Our workshops are designed to support you in the challenging work of self exploration, in partnership with some of the leading minds of the day. Join us in discovering the next frontiers of individual and societal transformation.
Interested in a scholarship?
Learn MoreLove 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 weekend workshop offers an immersive experience in the erotic ecology pathway — a space to reawaken our sensory, pleasurable, and nourishing connection to two landscapes: our bodies and the Earth. You are invited to slow down and discover how to let the Earth touch you, heal you, and love you.
Through embodied exploration, you can rediscover your birthright: an intimate relationship with the Earth 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 forests meet the Pacific Ocean, we'll engage in practices that are designed to open you to ecological eros: abundant source of pleasure, aliveness, and vitality.
Together, we will:
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: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
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For thousands of years, autumnal holidays such as Samhain, Hallowe’en, and Vetrnætr have served as ceremonial foundations — connecting pre-modern peoples to landscape, ancestors, and ritual time. Many cultures believe “the veil thins” during this time, letting enchantment flood back into our world. The time is rife with opportunities to renew sacred relationships with the Earth, ourselves, and beings seen and unseen.
As the deciduous trees draw inward to direct energy into their roots, we too may feel drawn to our deeper inner worlds. The Big Sur wilderness — Esselen Tribal territory — is a fertile habitat for mind and spirit, and a potent domain for ritual to support transformation during this liminal season. Approaching the landscape as our teacher and guide, we will engage with the natural world in an embodied ecological context and explore the mythological and psycho-spiritual dimensions of land connectedness.
Drawing from their own European earth-based kinship traditions while holding a larger frame of pancultural land relationship, facilitators Fletcher Tucker and Micha Merrick will offer daily encounters with the medicinal, ecological, and ritual dimensions of plants found across the Northern Hemisphere. Diverse practices, including sound journeywork and guided meditations, will aid us in cultivating enhanced awareness, interconnectedness, and ceremonial reverence. Rooted in the Gestalt tradition of Esalen, we will build a container of safety and heart-centered community to connect meaningfully with ourselves and one another. Over five days of presence, play, and practice on the land, we will depart from modernity’s anthropocentric paradigm and descend into the ancient, potent, animate world of kinship and enchantment.
This workshop includes an additional $60 for Materials and Park fees.
Important notes: This retreat will include one full day of immersion in the Big Sur wilderness, with a hike up to three miles. Please be aware that the hiking terrain can be steep, rugged, and sometimes strenuous. There may be prolonged sun exposure. Participants must be able to hike and carry what they need for the day: two liters of water, a pack lunch provided by Esalen, and sun protection. Other workshop sessions will be mostly situated outdoors on the Esalen property.
We are living through a polycrisis — a time of profound unraveling and emergence. Old systems and structures are collapsing while new possibilities stir beneath the surface. This shift isn’t just happening “out there.” It is alive within each of us, inviting us to transform inherited stories into new ways of being, relating, and belonging.
American Detox is a bold and embodied exploration of how we’ve been shaped by history, trauma, and culture and what it’s going to take to heal. Based on the critically acclaimed book by Kerri Kelly, this journey invites us to challenge the myths that have shaped our reality — separation, supremacy, and scarcity — so that we can move toward personal and collective wholeness. Through dynamic movement, radical inquiry, and creative engagement, we will:
We are being called to rise to the occasion — to take stock of what is no longer serving us so that we can step into our full power and potential. This retreat is designed to facilitate just that — an awakening of the mind, body, and spirit that enables us to meet this moment and shape the future that we all deserve.
This workshop offers a limited number of faculty scholarships, including various room options to accommodate different financial capabilities. Please consider your social location and proximity to privilege when requesting scholarship/support to ensure equitable access. Link to financial assistance form. If you would like further financial assistance, you may also apply for an Esalen Scholarship.
In the ancient Tibetan practice of Sleep Yoga, the primary goal is to enter the pure, luminous awareness — the clear light — that is the true nature of the mind. As a profound support for Dzogchen meditation, Sleep Yoga enhances clarity, awareness, and spiritual realization, even as the body rests.
In today’s fast-paced world, many suffer from chronic sleep deprivation — and the consequences ripple through their physical health, emotional balance, relationships, and spiritual development. Drawing from his groundbreaking book, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche offers guidance to help access the deep spiritual potential within sleep.
Explore the connection between sleep, meditation, and awakening, and practical steps for improving the quality of your sleep. Rinpoche will guide participants in integrating awareness and the wisdom of clear light into the experience of sleep itself.
A lineage holder of this living tradition, Rinpoche is widely known for his warmth, clarity, and ability to make profound Eastern teachings accessible and practical for Western students. With his guidance, participants are invited not only to rest more deeply but also to awaken more fully.
This retreat offers a rare opportunity to connect with the deep rest of the body, the openness of the heart, and the luminous nature of the mind. Open to all, newcomers and experienced practitioners alike.
Recommended reading: The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
What if you could use your voice to feel alive and present in your body? What would it look like to discover your own voice and fulfill its unique potential? This November, join sound therapy pioneer Eileen McKusick and transformational voice leaders and international recording artists Isaac and Thorald Koren of the Brothers Koren in a workshop designed to help you find the electric power in your voice.
Eileen, Isaac, and Thorald will combine their disciplines to create an electrified, liberated, embodied experience of vocal expression and play. This program is designed for those with and without previous musical experience — useful for seasoned professionals and first-time explorers of voice.
Using the power of new awareness, breath, sounding, and tuning with interactive immersion into the innate musicality of your human instruments, you will:
Leave the immersive retreat feeling recalibrated, uplifted, and sonically invigorated. Previous participants noted dramatic changes in their freedom of voice after this safe and fun experience.
No vocal ability or musical experience required!
We invite you to step into a powerful, immersive experience weaving the dynamic energy of 5Rhythms® movement with the deep wisdom of Indigenous traditions. Rooted in the teachings of the Esselen people, this workshop is an invitation to reconnect — with yourself, your community, and the natural world.
For millennia, rites of passage and sacred ceremonies have marked the transitions of life to foster deep connection and a sense of belonging. Today, many of these traditions have been lost or fragmented, leaving us yearning for meaning and community.. In this weeklong journey, we’ll honor the wisdom of the past while creating space for a new kind of homecoming — one that transcends gender, background, and experience.
Through guided movement, storytelling, and shared rituals, we’ll celebrate diversity and unity, embracing both what makes us unique and what brings us together. This is a space for authentic expression and deep listening, where every story and background is honored.
This workshop is a collaborative initiative as part of the healing and reconciliation process between Esalen Institute, participating faculty, and the Esselen Tribe.
No prior movement experience is needed — just a willingness to explore and connect. No choreography, no expectations, only the freedom to move, feel, connect, and express.
Come as you are. Return to One.
This workshop includes an additional $110 of faculty tuition.
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey, as we gather together and explore the healing wisdom of the “Americas.” We will learn about the importance of ancestral lineage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies.
You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and we will examine what this means in the context of our modern daily lives as we share healing wisdom and practices together. This is your opportunity to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns, and to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing & “doctoring” ceremony and water blessing.
You will be invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage, and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you will strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.
We are all interconnected in this giant web of life, and every day is a gift in the service of unconditional love: for yourself, your community, humanity, and our planet. If you feel the call to be a part of a new humanity that lives in harmony and balance upon this Earth, then we invite you to join us in this celebration of life.
Note: Please bring a journal to write in, and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.
Special Note on Gift Economy: For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feeling of gratitude, value, and desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.
BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops. For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com
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The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them to the impossible. — Arthur C. Clarke
Imagination is the foundational ingredient in problem solving – the ones in your own life as well as problems in society. Yet how many courses in imagination did you take during your K to12 education? Were you ever taught how to explore, harness, and apply it? How many healthcare professionals have taught you evidence-based ways to use imagination to enhance healing and recovery? Have you ever been taught how negative forms of imagination can contribute to depression, anxiety, or worse?
This workshop focuses on the science, power, and magic of imagination.
Imagination is the seed of every invention and every social movement. It has led to nearly every scientific discovery, every building that has been built, every piece of art, film, story, every ship that has ever sailed, and every mission to outer space. Almost every human advancement has been sparked by the question, “What if?”
Through interactive presentations, experiential practices, self-inquiry, thought experiments, and speculative dialogue, you will explore truths that emerge from art, fiction, and fantasy — and return with new knowledge, tools, and inspiration.
Cassandra will be joined by guest faculty Fabrice Guerrier who brings experience knowledge of collective worldbuilding, futurism, poetry, and creative writing. Fabrice will provide unique perspectives and engaging experiential exercises to our work (and play) with imagination.
In an era fascinated by peak experiences and personal revelations, the deeper task of transformation is often overlooked. This workshop offers a grounded path for those who have touched something sacred — through psychedelics, mystical states, or profound life transitions — and are now asking, How do I live in service to what I’ve seen?
Rooted in Jungian psychology and contemplative practice, this week at Esalen will guide participants into the art of integration — not as a checklist, but as a lifelong discipline of becoming. We will explore the difference between having an experience and being changed by one.
Participants are invited to:
This course is not about chasing visions — it is about carrying them with integrity. Come if you are ready to descend, reflect, and reshape your life in honor of what has already begun within you.
While our workshops explore the history and potential of psychedelic tools and altered states, Esalen workshops do not involve the use, provision, or facilitation of any psychoactive substances.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. —Rumi
Embark on a five-day journey of artistic discovery in a creative space that nurtures playful practice and community above all. This immersive multimedia experience is an invitation to explore an array of techniques and mediums, including:
With over thirty years of teaching experience, Tom and Erin will guide you through an inspirational week of personal discovery — with an emphasis on process over perfection. In the supportive environment of the Esalen Art Barn, these artful practices invite you to navigate the fascinating interplay of freedom and structure, inspiration and technique, abstraction and observation, happenstance and control.
Together, we’ll explore and learn to weave these seemingly contrasting concepts into a robust framework for your unique creative ideas, nourished by the palpable energy of this place. Allow curiosity, playfulness, and experimentation to guide you as outcomes organically surface, transforming your impulses into intentional artistic expression.
No prior art experience is needed. If you’re ready to awaken your inner artist and cultivate your distinctive voice, this workshop is for you!
Please note: There is an additional material fee of $75 for this workshop that will cover all essential materials, including acrylic paints, watercolors, paintbrushes, writing pens, collage materials, various papers, and painting surfaces — everything you need to participate fully in each exercise. (Feel free to bring your own favorite art-making tools.)
Recommended reading: Drinking From a Cold Spring, a Little Book of Hope, by Erin Lee Gafill
Are you ready to escape the grip of everyday seriousness and soften into your own vibrant aliveness?
Join us for a soul-soothing, laughter-filled playshop designed to help you lighten up, loosen your edges, and let yourself flow. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Big Sur and the healing spirit of Esalen, this immersive experience is an invitation to return to your playful, radiant center.
Explore the liberating power of ecstatic laughter, deep musical immersion, and somatic movement by tapping into practices that uplift the nervous system, expand breath, and release stress and emotion stored in the body. Through call-and-response chanting, guided “laughter‘cizes,” gentle somatic play, and musically guided journeys, you’ll be encouraged to drop into deep relaxation — and rise into spontaneous delight.
Throughout the week, you’ll be immersed in a celestial soundscape created by the electric zither, kalimba, iPad synths, ambient textures, gong washes, and intuitive voice that weaves seamlessly with nature sounds and percussive play. Healing vibrations invite the mind to ease and the heart to open, making space for curiosity, catharsis, and connection with your own beautiful inner terrain.
Drawing on trauma-aware, nature-rooted embodiment practices, this playshop invites you to move at the pace of presence — sensing into the body’s rhythms, shaking loose old patterns, and letting joy ripple through you in organic, unforced waves. Reconnect with the wild wisdom of your inner child and remember laughter not just as an emotion but as a movement — one that breathes, flows, and frees.
Whether you’re aching to shake off the weight of the world or just ready to laugh from your belly again, come as you are. This playshop is for anyone longing to feel more alive, attuned, and unburdened.
Come play. Come laugh. Come home to joy.
The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.
— Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
In winter’s stillness, renewal begins underground — quiet, unseen, and full of potential. This season invites us inward, offering the space to reflect, restore, and root deeply in what truly matters before new growth emerges. As our intentions and ambitions sharpen, we get to discern what parts of our lives we will continue, what we will leave behind, and what we will start. Whether we are feeling stuck at a crossroads in life or work, transitioning through relationships, or beginning a new project, now is the time to seed self-renewal.
In this week-long workshop, we will turn to the teachings of nature, the stars, embodiment, guided inquiry, and collective wisdom — all for the sake of regenerative growth.
Through highly interactive journaling prompts, paired and small group discussions, guided movement meditations, and other ritual practices for renewal, participants will discover tools to clarify hopes and dreams, release old beliefs and behaviors, and chart new strategies for curating the future. Join us as we internalize a powerful framework from nature to refresh our worlds and seed possibilities for life to come.
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Join acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, composer, poet, and record-doula Shahzad Ismaily for a deep and inspiring journey into the liberating realms of spontaneous sound and written word. This unique workshop invites participants to embrace the creative process of making music in the moment — free from judgment, structure, or expectation.
We begin each day with the gentle ritual of morning journaling to pour out, to notice, to name. From these raw and honest reflections, words and phrases will emerge as seeds for sonic exploration. Whether through voice, body, or instrument, you’ll be guided in shaping these fragments into songs, meditations, and rituals that honor the truths they carry.
Together, we’ll explore sound and songwriting as a living, breathing process — a way of transmuting emotion into vibration, memory into melody, and stillness into sound. With exercises designed to break through creative barriers, awaken intuition, and foster connection, participants will be encouraged to play without pressure and create without expectation.
Experiment with various instruments, vocal expression, found and natural sounds as tools for discovery. Drawing from devotional music traditions, experimental sound art, and collective ritual, Shahzad guides sonic meditations while holding space for somatic movement exercises that reconnect us to our breath, body, and intuition.
Open to all — writers, musicians, seekers, and the quietly curious. This is a space for presence, for play, and for the brave act of letting go through sound and song. No prior musical or writing experience is needed. Just bring your voice, your notebook, and a willingness to explore.
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Healing ourselves is a journey of return. During this weekend workshop, you will be invited to learn about the practice and traditions of “curanderisma” (folk medicine) to bring forth awareness and attune us to our individual healing journeys. Through meditative and contemplative practices, touch, prayer, plants, and natural elements, this work honors a lineage of centuries-old wisdom to bring a sense of well-being to those seeking renewal.
This workshop will include:
Through Margaret and Michael’s teachings, you’re invited to connect to your own innate healing potential and discover the ability to support others with love and intention.
Gather with us on the longest night of the year for a weekend of deep ritual, mythic remembrance, and communal rebirth. As the sun pauses in stillness, we will circle the hearthfire to honor the turning of the wheel and the return of the light through sacred ceremony, fire circles, folklore, green magic, herbcraft, candlelit herbal baths, sound healing, self-inquiry, and divination.
Drawing on solstice observance rituals of Celtic, Nordic/Eurasian, and Indo-European origins – and respectfully informed by Indigenous animistic practices from around the world — this gathering is a weaving of ancestral wisdom and living earth-based spirituality. Together, we’ll step into a shared ceremonial container of reverence, gratitude, and connection with our Earth Mother as she begins her sacred journey back toward the light of our brilliant sun.
During our time together, we will honor the Solstice turning with:
Come as you are — in devotion, curiosity, or quiet wonder. This is a space for remembering, re-rooting, and rekindling the light within.
This workshop includes an additional $15 for materials.
Come to dance and be danced! Move until you are moved. Dance until the dancer disappears and only the dance remains.—Gabrielle Roth
The gateway of the body is a powerful vessel that allows us to move and be moved. Together, we will dance into and through the gateway of the new year, crossing the thresholds of past, present, and future. We will honor the darkness of this season while igniting the light of prayer and hope for the future, dancing out of distraction and into the focused space of collective movement medicine.
If we have the courage to move the body, the heart and mind can follow. Come open the gateway of your body by unlocking presence and potential. Come see what is waiting for you on the other side. The 5Rhythms®, a moving meditation practice, teaches us skills and tools to use in our everyday lives that help us facilitate the union of presence-based awareness. The rhythms — Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness — allow us to explore the true nature of who we are and how our energy moves in this world.
Seated meditation allows the space for quiet integration of the nervous system. In the 5Rhythms, we engage in mindfulness while in motion as a pathway to externalize energy. The two polarities of moving and sitting meditation together mirror the dance of life and open the door to cultivate peace, well-being, and balance.
Join us as we dance into the new year! No experience is required. All workshop hours contribute to 5Rhythms teacher training prerequisites.
This workshop includes optional sessions with Guest Artist Martha Peabody focused on the investigation of the 5Rhythms Visual Practice for personal and community ritual.This workshop includes optional sessions with Guest Artist Martha Peabody and Maya Jaguar.
Join Martha for special sessions focused on the investigation of the 5Rhythms Visual Practice for personal and community ritual.
Join Maya on the sacred threshold of the new year for a soul-stirring ritual honoring Yemayá, the Yoruba Goddess of the Ocean, mother of creation, and guardian of transformation. Rooted in Afro-Brazilian tradition and adapted with care for a diverse and inclusive community, this two-hour ceremony invites you to release what no longer serves and call in the tides of renewal.
Recommended reading: Maps to Ecstasy, Connections, & Sweat Your Prayers, by Gabrielle Roth, Dancing with the Dharma Edited by Harrison Blum, Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness by David Treleaven
This workshop includes an additional $100 of faculty tuition.
If you are capable of living deeply one moment of your life, you can learn to live the same way all the other moments of your life. — Thich Nhat Hanh
This workshop is for anyone feeling the need to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and step into the New Year relaxed and awake. Whether you’re navigating change, seeking greater balance, or simply wanting to deepen your relationship with yourself, this is an invitation to pause, breathe, and replenish through gentle movement, the healing sounds of crystal bowls, and stillness.
Throughout our time together, we’ll explore practices that soften the body, calm the mind, and open the heart. Each day, we’ll return to the present moment through qigong, gentle yoga, restorative movement, sound healing, meditation, and poetry — all held within a compassionate and nurturing container. These practices will allow us to feel deeply into our yoga sankalpa — our heartfelt intentions — for the New Year.
The rhythms of the week are designed to help reset the nervous system, create space for reflection, and support attunement to your own inner landscape. The healing vibrations of crystal singing bowls will support deep rest and spaciousness, offering opportunities for insight and integration.
This workshop is for anyone longing to:
All levels and bodies are welcome to experience this balanced blend of movement and mindfulness. To participate fully, you’ll need to be able to move independently between standing, seated, and floor-based postures — or attend with a support person who is also registered for the workshop and can assist you throughout the week.
A consistent meditation practice lowers stress, improves health, strengthens relationships, and increases happiness. A consistent writing practice not only helps you make sense of the world, it also can make you a better, and more creative, writer.
This combination writing and meditation workshop invites writers and meditators of all levels to delve deeply into both practices.
Our daily guided meditations will nourish your creativity by encouraging you to be present to experience, establish a strong mind/body connection, and access emotion and empathy — all important tools for writing.
Our daily bursts of free writing will give you an opportunity to tap into your creative energy — without judgment — so you can do your most original and authentic writing. Both practices will be supported by discussions of writing craft to help you master the technical aspects of story-telling.
Each day, we will set aside time to share our work in a safe and supportive environment.
By the end of our time together, you will be given the tools needed to develop daily meditation and a daily writing practice and make both stick. To help you stay connected and inspired, participants will also receive a free month’s membership to Creative Caffeine Daily, an online daily writing community.
Recommended Reading: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, and Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
This workshop invites you to explore the creative spirit that resides within each of us. Whether you are an experienced artist or simply seeking to uncover your potential, this meditative experience promises to be enriching.
We will begin with colored pencils to open our hearts and let creativity flow naturally. Then, with acrylic paints, participants will create a personal mandala (an integrated image of wholeness), Sri Yantra (a mystical diagram used in Hinduism that represents the union of the masculine and feminine divine energies), or designs of their choice. By the end of the workshop, you will have finished a unique and beautiful piece of art.
The practice of painting is both healing and meditative, and this journey is meant to expand our consciousness and ability to deepen our connections with nature and our inner selves. It is a gentle entry into the left brain hemisphere to open our capacity for creative experiences. Our time together is designed to provide the foundation for painting as a sacred art, to introduce participants to their possibilities as an artist, and to help them walk down the artist’s path — one paved with joy, insight, and awareness.
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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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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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
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.
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.
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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:
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.
Everything I have experienced in my life, I take into my art. —Anna Halprin
What if everything you’ve experienced in your life could be danced? What if an image drawn carried a message for healing? What if a dance inspired a drawing that sparks words for a poem and the poem transforms a difficult story that needs to be told into beauty?
Grounded in the Halprin Life Art Process™, this workshop’s approach enlivens dialogues between body and imagination, life experience and art making, and creativity and healing. With creative explorations of the expressive arts — movement, drawing, and poetic writing — participants will be guided in creative encounters with the symbolic and metaphoric life of the body.
Each day begins with somatic awareness and movement to awaken and attune the physical body. From there, you’ll navigate your personal material through a model that interweaves movement/dance, visual art, poetic narrative, performative ritual, and witnessing.
Together, we’ll work with Body Part Mapping and the Self Portrait Process: visual and narrative maps to lead us into the themes, memories, and dreams that inform our lives. Individual and collective life narratives will provide material to generate encounters and inspire embodied models for change.
Participants can expect to explore:
Please make sure to bring a writer's journal and a box of varied and well-supplied Craypas pastels.
Somatic warm-ups will be guided by guest faculty Natan Dascal, with live music provided throughout the workshop by guest musician Miles Lassi.
Recommended reading: The Expressive Body in Life, Art & Therapy by Daria Halprin
Learn to activate the right side of your brain to unlock the intuition and insights necessary to break through self-limiting patterns. Based on a Nobel Prize-winning discovery in neuroscience, this methodology helps you think outside the box and live a more creative, productive, happier life.
William Donius, author of the New York Times bestseller Thought Revolution, spent a decade researching and developing this brain-enhancing methodology. He has taught these skills to a wide range of people, from students and corporate executives to scientists and artists. This innovative approach inspires more creative solutions than conventional thinking or brainstorming sessions. Through easy-to-learn exercises, you can discover how to open the neural pathways to your higher consciousness into areas where you may feel stuck. By accessing your intuitive mind, you’ll have the ability to access your potential, and uncover profound insights about yourself that make change possible. You’ll develop practical tools you can apply each time you face an important decision or obstacle in life. You can go home with new ways to unlock your own inner genius and create the life you long for.
Please bring a notebook or journal and a pen.
Recommended Reading: Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius by William Donius
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.
Your crown has been bought and paid for. All you have to do is put it on. — James Baldwin
Most people don’t actually fear failure; they fear their own brilliance. In this weeklong journey, we’ll explore how subtle self-sabotage, shrinking, and doubt prevent us from claiming our gifts. Through coherence coaching, embodied exercises, and radical self-honesty, you’ll discover the courage to live as the powerful being you already are.
Participants will:
When we embrace our greatness, we move beyond fear into freedom, clarity, and contribution. You’ll receive practical tools and experience a supportive community for the embodied confidence to live your dopeness with courage and joy.
What does it mean to remain human in the new age of artificial intelligence? In this immersive weekend workshop, we’ll explore this profound question together, journeying from awareness to empowerment to integration as we discover how to shape our relationship with AI while preserving what matters most.
Through hands-on AI demonstrations, creative labs, and experiential exercises, we’ll witness firsthand both the remarkable capabilities and profound implications of this technology. We’ll experiment with AI as a creative collaborator — making music, art, and even building simple apps. With somatic practices, guided meditation, and time in nature, we’ll envision the future we want, free from tech industry narratives about what’s “inevitable.”
Each session will blend practical exploration with deep reflection. Morning sessions will focus on understanding AI’s current state through live demonstrations and group discourse. Afternoons will combine creative experimentation with embodied practices. In our evening circles, we’ll integrate insights through authentic sharing and community connection.
You’ll have the opportunity to develop your personal AI Code of Practice, create conscious engagement with technology, and forge genuine connections with fellow participants. This workshop offers resources and perspectives to support you in bringing these meaningful conversations to your own communities, helping others find empowerment rather than overwhelm in our rapidly changing world.
Perimenopausal and menopausal transitions are more than biological phases to endure; they are sacred passages that forge a woman into her fullest expression — as a truth-bearer, a pathfinder, a beauty maker, and a new creation.
When the monthly cycles end, you’ll undergo tremendous transformations in your body, mind, emotions, and psyche. Crossing this monumental threshold awakens your inner sage, a wild knowing sacredly woven from deep intuition and your soul’s language.
Join Jovinna as she weaves a web of story, nature, movement, and community to capture the magic of this time of life. Anchor the new story for yourself and future generations, infusing meaning and sacredness into this wild and inspired time.
Over the weekend, there will be:
Let this be a time of celebration with reverence and levity as you unfold in the field of endless possibilities without your old roles, identities, and patterns.
Please bring a journal, a small piece of cloth that represents your old self, and an article of clothing that you’d like to wear for the ceremony of renewal.
This workshop includes an additional $35 faculty tuition.
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The voice is calling me, to come home, to the river that is flowing within me. — Sophia Tuv
The voice is more than sound — it is the breath of our being made audible, the vibration of our essence moving through space. It is our most innate instrument, a direct channel between the soul and the world. When sounded with intention, the voice carries the power to heal, connect, and transform. This is an immersive experience to return to the source of your voice — your primal, dynamic sound that lives within you. Through deep sensing, visualization, somatic exploration, and playful vocal exercises, we will release the blocks that stifle expression and awaken the pleasure, power, and resonance of our true voice.
Together, we will:
This is an invitation to become your voice, to reclaim its raw beauty and medicine, and to honor the deep impact of speaking, singing, and sounding with love and intention. When we free our voice, we free ourselves — our capacity to express, to connect, to be fully seen and heard. This practice strengthens our confidence, deepens our relationships, and supports our ability to move through the world with clarity, presence, and truth. By attuning to the natural resonance of our voice, we cultivate authenticity, self-trust, and a profound sense of belonging within ourselves and our communities.
Awaken the voice you arrived with. Open the portal. Come home to your sound.
Joseph Campbell used to celebrate his birthday at Esalen. When asked why, he’d recount how Carl Jung — wondering, “What myth am I living by?” and realizing he didn’t know — wrote, “I took it upon myself to get to know ‘my’ myth, and I regarded this as the task of tasks.”
“That’s what a birthday is for,” Campbell concluded, “and what Esalen is about.” In 1988, the year after Campbell died, his friends recalled his dictum — “What you do, you do with play” — and gathered at Esalen to inaugurate “Campbell Week,” a tradition that has continued annually ever since and morphed into this annual PlayShop.
Come join us to celebrate Campbell’s birthday and to entertain such questions as: Who were you? What has inspired your biographical saga? What treasures hide in your basement or attic? Who are you? What’s displayed on your refrigerator? What dangles from your rearview mirror? Who do you aspire to be? What’s on your bucket list? Dare to re-vision yourself and join our springtime rebirth rituals.
You needn’t be familiar with Campbell to relive dreams, rekindle visions, and experience mythogenesis. In this immersive experience, we will use myth-making tools — drums and dance, music and song, medicine bags, and masks. We will play D-PiCT™: The Game of Mythogenesis, and we will engage in small- and large-group activities that provide reflective and expressive opportunities for revisioning the myths that have shaped your life.
Please bring your unsung stories and a meaningful—albeit perhaps expendable—totem.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. —Rumi
Embark on a five-day journey of artistic discovery in a creative space that nurtures playful practice and community above all. This immersive multimedia experience is an invitation to explore an array of techniques and mediums, including:
With over thirty years of teaching experience, Tom and Erin will guide you through an inspirational week of personal discovery — with an emphasis on process over perfection. In the supportive environment of the Esalen Art Barn, these artful practices invite you to navigate the fascinating interplay of freedom and structure, inspiration and technique, abstraction and observation, happenstance and control.
Together, we’ll explore and learn to weave these seemingly contrasting concepts into a robust framework for your unique creative ideas, nourished by the palpable energy of this place. Allow curiosity, playfulness, and experimentation to guide you as outcomes organically surface, transforming your impulses into intentional artistic expression.
No prior art experience is needed. If you’re ready to awaken your inner artist and cultivate your distinctive voice, this workshop is for you!
Recommended reading: Drinking From a Cold Spring, a Little Book of Hope, by Erin Lee Gafill
This workshop includes an additional $75 fee for workshop materials that will cover all essential materials, including acrylic paints, watercolors, paintbrushes, writing pens, collage materials, various papers, and painting surfaces — everything you need to participate fully in each exercise. (Feel free to bring your own favorite art-making tools.)
What if your greatest vulnerability could become your greatest strength? This transformative language arts workshop is designed for anyone ready to level up by unlocking their authenticity.
The curriculum draws from the wisdom in the instructor’s critically acclaimed book, Shame on You : How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, which explores how shame is weaponized in our culture to keep us from knowing our worth and achieving our goals. Through reflective writing, shared stories, and guided readings, participants will explore ways to break free from shame’s grip and reclaim their power.
Through the act of writing and reading inspirational texts — along with learning about the instructor’s journey as a former sex worker and survivor of sexual exploitation and media humiliation — we will explore essential questions about the insidious role that shame plays in our modern lives. We will examine how shame hinders us and discuss effective ways to reclaim ourselves and our communities from its grasp.
Participants will be invited to:
By developing shame resilience, we can reconnect to our highest goals and purest ideals. We can embody our most authentic self, and embolden others to do the same. The workshop is open to people of all gender identities and expressions and is appropriate for professionals and laypeople alike. No prior writing experience is necessary; all levels are welcome, and all course materials will be provided.
This workshop has a faculty funded scholarship to attend this workshop, please email melissa.petro@gmail.com for more details.
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Hapé, a sacred tobacco preparation, has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon as a medicine for clarity, presence, and connection for centuries. Blown gently into the nostrils, this finely ground blend of tobacco leaves and sacred ashes activates the senses in a unique way, opening inner vision and anchoring attention in the present moment. Traditionally used in ceremony, Hapé invites stillness, deepens awareness, and connects practitioners to both their inner landscape and the living forest.
Together, we will take part in a hands-on preparation of Hapé itself for an embodied practice that honors its lineage while creating a shared field of reverence. In preparing Hapé together, participants directly encounter the care, ritual, and mindfulness that go into its making, deepening our relationship to the medicine before it is received. Once prepared, we will enter into ceremony to experience Hapé as a mindfulness tool — to explore how this ancestral medicine can enhance meditation, sharpen presence, and open pathways of reverence, reciprocity, and inner reflection.
As interest in mindfulness and plant medicines grows in the Global North, this is a rare opportunity to build a bridge between ancient contemplative traditions and modern practices of meditation.
Participants will:
This is an invitation to experience an ancient practice through a new lens — one that connects forest wisdom and contemporary contemplative life.
This workshop includes a $25 materials fee.
This workshop is more than a learning experience — it’s an invitation to connect deeply with yourself and others in a supportive and creative space. Together, we’ll explore the profound potential for healing and growth that arises when art and psychology converge. No artistic experience is necessary; this workshop is about creative expression, not perfection.
Integrating art therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this workshop combines two evidence-based emotional and psychological growth approaches. Creating art stimulates your brain, unlocking new pathways and possibilities. Art therapy offers a dynamic way to visually explore your thoughts and emotions, providing a unique outlet for self-expression and growth. CBT complements this process by helping you identify and challenge dysfunctional thought patterns, empowering you to shift your mindset and embrace change.
Led by a board-certified art therapist, this fully interactive workshop combines drawing, collage, painting, writing, and group dialogue. Together, we’ll explore the fears, anxieties, and barriers holding you back, empowering you with tools to create meaningful and lasting change.
Participants are asked to bring their own sketchbook so all of your retreat artwork stays in one place as a keepsake. Recommended options: 8.5″ x 8.5″ or 7.6″ x 5.3″ Watercolor paints will be provided, but you’re welcome to bring your own if you’d prefer not to share (optional). Recommended sets: Full set or Travel set
All other supplies will be provided—brushes, paper, pens, colored paper, glue, pastels, and more. A materials fee of $17.50 is included in the registration cost to cover shared materials.
Creating a profound connection to nature begins with observing and understanding the plants surrounding us, awakening to our symbiotic relationship with them. This workshop offers an opportunity to cultivate an intimate bond with a diverse selection of plants thriving in the Esalen landscape, learning their unique characteristics, stories, and the wisdom they impart. Together, we will embark on a journey to not only identify and appreciate these plants but to honor them through art by extracting their pigments and experiencing their colors in a new light.
Guided by the spirit of place, we will gather plants to create a color palette that reflects the soul of coastal California, immersing ourselves in the earthy, ocean-washed hues that define the land. This living palette will serve as both a tribute to and a recreation of Esalen’s essence, which we will channel into plein air painting — “in the open air” — around the Institute to be fully present in our surroundings and their subtle expressions. Each of the paintings will be alive with their botanical inks, changing and transforming to create a remembrance of the passage of time as they darken. As we gather plant materials for our inks, we will also gather a variety of plant material to make our unique handmade natural brushes.
Each participant will be provided with high-quality materials, including multiple sizes of Arches watercolor paper, a custom handmade porcelain palette, and ink bottles, completing their personal Esalen ink kit. This kit will become a cherished tool for you to bring the beauty and spirit of the natural world into your own art practice, enabling you to deepen your connection to both the Esalen environment and the plants that surround you in your own life. Join us on this transformative journey and embrace a holistic and sustainable practice of creativity, nature, and mindful expression.
This workshop includes an additional $50 of material fees.
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What if sleep could be more than just crashing into your pillow at the end of a long day? What if it could be a portal to transformation and self-discovery? In this workshop, we’ll dive into the ancient Daoist art of sleep alchemy, where the Wudang Hibernating Dragon and Five Dragons Sleeping methods teach you how to transform snoozing into a practice of subtle awareness and metaphysical transformation.
Rooted in the Wudang Daoist Sanfeng lineage, these techniques harmonize body and soul, turning your nightly shut-eye into a discipline of deep peace. The cosmic journey would be incomplete without Daoist stories like Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream and Lü Dongbin’s Yellow Millet Dream, classic tales of metaphysical gaslighting that explore just how slippery the boundaries of reality and illusion can be.
We’ll also talk about practicalities within a Daoist framework, like how your food choices, lifestyle, and daily habits can affect your sleep quality. Expect to walk away with tools for cultivating transcendent rest, resilience, and an appreciation for Daoist cosmology. Along the way, we’ll keep it relaxed — the Dao is at ease. Sleeping in class is encouraged, though snoring will be punished with five hundred years in Daoist hell.
Participants will practice introductory Wudang sleeping methods to enter, sustain, and deepen sleep states. By the end of the workshop, you will be intimately familiar with practical techniques to deepen sleep, enhance well-being, and dream the dream of life more deeply and lucidly.
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Join us for this weeklong wild clay pottery intensive. As a group, we will go through the process of making pottery from the wild, including processing clay, mixing wild clays, and finding and testing clay in the field. We’ll learn how to hand-build pots using various techniques, including pinch pots, slab work, coil and scrape, corrugation, and more. We will find and refine mineral paints from the landscape and make our yucca brushes to design and paint our pots with our own artistic expressions. Finally, we’ll prepare a kiln to fire the pots and go over several different methods for firing earthenware pottery.
Together, we’ll enjoy daily discussions about the metaphysical nature of pottery, working with the clay, and balancing the elements. We will slow the process down to see what lessons emerge and what energy and opportunities the materials draw from us, both as individuals and as a group — an opportunity for personal growth and team building through the creation process!
While seated on the grounds of Esalen, we will connect to and draw inspiration from the landscape and the ancient ones who came before us and may have also made pots for function and beauty with the same materials long ago.
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Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org