wild, ignite your creativity, and dance our way to wholeness. Through an alchemical combination of movement, nature, and sound healing, we’ll reconnect our bodies and minds, digest our feelings and emotions, and open ourselves to the wisdom of our hearts. Most of all, we’ll expand our vision to include a bigger perspective on our spiritual and human interconnectedness.
The practices we’ll cultivate this week will help you:
Allow yourself to be nourished by this sacred land, the hot spring waters, the time we share together, and the friends you’ll make. Experience the beauty, awe, and wonder of being alive so you may return home rejuvenated and inspired to continue walking your unique life path.
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.
Our sense of self develops in connection with others and our experiences in early relationships. They shape our beliefs — about ourselves, other people, and what is possible for us in our lives. While we cannot change the past, we can change the parts of our lives that we find difficult or unfulfilling through new experiences of contact. When our need for understanding and emotional attunement is met, our limiting beliefs can change.
In this workshop, we will:
This workshop includes time for basic gestalt awareness practices, a mixture of didactic and experiential exercises, and some participants will have the opportunity to experience individual “open seat” sessions with Dorothy and with the support of the group
Recommended reading: Korb et al., Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory; Mann, Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques
Learn how mindfulness and self-compassion can change everything about how you feel, how you relate and how you live ― for good.
In this workshop, Dr. Shauna Shapiro ― a leading scientist studying the effects of mindfulness + compassion on well-being ― shows us that acting with compassion toward ourselves is the key. She explains basic brain science and offers powerful science-based practices to alleviate anxiety, boost creative thinking, and deepen our sense of belonging and purpose. With practice, we can literally rewire our brains for greater feelings of calm, clarity, connection, and joy. We will immerse ourselves in the natural beauty of Esalen, allowing the sounds of the ocean, the magnificent views and delights of the gardens to nourish and support us.
This workshop is appropriate for anyone curious about mindfulness + compassion and how to deepen our connection with the beauty and mystery of life. All are welcome.
Recommended Reading: Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire the Brain for Calm, Clarity + Joy and Good Morning, I Love You: A Guided Journal for Calm, Clarity + Joy by Shauna Shapiro.
This workshop includes an additional $375 faculty tuition. *For anyone facing financial hardship, Dr. Shauna Shapiro invites you to contact her directly for a tuition scholarship at slshapiro@scu.edu.
“A brain without a body couldn’t think.” — Moshe Feldenkrais
“We want to get you to a place where gravity is your friend, a nourishing force.” — Dr. Ida P. Rolf
Human beings are relational by nature. We are an intricate web of anatomy, energy, space, and time that takes shape through our life experiences. Our physical structure, function, and sense of self are reflected in our fascial layers and formed by our early development, by principles of self-organization, and by how we engage with our environment.
When we fall into habitual patterns, parts of ourselves become undeveloped, unseen. If our bodies are given a setting in which to relate to gravity, others, and our environment with curiosity and attunement, we can be free to move and relate with more choice and ease.
Using the grounds, waters, and spirit of Esalen as our laboratory, Kate and Kevin will use the Feldenkrais Method and Gestalt process as a guide to contact and nurture the influences of the subtle body – our relationship to ground, gravity, and the space between.
In this workshop, participants will:
Recommended Reading: Feldenkrais, The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion; Gladis, Tales of a Wounded Healer: Creating Exact Moments of Healing; Bodywise: An Introduction to Hellerwork for Regaining Flexibility & Well-Being.
.png)
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. – Alan Watts
In these ever-changing times, our familiar and habitual ways of being and knowing the world are often shaken to the core. Many of us find ourselves confronting anxiety, impermanence, and disconnection. Yet, life invites us to remember our innate capacity for resilient adaptation, an open heart, and living intimately with the mystery of the unknown. While mystery can evoke fear and discomfort, it can also be experienced as a profound sense of awe and wonder. We are called to meet uncertainty, both within and around us, with openness, courage, and a willingness to say “yes” to life — to join the dance, even in the face of what we cannot know and is often out of our control.
This workshop offers a gentle exploration of how to cultivate curiosity, courage, and compassion to live more closely with the mystery of life. Together, we will begin where we are and embrace “what is” with kindness and a deepening awareness of our human experience. By acknowledging, turning toward, and befriending the discomfort of not knowing, we can transform it into a powerful source of energy that awakens the potential of the body, heart, and mind.
We will practice individually, in pairs, and in group settings, drawing from mystic wisdom traditions, contemplative practices, and contemporary neuro and somatic psychology, to:
Embracing the great mystery of life is a process of letting go of the need for definitive answers and allowing space for the unexpected and unfamiliar to unfold. By living with an open heart, body, and mind, we can dance into the interconnectedness of all things, allowing life to live through us as we navigate an ever-changing world.
Join us in this transformative journey of discovery, where we learn to welcome the mystery with grace and live more fully from a place of embodied presence.
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):
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.
Profound relaxation and rejuvenation lie at the intersection of land and sky. In this weekend intensive, we will explore the Tibetan art of rejuvenation, also known as chulen, meaning “essence-taking.” These “rare” inner yogic methods of self-healing include meditations on the sky (space), bathing in natural springs (water), breathing (wind), and movement practices. Inner yoga, or tsalung methods, promotes longevity and life enhancement by strengthening the body’s elements, subtle channels, and vital energies.
As we are immersed in Big Sur’s natural springs and open sky, these practices will settle the body and its vital channels so that we can draw in the essence of the natural environment. Overlooking the cliffs and gazing out on the horizon will support settling into our natural awareness, stillness, and inner spaciousness, all essential for rejuvenation.
These ancient healing methods and the unique natural landscape are brought together for a rejuvenation weekend accessible to participants of all levels of experience. Classes will also include informative lectures to complement our guided meditations and yoga sessions.
How can we know the future? Is it determined? How does the past, specifically past lives, influence the future? In this workshop, we will explore how our previous existences are impacting us in the present and how understanding our past lives can transform the future we are creating.
Together, we will reveal the wisdom of the past and how it relates to where we are now. We’ll participate in group past life regressions to help uncover past life memories and engage with practical tools to integrate and use the knowledge of your own past in your life today.
By understanding the idea that we are souls, not bodies — that all of the identities we have formed during this current life are actually false identities — we can embrace the fact that we have all lived many lifetimes in different forms and bodies, with different backgrounds, races, and religions. Through this perspective, we can eradicate the concept of “other” and eliminate bias, prejudice, and hate. Accessing past life knowledge could be the key to building a future society filled with compassion, empathy, equality, and love.
During the week, we will engage in intention setting, journaling work, creative exercises, and group past life regressions, leaving plenty of time for questions and discussions. On Thursday night, we will have a fire ritual to release our past lives in order to free ourselves for a brand-new future for both ourselves and all of humanity.
This workshop is open to all. Join us and help create a future that is free of the past!
Recommended Reading: Who Do You Think You Are? An Interactive Journey Through Your Past Lives and Into Your Best Future by Michelle Brock
Discover research-backed tools to create a loving relationship. Together, we’ll engage in a comprehensive exploration of the psychological and scientific aspects of dating and healthy relationships. We’ll delve into the science of attraction, unlocking the mysteries of chemistry and creating and sustaining meaningful connections — all grounded in the latest research on relationships.
Our key focus will be the art of building deeper connections through effective communication techniques and empathetic understanding. You’ll learn how to nurture skills that foster intimacy, trust, and lasting bonds. Mastering a comprehensive framework for effective communication is essential for stronger, more resilient relationships, and you’ll learn practical ways to apply these skills in your daily interactions.
In this workshop, you’ll find out how to create a personal relationship narrative that aligns with your current life. Reflective exercises will help you identify and rewire limiting beliefs about love for healthier and more fulfilling bonds. The “Dating Funnel” framework, a structured approach that demystifies the various stages of relationship development, will provide a clear strategy for navigating the dating world, from initial contact to a committed relationship.
By the end of our time together, you will be equipped with a comprehensive set of tools to navigate your relationship journey with confidence and clarity. Understand the foundations of attraction, develop communication skills, and reshape your love narrative.
This workshop is open to all gender identities and expressions and all sexual orientations.
This workshop includes $10 additional fee for a workbook.
Recommended Reading: Breakup Bootcamp: The Science of Rewiring Your Heart by Amy Chan
Have you ever worked hard to make a change, only to find yourself slipping back into old habits? Want to supercharge your ability to stimulate behavior change in others when it comes to the issues you care about the most? Is it time to break free from old patterns and build your next chapter? This workshop is for people in the process of change and those who work as change agents with individuals, groups, and organizations and in society.
Through dialogue, experiential practice, and creative process, we will bridge the science of breakthroughs with indigenous, religious, spiritual, and secular models of transformation. You will:
Join us for this transformational exploration of our most deeply entrenched behaviors. Learn how to break free from the patterns that no longer serve you — and create new habits that will change your life.
Additional embodiment practices will be provided by Guest Faculty Member Nichol Chase.
Nichol’s yoga practice is informed by a vast and eclectic set of influences that blend invigorating flow with precise and insightful instruction and extensive study with a variety of innovative teachers. She is a Garrison Institute Fellow and a faculty member and teacher trainer for The Mazé Method.
Continuing education credit is available for professionals through the Spiritual Competency Academy, an approved sponsor of CE by the American Psychological Association. If you plan to apply for CE credit, please notify the Faculty during your first workshop session. Additional Continuing Education information here.
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:
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.
What is vitality? Exuberance, vibrance, sparkle, spirit, and verve — terms rarely found in psychology textbooks. Vulnerability to depression and anxiety is widespread, and our culture traditionally emphasizes reducing symptoms with drugs that alter certain neurotransmitters, which is only part of the picture. We are living in a new era where vulnerabilities can become strengths, and what used to be stigma becomes common humanity. Good mental health is being redefined in terms of stress resilience, post-traumatic growth, and vitality.
This workshop explores evidence-based tools for living a vibrant life, even in the presence of stress, depression, anxiety, or any pain we may be carrying. We will help you build your own ecosystem of mental well-being — including new ways to foster vitality and purpose through caring for the brain, body, and gut. In this workshop, we’ll review the latest scientific findings on practices such as:
A mental health renaissance is underway. Mental well-being is being redefined, and a range of evidence-based, whole-person approaches are gaining ground. Learn from renowned authors and cutting-edge scientists to create a flourishing ecosystem of mental well-being for yourself and your clients.
Additional embodiment practices will be provided by Guest Faculty Member Nichol Chase.
Nichol’s yoga practice is informed by a vast and eclectic set of influences that blend invigorating flow with precise and insightful instruction and extensive study with a variety of innovative teachers. She is a Garrison Institute Fellow and a faculty member and teacher trainer for The Mazé Method.
8 CE credits available for professionals through the Spiritual Competency Academy. Additional Continuing Education information here.
Recommended reading: The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease by Elissa Epel; The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel; Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Clinical Practice: Guidelines for Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals by Cassandra Vieten; Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life by Cassandra Vieten
This workshop has an additional $30 of faculty tuition.
.png)
We are erotic primates living in culturally imposed domestication. We have the lineage and bodies of hunter-gatherers, but we exist in a modern context that is deeply afraid of Eros. Like other domesticated animal species, we have been removed from the wild to live a more settled life. For many of us, this has had the unfortunate effect of cutting ourselves off from the somatic and erotic aliveness within our own bodies, both in our relationships and from the whole of our lives.
In this modern world, we are often left wondering, Why does my sexuality feel so difficult, unsatisfying, and limited? Why do my erotic relationships seem unsustainable and challenging? How do I access my erotic aliveness? Am I sexually broken, and how do I fix…me?
You are not broken! It’s not you. It’s the domestication — the context that cuts so many of us off from our bodies and aliveness.
In this workshop, you will be invited to:
Together, we’ll explore traditional, experiential, and somatic learning, including exercises with movement, consensual touch, and group interaction. Participants will have agency to modify any exercise for their boundaries and safety. Although erotic healing and growth are part of this experience, this workshop will not be supportive for people with unaddressed primary sexual or somatic trauma.
This workshop is for individuals, couples, and people of all relationship orientations. People of all sexual and gender identities are welcome and celebrated. This workshop is sex-positive and erotic-inclusive and will rest on a foundation of embodied consent and boundaries practices. Though Eros is invited into the space, no overt sexual behavior will be part of the workshop.
You are invited to bring a couple of small items for a shared altar that we will build together. The first item could connected to your family, lineage, or ancestors and the second could be connected to your body or sexuality. All items will be returned at the end of the workshop.
Recommended Reading: Come As You Are, by Emily Nagoski, The Spirit of Intimacy, by Sobonfu Somé, The Body is Not An Apology, by Sonya Renee Taylor, Reviving Kinship and Sexual Abundance, Dr. Kim Tallbear on For the Wild podcast
Get notified about new programs.
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org