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.
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Learn MoreDiscover the art of creating color sourced directly from the land. In this immersive workshop, participants explore plant-based dyeing through mindful foraging, wildcrafting, and creative practice inspired by Esalen’s gardens and landscape.
Each day begins with a grounding meditation to connect with the earth and awaken creative flow. Through hands-on exploration of resist techniques, surface design, and natural dyes, participants learn to transform whole plants into living color on fabric. One full day focuses on indigo dyeing and clay paste resist to create patterns on cloth. The following days delve into harvesting and preparing dye baths in hues of yellow, orange, and red, resulting in a full spectrum of color from nature.
By slowing down and engaging the senses, these practices invite us to listen deeply, restore balance, and cultivate a renewed connection between self and nature. Participants leave with hand-dyed textiles, new skills, and simple rituals to carry creativity and mindfulness into everyday life.
Bring new life to natural fiber textiles and your own clothing! Plan to pack at least two yards of natural fiber, such as cotton, linen, hemp, rayon, silk, or wool.
Recommended Reading: Art and Science of Natural Dyes by Catharine Ellis and Joy Boutrup
This workshop includes an additional $45 in material fee.
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!
For hundreds of thousands of years, plants have been humanity’s greatest allies, shaping culture in material and spiritual ways. Across the Northern Hemisphere, a shared cohort of plants has profoundly influenced human existence, providing sustenance, medicine, textiles, and more. Honored as wise relatives, they carry mythic and spiritual significance across diverse cultures, forming a thread of kinship connecting our ancestors across continents and histories. Though modernity has painfully estranged us from the expansive web of relationality that our ancestors shared with the more-than-human-world, we can reclaim our “inalienable belonging to the earth community,” in the words of Joanna Macy. Meeting our botanical kin with curiosity and intention is a gesture toward restoring this enchanted ecological paradigm.
Join us to meaningfully engage with the lore and lives of pan-culturally significant plants — such as oak, nettle, mint, mugwort, elder, and rose — attuning to their presence in Big Sur’s wildlands while cultivating our botanical and cultural literacy. Through hands-on collaboration and an approach of reciprocity instead of extraction, we will craft herbal medicines, natural pigments, fibers, and tools in a manner that benefits the land and plants. Ceremony will invite us to discover these plants’ archetypal dimensions, revealing their roles as teachers and healers. As guests on Esselen tribal land, we will root our explorations in respect and reverence, honoring the relational worldviews of all our land-connected ancestors. Guest faculty Ariel Johnson will offer somatic practices to help guide us into embodied kinship — grounding us in gravity, sensory awareness, and open-hearted presence with our floral relatives.
Through these efforts, we remember our belonging, and we are remembered in return. The plants know us, after all, and welcome us back into our ancient traditions of botanical kinship.
Important Notes:
This retreat will include one full-day immersion as well as two half-day hiking excursions in the Big Sur wilderness, involving hikes up to 3 miles each. Please be aware that the hiking terrain can be steep, rugged, and sometimes strenuous, including prolonged sun exposure. Participants must be able to hike and carry what they need for the day: 2 liters of water, pack lunch provided by Esalen, and sun protection. Other workshop sessions will be mostly situated outdoors on the Esalen property.
This workshops includes an additional $60 of faculty tuition and $40 for park entrance fees.
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.
Recommended reading: Imagination: Exploring Your Inner World for an Extraordinary Life by Cassandra Vieten
Winter Solstice marks a sacred turning point — the threshold where darkness begins to yield to the returning light. As nature grows quiet and the earth turns inward, we are invited to slow down, listen deeply, and tend the inner flame.
Guided by the wisdom of the chakra system, this immersive retreat explores the seven chakras as flames of radiance and portals of awakening for our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual lives. Throughout our time together, we journey through these inner landscapes, exploring both the luminous gifts and shadow expressions held within each energy center.
Each day we weave transformative practices — meditation, kundalini kriya, asana, dance, yin and somatic movement, sound healing, writing, creativity, and seasonal ritual — designed to nourish the body, support restoration, awaken the heart, quiet the mind, and rekindle the sacred fire within.
Sound and voice also become an integral part of our exploration. Guest musician and teacher Daphne Tse joins us to share the healing practice of SoulSongs through live music, seed mantras, chakra toning, guided vocal meditation, and gentle vocal exploration. Together we’ll experience how sound moves through the body’s energy centers, awakening the flame within each chakra and giving voice to what has long lived beneath the surface.
This retreat includes:
In yogic philosophy, radiance is not something we acquire; it is something we uncover. Like a flame sheltered beneath ash, our inner light remains present even in seasons of challenge, transition, or uncertainty.
Together, we gather at Winter Solstice to honor both the darkness and the returning light, tending the sacred flames within and awakening more fully to the joy, mystery, vulnerability, and wonder of being alive.
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 $25 for materials.
Sometimes the wisest part of you speaks through images. Inspired by the work of Carl Jung, SoulCollage® is a powerful expressive arts method that invites your authentic inner voice to come forward. Through this accessible yet profound practice, we’ll intuitively create collaged cards using images and imagination, journaling with our creations for meaningful and often unexpected insights. Over one immersive weekend, we’ll create six cards using a variety of techniques and approaches, guided by engaging prompts that invite our deepest wisdom to speak. We’ll quiet the inner critic with guided meditation, gentle movement, and time in nature. With small-group sharing, we’ll create community and connections that encourage confidence and creativity.
Our time together will be a journey through three movements that mirror nature during the winter solstice: the stillpoint, when the sun appears to pause; the turn, when momentum returns; and the return of light, when what has been taking shape in the dark becomes visible. With guided imagery, mindfulness, meditation, and intuitive card-making, our hands will lead the way. We’ll create with intention, exploring our surroundings, witnessing with care, and consulting our collages to answer our questions for the year ahead.
No artistic or writing background required, just a willingness to be surprised by what you create and an openness to where it leads.
This workshop includes an additional $40 for materials.
The gateway of the body is a powerful vessel that allows us to move and be moved. During this unique seven day retreat, 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. Join us and find out 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.
In the 5Rhythms, we engage in mindfulness while in motion as a pathway to externalize energy and activate the nervous system. Seated meditation allows the space for quiet integration of the nervous system. 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.
No experience is required. All workshop hours contribute to 5Rhythms teacher training prerequisites.
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 $120 of faculty tuition.
In play we can discover a curious version of ourselves, while balancing our light and shadow and laughing at our attachments. This workshop invites us to be soft, brave, and available to the moment. This is an immersive practice that explores our most vulnerable and creative self.
Using tools found in improvisation, meditation, altered states, and movement practice, we will explore clowning around as a spiritual practice. The work begins with exercises that help you drop into the body and descend from the mind to access the flow 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 child within! Please come unprepared.
Recommended reading: Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir, Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
When the ground falls out from underneath us, our instinct is usually to cling tightly to the beliefs, stories, relationships, and identities that give us the greatest sense of stability and comfort. But what if we viewed these moments as wondrous opportunities instead of terrifying threats? Could the experience of groundlessness offer an unexpected freedom from the constant effort of molding the world to our liking?
In this workshop, we will explore how the loss of our bearings — an inevitable and recurrent fact of life we often intensely resist — can become a spontaneous and nourishing invitation. Together, we’ll ask how we might begin to meet these uncertain moments with curiosity rather than fear. What if we could find pleasure in the ongoing evolution of our identities and greet the natural transformation of our relationships with openness rather than resistance? What if we exchanged fantasies of control, certainty, and rigid beliefs for qualities like surrender, adaptability, and emotional ease? What if we learned to experience the thrill of groundlessness — not as a crisis to be solved, but as a profound opportunity to live more honestly in rhythm with life’s unpredictability?
We’ll explore these questions by way of a dazzling and playful journey through contemporary film and popular culture, ancient and modern spiritual philosophies, and holistic medicine and psychology. From the Zen Buddhist axiom on resisting the poison of egoic-attachment, to the injunction by US-American Philosopher Alan Watts to live in the present moment. From psychedelic therapy’s loosening of rigid thought patterns, to the trippy identity-dissolving visual experiments of recent science fiction and fantasy films — all of these and more will be our teachers.
Together, we’ll tap into a wide range of psychological and spiritual resources — many already at our fingertips yet often overlooked or dismissed in our daily pursuit of holding it together. Because in the end, life offers no absolutes, only the thrill of groundlessness and the freedom that comes when we finally surrender to its flow.
Morning sessions will focus on open group discussion and embodied practices; afternoon sessions will include film screenings followed by collective dialogue about what we’ve watched.
Recommended reading: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Training in Compassion: Zen Teaching on the Practice of Lojong by Mark Fischer, The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety by Alan Watts, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa
This workshop includes an additional $10 material fee.
What stories have you silenced—and what might happen if you gave them a voice?
We all carry stories we struggle to tell: experiences we've hidden, memories we've buried, truths we've been afraid to speak. In this generative writing workshop, we'll explore how writing can help us approach the unspoken, transform personal experience into compelling narratives, and discover what our stories reveal about ourselves and the world we inhabit. Through guided writing exercises, craft discussions, readings, and opportunities to share our work, we'll investigate the relationship between vulnerability, storytelling, and the cultural forces that shape our lives.
Participants will be invited to:
You don't need to have a finished story—or even know what you're writing about—to begin. Whether you're new to personal writing or an experienced writer looking to explore more challenging material, you'll leave with fresh material, new craft tools, and a deeper understanding of the stories you're ready to tell. No prior writing experience is necessary; all levels are welcome.
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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 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.
Please note this is not a traditional art class or open studio experience. This is a guided and supportive creative process designed to help participants explore emotions through art making rather than focusing on artistic skill or creating “perfect” artwork.
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.
Embark on a five-day journey of creative discovery in a space that nurtures playful practice and community above all. This art immersion 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. Their ever-evolving teaching practices invite you to navigate the fascinating interplay of freedom and structure, inspiration and technique, abstraction and observation, happenstance and control.
As you explore and experiment, you’ll learn to weave these contrasting concepts into a robust framework for your own practice, nourished by the palpable energy of Big Sur. Allow curiosity, playfulness, and a “what if?” attitude to guide you as outcomes organically surface, transforming your impulses into intentional artistic expression.
No prior experience is needed. If you’re ready to awaken your inner artist, 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.
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.
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Join Heidi Rose Robbins and her team for an enlivening exploration of your astrological chart. Through poetry, movement, writing, and group counsel, 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.
This workshop includes an additional $10 material fee.
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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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:
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.
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:
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
We all have a story to tell. But turning your life into an engaging and meaningful narrative requires both keen self-awareness and a working knowledge of basic storytelling. This experiential workshop invites writers at all levels, from personal journalers to published authors, to cultivate the skills needed to tell the most compelling — and truest — story.
We’ll begin each day with a short burst of early morning free writing, taking advantage of what author Ruth Ozeki calls “the liminal state,” when the brain is most flexible and the internal judge is still asleep. Everyone will be invited to share their morning writing in small groups that foster a safe and supportive environment.
We’ll follow with a mix of craft talks, incorporating examples from published works, and several sessions of prompted free writing to help us sharpen our skills and access the deepest part of our own stories.
Time will be set aside every afternoon to share our writing with the group at large. Workshop participants will leave with a clear sense of where their story lies — and how to get it on the page.
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.
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.
Please note: This workshop includes physical touch, such as a hand placed on the body to aid in sounding, as well as physical embrace within the group.
What if what we experience wasn’t always a serious endeavor, but rather an invitation to play, to grow and to learn? Hindu philosophy encapsulates this idea in the Sanskrit word Lila, which means “divine play.” Lila suggests that creation isn’t an obligation but a spontaneous and joyful expression of the divine. Perhaps we’re so deeply immersed in the drama of it — like actors lost in our roles — that we’ve forgotten it’s a playful dance? Suppose existence is just a cosmic joke, a juggling act of the relative and the absolute. This experience is designed to help you learn to dance between the everyday mundane and the sacredness of now.
Each day will begin with the ancient technology of yoga and breathwork. Morning classes are designed to release stress, physical patterns, and common discomforts to help you access peace and resilience and gently unravel your authentic self.
You’ll then be guided through various exercises to develop body awareness, followed by physical games and rituals that give birth to organic impulses inspired by the child within. There is no pressure to perform, just an invitation to get lost and found inside yourself, an openness to go beyond your comfort zone, and a willingness to play within the moment.
Each day will close with the practice of Yoga Nidra and meditation. This helps to absorb the benefits, make sense of your experience, and allow for genuine healing and connection through community.
This workshop is physical, but open and accessible for all levels and diverse bodies. Practices will be adapted and tailored to support you. Please come unprepared.
Recommended reading: Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle, Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir, and Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
Join this weekend of joyful exploration into the distance between the head and the heart with teachings that bridge dance and meditation. One releases energy outward, the other inward. One explores the freedom we express and let be witnessed, and the other the inner courage to reimagine ourselves, our past, and our future.
The retreat goes beyond traditional practice and invites you to discover the intelligence inherent in all forms of movement: movement of the body, of perspective, of breath and air.
Together, we’ll blend imaginative, expressive movement (Bohemian) with grounding, introspective practice (Gravity) into a holistic, adaptable approach open to anyone, regardless of age or experience. Through dance, intuitive movement, guided meditation, breathwork, and other somatic practices, we’ll move between dynamic and deeply restful states, carried by curated music drawn from ethical, electronic, and instrumental sources.
Sessions are designed to awaken awareness, deepen creativity, expand personal freedom, and align head, heart, and gut. Participants often experience the release of long-held tension rooted in unconscious patterns, opening space for imagination, joy, and inner freedom.
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Learn to call on your spirit guides and tap into your intuitive mind. Join us in a transformative workshop combining scientifically proven brain-enhancing techniques with intuitive guidance to help you break free from self-limiting patterns and create the life you desire.
This workshop brings together two powerful approaches to help you develop tools for personal growth and transformation. Through easy-to-learn exercises, you will learn how opening neural pathways to your higher consciousness can bring valuable insights into areas where you may feel stuck. By thinking outside the box and accessing your intuitive mind, you have the ability to unlock your creative potential and experience increased productivity and happiness.
Guest faculty Lori Sheridan, a certified psychic medium, will guide you in exploring and developing your own intuitive abilities. Through experiential exercises, Lori will help you recognize the different ways intuition communicates, strengthen trust in your inner guidance, and explore your connection with spirit guides and the unseen world.
Throughout the workshop, you will develop practical tools that you can apply whenever you face important decisions or obstacles in life. By harnessing your intuition and uncovering profound insights about yourself, you will gain the clarity and confidence needed to make positive changes.
Our intention is to empower you to unlock your intuitive mind and carry these transformative practices with you long after the workshop ends. Please come prepared with a notebook or journal and a pen to capture your experiences and reflections.
This workshop has two options on length of stay: a traditional weekend 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.
Recommended Reading: Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius by William Donius and Soul Compass, Trusting Your Intuition and the Wisdom Within by Lori Doupe Sheridan
Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for a hands-on journey into the art of Native American flute making. Working with cedar wood and the patient rhythms of handcraft, you’ll create a Native American-style flute of your own — shaped, tuned, finished, and ready to play.
Throughout the workshop, you’ll be guided step by step through the process. Beginning with a prepared cedar blank, you’ll learn how to glue and shape the wood, gradually bringing the form of the flute to life. You’ll then explore the delicate process of tuning before applying the finishing touches that make each instrument uniquely your own.
For those who wish to continue exploring, optional evening sessions will offer lessons in playing the flute — discovering breath, tone, and melody.
More than a woodworking project, this workshop is an invitation to slow down and enter into the creative process: to listen closely, work patiently, and experience the transformation of a simple piece of cedar into an instrument capable of carrying your breath and tune.
It has been more than 15 years since this flute-making workshop has been offered. No previous woodworking or musical experience is necessary. All tools will be provided. Join us and leave Esalen with a cedar flute you have shaped, tuned, and brought to life with your own hands and spirit.
This workshop includes a $250 material fee.
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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This interactive workshop is designed to ignite your creativity and foster connections through the transformative power of improvisation, play, and imagination. Embark on a captivating journey in which science and spontaneity collide, delve into the world of improvisation, and discover its transformative impacts on the brain.
Find out how engaging in playful activities can stimulate the neural pathways linked to flow, enhance cognitive flexibility, and build emotional resilience. Through scientifically grounded interactive exercises, you’ll learn how improv can shape your mindset and improve your well-being.
Together, we’ll experience the delight of collaborative exploration and engage in partner exercises and group games. You’ll forge meaningful connections with fellow participants as you create spontaneous stories and navigate laughter-filled challenges. Through an unforgettable blend of science, creativity, and connection, we will unleash the imagination and welcome the unexpected with open arms!
Whether you’re new to improv or a seasoned performer, our workshop provides an open and encouraging space for exploration, learning, and growth. Join us for this adventure of self-discovery through play that will leave you feeling inspired, energized, and ready to embrace change.
Recommended Reading: Play by Stuart Brown, Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation by Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim Johnson and This Is the Voice by John Colapinto
This workshop includes an additional $15 materials fee.
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So much energy goes into trying to change. We leave relationships, go to therapy, break down, begin again. Sometimes we seek change or make promises about who we will become. Other times, life changes us without our permission.
But how do people actually change? What role do the stories we tell about ourselves play? And what can our bodies reveal that our stories can’t?
This experiential, open-hearted workshop is for anyone on a transformative journey — or thinking of beginning one. We’ll explore change in two ways: through the narratives we use to make sense of our beliefs and identities, and by paying closer attention to our bodies and nervous systems. Though the stories we tell about ourselves can change how we live, our bodies may hold on to old habits, fears, and ways of responding long after we think we’ve changed. And sometimes the body registers change before we can put it into words.
You will be guided through writing, breathwork and meditation, conversations in small groups, and time on Esalen’s extraordinary grounds, where generations of seekers have explored new possibilities.
Together, we’ll explore personal change at a time when the world seems to be changing faster than we can absorb. What has already shifted for you, and what remains? What do you still hope might change about yourself, and what might need to be accepted or integrated instead? And how do we change ourselves when the structures, identities, and assumptions we’ve built our lives around no longer feel fixed?
Explore these questions with curiosity and a sense of possibility — and leave with more room, and more tools, for whatever comes next.
Recommended Reading: You’ve Changed: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
We are going to write. We are going to gather and fill our notebooks with prose, poetry, and possibility.
The moment we dare to show up on a blank page, something begins to shift. Through writing, we can explore our pain and fear, reclaim our energy, and give voice to the truths we carry. The page becomes a reflection of our inner lives and an invitation to imagine what is possible.
Throughout our days together, poetry, prose, and thoughtful prompts will offer inspiration for exploration and discovery. We will make room for curiosity, surprise, and the unexpected ways words can lead us somewhere new.
We will explore the beauty of poetry, but we will write in all manner of forms. There is no need to write poetry this week. Write anything and everything. You will have the space, time, and inspiration to put your heart on the page, follow your own rhythms, and discover what is waiting to be written.
At times, we will share our work with one another, discovering the power of being witnessed and of hearing our own words spoken aloud. When we give voice to something about ourselves or our world, we create space for change, release, and new possibilities to take shape.
Esalen itself is a nature poem. Surrounded by a landscape that invites us to slow down, listen, and notice, we will have the opportunity to draw inspiration from the natural world as well as from our own inner landscapes.
Join us for a week of nourishing, deep-diving days devoted to writing, reflection, connection, and the freedom to discover what words can open within us.
Recommended Reading: Everyday Radiance: 365 Zodiac-Inspired Prompts for Self-Care and Self-Renewal by Heidi Rose Robbins, Zodiac Love Letters by Heidi Rose Robbins, Wild Compassion by Heidi Rose Robbins and This Beckoning Ceaseless Beauty by Heidi Rose Robbins
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 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.
While all supplies will be provided, participants may want to bring their favorite notebook/sketchbook, comfortable shoes for foraging, small glass jars for additional ink storage (optional—4 small bottles will be provided), and a favorite brush (optional—brushes will be provided and also made in class).
This workshop includes an additional $50 of material fees.
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.
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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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.
This workshop includes an additional $30 material fee.
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Get notified about new programs.
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org