Work Study: Embodied Relationship, with Michael Clemmens
June 9 - July 7, 2013
"We develop relationships with ourselves and others through the physicality of our vision, smell, touch, and movement," says Michael Clemmens. "These relationships, or dances, shape what we believe is possible and how we behave in the present. In this program, our focus will be on the ways in which we create relationships through our bodies. By attending to our present dance with others, we can become more aware of our existing context and optional ways of interacting.
"The structure of the program will be experiential exercises, practice sessions, and group discussion to develop our awareness of self and the group. We will begin with our earliest movements (prior to birth) and then explore how we co-create our bodily membership in the more complex gestalts of family, groups, and cultures. Our goals will be to experience how we create relationships through embodiment, and to develop skills in attending to ourselves and others."
CEUs available for MFTs and LCSWs. Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Legacy Program: Spoken Word: Your Voice, Your Body, Your Truth, with Caroline Harvey
June 9 - July 7, 2013
Experience the electrifying and liberating art of spoken word (sometimes called slam or performance poetry) — an art form in which powerful personal healing meets excellent literary craft. During this program, you'll write about your desires, your struggles, your identity, your politics, about what angers you and what makes you dance with joy. Berklee College of Music Professor Caroline Harvey will help you communicate out loud with passion and fearlessness. We'll cover the basics of the performing writer's trade: accessing authentic voice, the myth of "writer's block," public speaking jitters, editing strategies, building the best metaphor, "OK, I'm talking — now what should I do with my hands," and more. Spoken word poems traditionally address edgy, vulnerable topics, and the range of styles can span from hip-hop to prose, and comedy to monologue. No matter your writing experience, this course can help you tell your story and speak your truth with confidence, compassion, and power no matter where you are. There will be an end-of-course celebratory showcase of our original spoken word poems.
Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Work Study: Daily Life as Spiritual Practice and Soul-Making, with Quinton Wacks
July 7 - August 4, 2013
Today, many individuals are describing themselves as being in spiritual recovery from former dysfunctional religious belief systems, agnosticism, materialism, or post-modernism and its lack of a sense of the sacred. People also are attempting to cope with pain and suffering, change and grief, loss of identity, or a deep need for something more real or sacred. Or, they are therapists and healers who are looking for something beyond their current training for use either professionally or personally. Whatever the push or pull, we are searching for a spiritual identity, path, or practice to experience the sacred in daily life.
During this program led by Quinton Wacks, we will draw from the psycho-spiritual disciplines of transpersonal and integral psychology, mysticism, and the vast literature on the soul. We'll emphasize experiential methods using daily life as spiritual practice and supporting each other in such practices. Specifically, we will work with practices that can be used each day, moment by moment, to assist us in becoming more aware of our dramas and stories and their effect on our lives, and to open more fully to both the sacred and profane in each moment. We will examine "Soul-Making" as the ultimate purpose of life — the development of the whole person and spiritual self, and as preparation for and determination of the afterlife.
Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Legacy Program: Building Resiliency Mind/Body Tools to Help Recover from Depletion with Eric Moya
July 7 - August 4, 2013
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.
Using an approach based in the manual therapy techniques of CranioSacral therapy, mindfulness, coaching, and gentle mind/body work, Eric Moya will lead the group in practices to support the innate healing capacity of all participants. Emphasis will also be placed on integrating and sustaining the course skills.
This course is open to anyone interested in developing and building his or her innate resiliency. Since a big part of this course will involve therapeutic touch, interested participants should be willing to give and receive gentle therapeutic touch as well as share experiences in a group setting.
This workshop is especially useful for those in the helping and healing professions in working with their clients and patients.
Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Work Study: The Ensemble Process, with Peter Meyers
August 4 - September 1, 2013
In the centuries-old tradition of ensemble theatre, individual charisma and creativity are vitally bound up with the greater energy of the group. Modern modes of expression and understanding from jazz to systems theory have affirmed the power of symbiosis. There is now a greater understanding of a model of leadership fueled not by the decisions of a single personality but by the pulse and wisdom of the ensemble.
During this program, Peter James Meyers, veteran stage director and leadership consultant, will help cultivate communication skills, self-assurance, and physical presence through a process of group discovery and performance.
Along the way, the group will practice movement, voice, and improvisation techniques that will allow each participant to amplify personal presence, enhance spontaneity, and heighten clarity of thought. In short, learn how to captivate a room and shape an audience's experience.
This is an ideal opportunity for anyone interested in blending performing arts with the art of leadership—expanding expressive skills while cultivating the ability to command and inspire. Participants will create an original theater piece to be offered to the Esalen community at the end of the month. Open to participants of all backgrounds and interests.
Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Legacy Program: Leadership and Presence with Suzanne Scurlock Durana
August 4 - September 1, 2013
The more present we are in ourselves, the more present we can be with someone else.
Presence is the hidden key to successful leadership. This seemingly elusive skill is learnable, and this Legacy program led by Suzanne Scurlock-Durana contains the steps, through experiential work that is designed to help you pay attention to the subtle cues you receive from your body and the surrounding environment all the time. This will then give you access to your own, highly valuable inner landscape – the wisdom of your body-mind-spirit, which significantly enhances your ability to be more fully present as a leader. In this month we will share how to:
- Assess your energy reservoir and refill when you are depleted
- Be more able to BE present vs. DOING all the time
- Be aware of, but not absorb the emotions of others
- Make healthy connections (empathy vs. sympathy)
- Stay open hearted and clear headed
- Have more powerful leadership conversations
The deeper layer of this program will help you more fully utilize the navigational system of your body, including wisdom of the heart, gut, bones, feet, and legs.
If you feel overwhelmed at times by your feelings or those around you, this course will help you develop your body and energy field into a container that can hold and modulate the whole range of human emotions. Learning to build this capacity within your navigational field enables you to have feelings and learn from them. Please bring a journal for reflection time and notes, as well as a binder for handouts.
This workshop is especially useful for those in the helping and healing professions in working with their clients and patients.
Required reading and listening: Scurlock-Durana, Full Body Presence: Learning to Listen to Your Body’s Wisdom, book and audio download or CD.
Integral Leadership track also available. Click here for details on our Integral Leadership Program.
Work Study: The Embodied Spirit: Wake Up and Roar, with Ellen Watson
September 1 - September 29, 2013
"SpiritDance, created at Esalen during the 1980s, is a moving meditation practice, a bowing, a praying, a weeping, a prancing and dancing, rollicking, frolicking, bone-shaking, brain-jiggling invitation to fully occupy yourself — to wake up and roar," writes leader and SpiritDance co-creator Ellen Watson. "A fusion of cross-cultural, neo-shamanic somatic arts practices, Wake Up and Roar cultivates wellness, both physical and metaphysical. The alchemy of movement, sound, and song is a path, portal, and doorway to cultivating embodied presence. Our sense of community builds through the alchemy of dance, song, and touch."
This monthlong program combines SpiritDance, meditation practices, song, Esalen® Massage, and The Art of Essential Touch. Spontaneous moments of authentic presence are a likely side effect.
"Each of the practices are guided by the same principles: Awareness, breath, presence, contact, pauses for observation and integration, movement, vibration, and quality of touch. Our practice is one of cultivating embodied presence."
Legacy Program: Gestalt Relational Coaching with Gordon Wheeler and Maryanne Will
September 1 - 29, 2013
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. Through facilitated exercises and experiments, Gordon Wheeler and Mary Anne Will will lead the group in exploring our innate capacity to change old habit patterns and create new ones, opening up new possibilities for how we form intentions, build supports, and know and accomplish our own goals in living. Our focus is on expanding basic relational capacities — how well we know ourselves, how we know others, and how we communicate and build successful support systems in working and living. The new patterns we create and practice are key to our ability to build new supports for reaching our goals and deepening our connections with self and other.
Using sensory exploration and dyadic exercises, together with active experiments you will co-design yourself, the leaders will provide space for the exploration of your personal goals as you coach each other, then reflect and share learnings together. The new skills we acquire and practice can then serve us with others we may coach, manage, and live and work with in every setting – and with ourselves in our own life journeys. This workshop is especially useful for those in the helping and healing professions in working with their clients and patients.
Work Study: Streams of Energy, with Jim Gallas
September 29 - October 27, 2013
Jim Gallas leads this program of Eastern bodywork and movement, including Reiki 1 Certification, a thorough overview of Shiatsu Massage, an introduction to meridian theory, and an easy-to-learn, powerful Chi Kung form. Various meditations, self-massage, and improv games will be used to encourage awareness and expression. The program is designed to open students to their own innate healing potentials, to the power of safe, therapeutic touch, and to being more fully present in their ongoing unfolding. Participants will also receive valuable tools to facilitate the healing of others. In a spirit of compassion, laughter, and expanding awareness, students will be nurtured and nourished by the group interaction and by a deeper connection to Self.
Legacy Program: Experiencing the Esalen Farm and Garden
September 29 - October 27, 2013
For more than forty years, the Esalen Farm and Garden has provided a holistic model of food security and sustainability — producing food that sustains, heals, and educates our community. We strive to embody our vision of “relational agriculture,” cultivating soil, plants, and people while honoring the spirit of the land and its ancestors.
Immerse yourself in the Esalen Farm and Garden and learn how to grow beautiful, organic food. Gain practical knowledge and experience alongside our talented staff to start or refine your own garden. Topics include seed starting, harvesting, cultivation, transplanting, bed preparation, composting, seed saving, flowers, and herbs. No garden or farm experience is required to join our learning environment. Working on the Esalen land can be a powerful emotional and spiritual experience. Regular check-ins and group process sessions support our personal growth and group relationships. Mindful and playful activities connect us to the land, ourselves, and each other. We celebrate the end of the program by preparing and sharing a glorious farm-to-table meal on the Farm.
Work Study: Nonviolent Communication (NVC), The Language of Life, with Jean Morrison
October 27 - November 24, 2013
NVC is internationally recognized, taught, and implemented as a tool for quality of life.
During this month of intensive immersion in NVC principles and practices with Jean Morrison, participants are offered the opportunity to strengthen their ability to:
- Live from a consciousness of compassion, for yourself and with others
- Make peace with conflict; affecting emotional health and well-being
- Replace habits of mind and language that create distress and walls of separation with new habits that create connection, understanding, and healing
- Liberate your thinking and reactions in order to transform anger, hurt, and guilt into energy and expressions that serve life
- Clarify and express your emotions and needs, distinct from blame and accusation
- Make empowering requests distinct from demands and expectations
- Apply NVC principles and skills to your goals and aspirations
The sessions (totaling 72 hours of training) include a balance of playful exploration, thoughtful inquiry, powerful exercises for skill-development, and sharing of best practices with participants' real situations. Guest presenters will augment our NVC practice with their expertise in the Enneagram, mindful meditation, art, and movement.
Legacy Program: Seeing Eye to I: Learning the Art of Wellness with Sam Berne
October 27 - November 24, 2013
Sam Berne teaches that the eyes reveal many of our mind-body patterns related to health. For example, neuroscience shows that the eye pathway connects directly to and influences brain function, the endocrine system, and the nervous system. This program uses The Berne Method®, an individualized approach that begins by guiding each student to self-discover the visual patterns and imprints one may be using as an adaptive response to stress, trauma, and cultural conditioning. Sam Berne will then offer a developmental process of eye-brain mindful awareness activities, somatic movement practices, and other subtle energy therapies to help students increase their creativity and vitality!
Sam believes the group dynamic or unified field amplifies healing. His gentle and humorous approach creates a safe, trusting environment for students to increase their wellness potential by learning a deeper self-responsibility, self-regulation, and sustaining health practices.
He has developed The Berne Method® by researching a diverse variety of disciplines some of which include: vision therapy, biofield analysis, quantum physics, medicinal essential oils, somatic movement, craniosacral therapy, dolphin-assisted therapy, and photo (light) therapy as they relate to expanding human potential.
Work Study: Relational Gestalt Process, with Dorothy Charles
November 24 - December 22, 2013
Each of us is born with an inherent drive for aliveness and self-expression and belonging. As we grow up, our sense of self and our ability to be spontaneous may become blocked. Knowing who we are, and what we feel and want, can be difficult when we have lived with the absence of adequate attunement and responsiveness to our emotions. This lack can result in self-judgment and the belief that our emotions are the problem, instead of signals that can point the way toward a better understanding of ourselves and our environment.
The focus of a month with Dorothy Charles and Relational Gestalt Process will be creating a group experience that will provide a context in which feelings can be held and integrated. Individual work with the leader, family of origin work, communication and conflict resolution skills and group process, will be used to develop awareness, self-responsibility, to create relationships with self and others that are supportive and enlivening. Meditation and expressive arts will also be part of the curriculum.
Legacy Program: Transforming Your Identity, Finding Your Authentic Self with Tanya McGinnity
November 24 - December 22, 2013
Our emotions can be hugely important in determining the quality of our lives. They occur in every relationship we care about – in the workplace, friendships, with family members, and in our intimate relationships. Emotions can, and often do, arise very quickly. Our conscious self usually does not participate in or even witness what, exactly, triggers an emotion at any particular moment. That speed can save our lives in an emergency, but it can also ruin our lives when we react rather than respond.
Using an Emotional Intelligence framework, Tanya McGinnity will lead participants on a journey to witness their current capabilities and be encouraged to reach their highest potential. By establishing trust we create an energetic container in which participants will feel safe to dive deep into their souls through guided imagery and self-reflective questioning. By reflecting on negative patterns they will be able to determine the false identities that have been informing their negative self-talk. This transformative course is dedicated to a deep exploration of vision, identity, values, and emotions in order to live intentionally and with purpose, connected with a radiant life force.
Work Study: Deep Bodywork, with Rob Wilks
December 22 - January 19, 2014
Deep Bodywork, as created by Perry Holloman over the last 25 years at Esalen Institute, is a method that integrates the qualities of a flowing Esalen® Massage with the therapeutic effectiveness of deep tissue work. Using deep tissue methods, massage practitioners can enter the body's deeper soft tissue layers, freeing previously dense, hardened areas, which may have become chronically painful due to a lack of fluid exchange and energy flow. As these areas soften and "re-organize," their chronic tension patterns release, revitalizing living tissues with blood, lymph, and chi (life) energy. Because living systems like the human body require a constant flow of chi energy to self-organize and heal, blockages to that flow within our tissues can create longer term health problems like joint and soft tissue pain, movement restriction, and circulatory problems.
This month with Rob Wilks will focus on exploring the modality of deep bodywork as a healing art, and is designed for massage and bodywork practitioners seeking to incorporate effective deep tissue techniques into their work. We will explore the common areas (back, neck, shoulders, hips, etc.) where these chronic tension patterns tend to stagnate. Students will be taught how to effectively address these areas using gravitational energy, proper use of body mechanics, the importance of working slowly, and self-care practices.
Legacy Program: The Buddhist Path of Awakening with Noah Levine
December 22 2013- January 19, 2014
Using a hybrid of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation techniques, Noah will offer an experience of the teachings and practices of Buddhism. We will learn how to develop a greater sense of care for ourselves and for our world through the revolutionary spiritual practices of the Buddha. Led by Noah Levine, the workshop explores the way that true spiritual practice is an engagement with life that goes against the norms of our confused society and is therefore an act of rebellion. This ancient path of awakening our own deepest wisdom and compassion is accessible to all who choose it. Instructions in meditation and guidance in the Buddhist path to liberation will be offered.
Note: During the first week of January, 2014, Esalen will host a campus-wide, silent meditation program. Students are not required to participate, but will be asked to refrain from conversation in public places including the dining room during that period.
Work Study - Healing with Humor: Spinal Awareness, with Patrick Douce
January 19, 2014 - February 26, 2014
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.
Spinal Awareness emphasizes learning how to move in ways that stimulate your awareness and support the health of your own body. Lessons inspired by Indonesian Silat will also be used to stimulate the energy body, effecting internal health and increasing energy. Students will participate in floor exercises that organize and integrate the spinal column, and standing lessons that improve better balance and fluidity.
The course will include safe and noninvasive hands-on lessons to greatly speed improvements. Fun partner lessons will be intermixed to help bring about not only freedom in the body but a return to the childlike energy essential to us all.
Work Study - Sharing Your Life Story, with Ann Randolph
February 16, 2014 - March 16, 2014
Everything in your life, from the mundane to the extraordinary, is a story waiting to be told. During this program you can discover your own unique and powerful story. Michel de Montaigne, the great personal essayist, said, “Every man has within himself the entire human condition.” The intention of this workshop is for you delve deep into your own personal narrative. Writing from your deepest source, you can gain insight and self-understanding that can bring peace and healing. We will then make our words leap from the page to the stage, sharing them orally to uncover the power of performance to transform your life and your listeners. This is a program for those seeking to explore personal essay, memoir, solo performance, or the sacred practice of journaling.
Through improvisation, writing exercises, and group discussion, you will find your authentic voice, along with a way to express it. Ann Randolph creates a supportive, fun, and dynamic space in which to create. Topics include:
- Writing exercises to stimulate memory
- Learning to structure the narrative in a compelling way
- Transforming your ideas/stories into performance
- Discovering ways to create spontaneously
- Overcoming performance anxiety
- Tools to release yourself from the inner critic
- Playing with multiple characters and contradictions within ourselves
Work Study - The Transformative Power of Emotion with Dorothy Charles
March 16, 2014 - April 13, 2014
Living a full and connected life requires our capacity to feel and to make use of our emotional experience. Much of the alienation and separation that occurs in our relationships and family life is the result of the fear of feelings. We disconnect from our emotional life when we are afraid of being overwhelmed, humiliated, or perceived as weak or inadequate, only to pay the price later in isolation, anxiety, and depression. If we can be helped to feel safe enough to feel, we can reap the profound benefits of experiencing and exploring our emotions. Safety is created within the experience of accessing and expressing feelings in the company of an accepting, attuned, and understanding other. When we are accompanied in this way, the formerly frightening and intolerable sensations of our emotions can be not only tolerated, but felt as an essential part of our vitality and our connection to other people. We can gain increased aliveness, presence, and the sense of freedom and mastery that comes from facing what we have avoided. Our relationships improve and deepen as a result of our ability to feel at ease with our own feelings and to be present with the feeling of others. In this program, led by Dorothy Charles, we will create a safe and supportive environment in which our emotions can be met with curiosity, interest, and acceptance. The format combines Gestalt Process, guided imagery, small group work, dyadic awareness exercises, discussion, group process, and opportunities for open seat with the leader.
Work Study - Body Centered Awareness, with Patrice Hamilton
April 13, 2014 - May 11, 2014
"The issues are in the tissues.” Habitual beliefs and behaviors formed early in life lead to habitual ways of responding that limit life experience. Our bodies are our greatest resource. They provide a direct path for exploring these unconscious beliefs and the emotions tied to them. By increasing awareness of our bodies, we connect with the here and now, where change and growth are possible.
This experiential class will blend the slow, developmental movement of Cortical Field Reeducation® with the mindfulness practices of Hakomi and Gestalt. Patrice Hamilton uses these awareness practices to assist individuals in reclaiming and integrating forgotten or denied aspects of self.
Working in a supportive group environment creates a container in which new ways of moving and being can be explored and expressed. Exploring with curiosity and compassion allows for release of physical restrictions and suppressed emotions. You will emerge feeling more grounded and comfortable in your body, with an increased capacity to remain present within yourself and with others.
Work Study - Embodied Relationship, with Michael Clemmens
May 11, 2014 - June 8, 2014
“We develop relationships with ourselves and others through the physicality of our vision, smell, touch, and movement,” says Michael Clemmens. “These relationships, or dances, shape what we believe is possible and how we behave in the present. In this program, our focus will be on the ways in which we create relationships through our bodies. By attending to our present dance with others, we can become more aware of our existing context and optional ways of interacting.
“The structure of the program will be experiential exercises, practice sessions, and group discussion to develop our awareness of self and the group. We will begin with our earliest movements (prior to birth) and then explore how we co-create our bodily membership in the more complex gestalts of family, groups, and cultures. Our goals will be to experience how we create relationships through embodiment, and to develop skills in attending to ourselves and others.”
Work Study - Timeless Wisdom for our Postmodern Lives, with Brad Lewis
June 8, 2014 - July 6, 2014
We live in challenging times. Traditional beliefs and institutions have been destabilized by modern society, and the promise of science and reason has been shaken by environmental and social destruction. Some have responded by a revival of fundamentalist religions; others
have doggedly clung to modern dreams and worldviews. For many of us, neither of these older structures will work. We have chosen to get imaginative and inventive, and to build a new cultural and philosophic home that taps into the wisdom of our human heritage.
This work study program is about that process. Led by psychotherapist, cultural theorist, and NYU professor Bradley Lewis, the group will combine contemporary social thought with timeless human potential practices (personal and interpersonal awareness, creative expression, Eastern spirituality, Perennial philosophy, and eco-consciousness). Through arts, music, dance, media, guest speakers, conversation, and experiential practices, we will free our minds and bodies for transformative possibilities of these timeless wisdom practices. Our aim is to spend a month together living and re-imagining human potential for today’s world.
- Click here to apply for the Esalen Workstudy Program
- Click here to read a "typical" workscholar week.
