Hanna Somatics is a mind-body technique developed by Thomas Hanna that enables us to move toward greater mind-body integration, ease of movement, and freedom. This workshop introduces the somatic self, somatic theory, and exercises for assessing and somatically transforming ourselves. As we transform, we move toward freeing the wisdom of our somatic selves.
This is a how-to course for people who want to be more effective at creating climates of trust, building relationships, and dealing with conflict — at work, at home, or within oneself. Many personal and business relationships become adversarial simply through a lack of relationship-building skills. This workshop provides practical experience with five skills that are essential for building successful collaborative relationships.
Hanna Somatics is a mind-body technique developed by Thomas Hanna that enables us to move toward greater mind-body integration, ease of movement, and freedom. This workshop introduces the somatic self, somatic theory, and exercises for assessing and somatically transforming ourselves.
This retreat invites participants to open to their most elemental relationship, that which exists between the body, mind, and the natural world as it manifests through eating, food, and our senses. This awareness then widens to include the deep nourishment we receive from being in mindful relationship with each other. “Individually, we all know the hungers and longings that coexist at emotional, spiritual, bodily, and relational levels,” says Jerome Front. “Fortunately, these basic needs also form our common human ground.
“In our previous classes, we’ve focused on teaching the practice of Deep Bodywork for specific segments of the body,” write the leaders. “In this seminar, we will focus on giving a full body massage, and integrating Deep Bodywork into the session as a whole. We will show you how to apply deep work on both sides of the body while maintaining the flowing, integrative quality which is the signature of Esalen Massage.
The Gestalt model teaches us that we are intensely relational, creative, and meaning-making by our deepest nature. Since birth we’ve been actively creating relational patterns as our best possible solutions to complex social situations and challenges. Depending on our developmental support, these patterns may be in or out of awareness, flexible or inflexible, supportive of ongoing growth and learning, or locking us into unsatisfying repetition of old, out-of-date dynamics.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) has been described as a personal practice for clarifying and living one’s values, a guide for interpersonal communication, an effective process for conflict resolution, a powerful tool for social change, and a language of compassion for any life situation. Deepak Chopra has called this process “the missing link.” In a fun, lively, collaborative, and supportive environment, we integrate practices that support individuals to change the way they communicate and relate to themselves and each other. Learning NVC helps liberate us from:
Chinese yoga, known as qigong (or chi kung), changes lives. In many people's lives and in hospitals, spas, retreat centers, corporations, and even in the military, qigong consistently emerges as the self-healing tool of choice. Why? Research shows gentle tai chi-like movements, self-massage, breath practice, and meditative mindfulness have a consistently measurable effect on the nervous system, brain, and body when practiced consistently.
This program is designed to integrate the practice of mindful awareness with directed heartfulness to facilitate growth, healing, and change. It is based on Fred Luskin's research at Stanford Medical School on the healing effects of forgiveness and heartfulness and Mark Abramson's work as the director of Stanford's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program.
Spinal awareness is a combination of the Feldenkrais Method®, Taoist energetic science, and the Esalen experience. In this workshop, participants will experience movements that help bring new awareness as well as maintain health and assist in the rehabilitation of pain, tension, stiffness, limitation, and injury.
The use of joy and humor will be the undertone of this week. Real freedom in the body is also freedom of spirit and fun.
We live in a world that constantly challenges our bodies and our nervous systems. We have psychological, social, environmental, biological, and lifestyle challenges to our wellbeing. Over time, these challenges can diminish our innate capacity for healing, self-regulation, and sense of being able to stay on top of our daily lives. Reversing the depletion process can become a challenging, yet crucial endeavor for our lives.
What in the West we call traditional Thai massage is known in Thailand as Nuad Bo’Rarn. Nuad is a Thai word that translates as “to touch with the intention of imparting healing.” Bo’Rarn is derived from Sanskrit and translates as “something ancient and revered.” Historians date this traditional medical practice from approximately 500 BC.
During this course, you will learn about the physiological mechanism of disease and will participate in hands-on training to facilitate the SomatoEmotional Release process. By the end of the course, you should be able to dissipate residual effects of past trauma and negative emotional experiences from the body and mind of your patients/clients. In order to observe closure for sessions you are involved in, please make sure the instructor is aware of any pregnancies in the group.
Using the power of modern neuroscience, informed by ancient contemplative wisdom, you can use your mind alone to change your brain for the better. Mental activity changes neural structure in a process called neuroplasticity, which gives you a great opportunity to redirect the brain, and thus your whole being. During this workshop, you will explore “self-directed neuroplasticity” for steadying the mind (a key to both worldly success and spiritual practice), cooling the fires of stress reactivity, and weaving positive experiences into the fabric of your brain and self.
Fear, anger, and anxiety that go on for too long can lead to a list of debilitating ailments that are so common we assume they are unavoidable: insomnia, heart disease, arthritis, gastrointestinal problems, and more. The key to reversing the negative impacts of stress and reclaiming our health is simple: love. Love sets off a series of physiological events in the body that help us adapt to life's challenges, stop and reverse disease, maintain health, and make it easier for our bodies to improve rather than deteriorate with age.
Intuition is an incredible source of wisdom that everyone can tap into. The magic comes in awakening it and trusting its guidance in our lives. Yet too many of us walk around out of touch with our inner voice. What stops us from listening? How can we listen more?
“As women we have a unique power of creativity in our reproductive system,” Suzanne Scurlock-Durana writes. “That power is used not only to create new life, but also to bring personal projects into being. However, that energy can be blocked by physical, emotional, or spiritual trauma to the pelvic floor and the female organs.
The Esalen massage experience opens a remarkable web of interconnection: a listening touch, the sound of the ocean, and our nervous system soothed with calm, gentle contact. When we receive a massage we remember an easier time and "come home."
The Advanced CranioSacral course is especially designed to provide an in-depth experience for the serious CranioSacral Therapy practitioner. Class is limited to ten participants.
Course highlights include opportunities to:
• Participate in multiple hands-on sessions
• Benefit from one-on-one instructor-to-participant skill evaluation
• Refine technique applications and further develop palpatory capabilities
• Participate in an in-depth mind/body integration study using the craniosacral system as the core vehicle
How we sit, stand, move or respond to contact with others reflects patterns wired into our nervous systems in infancy. By early childhood, conflicting intentions distort these patterns. Feeling powerless, we attempt to survive and to win love by figuring out “the rules.” The resulting strategies may protect us as children but, deeply ingrained in our muscular postures and movements, they limit our choices as adults. These engrams remain outside of awareness, causing discomfort and dysfunction.
The more present we are in ourselves, the more present we can be with someone else.
Milton Erickson’s (1901-1980) hypnosis was based in a firm belief that the unconscious is a reservoir of potential and that hypnosis is the way to access that potential. Recent neuroscience research corroborates this belief in finding that the brain has many intelligent, unconscious pathways. These pathways function automatically and can be engaged and used to help you accomplish goals that might be difficult to do deliberately. By working indirectly and unconsciously, you can bypass conscious limitations to resolve problems and live a happy, fulfilling life.
A growing number of people are aware of the Enneagram as an accurate and profound map of personality. The nine Enneagram types are based on the three primary centers of intelligence: thinking, emotion, and instinct. However, in almost all human beings, distortions or blockages in these centers have led to a loss of connection with our essential nature and to the arising of ego structures to compensate for this loss. Thus, while our Enneagram type usually obscures our true nature with a characteristic web of defenses, it can also serve as an opening to the deeper reality of spirit.
“Breema is a living expression of the unifying principle of existence, and is based on the Nine Principles of Harmony that help us live a more meaningful life,” writes Jon Schreiber. “We use Breema bodywork, Self-Breema exercises, and Breema’s practical philosophy as tools to unify body, mind, and feelings, and to become familiar with what it means to truly be present. Breema is a new education that presents the possibility of experiencing moments of being present in our day, so that we can live a more harmonious life, and move in the direction of self-understanding.
To thrive in today’s demanding world, we all need full access to our inner and outer resources. This course teaches how the deep wisdom of the body can help navigate our living, working, healing, and relating. Listening to this body-wisdom as the ground of knowing enables us to rediscover our innate spirituality and develop our emotional intelligence.
Zero Balancing (ZB) is a nondiagnostic system of healing which clarifies and coordinates energy fields in the body, balances body energy with body structure, and focuses on bone energy and the skeletal system. Science has shown that energy and matter are fundamentally coupled; psychology has shown that the mind and body are interconnected. ZB embodies both perspectives. It is based on the experience that balancing the body’s energy with its structure has a direct positive effect on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful therapeutic method for healing trauma-based problems. Shedding new light on trauma survival—including sexual and physical abuse, accident and surgical trauma, and grief—EMDR is opening doors of the heart to genuine spiritual transformation.
This course is limited to mental-health professionals who are licensed to provide treatment, and mental-health interns who are currently being supervised by an EMDR-trained supervisor. Through lecture, hands-on practice, and demonstrations, participants will be shown:
This workshop is a wonderful opportunity for you to enjoy the beauty of Big Sur and the healing waters of the Esalen hot springs, while gaining a solid foundation in the art and practice of Esalen Massage.
In Esalen Gestalt Coaching, we combine Gestalt awareness skills with the tools of Relational Coaching, to support taking a fresh look at the basic patterns we have been actively creating since birth. Some patterns are supporting us in connecting deeply with others and reaching our life goals. Others are more limiting, out of awareness, perhaps based on old stresses and fears.
In this massage intensive workshop, we will focus on the abdominal and pelvic regions of the body, addressing both energetic and structural dynamics. Often the abdomen is treated superficially, when in fact it is our center, our core, and the place of digestion and assimilation of all life experiences. The pelvic region is the "cradle," or seat of power, the bridge between the upper body and the legs. The psoas muscles, considered the fight/flight muscles of the human species, span this bridge.
The most profound medicine for body, mind, and spirit is produced in the human system for free.
Bring the best of the ancient Chinese wellness methods—Tai Chi and Qigong—to your community as a Tai Chi Easy Practice Leader.
Total Body Balancing (TBB) is a body evaluation and treatment approach based on classical osteopathic theory. TBB uses long levers to improve circulation and nerve and energy flow, thus normalizing sympathetic and parasympathetic neurological activity with a goal of creating a new homeodynamic state. You will be taught a six-phase treatment template that can be done in as little as twenty minutes to balance the client's body. TBB can be easily integrated with the other therapeutic techniques such as craniosacral therapy and lymphatic drainage.
The impact of stress on health is well recognized. Now the efficacy of stress reduction as an adjunct to medical treatment is being recognized in more and more health care settings. In 1996 Dr. Mark Abramson founded a program at Stanford University Medical Center using the 2,500-year-old technique of Mindfulness Meditation to train patients as an adjunct treatment for many different medical conditions.
This weekend provides practitioners with the opportunity to inspire their current massage practice. Experienced Esalen Massage and Bodywork practitioners Jessica and Nora will offer unique explorations in the practices of gentle extensions and dynamic mobilization, along with soft tissue release work. Elements of Thai Massage will also be brought onto the table, along with range of motion and passive release techniques, creating an atmosphere of innovation and exploration.
Did you know that no mechanical engineer has ever been able to replicate the efficiency of the heart, which puts out more energy than it takes in? This little-known fact points to a larger truth: the heart holds information, power, and benefits beyond what most of us have tapped into. The heart is a power center, and a source of intelligence that operates very much like a GPS, guiding us to our unique purpose and fulfillment, but only when we know how to eavesdrop on its messages.
Mastering the art of moving deeply into the body’s soft tissue layers adds a powerful dimension to the massage practitioner’s skill set. Bodyworkers who have learned to work slowly and with great sensitivity on these deeper layers are sought after both in private practice and in spas. Perry and Johanna Holloman have created a series of classes for massage professionals that are designed to teach deep tissue skills, which are readily integrated into participants’ current massage practice.
Do chronic tension, stress, or aches and pains plague you? Are you fit, but injured? Do you feel tight all the time?
Misuses of power cause enormous harm and suffering. Right uses of power are uses of a combination of personal and role power to resolve and repair harm, evolve situations and processes, and promote well-being and the common good. Even though we are all equal as human beings, the dynamics involved when there are differences in power because of role or status are complex and often under-acknowledged or disowned.
We are drawn to others not because of our similarities, but because of our differences which provide the means for growth and development. Differences become conflict when there is a struggle to convert the other person to our way of seeing or doing things. While it is natural to want to have things go in accordance with our preferences and desires, getting caught in the grip of these impulses can cause great harm to a relationship. The most important factor in the development of healthy and fulfilling relationships is the ability to manage differences skillfully.
This workshop is ideal for practitioners who would like to learn how to apply the principles of Esalen Massage while keeping the client in the supine position throughout the session. At times, practitioners encounter clients who are unable to lie in a prone position (on the stomach), due to personal preference or illness, yet practitioners still want to be able to touch and work with the whole body.
Milton Erickson (1901–1980) was one of the foremost twentieth-century practitioners of hypnotherapy. He created an original and highly effective hypnotic method to foster the natural mechanisms of mind and brain that we all possess. Erickson’s hypnosis was based in a firm belief that the unconscious is a reservoir of potential and that hypnosis is the way to access that potential. Recent neuroscience research corroborates this belief in finding that the brain has many intelligent, unconscious pathways.
CranioSacral Therapy 2 studies cranial-base dysfunctions as diagnosed and treated by Dr. William Sutherland, the “father” of cranial osteopathy. The course material and hands-on sessions will focus on cranial-base dysfunctions, the masticatory system-hard palate, mandible and temporomandibular joint; whole body evaluation; and the energy cyst with regional unwinding. An introduction to SomatoEmotional Release will also be presented.
The prerequisite for this course is Upledger’s Institute CranioSacral Therapy 1 (CS1) and thorough working knowledge of the 10-Step Protocol.
This weekend is an opportunity for people practicing Zero Balancing to reconnect with Fritz Smith, with Zero Balancing, and with each other.
“It is critically important," says Fritz, "to periodically meet with like-minded people and to openly, freely, and safely discuss problems, insights, and successes of your work—in this case, the leading-edge therapy of balancing energy and structure.”
Would you like to find wise inner guidance from all parts of yourself? From your body’s internal promptings, your heart’s intelligence, your mind’s clearest insight, and even your own soul’s wisdom? Would you like to get all of yourself together in an integrated way? Process Acupressure teaches you how to gain a holistic perspective on your life directions and general health. And it teaches the skills of how to uncover the wise guidance that lies at your own unique center.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities
While in the expert's mind there are few. -Suzuki
Today, the fear of losing our eyesight is escalating because of an increase in many deteriorating visual conditions. Current allopathic medical approaches offer little hope. In this workshop, you will be taught The Berne Method®, an evidenced-based system designed to reconnect us to the most important sense organ we have: our eyes.
Sam Berne has spent over twenty-five years developing his method, which teaches that neuroplasticity exists within us. Topics include:
· Primordial movements that relax the reptilian response that is so ingrained in how we use our eyes
The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe, and the study of its structure and function is one of the most rapidly developing fields in contemporary science. Yet many great mysteries remain, including understanding the brain processes involved in memory, perception, mental illness, and arguably the greatest unanswered question in all of science: How are consciousness and mind related to the physical processes within the brain?
All too often, the words we express create walls when we were hoping for connection or understanding. This workshop provides practices to integrate the principles and processes of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to help us say the hard stuff without poking the finger of blame.
In this course, you will be introduced to the models and concepts of functional biomechanics as viewed from Jean-Pierre Barral's Visceral Manipulation approach. This method of evaluation and treatment is based on the concept that each of our internal organs rotates on a physiological axis. Focus is on the abdominal cavity and includes the organs, their membranes, ligaments, innervation, and their spatial functional interrelationships. You will be taught basic manipulations for correcting abnormal motions and stress patterns within this cavity.
We live our lives in motion. A muscle appears static on the anatomy chart, and the ribs nicely align, but in fact we are reaching, bending, and coordinating dozens of fine motor skills every second. A joyous mood opens the limbs wider; an anxious thought freezes our breath and contracts our core. During this weekend, we will learn how to use lifting, passive joint rotations, gentle movement, and stillness to make our bodywork more effective, enjoyable for the receiver, and easier for the practitioner.
Spinal awareness is a combination of the Feldenkrais Method®, Taoist energetic science, and the Esalen experience. In this workshop, participants will experience movements that help bring new awareness as well as maintain health and assist in the rehabilitation of pain, tension, stiffness, limitation, and injury.
The use of joy and humor will be the undertone of this week. Real freedom in the body is also freedom of spirit and fun.
During an Esalen Massage, we experience a remarkable web of interdependence: a listening touch, a deepening breath, our nervous system soothed in connection with another. When we receive a massage we remember an easier time and "come home."
The power inherent in painting is that it can awaken a wild vein of passion that will not go back to sleep. Using only the simple tools of brush, paper, and paint, Awakening the Creative invites you on a highly personal journey of daring and discovery, made possible through a safe environment and the support of Stewart Cubley and his experienced staff. The potential is to tap into an extraordinary resource: the vibrant, driving force of your own creative spirit.
Why are so many of us in pain? Why are we damaged from our normal activities (bending and lifting), exhausted from our most basic positions (sitting and standing), and uncomfortable even in our stillness (sleeping)? And why do some populations in the world enjoy pain-free, relaxed, and potent lives into old age? How can we improve our situation?
Deep bodywork, practiced with great sensitivity, is one of the most effective healing modalities available to the bodywork practitioner. Through slowly opening the body’s deeper soft tissue layers, we connect the mind to normally unconscious "stuck" areas of the physical body, which can release enormous amounts of previously held energy. This energy then becomes available to support the body’s innate capacity to self-organize and self-heal, enabling practitioners to support clients in overcoming previously stubborn, seemingly intractable physical conditions.
The purpose of our lives is to be happy. -His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Patrick Douce will lead an in-depth experience of Spinal Awareness, a program of health and healing (with humor). Spinal Awareness is a way of learning that improves body awareness, flexibility, posture, and most chronic and acute conditions of the body. Taught with movement, touch, and group interaction, it is based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, Taoist-Chinese-Indonesian martial art, and the Esalen experience. It can be of special use to those in the health care professions.