However, Highway 1 south of Esalen is closed indefinitely. Don't let this stop you — there are other routes to reach us. Please review these alternate route driving directions and allow for a little extra travel time while on your transformational and healing journey.
We look forward to welcoming you to Esalen.
The past few years haven’t been easy. Maybe you’re feeling stuck within the discomforts of wanting a change. Maybe you’re unsure how to take those first steps to kick off your life’s next chapter, or you’re simply seeking something different with cool seasonal plans. Perhaps you’re going through a breakup or divorce. Maybe you have between-job and/or post-retirement curiosities to explore within the majestic microcosm that is Esalen Institute.
If you’re hungry for some personal and professional growth, Esalen can be a transformative start toward change. 55000 Highway 1 is a place for healing and exploring. Our visiting niche faculty-led LEEP and our Esalen-cultivated Essence of Esalen programs create space for individuals to absorb these treasured opportunities as part of a cohort, serving and learning new skills together in community. In a time when we have less control over life’s current distracting and complicated details, a break and escape can be a welcomed chance to let go and create the spaciousness necessary for lasting transformation.
Our Key Pillars:
THE STUDY COMPONENT
Engage in a thematic rigorous course of study, over the span of four weeks. Daily deep dives led by world-class faculty members allow you to learn heartfully about the essential teachings and practices of Esalen. Areas of study may include Gestalt practices, massage, somatics, yoga, leadership, and more.
Areas of study may include Gestalt practices, massage, somatics, yoga, leadership, and more.
THE SERVICE COMPONENT
As the community-driven connective tissue to your studies into body and mind, you will be required to dedicate service hours each week in one of Esalen’s operational departments. The campus is rugged and students should anticipate robust physical activity. Areas of service are assigned, and projects are currently focused on beatification endeavors throughout our 120 acres. Other hours may involve work in the kitchen or housekeeping aka CABinS (Conscious Aware Beings in Service).
Esalen provides dorm-style, gender-inclusive housing, with four LEEP students to one room. Both staff and students live in close contact with one another. With approximately 100 guests visiting every week, privacy is at a minimum.
Esalen is located on 120 acres within a very rural, rugged environment along the central California coast with no nearby shopping or services. The closest major town is Monterey, which is approximately one hour away by car. Accommodations vary and in some housing situations involve climbing several dozen stairs.
Live Extended Education Program tuition is $2900 for the four week program. Tuition includes housing, meals, full access to the property inclusive of the hot springs baths, and your workshop. Scholarship is available for those who demonstrate financial need. Once your application has been accepted, a non-refundable deposit of $870 will hold your space in the program.
Apply NowIntegrative Gestalt Coaching™ (IGC) is a comprehensive and interactive therapy method Perry Holloman developed over the last 40 years while living at Esalen. He and his wife, Johanna, travel and teach this approach in the USA, Europe, and Asia, working with individuals and groups and coaching businesses and communities.
This month-long program is designed for people who want to learn basic skills in the practice of Gestalt, applicable to both their personal lives as well as their work with individuals and groups.
Gestalt places high value on the development of awareness in the realm of our internal experience (personality structure) and our relational experience (family relationships, intimate relationships, professional relationships, and other dynamics). Developing awareness of how our internal experience influences our relationships — and how those relationships transform us personally — can have a powerful impact on the quality of our lives and will be a central focus of our time together.
Perry and Johanna have developed experiential exercises supported by theoretical knowledge to create a well-rounded program suited for persons who want a month of self-exploration and also those ready to cultivate Gestalt Coaching skills for their work with individuals and groups.
Perry Holloman has been a teacher and practitioner of Esalen Massage, Deep Bodywork, and body-oriented approaches to Relational Gestalt Process work for more than 30 years. He teaches in the US, Asia, and Europe and makes his home in Big Sur.
Johanna Holloman is a German-born clinical psychologist, Diamond Approach® teacher, and certified Esalen Massage and Deep Bodywork instructor. She teaches internationally. She is a yoga teacher (E-RYT 500) and created the Esalen in-house yoga training program.
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