Esalen opens May 3, 2024

Visitors are now able to access Esalen as well as other businesses and trails in northern Big Sur via twice-daily convoys on Highway 1 operated by Caltrans.

Convoys run only at 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each day. These are the only opportunities to travel into and out of Big Sur, so visitors must plan accordingly.

Learn more.

Faculty at Esalen

Esalen faculty represent a spectrum of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives — our faculty members have included Premal Shah, founder of Kiva.org; Robert Walter, Joseph Campbell’s longtime editor; mindfulness researcher Shauna Shapiro; and Wisdom 2.0 creator Soren Gordhamer.

Browse all past and present faculty below, or use the site search to look for someone specific.

Jonathan GoldmanA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jonathan Goldman

Jonathan Goldman is an acupuncture, energy medicine, and spiritual healing practitioner. He is principle director at the Essential Light Institute, developer of Transformational Energy Healing, and the originator of the Chakra Map method of observing and helping the Human Energy Vehicle.

Jonathan HoranA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jonathan Horan

Jonathan Horan is Gabrielle Roth's son and closest collaborator. He is on the core faculty of her international institute, The Moving Center. Jonathan has been immersed in the 5Rhythms® practice throughout his life and continues to be a key catalyst in its evolution.

Jonathan PrescottA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jonathan Prescott

Jonathan Prescott is the founder of Wise Caregiving, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people become effective, sustainable and empathetic caregivers. Jonathan’s background includes hospice, cancer care, and hospital chaplaincy, and a spiritual practice as an ordained student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.

Jordan AllenA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jordan Allen

Jordan Allen leads Circling Europe in America. Jordan created CirclingAnywhere.com, which makes Circling accessible daily around the world, and he's the author of A Beautiful Apocalypse, a zombie adventure inspired by integral theory.

Joseph MachadoA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Joseph Machado

Joseph Machado is an Open Floor International faculty member, a somatic therapist, and a public high school teacher in San Francisco. Their commitment is to help people be themselves and resist the demands to conform that take away their ability to be the individuals they are.

Joseph PerretaA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Joseph Perreta

Joe Perreta is an internationally renowned evidential psychic medium. He’s been featured on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop.com and holds certification from the Forever Family Foundation. He has participated as a research medium in scientific studies at several universities.

Josh BrahinskyA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Josh Brahinsky

Josh Brahinsky, PhD, is a researcher at UC Berkeley teaches at UC Santa Cruz. His work links anthropological and neuroscientific methods to explore the ways contemplation invites and shapes sensory capacity and experience. He studies a variety of contemplative practices, including varieties of prayer and meditation, focused especially on the worship practices of charismatic evangelicals.

Josie WeaverA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Josie Weaver

Josie Weaver teaches qigong, yoga, and tai chi. She is a senior trainer at the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi, and through her own energy healing practice she helps clients manage conditions such as Parkinson’s, Ehlers Dahnlos Syndrome, and chronic pain.

Jovinna ChanA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jovinna Chan

Jovinna Chan, E-RYT 500, YACEP, is a trained personal transformational facilitator, yoga teacher trainer, conscious dance teacher, and performing artist. Through an alchemical combination of movement, spiritual inquiry, nature, and sound healing, she leads transformational programs around the world.

Joyce CatlettA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
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.

Joyce ThompsonA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Joyce Thompson

Joyce Thompson is the author of six novels, two collections of stories and a memoir, Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu. She has taught writing in public schools, extension, and MFA programs; had a play produced; and owns a tech marketing business.

Juan Apaza FloresA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Juan Apaza Flores

Q'ero Shamans don Juan and don Pascual are traveling from the high Andes to share the wisdom of the Q’ero, the Quechua-speaking Andean people of south-central Peru. The Q’ero preserve a sacred prophecy of a great change, or "pachacuti," in which the world would be turned right side up, harmony and order would be restored, and chaos and disorder ended.

Judith HemmingA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Judith Hemming

Judith Hemming practices and teaches Constellations worldwide. She has developed and taught applications of the systemic approach in family, educational, and organizational contexts. She is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and the director of Moving Constellations in the United Kingdom.

Judith OrloffA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Judith Orloff

Judith Orloff, MD, is the New York Times best-selling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide and Thriving as an Empath. Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist, an empath and is on the UCLA psychiatric clinical faculty. Her work has been featured on the Today Show, CNN, O, the Oprah Magazine and the New York Times.

Judy GreenmanA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Judy Greenman

Judy Greenman is an international retreat leader, empowerment coach, and Cortical Field Re-Education® Trainer. For 25 years, she has taught individuals and groups around the world to access the miraculous intelligence of their nervous system for physical and emotional healing and personal growth.

Juergen BambergerA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Juergen Bamberger

Juergen Bamberger is a Gyrotonic® master trainer who has been educating and certifying instructors worldwide for more than 25 years. Originally a professional dancer with a degree in dance education, Juergen has studied many modalities of movement arts, bodywork, and human anatomy.

Julia B. CanfieldA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julia B. Canfield

she/her

Julia is a tender-hearted, trauma-sensitive yoga teacher. Her modalities include somatic healing, tarot reading, and photography. She weaves ritual, narrative, and body-based awareness together to help others move through their suffering and into a richer, more balanced life.

Julie Baker ChouteauA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julie Baker Chouteau

Julie Baker Chouteau, is a psychotherapist specializing in the cultivation of authenticity, navigating life transitions, and trauma recovery. She works with creative process as an expression of one’s inner landscape. She has a private practice in Sausalito, California.

Julie HollandA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julie Holland

Julie Holland, MD, is a psychiatrist and author of Weekends at Bellevue and Moody Bitches; editor of The Pot Book and Ecstasy: The Complete Guide; and medical monitor for clinical studies of cannabis and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD in veterans.

Julie MurphyA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julie Murphy

Julie Murphy, MA, LMFT, is a professor, author, international Hakomi trainer, and somatic psychotherapist. With a background in anthropology, contemplative psychology, attachment theory, Buddhism, and poetry, Julie has developed numerous programs that integrate cutting-edge research with humanistic and contemplative approaches.

Julie VonA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julie Von

Dr. Julie Von is a holistic doctor, author, and speaker specializing in fertility. Dr. Von began her career apprenticing with healers, shamans, and doctors around the world. Her acclaimed book, Spiritual Fertility, is the benchmark text on the link between trauma and conception.

Julieanna HeverA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Julieanna Hever

Julieanna Hever, RD, CPT, is a registered dietitian and the host of the talk show series What Would Julieanna Do? Author of The Vegiterranean Diet and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition, her work has appeared widely on television and other media. She has a private practice in Los Angeles, California.

June GruberA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
June Gruber

June Gruber, PhD, is an assistant professor of psychology at Yale University and director of the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who has authored more than 60 journals and articles and received several early career awards from the APA, SRP, and NARSAD.

Justin BoretaA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Justin Boreta

Justin Boreta is a member of The Glitch Mob, a beat-driven electronic group that has been touring for more than a decade performing around the world at festivals including: Coachella, Burning Man, Lollapolooza, Reading & Leeds and Bonnaroo. Boreta has collaborated with the spiritual teacher Ram Dass and Alan Watts on guided meditations and was recently nominated for a 2021 Grammy for Best New Age Album.

Justin Michael WilliamsA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Justin Michael Williams

Justin Michael Williams is a transformational voice bringing people together across divides with a multigenerational message of hope, empowerment, and unity. He is an award-winning speaker and teacher, a Grammy-nominated recording artist, and the author of the groundbreaking book Stay Woke.

Justin MilanoA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Justin Milano

Justin Milano is the Founder and CEO of Abroad, an organization on a mission to improve the human condition at work. Justin has been an entrepreneur for more than 15 years and an executive coach for more than a decade. He spent five years researching the minds of leaders and bringing executives on soul-searching quests to wisdom cultures to discover greater purpose, meaning, and impact.

Justin SteinA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Justin Stein

Justin Stein received his PhD from the University of Toronto and is a scholar of Japanese religion who has extensively researched Reiki history. He teaches Asian Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia.

Jyoti MaA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Jyoti Ma

Jyoti Ma is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher. She has devoted her life to bringing unity to the planet by facilitating the development of alliances between individuals who are the guardians of indigenous culture and traditional medicine ways. Through this work, collaborative relationships with organizations that are focused on economic, social and environmental solutions have developed, creatively addressing the global challenges of our times.

Kai HarperA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kai Harper

Kai Harper is a native Big Sur local, a graduate of Esalen’s Gazebo School and UC, Santa Barbara, with a degree in psychology. A past resident director at UCSB, he has served at Esalen as a grounds and garden land steward, practicing relational agriculture and cultivating the inner and outer landscapes of life.

Kamara McAndrewsA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kamara McAndrews

Kamara McAndrews, LMFT, DAACS, is a psychotherapist with an expertise in sex, marriage, and intimacy issues. She also is an AASECT licensed sex therapist.

Kamilah MajiedA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kamilah Majied

Kamilah Majied, MSW, PhD, is a Buddhist mental health therapist, clinical educator, researcher, and an internationally-engaged consultant on building inclusivity and equity using meditative practices, as well as a professor of social work at California State University, Monterey Bay. She has engaged her Buddhist practice for over forty years, leading colloquia, workshops, retreats, and meditation sessions globally on experiencing wonder, humor, and insight through transforming oppressive patterns and deepening relationships.

Kamini DesaiA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kamini Desai

Kamini Desai is the author of Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, and creator and education director of the Amrit Method Yoga Nidra curriculum. Kamini lectures and trains internationally, uniquely combining Eastern philosophy with Western psychology and science.

Karen AxelrodA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karen Axelrod

Karen Axelrod, MA, CST-D, CMT, is a certified somatic therapist specializing in CranioSacral Therapy. She teaches CST internationally for the Upledger Institute and maintains a private practice in Redondo Beach, California. Her passion is helping clients connect to inner resources necessary for healing body, mind, and spirit.

Karen CookA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karen Cook

Karen Cook is an acupuncturist with more than 25 years of experience in the movement arts. She has been teaching yoga since 1997, influenced by Thomas Fortel Yoga and SpectorDance. Her love of movement is her joy and invites all to open to their divine light.

Karen ElyA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karen Ely

Karen Ely is the founding director of A Woman’s Way, one of the country’s premiere women’s retreat programs, and the author of Daring to Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself, A Retreat of My Own, Breathing Space, and A Safe Place to Stand.

Karen NelsonA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karen Nelson

Karen Nelson is the co-founder and executive director of Writing By Writers, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to create a rigorous and compassionate environment to learn the art of reading and writing from accomplished authors.

Kari BernardiA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kari Bernardi

Kari Bernardi, the Super Natural Chef, is the owner of Super Natural Foods Company and co-director of Living Light International. For over 30 years, Kari has shared her culinary expertise to help people thrive on a plant-based diet.

Karishma DarbyA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karishma Darby

Karishma Darby is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in the Sierra Foothills, California. Her passion is awakening consciousness within and in relationship with others. She facilitates workshops, active and silent mediation, and relationally centered psychotherapy groups.

Karla McLarenA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Karla McLaren

Karla McLaren, MEd, is an award-winning author, researcher, and pioneering educator whose empathic approach to emotions revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens new pathways into self-awareness and healthy empathy. She is the author of The Art of Empathy.

Katalin KálmánA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Katalin Kálmán

Kata Kálmán is a mindfulness trainer and coach with multinational clients including Audi, Wendy's, Coca Cola, and GE. Her work has led her to the most prevalent disorders of our times: depression and anxiety. Kata practices Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist mindfulness-based tradition.

Katchie AnandaA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
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.

Kate FloreA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kate Flore

Kate Flore, MPH, OTR, CMP, is a somatic and bodywork practitioner, educator, and Gestalt facilitator. She is co-founder of TensegrityU, a scholarship-based practitioner education program weaving the teachings of movement and body sciences with Rolf Structural Integration, the Feldenkrais Method, and Gestalt Relational Process into contemporary trainings.

Kate MacKinnonA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kate MacKinnon

Kate MacKinnon is a diplomat-certified CranioSacral Therapist through the Upledger Institute, and a licensed physical therapist in California and the United Kingdom. She is a passionate advocate of CranioSacral therapy and of the importance of healthy touch.

Kate MungerA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kate Munger

Kate Munger has devoted herself to creating non-hierarchical, collaborative models for singing, community building, and fellowship since 1973. She founded the first of 160 Threshold Choirs, an organization for those who sing in service at the bedsides of people who are dying.

Katharina Sophia VolzA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Katharina Sophia Volz

Katharina Sophia Volz is a medical researcher and entrepreneur. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of OccamzRazor, a start-up in San Francisco that looks to identify cures for Parkinson's Disease using machine learning.

Katherine Woodward ThomasA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Katherine Woodward Thomas

Katherine Woodward Thomas is author of the New York Times bestseller, Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After and the national bestseller, Calling in “The One:” 7 Weeks to Attract the Love Of Your Life. She is a licensed psychotherapist and has taught hundreds of thousands to find greater happiness in love.

Kathie SwiftA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kathie Swift

Kathie Madonna Swift, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND, is an inspiring educator, innovator, and practitioner in the field of integrative and holistic nutrition, and education director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s nutrition trainings.

Kathlyn HendricksA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kathlyn Hendricks

Kathlyn (Katie) Hendricks, PhD, BC-DMT, is an evolutionary catalyst and contextual disruptor who creates transformational collaboration around the world. A pioneer in the field of body intelligence and conscious loving, she has coauthored 12 books with Gay Hendricks, including Conscious Loving, At the Speed of Life, and Ever After.

Kathy AltmanA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kathy Altman

Kathy Altman, co-founder of Open Floor International, has taught conscious dance worldwide for over 40 years. She empowers authentic expression, emotional resilience, and community building through embodied movement, fostering health and creativity in life and on the dance floor.

Katie HafnerA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Katie Hafner

Katie Hafner is the author of the memoir, Mother Daughter Me, which was featured by the New York Times and Oprah. Hafner was on staff at the New York Times for more than a decade, and she is the author of five previous books.

Katy ButlerA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Katy Butler

Katy Butler is the author of Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, a New York Times Notable Book of 2013. Her award-winning personal essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Best American Essays, and Best Buddhist Writing.

Kay TrimbergerA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kay Trimberger

E. Kay Trimberger, PhD, is professor emerita of Women’s & Gender Studies at Sonoma State University and author of The New Single Woman. She is an ever single woman and single mother, who has taught classes on single women and written articles and blogs on singleness.

Keith Edward CantúA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Keith Edward Cantú

Dr. Keith Edward Cantú is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity School. He is an emerging historian of religions, a musician, an esoteric practitioner, and the author of Like a Tree Universally Spread: Sri Sabhapati Swami and Śivarājayoga.

Kelly BoysA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kelly Boys

Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer and author of The Blind Spot Effect. She has created mindfulness programs for UN humanitarians and veterans with PTSD, and directed a teacher training for Google. She has worked with the United Nations Foundation, Search Inside Yourself Institute, and the Integrative Restoration Institute, and is the founding advisor for the Simple Habit meditation app.

Ken DychtwaldA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Ken Dychtwald

Ken Dychtwald is a long-time Esalen lover, a gerontologist, psychologist, educator, author, lecturer, consultant and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Age Wave and has been a leading thinker on aging-related issues since 1974.

Ken KolesA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Ken Koles

Ken Koles is an acupuncturist who developed the use of CranioSacral Therapy (CST) and Oriental medicine in private practice and as an instructor with The Cleveland Healing Arts Institute. He studied Oriental medicine in Japan, China, and Taiwan, and has studied CST since 1979.

Kenn ChaseA small white oval over a larger white oval, meant to represent a person.
Kenn Chase

Kenn Chase, founder of Integral Way Tai Chi™, has taught Yang-style tai chi since 1969. He is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and integrates Awareness through Movement® into his unique teaching approach. Teaching locally and internationally, he consults with corporations, hospitals, and privately.