Workshops with CE Credits for Nurses

This weekend provides practitioners with the opportunity to up-level their current massage practice. Experienced Esalen Massage and Bodywork practitioners will offer unique explorations in the practices of gentle extensions and dynamic mobilization, along with soft and deep tissue release work. Range of motion and passive release techniques will also be brought onto the table, creating an atmosphere of innovation and exploration.

Refresh your technique and review EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) protocols and procedures, consult on your difficult cases, watch demonstrations, and practice EMDR in small, supervised groups. Instruction will focus on using EMDR with complex cases, resource development and installation, target development, and interweaves.
This EMDR course is for participants who have completed either part 2 training or an equivalent EMDRIA-approved course.

Patterns of our physical embodiment are revealed and expressed in our thinking, feeling, and lived histories. They are shaped through our interactions with the world, the places and spaces we inhabit, developmental contexts, and relational others. As body or character structure, these patterns become relatively fixed modes of being through which we both express and limit our evolving self and narrative. From a Gestalt perspective, these structures are creative adjustments that can be attended to and explored in the novelty of the present moment.

There is growing demand for massage practitioners who have mastered the art of moving deeply into the body with skill and sensitivity. As we open the body’s deeper soft tissue layers, “stuck” energy in the form of shortened, hardened tissue is mobilized, making this energy available to support us in the process of healing.

We live in a culture that extols constant productivity. From sunrise to sunset, we move at a breakneck pace in order to meet the day's demands. Is it any wonder that we have distanced ourselves from the body's signals of discomfort? Such signals may be a particular chronic ache or perhaps a more abstract sensation of overall stiffness. This path leads to decreased energy and an inability to embrace each day with optimal vitality.

The Hold Me Tight Workshop for Couples is based on practices drawn from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), attachment theory, and Sue Johnson’s best-selling book, Hold Me Tight. The work will be designed around seven conversations that have been shown to be essential to successful relationships. Relationships can be a cause of stress and pain or a source of comfort and joy. Couples will learn how to understand and improve their relationships via presentations, private exercises, conversations with relationship partners, and by watching video demonstrations.

Each of us walks around in our own energetic halo. Our energetic fields incline toward and veer away from each other, as we get closer. When two people touch, an energetic exchange begins to build. This energetic field is the heart and soul of Esalen Massage. Dean and Brita have taught the basics of massage around the world; this class promises a new dimension, with a heightened focus on energy and the nervous system. Learn how to quietly tune inward, activate your hands, palpate and recognize energetic fields, and to work with energy lines as well as the chakra system.

This workshop introduces the core concepts of Esalen Massage. Through brief lectures and demonstrations, and with plenty of personal supervision of hands-on work, the workshop presents essential tools and information including the long, integrating strokes and gentle stretches that are the foundation of Esalen Massage. The principle elements of bodywork, including breath and sensory awareness practices, grounding, movement and quality of contact, will also be introduced and practiced, creating a firm basis for learning massage.

One of R. D. Laing’s most seminal influences was the existential philosophical tradition, especially Sartre, Heidegger and Nietzsche. The core principle that binds these disparate thinkers together is the concept of authenticity. There is no better term to characterize Dr. Laing’s ethical approach to clinical intervention. We will devote our five days together to exploring what it means to be authentic. What is the relationship between authenticity and ethics? The self? Happiness? Can the search for authenticity drive us mad, or make us sane?

In these volatile times, it’s more important than ever to build an unshakable internal core of resilient, confident well-being. By growing the good inside and coming home to our true nature, we can find lasting happiness, self-worth and inner peace. In this experiential workshop, you’ll use recent neuroscience findings to tap into and grow inner strengths like grit, gratitude, self-respect and compassion. Each day in the morning, you’ll learn effective ways to release anxiety, hurt and anger; to heal from past painful experiences; and to rest in an open-hearted happiness.

Why do some leaders overcome impossible barriers, go beyond unbearable pressure and frustration and persevere in order to achieve outcomes seemingly beyond reach when others would give up? Through their desire for relentless improvement, leaders at the edge can unlock the highest levels of performance in themselves and others, making work a more exciting place to be. Leading at the edge enables people to "play to win" rather than simply "playing not to lose," a mindset that focuses on survival.

This advanced massage workshop focuses on the shoulder girdle and the neck. Imbalances and chronic tension around the scapulae, neck and shoulder are frequently caused by misaligned habitual movement patterns. These holding patterns result in kyphosis, elevated/retracted shoulders or a depressed chest, all of which affect one’s ability to breathe fully, supporting habits of fear and anxiety.

Our inability to handle personal criticism from loved ones is a common Achilles’ heel. The more deeply we love, the more fragile we feel. Soon, couples feel they are walking on eggshells, unable to express themselves honestly, and their love fades. Raising children and money magnify the problems even as they become the reason couples stay together. The result? Couples often remain legally married but psychologically divorced — in a minimum-security-prison marriage.

Acceptance and mindfulness-based practices are rapidly making their way into mental health care, medicine and society — to alleviate human suffering and also to nurture psychological health and wellness. This body of work offers a fresh perspective on psychological suffering and powerful clinical strategies that support meaningful life changes. In this workshop for mental health professionals, you will learn about one particular approach and set of evidence-based practices called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Zero Balancing (ZB) is a non-diagnostic system of healing which clarifies and coordinates energy fields in the body, balances body energy with body structure, and focuses on bone energy and the skeletal system. Science has shown that energy and matter are fundamentally coupled; psychology has shown that the mind and body are interconnected. ZB embodies both perspectives. It is based on the experience that balancing the body’s energy with its structure has a direct positive effect on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Learn the models and concepts of functional biomechanics as viewed from Jean-Pierre Barral's Visceral Manipulation approach. This method of evaluation and treatment is based on the concept that each of our internal organs rotates on a physiological axis. Focus is on the abdominal cavity and includes the organs, their membranes, ligaments, innervation, and their spatial functional interrelationships. You will be taught basic manipulations for correcting abnormal motions and stress patterns within this cavity. The manual techniques are not advised for pregnant participants.

Welcome to an experiential weekend of strengthening your inner resources and the natural resilience that supports your well-being and flourishing.

This workshop is a wonderful opportunity for you to enjoy the beauty of Big Sur and the healing waters of the Esalen hot springs, while gaining a foundation in the art and practice of Esalen Massage. During the week, participants will be taught massage methods that address the whole body: Esalen’s signature long flowing strokes that support feelings of wholeness, connection and integration; passive joint movement; and a variety of techniques to work with the major muscle groups of the body.

Join us for an exploration of the benefits of practice from three distinct, intertwined perspectives. Mornings will begin with intensive mindfulness and loving kindness meditation led by dharma teacher, lay contemplative and scientist Nikki Mirghafori. She will facilitate sitting and walking meditations and help participants refine and integrate their practice and insights. UC Davis neuroscientist Clifford Saron will lead a voyage of scientific discovery into brain function.