Leaders at Esalen

Mandy Aftel

Dee Dettmann Ahern

Dee Dettman Ahern, RPT, has been a manual physical therapist since 1978 and has studied with The Upledger Institute since 1984. A practitioner of Visceral Manipulation since 1987 and a teacher since 1994, she teaches and speaks internationally for the Barral Institute.

Suze Allen

Suze Allen is a writer, editor, and coach. She is the owner of Manuscript Mentor, the creator of Mama-logues: Writing Workouts for Mamas, and coauthor of The Time-Starved Woman’s Guide to Emotional Wellbeing, with SD Shanti.

Christina Allen

Christina Allen is a Senior Staff Lead Teacher at the Light Body School of the Four Winds Society, founded by Alberto Villoldo. Classically trained in physics, neuroscience and yoga, her brings a balanced perspective on energy medicine to her passionate teaching.  She works at the level of the soul to break the larger mythic patterns that shape and distort our lives, and realigns us with our original destinies. Christina's classes, workshops and healing work are in high demand around the world.

Katchie Ananda

Katchie Ananda is an internationally recognized yoga and dharma teacher whose leadership in yoga and social change prompted Yoga Journal to name her one of five top yoga teachers making change in the world.

Bonnie Argo

Bonnie Argo, E-RYT 500, is a yoga teacher, devotional singer, and powerful bodyworker who has been teaching movement and healing arts for more than10 years. Bonnie co-founded the Radiant Yoga School, and leads Yoga Alliance teacher trainings, AcroYoga Immersions, and anatomy workshops worldwide.

Nancy Aronie

Nancy Slonim Aronie is the author of Writing from the Heart. A former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” she received the Derek Bok Teacher of the Year award at Harvard for two consecutive years, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Artist in Residence “Eye of the Beholder” award. She teaches the Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard.

Janet Bray Attwood

Janet Attwood is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passion Test: The Effortless Path To Discovering Your Life Purpose. Janet’s program, The Passion Test, now has over 1000 Passion Test-Certified Facilitators internationally. She has presented alongside the Dalai Lama, Richard Branson, Jack Canfield, and others.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

Sherri Baptiste

Sherri Baptiste, the founder of Baptiste Power of Yoga and daughter of yoga pioneers Walt and Magana Baptiste, is an internationally acclaimed teacher. She has been teaching since her teens and has trained and inspired numerous leading yoga teachers.

Jane Baraz

Jane Baraz has been practicing meditation since 1976 and leads Awakening Joy workshops internationally. She served on the board of directors at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and helped start the Spirit Rock Family Program. Jane is a life coach who helps women live with more purpose, balance, and fulfillment.

Cedar Barstow

Cedar Barstow founded Right Use of Power and is a consultant and teacher on ethics issues. She has been designing, developing, and teaching this approach since 1994. Cedar’s background includes 20 years as a psychotherapist and 15 years as a teacher.

Joanne Beaule Ruggles

Joanne Beaule Ruggles, visual artist and professor emeritus, was named finalist for Cal Poly State University's Distinguished Teaching Award (2000), and was granted its Distinguished Research Award (2004). Subsequently she received artist grants from James Irvine, Puffin, and Capelli d'Angeli Foundations.

Jennifer Berezan

Jennifer Berezan is a singer/songwriter, teacher, and activist. Her groundbreaking work as a recording artist and teacher has established her as a leading voice in the field of music, ritual, and healing. She has released 8 albums and produces large-scale multicultural, ecstatic ritual events.

Rachel Berry

Rachel Berry, MA blends her expertise in community health, medicinal herbs, and sustainable living practices to inspire and promote home-scale herbalism. She owns and operates Sierra Botanica, offering localized herbal care products and herbal home-care classes.

Judith Blackstone

Linda Bloom

Linda Bloom is a licensed clinical social worker and educator. She and her husband Charlie are cofounders of Bloomwork and coauthors of Secrets of Great Marriages: Real Truth from Real Couples about Lasting Love and 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married.

Barbara Bogatin

Barbara Bogatin has been a cellist with the San Francisco Symphony since 1994. She studied at the Juilliard School and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York Chamber Soloists, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, and Tahoe Summerfest.

Pippa Bondy

Pippa Bondy is a Council trainer and a guide of wilderness quests and retreats. She has developed and offers a unique program based on a synthesis of Council and Alexander Technique. Her clients include therapists, caregivers, and people working through pain.

Corinne Bourdeau

Corinne Bourdeau is president and founder of 360 Degree Communications, an agency specializing in films that celebrate and enrich the human spirit through social change. Bourdeau’s portfolio includes academy award-winning documentaries such as Ingredients, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and Academy Award-winning The Cove.

Kelly Boys

Kelly Boys is a certified iRest® Yoga Nidra teacher and is the director of operations for the Integrative Restoration Institute. She has taught iRest to veterans with PTSD, the incarcerated, cancer survivors, and those with substance abuse addictions.

Ann Bradney

Ann Bradney is director of the Radical Aliveness/Core Energetics Institute of Southern California. She studied under Core Energetics founder John Pierrakos and teaches internationally. Ann’s Radical Aliveness model expands Core beyond the individual, to address community healing and world issues.

Katy Butler

Katy Butler is a writer whose first-person essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Best American Essays, and Best Buddhist Writing. Her medical memoir is Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death (Scribner, Fall 2013).

Amy Campion

Amy “Catfox” Campion is a hip hop dance teacher, performer, choreographer, and the director of Antics Performance, a multimedia street-dance theater company. She holds a master's degree in choreography and dance from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures.

Mariana Caplan

Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, professor of yogic and transpersonal psychologies, and the author of seven books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, most recently, The Guru Question: The Perils and Awards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher.

Sheva Carr

Sheva Carr, L.Ac., the architect of HeartMath’s HeartMastery Program, is CEO of Fyera!, and founding executive director of the Fyera Foundation and Sunflower SunPower Kids. She teaches people to access heart intelligence, and to receive the benefits of the heart’s impact on consciousness, health, performance, creativity, and social change.

Joyce Catlett

Joyce Catlett, MA, has collaborated with Dr. Robert Firestone in writing 13 books including Fear of Intimacy; Creating a Life of Meaning and Compassion; The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships, and The Self Under Siege. She is co-producer of Glendon Associations 45 training video programs.

Leslie Cerier

Leslie Cerier, “The Organic Gourmet,” specializes in whole foods and organic cuisine. With more than 20 years of experience, she is a chef, educator, environmentalist, photographer, and author of Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook and Going Wild in the Kitchen, among others.

Jovinna Chan

Jovinna Chan, E-RYT 500, a transformational leader and teacher of Kripalu Yoga, is the assistant dean of the Kripalu School of Yoga. Her yoga, dance, and martial arts practice began at a young age in Singapore. Jovinna is also trained in Kripalu YogaDance, and is a trained transformational facilitator for Soul Motion™, founded by movement master Vinn Martí.

JoAnna Chartrand

JoAnna Chartrand is a European-trained practitioner who has been a somatic psychology educator since 1980. Her specialty is in somatically-based, transpersonal, relational psychology, and trauma work. She is a codirector of The Constellation Institute of California.

Eden Jamila Clearbrook

Eden Clearbrook is founder-owner of an herbal apothecary and creatrix of a well-loved  line of organic botanical skin and body care products.  A seasoned teacher with a private healing practice, she particularly enjoys connecting heart-to-heart with her students and sharing the joy of creating with plants.

Susan Collin Marks

Susan Collin Marks, senior vice president of Search for Common Ground, works to build peace and transform conflict worldwide. She is a Skoll Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship, and the author of Watching the Wind: Conflict Resolution during South Africa’s Transition to Democracy.