Healing

Soon after starting work at Esalen in Spring 2022, Mary O'Brien immersed herself entirely in the magic here on campus — and as a guest. Two workshops in ten days helped the director of development shed "decades of emotional detritus in a pile of tear-filled tissues and lightened [me] up tremendously!"

Robert Albert, an alumnus of our month-long Live Extended Education Program (LEEP), shares a personal awakening where he drops into a non-ordinary state of consciousness with Holotropic Breathwork®.

We asked four faculty members leading upcoming workshops to share the healing practices that have pulled them through dark times and back into the light.

As we awaken into the new year, right now is a good time to reflect on how we communicate and share this planet with one another. Tatyana Sanikovich spent a decade at Esalen and currently works as a leadership and career coach. She draws wisdom from her experiences and shares ways to move forward rather than wallow in the spirals of what if and if only.

Building a relationship with the Esselen tribe — recognized as aboriginal inhabitants of the Big Sur region, and among the first peoples to reside on the sacred land that the Esalen Institute sits on today — starts with receiving the Esselen story directly from members of the tribe, not relying on colonial and mission documentation and revisionist history that has been amplified by academia.

“Land acknowledgment is not just about those words, but about the actions that come after. It's about actually taking the steps to be in right relations to be an ally, to be a supporter. Acknowledgment is a simple way of resisting the eraser of Iindigenous histories and working towards honoring and inviting the truth.”

Medicine woman and Esselen Tribe of Monterey County elder Cari Herthel shares the medicinal plants that inspire a re-emergence of her sensual and wild self. Herthel will lead a November workshop for a historic collaboration between the tribe and the Esalen Institute to nourish a costewardship of this ancient and sacred land.

This October, we’re marveling at the medicinal gifts nature provides us. To celebrate Mother Earth and the power plants hold to heal and nurture, we’ve selected titles by some brilliant healers and holders of plant wisdom.

Akuyoe Graham first journeyed on her own up to Big Sur in pursuit of human potential and individual growth. However, bringing system-impacted teens from Los Angeles to Esalen, an initiative she collaborated on with Programs Director Emerita Nancy Lunney Wheeler, is how they demonstrated collective healing.

Sam Nichilo left the corporate grind and the 30 Rock building back in NYC for a new home in Big Sur. “I no longer feel the pressure to look for what's next,” she says.

“As we attempt to heal the collective and the planet, men’s work is a critical component. We as a society need to unwind toxic programming around masculinity so we can fully show up for our loved ones.” — Adam Christie, Iraq war veteran and In the Company of Men: The Embodied Masculine workshop student.

Approaching death, people see they need to heal in three areas, according to Dale Borglum, the founder and Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project. Understanding this concept now can illuminate each day while you’re here on earth.

Is there such a thing as over-meditating that gets in the way of real healing? That’s one topic Dr. Lissa Rankin covered on her quest to understand “sacred medicine.” Read her insights about the relationship between healing, belief, community, and miracles.

September is Self-Care Awareness month. What are your self-care rituals and routines for fall? Esalen Live! Host and wellness consultant Christine Chen, shares the practical lifestyle science that helped her feel better, plus specific, practical tips to feel more in harmony with yourself and the season.

Layers of grief continue to surface as COVID presses on. Learn more about stigma, threats we can’t see, and how new losses pull at old losses. Get a deeper understanding about grief in the body and try a short practice with the author of The Grief Practice.

Discover a “Heartbeat Map” that could help guide you out of trauma and ultimately toward your true potential. Longtime Esalen faculty Lucia Horan shares more about the rhythms of your heart and what they say about your journey to healing.

The next big thing for insomniacs is also the least-studied compound from the hemp plant. August 8th is National CBD Day, and while the FDA considers regulating CBD, learn about the up-and-coming compounds: CB-G, C, and N.

What happens when you lose your sense of belonging? Steven Harper, Gestalt facilitator in the tradition of Dick Price, explains the value of regaining it through practicing connection, somatic intelligence, and true listening.

An Interview with Raphael Cushnir, Author and Emotional Connection Coach

Esalen's Christine Chen interviews nature therapy guide Sylvie Rokab in advance of her upcoming workshop in Big Sur.

Clinical therapist and trauma specialist Lauren Taus sat down with Voices of Esalen’s Sam Stern recently to talk about her work in the realm of ketamine-assisted therapy and talked at length about the impact it’s had on her life.

Charlotte James and Undrea Wright are the founders of The Ancestor Project (formerly known as The Sabina Project), a black-led platform for psychedelic education, legal ceremonies, and integration.

Sarah Gael is a harm reduction officer at Zendo Project, a program sponsored by MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). She joined Voices of Esalen’s Sam Stern recently to talk about her work in peer-to-peer psychedelic therapy, recent developments in the decriminalization movement, and more.

Guided by the intention of nurturing true healing and reconciliation with the Indigenous tribes of the region, key staff and board members from the Esalen Institute and representatives from the founding family/land owners have embarked on a multi-year process of individual and collective reflection, deep learning, and humble listening, which started on October 7th, 2020.

Yoga instructor and holistic nutritionist Robin Wilner facilitates our Guided Program in Creating Connection through the Rituals of Esalen. Our new Teacher-in-Residence brings a winning trifecta of accessibility, warmth and humor to the ritual construct.

“We carry Esalen in the very tissues of our bodies,” observes yoga instructor Tracy Lease, who evokes the spirit of Esalen during her online noontime yoga class on Wednesdays. “I believe coming together, wherever you are living, to reset the nervous system and engage in practices many of us learned or honed at Esalen can be very healthy.”

Esalen faculty and 5Rhythms® instructor Lucia Horan recently shared her thoughts about community and the transitions she has faced this year with ConsciousDancer.com. We share her wisdom with our community with permission from ConsciousDancer.com.

Expanding our potential often requires a certain amount of grace. Esalen faculty Tracee Stanley saw this fact clearly more than 20 years ago and embarked on a personal practice that eventually included Yoga Nidra, which transformed her entire life.

During the 1960s, Daria Halprin joined creative forces with many dynamic teachers who influenced the early years at Esalen. It was a powerful time and Daria, a dancer, teacher, therapist, author and co-founder and director of Tamalpa Institute, was among an intrepid group of change agents—from Fritz Perls to Joseph Campbell—who helped fuel the human potential movement.

For more than 30 years Esalen faculty Lisa G. Littlebird has been on a mission to restore community singing and bring it back into the daily lives of others. Her passion has helped many people discover new pathways to what she calls, “communion and release” and to cultivate wellness, mindfulness, empathy and joy.

As a longtime Persian sacred dance artist and teacher who communicates the universal message of Sufi mysticism, Banafsheh Sayyad has witnessed first-hand the power and wisdom that emerge from having a body-based practice. She believes it nourishes our inner flame and creates coherence between our heart, mind and body, especially during chaotic times.

On average, human beings take 23,040 breaths a day. Esalen faculty Paul Denniston and Shiva Rea, who have devoted their lives to teaching yoga and helping others uncover deeper truths, see this fact as a golden opportunity to become more present to the inherent wisdom yoga offers and how it allows us to become more connected with ourselves and our community. Paul and Shiva plan to uncover these truths in their upcoming workshops at Esalen—Paul during Grief Yoga™ Teacher Training: Level One, March 1–6, and Shiva (along with Demetri Velisarius) in The Practical Art of Living Flow Spring Regeneration Retreat, April 5-10.

Davida Taurek has been practicing dance for more than 33 years. During that time, she has witnessed first-hand the powerful impact it can offer, and invites us to create significant shifts in our lives by transforming the physical body and strengthening the body-mind-spirit connection.

Gabrielle Roth, the passionate creator of the famed 5Rhythms® dance and movement method, once said: “If you just set people in motion, they’ll heal themselves.”And the environment and the people around them, one could add. To be sure, there’s an undeniable uprising of energy that takes place when individuals come together in dance.

Sometime just before the Fall Equinox this year, a soulful group, curious about communal singing in the oral tradition, came together at Esalen for a weeklong workshop that uplifted their spirits and heightened their sense of belonging. But Singing on the Edge, spearheaded by Esalen faculty Lisa G. Littlebird, also managed to illuminate something deeper: That something transformational occurs when we gather together, especially through song.

During the fall months, nature becomes a stellar metaphor for our own self-care. As daylight hours diminish, we’re given more opportunities to invite stillness into our lives, reflect on the events that took place during the months that passed, and consider the ripe, internal harvests that can be collected.

In Harmonize: Discover Kirtan and the Yoga of Devotion, The Happy Human author Gopi Kallayil invites us to experience joy and a meditative state in an effortless way through the power of song and movement. Celebrating its third year at Esalen, this workshop blends live music with yoga and meditation. According to Gopi, no singing experience is required; simply a desire to express yourself through song. We recently spoke with Gopi to learn more about his own connection to music.

Holotropic Breathwork, which originated at Esalen, is an experiential method of self-exploration and healing that uses deep, expanded states of consciousness induced by a combination of simple means: accelerated breathing, evocative music and releasing bodywork. In this first-person essay, Esalen Programs Specialist Paula Wild shares her experience attending The Inner Journey: Holotropic Breathwork led by Stanislav Grof at Esalen in May.

With more than 50 consecutive years leading Esalen workshops, Chungliang “Al” Huang holds a remarkable lineage. By offering creative Tai Ji and the Living Tao in those early years, Al helped join body and mind at a time when East was first meeting West in California. We spoke with Al about his Esalen collaborations and what makes Tai Ji both a timeless integrative practice and a wake up call for the larger world.

Initiated in the healing and spiritual traditions of the Andes and Amazon, Marcela Lobos is no stranger to mythic journeys. As a medicine woman, her passion is guiding others toward wholeness through ceremony, archetype and the sacred energies of nature. As a senior teacher with the Four Winds Society, she has helped usher in a new generation of shamanic practitioners at a time when she believes the world needs them more than ever.

Brothers Miguel Jr. and Jose Ruiz belong to a lineage of spiritual teachers called naguales in their Toltec tradition. Both apprenticed with their father, Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, as well as their grandmother, Madre Sarita. Now, the generations intertwine with the Ruiz family teaching and co-authoring books together while also pursuing individual callings.

Whether in a heart-shaped box or a steaming mug, chocolate is a universal pleasure. But beyond its pure deliciousness, cacao is packed with mood-enhancing compounds including serotonin, dopamine and other neurochemicals. It also has been used ceremonially for millennia.

Something special happens when you spend time at Esalen. Everyday habits fall away, senses awaken and the mind and heart open. One of the most immersive experiences is coming up in February: the Esalen Massage School’s six-week-long, 250-hour Esalen Massage®️ Certification program.

Sylvie Rokab is an acclaimed filmmaker whose love of the natural world led her on an odyssey to create the award-winning film, Love thy Nature. She is also a nature therapy guide, a growing field that integrates nature education with the holistic benefits of forest therapy in areas including personal coaching, team-building, and counseling. Sylvie, who will be leading Forest Bathing: Deepening Connection with Mother Nature, Each Other and Ourselves at Esalen next spring, shares what inspires her about this emerging practice.

Author, therapist, and yoga teacher Ira Israel often speaks of the transformative nature of mindfulness and yoga at his popular Esalen workshops. He recently shared an inspirational story of a struggling student who attended his workshop, Cultivating Meaning and Happiness through Mindfulness and Yoga, a year ago and returned this year to help him teach it. He shares this remarkable transformation in his own words...

Gopi Kallayil, author of The Internet to the Inner-Net and the soon-to-be released The Happy Human, is blending his passions for yoga, sacred music, and meditation in a self-described experiment set against the backdrop of Shangri La.

Our earliest attachment experiences serve as models for relationships throughout our lives. Without realizing it, our attachment patterns influence our attractions, how we relate to partners, and even whether or not a relationship lasts. This helps explain why we keep winding up in the same relationships.

When Esalen Massage School Director Brita Ostrom arrived at Esalen in 1967, massage already was a part of the Institute’s culture. “It was blossoming out of collaborations among visionary faculty of the time including Charlotte Selver, Bernie Gunther, Molly Shackman, Ida Rolf, and Moshe Feldenkrais, to name a few,” recalls Brita.

Not long after Hurricane Harvey made landfall last month as a Category 4 hurricane, caregivers throughout the Houston-area were reaching out to support others in need – even when many of their own homes were flooded. Esalen faculty David Kessler, an expert in grief and healing, went to Texas to assist a number of these caregivers. What he experienced, including a stranger delivering pizza, surprised even him.

Dance connects us to our bodies and hearts, and drumming creates a primal link to the pulse of all life. Esalen faculty Cida Vieira has made it her life’s work to share Brazilian traditions of dance and percussion through performance, choreography, and experiential teaching.