Workshops

End the year strong in this transformational and deeply interactive workshop with award-winning instructor Justin Michael Williams. In this once-yearly event, you will:

• Reflect on the year past and lessons learned, and define the goals you want to set for the year ahead.
• Define an action plan for 2024 using a scientifically proven method.
• Learn the real science behind habit building and goal setting, and how to apply them to your everyday life to reach your goals faster.
• Create a custom “power action” for the year ahead to help you overcome limitations in the new year.
• Come together and build accountability with a community ready to create change in their lives and the world.

Together, we’ll create your personal action plan for 2024 and define your next steps with a simple, proven method that you and your team can take into the new year. This is your moment to reset, renew, overcome fear and self-doubt, and say “yes” to the year that lies ahead. Become more authentically inspired and motivated through practical tools to break the hidden patterns holding you back from the power that’s inside of you. Awaken your true power for the year ahead.

This program has been designed from the ground up to welcome all people of all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Recommended reading: Stay Woke, by Justin Michael Williams

Fostering close and connected relationships is one of the most important things affecting the quality of our lives. Cultivating trust and openness with a loved one, whether they be an intimate partner or friend, is an essential aspect of any successful, supportive relationship.

This weekend, Perry and Johanna Holloman, intimate partners and friends for over 30 years, will share the most effective tools and practices they have developed to nurture their connection to each other.

The primary tool Perry and Johanna will share is called Gestalt Inquiry. This easy-to-learn, powerful practice provides a safe context for exploring the most meaningful and sensitive aspects of relationships. Perry and Johanna like to think of it as a practice that becomes a continuing part of any successful long-term relationship because it places high value on compassion, respect, and love of truth. As we learn to discover and safely express what is true for us, individually, as a couple, or as friends, we deepen our heart’s capacity for intimacy and connection, which leads to a more fulfilling and meaningful shared life.

During our time together, you will learn practices and resources to integrate into your everyday life, such as:

• Embodied practices involving movement, breath, meditation, and awareness to develop a sense of palpable presence as the foundation upon which your relationship can flourish.
• The Art of Conscious Dialogue: learning to care as much about understanding our partner and what they’re communicating as we care about being heard and understood by them.
• How to express needs, feelings, and appreciations in an attuned manner to deepen relational trust.
• Understanding the “distancing behaviors” we engage in, usually as an unconscious form of defense against vulnerability and contact.
• Learning to co-regulate each other in structured exercises, emphasizing compassion and respect so presence-based relating naturally arises.

This workshop is for couples of all genders and sexual orientations. A couple may be any two people with a history who desire a better future together, e.g., friends, partners, married or divorced spouses, parent and child, siblings, and others.

Misconceptions about Reiki place its origins anywhere from ancient Egypt to Tibet — even from angels and aliens — but we hold the truth in the palms of our hands. In this workshop, we’ll explore the roots of this Japanese practice and discover the transformative power of universal life energy through Reiki meditations and transmissions.

Over this weekend, students will have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of Reiki from both historical and experiential perspectives. We will discuss how this energy-healing technique originated in Japan, find out how it was influenced by other practices and cultures, and study how it evolved over time.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn:

• Various aspects of Reiki practice.
• Meditations taught by Reiki’s founder, Usui Mikao.
• Practices to connect to Reiki’s universal source and increase the flow of Reiki through one’s body.
• Reiki’s Japanese origins and how it is practiced and taught today

Participants will receive empowerment ceremonies called reiju or Reiki blessings. We will experience the power of Reiki self-treatments, how to give full Reiki treatments to others, and how to receive Reiki from another, all within the unique Reiki-filled space that is Esalen.  

Participants will have the opportunity to participate in an empowerment ceremony appropriate for first-time students and Reiki masters alike. If you are interested in Reiki initiation and certification please email Diane at nycreikimaster@gmail.com. Certificates and first degree course materials can be provided for an additional $25.

“​​Reiki is medicine for me — both inward and outward. When I first received Reiki, it was in an inward way. It opened me and made me feel what space is, what energy is, and what the universe is.”  — Shinobu Saito, a Reiki Master initiated by Hawayo Takata

The hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature.     ~ John O’Donohue

Uncertain times have shaken and are shaking our habitual ways of being. Individually and collectively, we are experiencing anxiety, disconnection, and the reality of impermanence even as we begin our journey into the ever-forming “new normal.” Now more than ever, we need to let our somatic system know safety by connecting to our somatic and emotional intelligence, easing into open-hearted social connections and the natural world — so we may settle and ground in our organism’s capacity for resilience, self-regulation and inherent belonging.

A sense of deep belonging and connection is the natural state of our being. Our nervous system and physiology are wired to feel belonging. We are being called to greet change in manners not previously known to most of us — individually and collectively. To know and feel our belonging in these times asks us to grow awareness — to cultivate genuine heartfelt curiosity, to have courage to feel our vulnerability, and increase our capacity for authentic compassion.

Together, we’ll explore using a variety of practices:

• Sitting, walking, and laying awareness practices that build mindfulness and embodied connection will be introduced and practiced daily.
• Grounding and centering tools and techniques that let our nervous system, physiology, and heart feel safe and move from habitual reactivity: to choice, resilience, and trust in the body’s innate wisdom.
• Gestalt Awareness Movement practices that invite us to trust our body’s capacity for organismic self-regulation and co-regulation.
• You will be introduced to neuropsychology concepts and practices that can be perceptually felt and embodied in our daily life while feeling our awakening heart and inherent belonging.
• Through exercises and time together in group, paired, and solo practices, we will have space to connect with self, others, and the natural world.

Listening deeply, life conspires to let us know the heart of interconnectedness even in the midst of the unknowable. We will draw from various wisdom traditions, contemplative practices, contemporary somatic and neuropsychology to explore ancient, yet new ways of belonging to ourselves, others, and to the other-than-human world to which we participate. When we embody the birthright of our interconnectedness and the heart of belonging, ever-changing life lives through us.

Please expect to be indoors and outdoors, on the Esalen grounds. We will work in group, paired, and solo practices. This workshop will take place on Esalen grounds.

Embody and reconnect with your unique ancestral wisdom with the Five Elements of Yoga and Chinese medicine through nature, movement and art. Experientially learn Five Element philosophy and tools– from two similar yet divergent traditions– to apply in daily life. Discover your unique relationship with each Element, and come home to the wild beauty of your inner radiance!

Enjoy five nourishing days connecting with ourselves, each other, and the sacred Esalen landscape. Begin each morning with gentle yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation. Then root your understanding with engaging presentations, dynamic discussions, nature connection, journaling, and creative play.

Dive into the Five Elements of Yoga on Tuesday, explore the Five Elements of Chinese Medicine on Wednesday, then integrate on Thursday with group discussion, creative explorations, and restorative group acupuncture. Each day, we will:

• Practice yoga asana, pranayama and meditation to experience the Elements within ourselves by integrating breath and movement. (Gentle yoga for all levels, with optional adjustments.)
• Enjoy engaging presentations to identify Elements within ourselves and in nature, recognize imbalance, and restore equilibrium.
• Connect with partner and group activities to deepen understanding and build community.
• Explore the Esalen landscape with nature connection activities and rituals to directly learn from the Five Elements in their natural splendor.
• Reflect with journaling and creative practices to integrate our embodied explorations.

Reconnect with your unique ancestral wisdom through the Five Elements of Yoga and Chinese Medicine. Take home tangible skills and practices to align with seasonal rhythms in your daily life. Connect with the beauty of your inner and outer wilderness, resourcing abundant wild, creative, infinite potential to fully thrive.  

We warmly welcome all levels of experience in yoga. We will have daily movement sessions, with modifications offered for most levels of mobility. This workshop is not appropriate for someone in a wheelchair.

Winter solstice is a time to reflect — to cultivate vitality and nurture ourselves. The dark days of winter are an opportune time to slow down and make space for self-care. This winter solstice yoga retreat will focus on cultivating inner awareness. By practicing in community, we build inner vitality and brightness to return home renewed.

During this retreat, we will combine three healing practices to  revitalize the body and calm the mind in the exquisite and rejuvenating natural environment of Esalen.

Together, we will focus our attention on being by using:

• Yoga to yoke body and mind for present-moment awareness.
• Meditation to cultivate concentration and empathy.
• Chanting with bhakti yoga, the practice of the heart.

The word solstice is derived from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still) because the seasonal movement of the sun’s path appears to come to a stop before reversing direction at the solstices. Moving into stillness, we can return to our lives refreshed and strengthened for the new year to come.

All levels are welcome.

Now more than ever, it is important we build practices that strengthen our internal resolve and self-resourcing amidst a dynamically shifting society. Together, we will listen to our heart’s wisdom in this rich four-day journey through sound, ceremony, and self-discovery.

In this intimate and transformative workshop, you will have the unique opportunity to experience multiple East Forest ceremony performances. These deeply meditative experiences will include both live and unreleased East Forest recorded music. Additionally, Radha will lead us in embodied movement, based upon the principles of self awakening yoga, somatic experiencing, and yin yoga, to create  an all-levels and accessible doorway to inner insights. Radha will also use her training with Transpersonal Psychology and with Thomas Hubl while working with participants.

We can discover the inner pathways to fortitude and healing through the primacy of our own heart-opening, felt experience, and:

• Intimate live music performances by East Forest
• Group co-creative musical process with East Forest
• Daily morning yoga and meditation practices
• Awe-inspiring time in nature
• Dance
• Group insight exercises
• Journaling

East Forest and Radha would like to offer a certain amount of scholarship to those in need. Please apply with this form. If further assistance would be helpful, you may also apply for an Esalen scholarship.

Please note: While the retreat space and exercises are conducive to deep inner work, the facilitators and Esalen do not condone the use of or provide substances of any kind.

Community is a state of being, belonging, and reciprocity. It is the practice of living in spiritual friendship (kalyanna mitta in Buddhism) within ourselves, with one another, with the more-than-human world, and with the world at large. The quality of our life experience is determined by the focus of our attention. While we have little control over the externals in our lives as human beings, we have a choice every moment in how we show up and what we give our attention to. As we navigate the joys and responsibilities of being human, the beauty and complexity of relationships, and the gravity of the challenges we face collectively, this retreat is an opportunity to restore inter-being and let everyday life — from the easy moments to the difficulties — be our sacred laboratory.

This month-long retreat will deepen your embodiment of true nature and interconnection through engaged meditation, eco-dharma, and the nine principles of relational mindfulness from Eden’s Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and Our Planet.

This work bridges personal and collective awakening. It invites us past the realm of concepts and ideas down into our alchemical bodies and our communion with the earth. It allows us to deepen our relational presence and the qualities of receptivity, attunement, co-creativity, collaboration, and Gaia consciousness. It takes us beyond duality into the balance of yin and yang,  being and doing, and light and dark to recognize the full spectrum of life as sacred. Most importantly, this work is about direct experience and embodiment. The more we get out of the way, the more life can guide us home.

Our exploration will include deep time in nature, relational mindfulness, somatic awareness, conscious movement/dance, conscious use of the imagination, and ritual — all held in kalyanna mitta. As part of our journey, we will engage in a powerful process of releasing limiting beliefs and setting conscious intentions for the new year — for ourselves and our world. All are welcome!

Soul is flow. It’s an ever-changing play of sensations and feelings. It’s how the deathless presence meets and moves our finite human body. In this workshop, we will reclaim the body-in-motion as a doorway to the life unfolding just under the surface of everyday forgetting.

A formless dance form, Soul Motion® allows for passionate, full-bodied movement as well as mindful inner explorations, art-making, ritual, and luscious lounging. Together, we will integrate conscious movement, body-based inquiries of Gestalt Practice, and the stillness of nature for a process to transform body, heart, and spirit.

Soul Motion is a meeting between self and other in a dance that is deeply creative, nourishing, and transforming. It is a movement toward the dynamic stillness at the center of all things — the place of rest at the heart of sound and motion.

During this week together, we will:

• Dance, inspired by a wide range of music and the great sound of silence, supported by the benevolent presence of earth and sky.
• Learn skills for stress reduction, relaxation, and renewal through conscious movement and stillness.
• Build resonance with the movements of life around us by moving from the inside out — alone, in pairs and trios, and as a group, sometimes indoors, sometimes in nature.
• Explore and express what is alive inside us through movement, awareness practices, and sharing in pairs and as a group.
• Experience through movement all the landscapes of relating — to self, to the world, and to the great Mystery that we also are.
• Spend time on the land in sitting and walking meditation, allowing ourselves to dissolve a little into space.

Open to anybody willing to move, pause, listen, and truly relax into one timeless moment. This workshop is especially helpful for people in the healing professions who work with clients, patients, and students.

Do you yearn to feel more pleasure, joy, and belonging? Do you long to recover the connection between your mind, body, and spirit?  

Come re-learn the strength and wisdom held within and expressed through your body. We will walk a path into your authentic core being, becoming more conscious and reconnecting with our natural essential resources, others, and nature.

In a safe group setting, this workshop will provide time and space to inhabit and discover our bodies more fully. With enhanced awareness, we’ll gain a greater understanding of our internal states, our ability to affect them, and how they impact our relationships.

Each day, we will focus on different developmental rights — the right to see, to speak, to feel, and more — and explore sections of our bodies with breath, sensations, emotions, and thoughts using contemplation, slow body movement, bio-energetic exercises, and group dynamics. We will listen to our inner wisdom through individual and group exercises to awaken the mutual intelligence that promotes collective transformation.

In this workshop, we’ll discover:

• How our body consciousness influences our processes, reactions, and responses to everyday life.
• Greater access to our body’s intelligence and body wisdom.
• Tools to self-regulate our emotional states.
• Valuable skills to communicate with more integrity, both verbally and non-verbally

These practices are organized according to birthing and developmental stages, exploring the body armoring — physical protective reactions to life experiences — that separate us from our biological origin as a liberated, healthy body.

Winter is coming…

Falling on the heels of the hibernal solstice, WITHIN is an invitation to turn inward — an opportunity to go deeper within ourselves in order to create new and to enhance existing practices that enliven creativity and curiosity burning within.

Traditional yogic wisdom speaks of pratyahara, which is best understood as "going to the source of the senses." We are embracing the idea that cocooning toward generative ends leads to better connection and relationships, heightened synergies to cultivate our creative impulses, and nurturance of the self and of others. Winter solstice celebrations are steeped in meaningful symbolic dualities: fire and light, life and death, the rising and setting sun and moon.

Go Within is a campus-wide winter festival, for all who seek the light that inspirationally pours through the darkness. Like our brother and sister wild animals, when we are drawn into the earth, into our bodies, we can welcome sleep to search and discover the cavernous parts within us. Through the embrace of the arts and our own creativity, we unleash the pulsating, reverberating inner curiosity that fuels imagination and sparks innovation.

To create and turn things outward, we must first look inward to explore with a greater heightened sense the great depths of what our hidden potentials hold. Winter is our mysterious season— she can be kind and soft. Rather than fear and avoid her, let’s celebrate her (and our own) complexity. To find and uncover our light, let’s together and individually embrace the dark, far reaches and prepare to launch into a new year ever more illuminated.

What to expect over this metamorphosing week:

• An artful juxtapositioning of nurture-inward and blossom-outward programming — along with the ever-present invitation to commune with yourself, and with the land.
• Embodiment and presencing practices, personal reflection, community-building, land-based inquiry, intuitive art making, and play.
• Deeply restful contemplative experiences, an exploration of dreamwork and dream medicine, wildcrafting and art making for actionable inspiration, transformative breathwork, and meditation.
• For all we nurture within and inwardly, we then need the space for release; to that end, you’ll enjoy nightly howls up into the big open starry sky, fireside music jams, site-specific sonic journeys, and dance parties designed to ignite the mind, body, and soul.

We hope you’ll join us.

Bring in the New Year with a rejuvenating week filled with meditation, music, and the time and space to release the old and welcome the new. We’ll slow down and experience the benefits meditation, gentle yoga, and music offer the body, mind, and soul. Buddhist teacher and author Lopön Chandra will share expert meditation guidance to help you release into grounded presence with ease and comfort.

In this workshop, you will have the opportunity to:

• Practice meditation inside and out in nature while gazing over the Pacific Ocean. Chances are you will spot whales migrating south for the winter.
• Learn various techniques for developing shamatha (“calm abiding”) meditation, including mindfulness of breathing and Buddhist-based awareness practices.
• Experience the healing benefits of mantra recitation, singing, and devotional music.
• Learn gentle and accessible therapeutic yoga, movements, and breathwork to access deeper states of meditation.

Musician and guest teacher Adrienne Shamszad will lead meditative musical experiences to support your release into grounded presence. You will learn centering breathing techniques, empowering vocal exercises, and sweet, memorable prayer songs that will accompany you throughout your journey at Esalen and as you transition into the new year.

This will be a week of fun, relaxation, and rejuvenation to get you recharged for the coming year. Whatever your spiritual path or meditation experience, you are welcome just as you are. No prior experience is required. Seated and supine meditations will be offered. All are welcome.

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Winter is coming…

Falling on the heels of the hibernal solstice, WITHIN is an invitation to turn inward — an opportunity to go deeper within ourselves in order to create new and to enhance existing practices that enliven creativity and curiosity burning within.

Traditional yogic wisdom speaks of pratyahara, which is best understood as "going to the source of the senses." We are embracing the idea that cocooning toward generative ends leads to better connection and relationships, heightened synergies to cultivate our creative impulses, and nurturance of the self and of others. Winter solstice celebrations are steeped in meaningful symbolic dualities: fire and light, life and death, the rising and setting sun and moon.

Go Within is a campus-wide winter festival, for all who seek the light that inspirationally pours through the darkness. Like our brother and sister wild animals, when we are drawn into the earth, into our bodies, we can welcome sleep to search and discover the cavernous parts within us. Through the embrace of the arts and our own creativity, we unleash the pulsating, reverberating inner curiosity that fuels imagination and sparks innovation.

To create and turn things outward, we must first look inward to explore with a greater heightened sense the great depths of what our hidden potentials hold. Winter is our mysterious season— she can be kind and soft. Rather than fear and avoid her, let’s celebrate her (and our own) complexity. To find and uncover our light, let’s together and individually embrace the dark, far reaches and prepare to launch into a new year ever more illuminated.

What to expect over this metamorphosing week:

• An artful juxtapositioning of nurture-inward and blossom-outward programming — along with the ever-present invitation to commune with yourself, and with the land.
• Embodiment and presencing practices, personal reflection, community-building, land-based inquiry, intuitive art making, and play.
• Deeply restful contemplative experiences, an exploration of dreamwork and dream medicine, wildcrafting and art making for actionable inspiration, transformative breathwork, and meditation.
• For all we nurture within and inwardly, we then need the space for release; to that end, you’ll enjoy nightly howls up into the big open starry sky, fireside music jams, site-specific sonic journeys, and dance parties designed to ignite the mind, body, and soul.

We hope you’ll join us.

Meditating in noble silence offers a special opportunity to focus inward, deeply connect with oneself, and reflect on life goals. The New Year, with its connection to the winter solstice and new beginnings, is the perfect time to silently journey inward. You are invited to set intentions and explore, through seated and moving meditation, themes of self-kindness, self-care, and nurturing.

This retreat is a quiet, reflective New Year celebration with the opportunity to discover a deep, centered place within. The week will be spent in periods of noble silence with two extended periods a day for various meditation practices. Lunch will be at a silent table. You will continue your meditation or join the open activities of the day at Esalen in mindfulness. Mark will guide you through a series of practices of both stillness and movement to build the momentum of concentration and awareness.

This mindful meditation will utilize the rich, sensual experience of Esalen — the sounds of the ocean, the feeling of the air, and the beauty of its colors and textures — as well as the rich experience of our own bodies and minds. Evenings will be open to mindfully enjoy the beauty and community, or you may choose to continue silence in inner retreat. New Year’s Eve at Esalen usually includes a community-wide celebration of some kind, which is an option but not required.

Recommended Reading: Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

The practice of painting is healing and meditative. No experience is necessary as we transform our everyday consciousness into the inner artist that lives in each of us. The week is designed to introduce the possibility that you are an artist, and that the artist path is one of joy, insight and awareness.

Our days begin with meditation, dream work and sharing about our paintings. Then we paint! Paul and an assistant provide personal instruction and one-on-one help with techniques. In just a few days, you can finish a colorful painting that reveals many of the deep inner patterns that connect you with your soul. “In my 30 years of teaching,” said Paul, “I have never seen one painting that was not beautiful.” After seeing mandalas made during Paul’s workshop, Eckhart Tolle commented, “These paintings carry a healing presence.” Deepak Chopra said, “These paintings are archetypal manifestations of higher consciousness.”

After the workshop, you will have the foundation for painting sacred art and mandalas at home, as you continue on this path of self-discovery and the newfound relationship to art and your soul.

This workshop includes a $25 materials fee.

Recommended reading: Divine Forces: Art that Awakens the Soul and Color Yourself Calm By Paul Heussenstamm

Winter is coming…

Falling on the heels of the hibernal solstice, WITHIN is an invitation to turn inward — an opportunity to go deeper within ourselves in order to create new and to enhance existing practices that enliven creativity and curiosity burning within.

Traditional yogic wisdom speaks of pratyahara, which is best understood as "going to the source of the senses." We are embracing the idea that cocooning toward generative ends leads to better connection and relationships, heightened synergies to cultivate our creative impulses, and nurturance of the self and of others. Winter solstice celebrations are steeped in meaningful symbolic dualities: fire and light, life and death, the rising and setting sun and moon.

Go Within is a campus-wide winter festival, for all who seek the light that inspirationally pours through the darkness. Like our brother and sister wild animals, when we are drawn into the earth, into our bodies, we can welcome sleep to search and discover the cavernous parts within us. Through the embrace of the arts and our own creativity, we unleash the pulsating, reverberating inner curiosity that fuels imagination and sparks innovation.

To create and turn things outward, we must first look inward to explore with a greater heightened sense the great depths of what our hidden potentials hold. Winter is our mysterious season— she can be kind and soft. Rather than fear and avoid her, let’s celebrate her (and our own) complexity. To find and uncover our light, let’s together and individually embrace the dark, far reaches and prepare to launch into a new year ever more illuminated.

What to expect over this metamorphosing week:

• An artful juxtapositioning of nurture-inward and blossom-outward programming — along with the ever-present invitation to commune with yourself, and with the land.
• Embodiment and presencing practices, personal reflection, community-building, land-based inquiry, intuitive art making, and play.
• Deeply restful contemplative experiences, an exploration of dreamwork and dream medicine, wildcrafting and art making for actionable inspiration, transformative breathwork, and meditation.
• For all we nurture within and inwardly, we then need the space for release; to that end, you’ll enjoy nightly howls up into the big open starry sky, fireside music jams, site-specific sonic journeys, and dance parties designed to ignite the mind, body, and soul.

We hope you’ll join us.

Imagine your relationship expressing the true depths of your love and commitment. If you are in love, this retreat is an opportunity to rise even higher in love. If you are in crisis, it is an opportunity for healing on the deepest level. We all carry some degree of negative programming from our past, and there are loving and effective ways to transform this programming into a positive and vibrant celebration of our connection.

During this workshop, you will experience exercises and practices for you to do with each other, therapeutic coaching of each couple by the Vissells, the support of other couples and time for sharing after each practice.

You’ll acquire a collection of tools for deeper appreciation and communication building, including healthy communication of feelings, our partner as a mirror, understanding and respecting each other’s differences, conflict resolution, healing past hurts, sexual wellness, inner child/inner parent, taking responsibility and developing a true inner connection. Take the opportunity to explore these tools with your partner during the workshop and learn to incorporate them into everyday life as you continue to improve your relationship at home. For more information, visit www.SharedHeart.org.

This workshop welcomes couples of all gender and sexual orientations.

Recommended Reading: To Really Love a Man by Joyce Vissell &  To Really Love a Woman by Barry  Vissell

Winter is coming…

Falling on the heels of the hibernal solstice, WITHIN is an invitation to turn inward — an opportunity to go deeper within ourselves in order to create new and to enhance existing practices that enliven creativity and curiosity burning within.

Traditional yogic wisdom speaks of pratyahara, which is best understood as "going to the source of the senses." We are embracing the idea that cocooning toward generative ends leads to better connection and relationships, heightened synergies to cultivate our creative impulses, and nurturance of the self and of others. Winter solstice celebrations are steeped in meaningful symbolic dualities: fire and light, life and death, the rising and setting sun and moon.

Go Within is a campus-wide winter festival, for all who seek the light that inspirationally pours through the darkness. Like our brother and sister wild animals, when we are drawn into the earth, into our bodies, we can welcome sleep to search and discover the cavernous parts within us. Through the embrace of the arts and our own creativity, we unleash the pulsating, reverberating inner curiosity that fuels imagination and sparks innovation.

To create and turn things outward, we must first look inward to explore with a greater heightened sense the great depths of what our hidden potentials hold. Winter is our mysterious season— she can be kind and soft. Rather than fear and avoid her, let’s celebrate her (and our own) complexity. To find and uncover our light, let’s together and individually embrace the dark, far reaches and prepare to launch into a new year ever more illuminated.

What to expect over this metamorphosing week:

• An artful juxtapositioning of nurture-inward and blossom-outward programming — along with the ever-present invitation to commune with yourself, and with the land.
• Embodiment and presencing practices, personal reflection, community-building, land-based inquiry, intuitive art making, and play.
• Deeply restful contemplative experiences, an exploration of dreamwork and dream medicine, wildcrafting and art making for actionable inspiration, transformative breathwork, and meditation.
• For all we nurture within and inwardly, we then need the space for release; to that end, you’ll enjoy nightly howls up into the big open starry sky, fireside music jams, site-specific sonic journeys, and dance parties designed to ignite the mind, body, and soul.

We hope you’ll join us.

The  mid-winter sky and sun-sparkled ocean waves will inspire your exploration of famed Esalen® Massage at its birthplace. This workshop, led by Perry and Johanna Holloman, will introduce the fundamental concepts and flow of this massage method through experiential exercises, brief lecture-demonstrations, and guided hands-on practice with classmates. At the end of the week, you will be able to give a basic massage at home to friends or family. This course is also appropriate for the professional seeking to recover the immediacy of touch and healing.

Participants will be introduced to the elements behind every successful massage experience, including breath awareness, mindful centering practices, movement, quality of touch, rapport and integration.

You will learn how to safely and easily apply the long, balancing strokes, and gentle stretches that are the foundation of Esalen bodywork.

Specific detail work will address painful physical constrictions and contribute to an overall release of tension fostered by working with, rather than on, your partner.

The instructors will provide at-the-table guidance for all levels of skill.

Participants will learn to safely and effectively share their experience about massage with each other.

This massage practice is designed to promote feelings of wholeness and reconnection with our natural state of wonder.

Teaching tools include music, massage tables, charts, lecture demonstrations, and experiential exercises to awaken the senses. Come prepared to enjoy the healing waters of the natural hot springs and the magical beauty of the Esalen grounds. All levels of experience are welcome.

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26 hours of CE credit will be provided by the faculty.

When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. In 2022, our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. So many of us today live life in a hectic fog, working too much and noticing too little.

There is a different way. For this weekend workshop, we will disconnect, slow down, and meditate together. We will learn the ancient Zen practice of sitting still, bringing our full awareness to what is now.

Our time together will follow a gentle schedule of sitting meditation punctuated by brief lectures, group discussion, relaxing meals, and soaks in the healing baths, all while exploring the process and practice of mindful living. We’ll be listening to our own bodies, noticing the food we eat, and truly engaging with the people around us – exploring what it means to be fully present.

Together we will explore everything you need to start, revive, or deepen your daily meditation practice. You will receive instruction in traditional Zen Buddhist meditation and we will sit together in guided sessions, practicing what we’ve learned. We’ll work together on everything from the mechanics of sitting posture to the mental barriers we all face. We’ll discuss how to overcome common obstacles to meditation and the many ways to incorporate more mindfulness and presence into our daily lives.

Whether you’re brand new to meditation or even if you’ve been practicing for years, join us in learning how to bring meditation into your life and mindfulness to your work and home – today and every day. Come reclaim a healthier and happier way to be

Recommended Reading: Buddha’s Office, by Dan Zigmond

The Esalen® Massage professional training teaches the famed Esalen method and its underlying philosophy through an immersive experience at the Institute. Designed for certified bodyworkers seeking to deepen their skills, this 100-hour curriculum builds on Esalen’s legacy of interweaving body, mind, and spirit in a natural setting. Participants will have time to reflect and nurture themselves at the redwood canyon and mineral hot springs. After course completion, these graduates may call themselves Esalen Massage professionals.

This workshop includes:

• The basic methods and techniques of Esalen Massage.
• Daily exercises in mindful centering and self-reflection.
• Awakening the senses and the art of being present.
• Compassionate communication, which is the heart of the work.
• Supporting the body-mind connection and process.
• Right livelihood ethics and business practices.

Through lectures, demonstrations, and supervised practice, you will learn optimum body mechanics to support the slow flow of our signature long strokes, three-dimensional detail work, assisted movement, and energy balancing. The results will permeate every aspect of your life. The workshop pace allows ample time for personal integration and practice.Successful completion requires full class attendance, two hands-on assessments, and fifteen documented massages at your home site.

This workshop offers CE credit through the NCBTMB (National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork). There is a $115 certificate fee. We look forward to sharing our love for Esalen Massage with you.

Advanced for post-certification students only. Please supply certificate type, source, date and number.

Recommended Reading: Full-Bodied Presence by Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, Touch, the Neurobiology of Health by Michael Changaris, and Bodymind by Ken Dychtwald.

Our sense of self develops in connection with others and our experiences in early relationships. They shape our beliefs — about ourselves, other people, and what is possible for us in our lives. While we cannot change the past, we can change the parts of our lives that we find difficult or unfulfilling through new experiences of contact. When our need for understanding and emotional attunement is met, our limiting beliefs can change.

In this workshop, we will:

• Learn skills that will increase our presence and awareness.
• Improve our ability to make good contact.
• Explore how to establish healthy boundaries.
• Develop and track awareness of our physical sensations and emotions.
• Communicate our needs and wants effectively.
• Discover habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating the type of connection we long for.

This workshop includes time for basic gestalt awareness practices, a mixture of didactic and experiential exercises, and individual “open seat” sessions with Dorothy and with the support of the group.

Recommended Reading: Korb et al., Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory; Mann, Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, Frederick Perls

The New Year is a powerful threshold. It is an opportunity to listen deeply, reflect, restore, and create anew. This retreat invites you on an embodied journey bridging personal and collective awakening. Rather than setting resolutions based on the myth of self-improvement, we will set intentions from the heart of our being to celebrate who we actually are — beyond limiting beliefs and the illusion of the separate self.

Acknowledging the gravity of the times we face, we will exchange judgment and striving for compassion, clear-seeing, and possibility. This retreat includes meditation and relational mindfulness, compassionate inquiry, conscious movement, somatic practices, deep time in nature, writing, and ritual.

During our time together, we will explore such questions as:

• What are my deepest intentions for the year ahead, my life, and our world in this age of global change?
• What lessons and hidden gems are there to harvest from the full spectrum of my life experience in 2023?
• What obstacles or limiting beliefs is it time to release and forgive — both personally and on behalf of our collective?
• How can I fully empower my essence or center, which is the source of my deepest power and my peace?
• How can I hold myself accountable for embodying my whole self?
• What is the key to balance, joy, and personal sustainability in this day and age?

The New Year beckons with possibility and renewal. If we are open to this invitation with wonder, curiosity, and courage, we can position ourselves to receive the true guidance from within and, at the same time, embrace the support of the universe on our journey.

This workshop includes an additional $40 faculty tuition.

Great leaders encourage collaboration, promote inclusion, and make others feel seen and heard. Their greatest tool? Compassion. Compassion isn’t a static trait that people either have or don’t have; we all have the ability to grow our compassion intentionally through practice. A clinical psychologist and renowned expert in compassion, Dr. Shapiro uses her scientific and clinical expertise to give us concrete strategies for compassionate leadership. You will be introduced to the surprising science behind compassion, the latest research on neuroplasticity, and the most powerful tools and practices to lead teams that are connected, collaborative, creative, and successful. You will be given a science-based roadmap to re-engineer internal states, manage stress, boost creativity, and cultivate a culture of safety and connection.

Together we will:    

• Explore the science of compassion and how it facilitates learning, connection, and trust.
• Train in powerful, science-based practices of self-compassion and mindfulness to cultivate essential skills for leadership.
• Develop our skills to build connection, safety, and belonging in individuals and teams.

This workshop is appropriate for anyone curious about leadership, compassion, and how to deepen a sense of community and purpose. These practices have the power to transform our individual and collective lives.  All are welcome.

This workshop includes an additional $390 faculty tuition. For anyone facing financial hardship, Dr. Shauna Shapiro invites you to contact her directly for tuition scholarship possibility.

Recommended Reading: Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Brain for Calm, Clarity, and Joy. By Shauna Shapiro

How much are you present in your own life? Most of us spend more time worrying about the future, replaying the past, or getting lost in fantasy than experiencing what life offers us right now. This moment is our opportunity to be directly intimate with our lives while learning through difficult lessons how to open our hearts.

Mindfulness — or vipassana — meditation is the practice described by the Buddha for developing wisdom, compassion, and peace by learning to be conscious and aware of what is happening in the present. Using breath, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions, we can find out how to be more fully awake. When we see directly that the nature of reality is change, we become more capable of meeting each situation with spontaneity, fearlessness, and love.

In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to this meditation practice and the principles on which it is based. There will be periods of silent sitting and walking meditation as well as discussions to help provide a foundation for your own mindfulness practice in your everyday life.

Recommended Reading:  Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to a Happier Life by James Baraz and  The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein