Workshops with CE Credits for Nurses

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) has helped transform the practices of thousands of professionals including life coaches, therapists, and health care workers. EFT uses elements of cognitive and exposure therapy combined with acupressure in the form of fingertip tapping on 12 acupuncture points. Clinical trials have shown that EFT tapping can rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories and incidents that trigger emotional distress. Clinical EFT is the evidence-based form of the method, with efficacy demonstrated in more than 100 studies.

Lymphatic Balancing (LB) is a curriculum specifically designed to utilize the philosophy, approach, and specialized manual lymphatic drainage techniques, which were originally designed to treat lymphedema, and apply them to the orthopedic patient. LB is be used to treat excess fluid or swelling, fluid stagnation or lymphedema in the cranium, spine, rib cage, visceral system, and the upper (shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand) and lower extremities (hip, knee, ankle, and foot).

Explore the world of spontaneous creation, an unpredictable territory beyond the expected where no rules apply. In a respectful and nurturing studio environment, you’ll receive individual attention and gentle guidance to help you open to inspiration, creativity, growth, and change. Using the powerful tool of “process arts,” you’ll be supportively invited to:
• Discover a creative voice that’s entirely your own
• Trust your intuitive perception, not the mind’s critical chatter
• Follow your energy rather than what looks good or makes sense

Fixed ideas and habituated behavior patterns can be great obstacles to individual, social, and environmental transformation. They can block our quest for self-determination, self-expression, and self-empowerment. When we restrict our life experience by staying in unhealthy thought and choice patterns, not only our lifestyle but also our health may be at risk. Some chronic illnesses may be influenced by long-term habituation to unhealthy life patterns, and many kinds of addictions are a direct consequence of chronic wanting and the desperate search for gratification.

This five-day retreat is open to anyone — currently in a relationship or not — who wants to explore the idea that it is possible and optimal to bring one's full heart to any important relationship. In a safe and supportive environment, this experience will offer ways to work with the parts of ourselves that stand in the way of giving and receiving love fully.
With the beauty of the Pacific coast to support and nurture their process, participants have the opportunity to explore many aspects of self-compassion, in the following ways:

This workshop presents the specialized moves and strokes of Esalen Massage — from the intentional, long, integrating strokes to the gentle rotations/twists, to the more defined, detailed moves that are essential to the Esalen Massage practice — with an emphasis on the pelvic floor, torso, abdomen, and lower back. The instruction will take place through plenty of demonstrations, movement exercises, and hands-on class time.

The function of our brains is to take care of us and to be in sync with the body’s systems. Trauma changes the way the brain processes information and the body engages with the world. Trauma makes people afraid to know what they know and feel what they feel. This is expressed in heartbreak, and the state of being out of sync with oneself and one’s surroundings.

Our sense of who we are develops in connection with others, and although we cannot change the past, we can change what we came to believe about our capacity for love and belonging. Such beliefs can shift in a group that meets our needs for attunement and understanding, supports us in identifying and expressing our emotions, and which is committed to practicing kindness, acceptance, and honesty.

The “Golden Elixir of Longevity and Immortality” is produced within our integrated and coherent body-mind-spirit – also known as our Three Treasures. Every day, in the rarified Esalen atmosphere, we will partake of the Golden Elixir. Primordial Qigong (Wuji Qigong) is known as the mother of tai chi, and was developed by Daoist monk Chang San Feng, the originator of tai chi. It evolved from concepts of Chinese internal alchemy, which originated in Chinese shamanism prior to recorded history.

Perhaps the greatest unanswered question in science is how consciousness and mind are related to the brain and body. Or more broadly, how do we as conscious beings relate to the rest of what we call physical reality?

Come join us as we cultivate greater wisdom, joy, health, and well-being. Drawing on practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness as well as revolutionary research in neuroscience, we will explore the transformational power of meditation. We can discover how the weaving together of lovingkindness and mindfulness supports us in healing and living a joyful and meaningful life. In this workshop, you will be taught simple yet potent meditation practices, including lovingkindness practices, mindfulness meditation, and mindful movement.

This weekend workshop offers the opportunity to replenish spirit and reconnect to the healing power of nature, while learning how to give an effective and pleasurable Esalen Massage.

Have you experienced loss and the natural emotions of sadness, anger, fear, and love? How do you process your losses and move through your life? Unfortunately, many of us have not found safe and effective ways of expressing these emotions, and we can feel stuck, both emotionally and at times physically, with the cumulative burden of our unfinished business.

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.

Self-compassion is the heart of mindfulness. It is warmhearted, connected presence during difficult moments in our lives. Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience that allows us to admit our shortcomings, motivate ourselves with encouragement, forgive ourselves when needed, care for others, and be more fully ourselves. Rapidly expanding research shows that self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional well-being, lower levels of anxiety and depression, healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and more satisfying personal relationships.

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.

This hands-on workshop teaches you how to utilize the points and pathways of acupuncture along with the energy, intention, and wisdom of your own hands to enhance the effectiveness of CranioSacral Therapy. From the rich knowledge of Oriental medicine, you can draw connections between the craniosacral system and organs, emotions, sounds, colors, tastes, and much more. This dynamic workshop also offers options in verbal dialoguing to enhance energy flow. Before participating in this course, students must complete Upledger's CranioSacral 1 and 2, either at Esalen or elsewhere.

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.