Beginning March 9, 2026 we will begin maintenance work at the baths on Mondays. Learn More.
Learn More.

Learn more.

Due to road closures along Highway 1 to our north and south, Esalen is closed through April 11.
Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
past workshop

Erotic Ecology: Awakening the Senses and Healing Through Nature

May 11–15, 2026

Lindsay Branham

Love is an ecological process.  — Andreas Weber

Most of us have lost our sensual connection to our bodies and to the living world. We have become numb to the Earth’s touch. This week-long workshop offers an immersive, slow, and sensual experience in the erotic ecology pathway — a space to reawaken our sensory, pleasurable, and nourishing connection to two landscapes: our bodies and nature. You are invited to slow down to let the Earth touch you, heal you, and love you.

Through embodied exploration, you can rediscover your birthright: an intimate relationship with the natural world as lover and healer. This kinship reminds us that, at our essence, we are not separate from the Earth — we are the Earth.

Set amongst Esalen’s sacred landscape, where redwood forest meets the Pacific Ocean, we’ll engage in practices designed to open you to ecological eros: the ever-living and abundant source of pleasure, aliveness, and vitality.

During our time together, you are invited to:

  • Learn and practice the eight stages of interoceptive awareness, our body’s portal to sensing the Earth.
  • Attune to the pace of nature and move at the rhythm of our surroundings.
  • Remember, feel, and embody your own aliveness.
  • Awaken a felt sense of kinship with the natural world.
  • Reconnect with your body’s innate wisdom and capacity for healing.
  • Expand in playful connection to nature through poetry, mandala-making, and dance.
  • Savor the nourishment of surrendering to the Earth’s embrace.
  • Practice consent in relationship to self, others, and nature.
  • Taste the deepest wellspring of rest and nourishment that is always available to us.
  • Learn how to speak the language of the Earth.
  • Connect your own erotic vitality to collective liberation and ecological justice.

You’ll be guided to return home with the kindled flame of a love affair with the Earth — an enduring resource in an increasingly disconnected world.

Recommended Reading: Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees by Lindsay Branham and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Lindsay Branham

Lindsay Branham, PhD, is an environmental psychologist and author exploring embodied and erotic ecology. Her first book, Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees, will be released in 2026. She is trained as a Buddhist eco-doula and delights in supporting others to rediscover a reciprocal relationship with nature. 

Full Bio