Workshops

This is a perfect season to awaken touch, our forgotten language. In this introductory massage course, participants will learn to listen to each other, gain the sensory skill of initiating touch, experience the felt sense of touch and muscle release, and close with a balanced tenderness. Seasoned instructors will offer exercises, demonstrations, and at-the-table guidance during supervised practice. The simple principles of Esalen® Massage – presence, connection, attending rather than fixing, self-care, and slow, lengthening strokes encompassing the body – will build a heartfelt experience with our partner or friend and, perhaps most significantly, ourselves.

By the final session, participants will share the basics of an Esalen Massage. Beginners, practitioners, and caregivers will find this method  personally refreshing, and will notice its healing effect as their pace slows and focus rests on compassionate contact rather than technique.

Touch can evoke an openness to spirit, enhancing our natural inclination toward healthful balance, and sparking our awareness of interconnection with all beings in this edgy wildness of canyons, hot springs, flowers, and mountains.

This workshop is for couples, partners, or friends registering together, as they will be your bodywork partner for the weekend.

This course builds on your previous seven rich days of exploration in CFR® Week One. During that crucial week, you laid the foundation for releasing your childhood survival patterns and moving through life with more ease and presence physically, mentally, and emotionally.

In CFR® Week 1, you reorganized the stranger you once called “self” to become more objective, compassionate, curious, and hopeful, changing how you live with yourself and others.

We will continue excavating and healing old patterns that no longer serve you. You will gain deeper appreciation for how embodied movement can serve as a portal to your soul. Using newly experienced body wisdom, you will uncover what has been hidden, held back, and inhibited your fullest expression of ease, joy, and authentic self.

Bring your lingering issues, past injuries, and a desire for freedom on all levels. Leave more deeply connected to your body and present in your soul.                                                              

Prerequisite: This workshop is designed for advanced (Level 2) students. Participants must have completed either the Esalen Cortical Field Reeducation®: Accessing the Genius Within workshop or a CFR® Level 1 training.

Esalen® Massage combines partner-based attentiveness with the overlaying energetic field. This workshop presents the 12-meridian system of Asian medicine, attuned to Esalen Massage’s slow-flowing strokes. The intent is to facilitate release of long-held muscle tension while providing pauses and point work to nourish and harmonize. This energetic alignment can encourage resilience, lift the heart, quell anxiety, or provide support for difficult emotions. The results bring balance and chi energy flow without loss of the personal, intuitive connection. As an added bonus, both giver and receiver can access these energetic portals for their personal self-care.

Guided by longtime Esalen practitioner, teacher, and acupuncturist Daniela Urbassek, we’ll discover how to sustain a massage session in a calm, centered state by utilizing chi-balancing movement. We’ll be joined by guest teacher Mac Murphy, who nourishes his Esalen Massage with the qigong practice he learned in China. Through lectures and PowerPoint demonstrations, students will be presented tools to easily apply the long integrative oil massage strokes following structural and meridian pathways. We’ll explore when to add detailed depth and how to stimulate 14 vital energy points, including an excellent point to close a massage.

There will be ample time for guided practice, peer feedback, self-reflection, and leisurely hot tub soaks. This smaller class is a good match for professionals seeking a new frame of reference and for newcomers, particularly those who have already experienced the joys of sharing a great massage.  CE credit pending, CAMTC transcript credit.

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

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

With a clear curriculum and moves designed for easy integration into any practice, we’ll focus on intermediate and advanced deep tissue techniques blended with Esalen® Massage to enhance the therapeutic skills of practicing bodyworkers, including massage therapists, acupuncturists, physiotherapists, and chiropractors. We will learn effective Deep Bodywork techniques on the entire body, integrating them with the presence-based long strokes characteristic of Esalen Massage. This creates a powerful blend of structural change and pain management with deep relaxation and integration.

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

Notes:

• Participants should have prior hands-on experience giving bodywork (massage, somatic work, or related modalities) and be physically capable of both giving and receiving deeper touch over multiple sessions.
• *30 CEUs are available through the NCBTMB, provided by Deepbodywork® LLC for bodyworkers. There is an additional $50 fee for CEUs. Please contact johannaholloman@gmail.com or phollomanconsulting@gmail.com with any questions.
• This workshop includes an additional $30 for materials.

Recommended reading: Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra

Exploring the renowned Esalen® Massage at its place of origin. This workshop offers an introduction to the foundational concepts and flow of the Esalen approach through a blend of experiential exercises, lecture-demonstrations, guided hands-on practice, and personal reflection.

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

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

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

All levels of experience are welcome.

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

Each of us walks around within our own energy halo. When two people touch, they spark an energetic exchange. This felt relationship is the heart and soul of Esalen® Massage. With a spirit of gratitude, we invite you to learn and experience the massage that was developed here at the Institute and has since spread around the world. Esalen Massage is known for its flowing integrated strokes, offered from a grounded and centered place. The slow pace and detail provide entry to states of relaxation, connection, and balance.

This course expands the massage experience by incorporating an energetic awareness, allowing us access and interaction with the energy patterns that exist around and through our bodies. Meditation enriches the journey, lighting up a connection to our own deeper patterns. Two senior massage teachers will guide the class during this informative and fun experience. Teaching methods include experiential exercises, brief lecture demonstrations, lots of supervised hands-on practice with classmates, and shared self-reflection.

All levels of experience are welcome, including practitioners and caregivers seeking a fresh focus.

24 hours of continuing education authorized for these faculty members by the  NCBTMB, offered through Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association Teachers. Check with your local authorities regarding recognition of this continuing education.