What Happens Here Doesn't Stay Here

The Healers in Renewal: Paras & Mike

They spend their lives caring for others, and found a way to care for each other.

Paras and Mike came to Esalen from San Jose. Both work in the emergency room, and, carry the steady weight of caring for others. The pace is constant and the stakes are high in the ER. Outside of work, life had brought additional strain. Paras is moving through grief after the loss of her brother, alongside the physical and emotional intensity of menopause, as well as deep concern for family back in Iran. It became too difficult to keep going at the same pace.

When she saw a weeklong massage workshop, she applied for a scholarship for them. They were accepted. Paras was coming to relax and breathe more deeply; Miike was focused on supporting her through the experience.

What unfolded was something they had not fully expected. As the days went on, the work began to include both of them. Touch became a way back. They slowed down. They listened. They practiced. Something shifted between them. Not just relief, but deeper connection. They left Esalen with a shared language they could carry home. They had a way of caring for each other, not only for others.

The Returning Student: Theda

She keeps coming back to see what else is possible.

Theda has been returning to Esalen since the 1980s, drawn again and again by curiosity about practice and what it makes possible over time. She first arrived as a student and seeker during a period of academic intensity, looking for a way to reconnect with herself beyond structured study.

A formative early experience came when she joined a workshop with Babatunde Olatunji. Through movement, drumming, and collective rhythm, she encountered something she had not felt before. A sense of freedom and recognition in the body. She has described it as the first time she experienced dance not as performance, but as something that unified mind and body rather than separating them.

Over the decades, she has returned in many forms, as a seminarian, work scholar, workshop participant, and assistant. Each return deepening a practice of inquiry and embodiment. What brings her back is simple and ongoing. It is a place where she can reset her nervous system, reconnect with her center, and return to herself.

In a world that often feels fast and unrelenting, Esalen remains a kind of refuge. A space to rest, practice, and continue beginning again.

The Wayfinder: Wuya

He didn’t think connection was possible, until he felt it.

Wuya has lived many lives already. His path has taken him through many worlds, studying Spanish in Puerto Rico, picking fruit and working construction in New Zealand, herding sheep and woodworking in Mexico, farming in Japan, mentoring youth in Taiwan. In California, he worked as a Cantonese and Mandarin interpreter in Monterey Bay, while also doing elder care and food delivery, supporting others as he searched for something more aligned, and for a sense of home.

When he arrived at Esalen, he was “in transition… looking for something more meaningful.” He didn’t expect much. “I thought it was just a tiny stepping stone,” he said. “I didn’t think I would have American friends. But it turned out to be the most amazing period of my life.”

Something shifted. One night, dancing with others for the first time, he felt free in his body, open in a new way. He began to meet parts of himself he had long kept at a distance, and found they did not need to be pushed away. He let people in.

Now back in China, caring for his grandmother in her final chapter, he carries that openness forward with a different sense of what’s possible.

The Seeker in Service: Joseph

He gives back to the place that helped shape him.

For Joseph, Esalen has played a pivotal role in shaping much of his life. He first arrived for night bathing to soak in the baths under the stars as a teenager in 1980. “It left a lasting imprint on my psyche.”

Three decades later, at a difficult crossroads, with his marriage ending and this iteration of his career not feeling aligned, he found his way back. What began was a steady rhythm of workshops, reflection, and growth. Over the years, he has come in many seasons. Alone. With partners. With friends. With his daughters. Each time, Esalen meets him differently.

In recent years, he has been called to stay longer, volunteering his time to be more deeply part of the land and the community. His connection has grown into a form of stewardship, encompassing multiple stints as a work scholar, where he studied and practiced curriculum and worked in the Farm & Garden as well as in the Kitchen.

“I wouldn’t be the person I’m still becoming without this place,” he says. He has paved the way for others to visit Esalen, recognizing when someone in his life might benefit from what he has found here. He has also chosen to include the Esalen Institute in his estate plan, a dedicated reflection of what the place has given him over a lifetime.

The Work Scholar Rising: Marea

She burned out trying to change the world, and learned transformation begins inside the body.

Marea came following years of environmental and social justice organizing during and after her studies at UNC Charlotte, where she studied Public Advocacy Communication and Urban Studies. She worked in student organizing and on grassroots campaigns, mobilizing students around environmental issues, including efforts to ban plastic grocery bags in California. The work was intense and became unsustainable. She felt burnout.

When Marea came to Esalen, she was carrying exhaustion and grief for our strained ecological systems. She could no longer override her depletion. A severe illness consumed her mere days before her scheduled arrival on the land. An experience that was for her an intense physical and spiritual purge. As she landed and began to heal, Marea learned to slow down. She began to notice her fear instead of pushing through it. “I have been living with a lot of fear,” she shared.

Something shifted in how she understood her work. She began to see that external change and internal transformation were inseparable. Now she carries that understanding forward, building a different foundation for the change she wants to bring into the world.

The Shared Journey: Kiri & Wind

They came to mark a moment. They left having shared many.

Kiri came to Esalen at a moment of reflection. Based in Colorado, she has spent years facilitating restorative circles in schools and communities, helping people listen to one another, speak honestly, and repair what has been strained or broken. Her work has long been about creating spaces where people feel seen and heard. At 70, marking both a milestone birthday and an anniversary of her cancer survival, she arrived with a desire to honor what she had lived through and to consider what still wanted to unfold.

She came with her friend Wind, choosing to share the experience with someone who knew her life beyond the surface. Together, they moved through the unfolding of each day through the rhythm of the land. Setting and companionship shaped their time. Mornings quiet. Evenings in conversation. Side by side, watching the horizon shift. For someone who has spent years holding space for others, their week-long workshop carried an inversion. Here Kiri was not guiding the circle. She was sitting inside it.