Workshops

Deep Bodywork®, when applied with great sensitivity, is one of the most effective healing modalities available to the professional bodyworker. It combines the integrating qualities of flowing massage with therapeutic deep tissue work to promote relaxation, restore tissue health, and support long-term structural change. Developed by the Hollomans over the course of 40 years, the form emerged from the knowledge brought to and created at Esalen in the ’60s and ’70s by early bodywork masters.

Through Deep Bodywork techniques, practitioners can enter the deeper soft tissue layers, freeing previously dense, hardened areas that may be chronically painful due to a lack of fluid exchange and energy flow. As these areas soften and “re-organize,” chronic tension patterns release, revitalizing living tissues with blood, lymph, and “Chi” (life) energy.

With a clear curriculum and moves designed for easy integration into any current practice, we’ll focus on intermediate and advanced deep tissue techniques to enhance the therapeutic skills of practicing bodyworkers, including massage therapists, acupuncturists, physiotherapists, and chiropractors. Our primary intent is to deepen participants’ understanding of how to apply effective deep work on the back, hips, and shoulders, utilizing practical methods for treating acute and chronic pain in these areas.

Emphasis will be placed on proper body mechanics so practitioners can learn to work with a sense of inner ease and avoid placing unnecessary stress on their own bodies. We’ll also explore how these techniques can complement other healing modalities in the treatment of soft tissue pain for a multidisciplinary approach to pain relief and functional restoration. Previous massage experience is recommended for this workshop.

Recommended reading: Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra

*30 CEU’s are available through the NCBTMB, provided by Deepbodywork® LLC for bodyworkers. There is an additional $50 fee for CEUs. Please contact johannaholloman@gmail.com or phollomanconsulting@gmail.com with any questions.

This workshop includes an additional $30 for materials.

Join Heidi Rose Robbins for an enlivening exploration of your astrological chart. Through group study, movement, writing, and poetry, we’ll bring our astrological map to life — and in so doing, we will practice loving, act courageously, and fully embrace our next life steps.

In this workshop, we will come together in the beauty of the circle to reflect and share wisdom. Your astrological chart is a lens through which you can see yourself and the gifts you have to share. As we study the map of the heavens from the moment we are born, we can become ever more generous and daring, naming our fears and uncertainties and courageously offering up our gifts to liberate love in others and ourselves.

During our time together, we will focus on:

• Exploring our personal astrological charts to uncover our greatest strengths, challenges, and clues about our future paths.
• Embodying astrological energies by moving and stretching our bodies into new spaces. No prior movement experience is required.
• Journaling and collage to visually and artistically express the planets and astrological signs in our charts.
• Using poetry to reveal and embody different aspects of our astrological map.

Once we receive your birth data, we will prepare your unique astrological chart, and you will receive it in the workshop! All are welcome. Previous knowledge of astrology, poetry, or movement is not necessary. Come with an open mind and a willingness to embrace the richness of your astrological chart.

Recommended reading: Everyday Radiance: 365 Zodiac-Inspired Prompts for Self-Care and Self-Renewal by Heidi Rose Robbins, Wild Compassion by Heidi Rose Robbins

Set out on an enlightening journey of self-discovery, guided by your own intuition and creativity! In this immersive workshop, you’ll uncover and access inner wisdom through the inspiring SoulCollage® method.

Developed by the late Seena Frost, this enchanting personal practice harnesses the magic of images, imagination, and intuition as a way to excavate insight and truth. Through this meaningful, affirming process, we create powerful collages representing the many facets of ourselves. With gentle guidance and just a few supplies — scissors, glue, and a wide selection of images — these collaged cards become gateways to the strength and wisdom we hold within, unlocking hidden treasures.

No prior art or writing experience is necessary, and all materials will be provided. All you need is an open heart and a curious spirit!

During this weeklong workshop, you’ll:

• Move toward increased self-awareness through card-making, journaling, meditation, group sharing, and other fun activities.
• Connect with your unique self through an exploration of your inner world and creative spirit.
• Leave with the beginnings of your own personal deck of collaged cards, a journal filled with your own wisdom, and numerous ways to continue the practice at home.

Carl Jung said, “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” Join us for an insightful, artful adventure toward empowerment and reconnecting with your inner self!

This workshop includes an additional $30 for materials.

Our ancestors explored spirit-led movement to embody ecstatic states for generations. Whether as a form of celebration, mourning, or prayer, ecstatic dance has long served as sacred medicine to heal the hearts of individuals and communities.

Join us on this sacred land for a transformative weekend of ecstatic dance ceremony — a journey to tap into the body’s ancestral wisdom, alchemize stored emotions, and liberate the spirit. Supported by live music provided by an award-winning ecstatic dance DJ, we’ll surrender to freeform movement, awaken our power, and manifest hope.

Together, we will explore:

• Ecstatic dance journeys created by a live DJ.
• Grounding prayers to root into the spirit and awaken ancestral wisdom.
• Partner games that spark joy, connection, and embodied trust.
• Mirroring and witnessing practices that deepen attunement and compassion.

DTO, an award-winning producer endorsed by Deepak Chopra, will share his musical gifts as part of the workshop. Blending live instruments, electronic sounds, and ancient mantras, his music creates sacred sonic experiences designed to elevate consciousness.

Let’s cultivate collective empowerment and create a fully inclusive dance community rooted in presence, reverence, and prayer to groove with the divine as an offering of love. No dance experience is required.

The body is a portal to the numinous dimensions of the soul’s life. It can lead us to healing and wholeness far beyond simple relief of traumatic symptoms — and to increased access to our feelings and a renewed sense of soulful aliveness. Jungian and depth psychology orient to the deepest currents of the soul, where dreams and life experiences take on cohesive wisdom and unfold in a way that guides the individual. However, developmental wounds, particularly those of a traumatic nature, can interrupt the psyche’s innate thrust toward wholeness.

In this workshop, we will work with authentic movement and other somatic practices grounded in the perspective of depth psychology to learn and experience how the body can serve as a gateway to realign with those innate healing currents.

Our ancestors understood that our dreams and visions often speak not just to the individual but to the community as well. In this realm, which Jung referred to as the “Spirit of the Depths,” we can reconnect with the creative unconscious for insights that remain elusive when caught up in the groupthink typical of the “Spirit of the Times.” We will practice both indoors and outdoors, surrounded by the stunning beauty of the natural world, where the inner meets the outer, to engage with these transformative energies as they emerge.

This workshop is oriented toward therapists interested in learning how to access the somatic underpinnings of psychic life and those committed to weaving the body’s way of knowing with life’s unfolding.

10 CE credits available — for additional information, click here. There will be a $70 fee for CE credit, payable directly to Barbara Holifield. If interested, you can contact her at barbaraholifield1@me.com.

Recommended reading: Holifield, B. (2025). Being with the Body in Depth Psychotherapy: Development, Trauma, and Transformation in the Unspoken Realm., Menakem, Resmaa (2017) My Grandmother’s Hands. Las Vegas, Nevada: Central Recovery Press.

What lies behind today’s evidence-based mind-body practices for well-being, resilience, and purpose? This three-day workshop explores the deep lineages and sacred traditions from which many modern methods arise, guided by teachers who walk both worlds of rigorous science and timeless wisdom.

At MD Anderson Cancer Center, Alejandro Chaoul pioneered programs to support patients with chronic illness through Tibetan Yoga, meditation, and integrative medicine. At UCSF, Eve Ekman developed and researched secular, evidence-based tools to strengthen emotional resilience and prevent burnout among healthcare providers.

Together, they will share cutting-edge science and evidence-based practices alongside the sacred dimensions often missing from conventional approaches to healing and renewal.

Participants will explore:

• Tibetan Yoga of Renewal through breathwork practices
• Mapping emotions underlying stress
• Sacred syllables and mantra to protect the mind
• Meditations to uplift and expand heart and mind

This workshop offers practical, research-informed tools and a sacred perspective to rekindle creativity, ease emotional distress, and reconnect with meaning and purpose — for patients, providers, seekers, or anyone on the path of healing.

This workshop has two options on length of stay: a traditional weeklong of two nights or a long weekend of three nights. The extended stay workshop will include more workshop content which is reflected in the extended stay schedule.

The Artist lives within everyone! Art can be made out of just about anything! It’s a time to leave the critic behind and allow oneself to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit. It’s also a time to enjoy the company and camaraderie of like-minded peers. Now is your time to discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and to find out how meaningful and grand a shared, creative experience can be.

In this transformative workshop, we will use repurposed material in a whole new context of re-creation.

Come experiment with a vast array of reused materials to create mixed-media mosaics, sculptures, and collages. There will be an assortment of recycled glass, metals, wood, plastics, paper, photographs, fabrics, and old artifacts — bits and pieces of the past and present.

In a beautiful, nurturing, supportive setting, we will reclaim and shape society’s scraps and discarded objects into re-imagined meaning. Find your own inner voice of expression as you delve into the process of creating art out of different materials and mediums,  and learn new skills.

Not only will you have the opportunity to explore your own expression and immerse yourself in solo creations, but we will also engage in a collaborative group project to enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.

There is a transformative joy that comes from engaging with others in the artistic process. It opens doors unseen and forges deeper bonds between people. This exciting, shared experience teaches us how beautiful it is to break down barriers and collaborate.

This workshop is geared toward anyone with the desire to create. From the beginner to the advanced, this is a time to explore new possibilities. Together, we will:

• Explore our own creativity and immerse ourselves in solo artistic expression.
• Engage in a collaborative group project and enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.
• Leave the critic behind and allow ourselves to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit.
• Discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and how meaningful and grand a shared experience can be.

If there are any recycled materials, special mementos, poems, or photos you would like to bring and include in our creations, please feel free!

This workshop includes an additional $115 for workshop materials.

Our clown is the authentic, curious, and playful version of ourselves. Clowning as a life practice is the balancing of our light and shadow while laughing at our attachments. We will explore being soft, brave, and available to the moment. This workshop is an immersion practice that explores our most vulnerable and creative self.

Using tools found in improvisation, meditation, altered states, and movement practice, we will explore clowning as a spiritual practice. The work begins with exercises that help you drop into the body and descend from the mind to access the clown state. With the foundation of a sacred container, we will engage in primarily nonverbal, physical games and rituals that give birth to organic impulses inspired by the child within. There is no pressure to perform, but an invitation to get lost inside yourself, an openness to go beyond your comfort zone, and a willingness to play within the moment.

There is nothing to learn but rather much to uncover — to allow us to move through life in a more open state, with a greater connection to ourselves and the world. This workshop is physical, open, and accessible for diverse bodies. Come unravel the clown within! Please come unprepared and ready to explore.

Recommended reading: Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir, Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

When you engage with another — whether a lover, friend, or colleague — are you doing what they want you to do or what they allow you to do? What is the difference, and why does it matter?

Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent is a groundbreaking model of relating that brings greater clarity and authenticity to our relationships in all areas of life. It creates a practice of separating out receiving and giving, which will challenge you, surprise you, and teach you a lot about yourself! As you become exquisitely aware of your desires and limits and how to communicate them, you will be free to make more embodied choices.

In this small group workshop uniquely crafted for Esalen, we will build on the somatic experience of the Wheel of Consent and its natural outgrowth of personal empowerment. We will expand our views to look more closely at our own power and how we can use it well.

This workshop will include curriculum, discussion, and practices to support participants in:

• Taking action for yourself or for another, and knowing the difference.
• Understanding who is doing and who it is for, and knowing the difference.
• Noticing, trusting, and valuing both your desires and your limits, which leads to empowerment and self-responsibility.
• Defining what power is (and isn’t), making friends with it, and using it beneficially.
• Accessing parts of yourself that have been hidden away that are ready to be seen, appreciated, and healed.

The Wheel of Consent is best experienced somatically — in the body. We will include the option to learn through touch, and, of course, you never have to experience touch you do not want — ever.

This workshop includes an additional $50 of faculty tuition.

Recommended reading: The Art of Receiving and Giving: The Wheel of Consent, by Betty Martin

A journey to heal oneself and awaken deeply from within. Through meditation, yoga, and time in nature, we will tap into the stories our bodies have to tell and develop skills to nourish ourselves in 2026.

This workshop focuses on the transition from one year to the next as an opportunity to purposefully cultivate a sense of renewal. During our time together, you will be guided to explore and experience what this means for you personally.

Ritual invocations of energy and the power of the Esalen grounds themselves will support your healing journey by providing an intentional space for you to reflect on all you have experienced individually and collectively within your community during the past year.

Throughout the weekend, we will share new ways of grounding and connecting to the sacred energy of nature and the elements constantly surrounding us.  This supports the act of renewal, cultivates greater presence, and creates capacity to build and replenish energy throughout the coming year.

In this workshop, all participants are invited:

• To understand themselves at a much deeper level.
• To begin meaningful personal transformation and discover tools to support their work.
• To gain a heightened sense of awareness and presence in ritual practice.
• To experience new ways of relating to nature, to receive the energy around them, and to form relationships with the natural world.
• To experience how healing resonates within a community.

Explore your unique creative process and express your human potential in a weekend deep dive with The Brothers Koren.

Discover your distinct creative personality and how to find harmony and coherence in your own creative process.

The brothers specialize in facilitating a safe space for you to move beyond the inhibitions and align to your authentic expressive impulse by identifying and supporting your distinct voice and creative code.

By using their embodied voice techniques, creative process design flow, and collaborative games, you will learn how to hold a space for playfully encountering your own brilliance and bring your creative expression to life.

Bring your voice, your ideas and your curiosity. All creative modalities are welcome. Art, music, voice, entrepreneurship, anything!

The brothers believe that almost everything we do in life involves a level of creative energy; from writing a song or painting a picture, to choosing what to wear in the morning and having a conversation – we are constantly improvising and using our creative life force.

However, many of us feel disconnected, blocked  and disempowered in our creative process. Some of us end up feeling stuck or shut down in different stages of our creations, whether experiencing trouble starting or finishing ideas.

What might be possible for you if your creative process was back in flow? The brothers are ready to help you reframe what it means to be creative, and to connect back to the way nature intended it.

Life is a radically creative act. Join them and explore what is possible!

No creative experience necessary.

Love is the bridge between you and everything. — Rumi

What happens when we devote ourselves to attuning the heart through sound, breath, movement, and presence? In the beautiful setting of Esalen Institute, on the threshold of World Sound Healing Day and Valentine’s week, we’ll gather to awaken and stabilize the frequency of love in our bodies, relationships, and dreams.

Each day will offer gentle yet profound practices that soothe the nervous system and restore connection to self and source. Through seven sound journeys featuring Alchemy crystal singing bowls, authentic movement, deep listening, and nature immersion, we invite you to deepen into the sacred rhythm of your heart’s knowing.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

• Release stored tension and attune to the intelligence of love.
• Engage in gentle movement and deep listening practices that open the body to presence and grace.
• Explore the science and sacred roots of vibrational healing.
• Join in a co-creative sound and painting practice in the Art Barn.
• Reflect and integrate through journaling, heart-centered sharing, and the creation of a sonic valentine for the self, for others, and for the Earth.

Midweek, we’ll be joined by Big Sur elder Damaris (Penny Vieregge), who will bring a luminous presence and the ecstatic poetry of Hafiz to uplift our hearts. You will also be able to learn the basics of how to play crystal singing bowls.

This is an invitation to soften into self-love, restore your sense of wonder, and radiate heart-based energy into a world that deeply needs it. Whether you come solo or with a partner or friend, you’ll leave with renewed vitality, soulful connection, and tools to carry the frequency of love forward.

Vibration Transformation is the art and practice of transforming the vibrations (or energies) of your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, words, and actions to align with your truest, deepest, highest self.

As Albert Einstein said, “Everything in life is vibration.” We are all vibrational beings. Everything in our universe is made up of energy and vibrations. We are constantly interacting with the people, places, and things around us through our own personal vibrational field. If we choose, we can transform our vibrations to match our most authentic selves and become capable of so much more.

By creating daily health and wellness practices, you will clear stress and tension to heal and restore yourself — shifting vibrations to consciously manifest the life you envision for yourself and the world. How we treat our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits — the way we eat, move, breathe, meditate, believe, rest, and sleep — impacts our energy in both life-affirming and life-depleting ways, affecting our overall vibrations.

In this workshop, we will explore:

• Nutrition
• Movement
• Conscious breathing
• Meditation
• Mental and emotional management
• Physical cleansing
• Positive affirmations and non-denominational prayer
• Rest, relaxation, and sleeping

By crafting your own one-of-a-kind daily health and wellness program, you’ll be able to pursue the things that matter most to you in life, raising your self-worth and creating a vibrational field that lets you meet your full potential.

Deep in the human mind and body are vast capacities for self-transcendence, felt in experiences of awe, compassion, gratitude, and profound beauty. These emotions enable us to gain perspective on our stresses, quiet the voice of the transactional self, orient to the well-being of others, and find a commitment to all sentient beings. These emotions lie in our deepest connections with others, the arts, nature, and ethical and spiritual ideas about living the good life.

In this paradigm-shifting workshop, we will review the latest scientific understandings of these self-transcendent experiences. By engaging in evolutionary and neuroscientific approaches to the mind, and considering the cultural meanings of these states, we will begin to tease out where this feeling lives in our own minds and hearts, and how to cultivate it more deeply.

Together, we will explore a number of practices to experience this transcendent amalgam of awe, compassion, gratitude, and beauty. These practices, which will make up at least a third of our time together, will range from storytelling to slow looking at art, awe walks, and ways to encourage kindness.

During our time together, we will have the opportunity to:

• Discuss the latest science and scholarship on awe, compassion, gratitude, and beauty.
• Engage in a wide-ranging set of social and personally reflective practices related to these emotions.
• Learn about cultural expressions of these emotions in the arts, in spiritual traditions, and in our intellectual and cultural history.
• Explore ways to cultivate these emotions in our social lives.
• Develop an awareness of possibilities for self-transcendence in everyday life.

Join us for this incredible opportunity to refresh your heart and mind in the breathtaking natural setting of Esalen and Big Sur.

Please bring a notebook or a journal and a pen.

Recommended reading: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner

For one human being to love another, that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Explore intimacy, love, and sensual pleasure — and learn to connect and successfully fulfill your desires. Nothing will enhance the quality of our lives more than deepening the quality of our relationships, particularly those with whom we are most closely connected. This experiential workshop provides the tools necessary to experience heightened levels of mutual fulfillment and well-being.

Together, we will recognize and embody the qualities integral to the process of creating and sustaining intimacy, such as sensitivity, authenticity, vulnerability, courageousness, and commitment. We will engage in specific practices that will promote the cultivation of these and other qualities in a safe, supportive, and inspiring learning environment. The workshop is designed to enhance your capacity for joy, passion, pleasure and spiritual fulfillment. Offering ways to harness the hidden strength and creativity that lies in your shadow. The sessions will involve group work, mindfulness practices, shadow work, open dialogue, and experiential exercises, in pairs and small groups.

By the end of our time together, you will be encouraged to integrate practices that can support a life of open-heartedness and reconnect you with the deep well-being that is your fundamental birthright.

CEU credits are available. Please see the workshop assistant for more information.

Recommended Reading: 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married, Happily Ever After… And 39 Other Myths About Love,

An End to Arguing, and Secrets of Great Relationships by Linda and Charlie Bloom

How we sit, stand, move, and respond to our inner and outer world reflects deeply ingrained patterns wired into our nervous systems since childhood. They reflect our early solutions to physical survival in our family system. Out of awareness, these beliefs and strategies can still run our adult lives, limit our choices, and prevent physical ease and emotional healing.

If you still have pain or limitations from a past injury, it is usually because many other areas in your body had to overwork to protect and avoid using the injured area while you were recovering. These unconscious compensations can create an imbalanced workload and, eventually, new issues elsewhere in our body that prevent complete healing.

Using CFR®, we slowly explore and deeply sense small, gentle movements that bring these hidden patterns into awareness. When our genius nervous system becomes aware of a habit that is no longer useful, it extinguishes it. A greater experience of self-trust and self-worth is uncovered. A new sense of self-love, which comes from paying attention to your details without judgment, usually emerges.

This workshop is for the sedentary who want to become more active, the highly active who want to avoid injury and gain a competitive edge, and the chronically tired and stressed who want to improve breathing, posture, and flexibility. It is for those who have experienced physical injury or emotional trauma and those in helping professions who wish to enhance outcomes for clients and patients.  

You will leave equipped with simple yet effective tools for continued self-healing. Your discoveries will lead to a state of awe about what is possible in your body, your movement, and your life.

Recommended Reading: Somatics by Thomas Hanna and The Elusive Obvious by Moshé Feldenkrais

To encounter someone, something, or someplace implies that it’s unexpected or a surprise. Encountering the moment means coming face-to-face with the unknown. In movement practice, we train ourselves to stay open, curious, centered, and responsive at the front edge of any encounter — counterbalancing those innate primal reactions to fight, flee, freeze, or please.  

Rather than withdrawing, playing it safe, or tolerating things you shouldn’t, imagine being adept at staying present and standing your ground clearly and authentically. Picture a world where we are able to express opinions, feelings, discontents, and appreciations skillfully while remaining wholeheartedly open to outcome and change.  

In this workshop, within a supportive and challenging environment, we will create “safe emergencies” — situations intense enough to command our attention that are managed with care and support, to help us risk moving beyond habitual self-defeating patterns. Participants can receive real feedback and gain plenty of practice making new choices in relation to others.  

Recommended Reading: https://www.andreajuhan.com/content/open-floor-encounter-dance-therapy-and-transformation

Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and reflect. We rarely allow ourselves the opportunity to stop and look at what is changing — or discover what we truly need to feel fulfilled.

This very interactive workshop will include lots of experiential exercises. Though we will cover valuable theory and there will be plenty of reflection time, this will not be a series of talks/lectures. There will be movement, coaching, a little dance, and lots of opportunity to share insights. Active participation is strongly encouraged; however, participation will always be voluntary.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to challenge,nurture and express ourselves. Participants will have the opportunity to learn what brings them joy and purpose, and then cultivate a vision to serve as a foundation for both the next year and next phase of life.

We will engage in a progression of individual and group exercises focused on reflection, movement, and listening to our inner wisdom. We’ll discover how to navigate major life transitions and learn skills to access our intuition. We will uncover the behaviors that support our overall success, and reveal which ones undermine our goals and fulfillment. If you are passionate about having a more powerful and authentic impact on the world around you, this program of renewal will be especially valuable.

Join LaVerne McLeod and Melanie DeMore for a weekend of exploration and celebration of Black History Month as we express ourselves, connect, play, and honor humanity.

Together, we will explore what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes to understand and empathize with viewpoints that might differ from our own. We will build a safe container of trust and get curious about what might be lying beneath the surface —  while moving toward resilience and empowerment.

Using empathy, songs, visualization, and movement exercises, we will connect and relate to one another, letting go of what no longer serves us and exploring effective responses to life’s challenges.

In this workshop, LaVerne McLeod will lead the group in empathetic practices that call forth bridging gaps of separation. In celebration, Melanie DeMore, a vocal activist, will lead soulful ballads to energize spirits and exemplify the rejuvenating power of healing through music.

This workshop is highly recommended for all races, identities, gender expressions, and nationalities. It can be a creative catalyst for educators, therapists, and artists that leads to one’s own inner healing. Those in leadership roles working with diverse populations may find this workshop to be a source of empowerment. Together, let’s connect our heart centers to the path that nourishes and heals us.

‍Recommended reading: Corn Hollow, 2nd edition by LaVerne Hillis McLeod and The Crossroads of Social and Climate Justice by LaVerne Hillis McLeod.

* Locals rate available for locals who do not require overnight accommodations. Click “Register Now” for more information. Valid ID required.

Have you noticed the painful effects of self-judgment? Do you feel tormented by negative critical self-talk and the harsh words of the inner critic?  Are you prone to judging everything you do as not good enough, not quite right, or not up to some impossibly high standard? Do you find yourself harshly judging your meditation, your practice, or your other spiritual practices?

If you wish to be free from the influence of the inner critic, this workshop offers tried-and-tested methods for overcoming the challenges of self-judgment.

During this course, you will be shown:

• How to recognize judging thoughts.  
• To deal effectively with inner critic attacks.
• How to distinguish between negative judgment and wise discernment.
• The importance of self-acceptance, self-compassion, and  love as antidotes to the critic.
• The need and role of humor in helping us with the critic.
• To cultivate forgiveness in response to judgment.

The course will be a combination of talks, interactive exercises, mindfulness, self-compassion, loving kindness techniques, and meditations. This will be a practical and experiential course taught with lightness, compassion, humor, and the need to not take ourselves too seriously.

Recommended reading: Make Peace with your Mind – How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic, by Mark Coleman

This workshop includes an additional $100 in faculty tuition.

This workshop explores ways of representing and befriending our inner experience. Therapies that work all start from a basic sense of calm and safety. The calmer we are, the more we can allow ourselves to know what we know, and to feel what we feel.

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. This course explores how, because of altered biological systems, traumatized people continue to be trapped by their history and react to current experience in a myriad of ways as a replay of the past, and shows ways to break the cycles of re-enactment and suffering.

We will study and experience the capacity of EMDR, yoga, Internal Family Systems, sensorimotor practices, psychodrama, theater work, and neurofeedback to help people overcome a traumatic past and regain the capacity to be fully alive in the present.

Bring a notebook. Wear clothing that allows free movement as you are able.

Recommended reading: The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van de Kolk

The mid-winter stars and sun-sparkled ocean waves—with glimpses of whale flumes—form a striking backdrop for exploring the renowned Esalen® Massage at its place of origin. This workshop offers an introduction to the foundational concepts and flow of the Esalen approach through a blend of experiential exercises, lecture-demonstrations, guided hands-on practice, and personal reflection.

Participants engage with key elements found in meaningful massage experiences: breath awareness, mindful centering, body mechanics, quality of touch, rapport, and integration. Long, flowing strokes and gentle stretches—hallmarks of Esalen bodywork—will be explored, alongside methods that may support the release of physical tension through an approach that emphasizes working with, rather than on, the body.

The workshop is open to a range of experience levels, from those encountering bodywork for the first time to professionals seeking fresh perspectives. Instruction includes at-the-table guidance, group discussion, and opportunities for participants to share and reflect on their own experiences.

The practice of Esalen Massage invites connection with one’s sense of wholeness and wonder. Teaching tools include music, charts, massage tables, and exercises designed to awaken the senses. The healing waters of the hot springs and the natural beauty of the Esalen grounds offer a supportive context for this immersive experience.

All levels of experience are welcome.

26 hours of continuing education provided by the faculty through Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association Teachers.

If your thoughts, decisions and actions are not being determined by your own highest values, they are certainly being determined by someone else’s. — Living a Values Based Life

Join this engaging, interactive experience designed to support the discovery, clarification, and meaningful application of your highest personal values. It’s a surprising fact of life that most people do not know — or cannot clearly articulate — what their values truly are. Guided by Robert MacPhee’s unique and accessible approach, this process is crafted to reduce confusion and enhance clarity with simple ways to bring your discoveries into your daily life.

Together, we’ll explore your values in deep, experiential (and fun!) ways that address a variety of learning styles. The journey can be relevant across all areas of life — at home, at work, in relationships, as a parent, and as a leader.

In this workshop, you’ll be invited to:

• Explore the areas of your life that feel most meaningful to you.
• Identify qualities and characteristics you most want to express.
• Learn how to implement and apply what you have discovered to be most important to you, both personally and professionally.
• Begin crafting a personalized plan that aligns your daily life with living a truly values based life.

Gaining clarity around your values can become a powerful compass, gently guiding your decisions, your attention, and your time. This workshop offers a space to reconnect with what feels most authentic, purpose-driven, and meaningful for you.

Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying is one of the oldest and most comprehensive systems of concentration in the Buddhist tradition. Sometimes called the Elephant Path, this approach was originated by the great Buddhist master in 506 A.D., and it is now the main method of training the mind in the Tibetan tradition.

In this weekend meditation retreat, participants will learn the stages of the Elephant Path using the body as the primary object of concentration. Students will also receive an introduction to the basic stages of ordinary insight. By the end of our time together, students will have all the instructions necessary to successfully incorporate a robust meditation practice into everyday life.

Training the mind in this way can lead to a direct experience of equanimity and can put the student in a range of practice wherein pointing out the real nature of the awakened mind is possible.

No experience with meditation is required. If you have your own preferred meditation pillow and mat, please bring them.

Everything begins by leaving. — Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Life invites us into change, but rarely teaches us how to move through it well. Whether it’s a relationship ending, a role dissolving, a chapter closing, or a calling emerging, you may find yourself standing at the edge of what was — and unsure how to step into what comes next.

This immersive weekend retreat is a sacred pause for anyone navigating change. Through nature-based ritual, creative altar-making, reflective writing, and caring community, you’ll learn how to tend life’s thresholds not as chaotic interruptions but as initiations into a deeper sense of purpose.

Guided by renowned artist, author, and ritualist Day Schildkret, you’ll explore the four notes of Threshold Literacy:

• Cherishing: Honoring what has been lost and what still remains
• Inventorying: Seeing clearly what serves and what no longer does
• Asking: Holding the big questions that shape who we are becoming
• Aligning: Choosing what matters most and how we want to walk forward

Using the acclaimed Morning Altars practice, you’ll forage for meaning, create ritual altars in nature, and experience the power of communal witnessing. This is not a weekend of quick fixes; it’s an invitation to slow down, tend what’s tender, and mark the sacred moment you are living through.

Whether you’re grieving a loss, stepping into a new role, or simply sensing that something is shifting within, this retreat is designed to support you in crafting your own modern rituals of change.

No prior experience with ritual, art, or nature work is necessary. Just bring your truth, your questions, and your willingness to cross.

Recommended Reading: Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art, and Ritual and Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change by Day Schildkret.

This workshop includes an additional $10 for materials.