Workshops

Esalen Massage is a moving meditation, a practice in presence and mindfulness, and a sensory healing art. When practiced with focused attention, massage comes from a deep, quiet place that resides inside each of us. This practice of meditation also helps access our parasympathetic nervous system, where healing originates. As we give a massage, this state of mind can permeate the field that practitioner and receiver create together.

In guided sessions, we will explore the practice of sitting meditation to prepare and quiet our minds, and the fundamentals of Esalen Massage as a meditative and self-reflective practice. Special focus will be on quality of touch, breath awareness, centering, and sensitive rapport between partners. The signature long strokes will support a sense of wholeness and integration.  Instruction in detailed work for the shoulders, hips, limbs and neck will contribute to the massage experience. There will be supervised practice daily as students exchange massages, with the support of their experienced teachers.

Beginners as well as seasoned practitioners will welcome this week to explore Esalen Massage and meditation, while enjoying the natural beauty of the Esalen grounds.

This workshop is especially useful for those in the helping and healing professions in working with their clients and partners.

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

This workshop invites you to enjoy Esalen in the summertime as you practice foundational skills in our famed massage modality. Silvia and Lori will guide you in this experience of mindful touch translated to the massage table. Through lectures, brief demonstrations, and supervised practice, they will introduce the basics: quality of touch, rapport, massage skills with “the listening hand” and effective body mechanics.

The slow-paced practice of Esalen massage sets the stage for a pleasurable natural healing process to emerge, rather than any focus on “fixing.”  You will learn how to drape and how to easily apply Esalen’s signature integrative strokes, detail,  gentle stretches, with a concluding pause. You will be encouraged to effectively share your experience. You may even enjoy giving a massage  as much as receiving one.

Classroom tools include exercises designed to awaken the senses and illuminate the value of boundaries in healing work, demonstrations, and tableside guidance tailored specifically for your experience level. The class is appropriate for the new and curious as well as the professional seeking to refresh their senses and the quality of their touch.

10 hours of continuing education provided by the faculty through Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association Teachers. For more information on CE email EMBA@esalen.org.

How we sit, stand, move, and respond to our inner and outer world reflects deeply ingrained patterns wired into our nervous systems since childhood. They reflect our early solutions to physical survival in our family system. Out of awareness, these beliefs and strategies can still run our adult lives, limit our choices, and prevent physical ease and emotional healing.

If you still have pain or limitations from a past injury, it is usually because many other areas in your body had to overwork to protect and avoid using the injured area while you were recovering. These unconscious compensations can create an imbalanced workload and, eventually, new issues elsewhere in our body that prevent complete healing.

Using CFR®, we slowly explore and deeply sense small, gentle movements that bring these hidden patterns into awareness. When our genius nervous system becomes aware of a habit that is no longer useful, it extinguishes it. A greater experience of self-trust and self-worth is uncovered. A new sense of self-love, which comes from paying attention to your details without judgment, usually emerges.

This workshop is for the sedentary who want to become more active, the highly active who want to avoid injury and gain a competitive edge, and the chronically tired and stressed who want to improve breathing, posture, and flexibility. It is for those who have experienced physical injury or emotional trauma and those in helping professions who wish to enhance outcomes for clients and patients.  

You will leave equipped with simple yet effective tools for continued self-healing. Your discoveries will lead to a state of awe about what is possible in your body, your movement, and your life.

Recommended Reading: Somatics by Thomas Hanna and The Elusive Obvious by Moshé Feldenkrais

Continuing education credit is available for Physical Therapist who are licensed in CA and TX. Note that TX has reciprocity with the following states: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CO, CT,  FL, ID, IN, KY, MA , MI, MS, MO, MT, NH, NC, ND, OR, RI, SD, VT, WA. Please check with your state board to confirm.. Please see the faculty during your first workshop session for more information. OR email faculty member Melissa Krikorian info@thenexusway.com.

The summer stars and sun-sparkled ocean waves—with glimpses of whale flumes—form a striking backdrop for 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.

Explore foundational Esalen® Massage principles reimagined in the side-lying position — quality of touch and presence, long integrative strokes, and passive joint movement, all adapted to offer a new perspective and experience. When limited to prone and supine options, practitioners and students often miss ways to effectively work with those who would benefit from alternatives. This position allows the giver to simultaneously access the front and back of the receiver while moving the limbs in a variety of ways. The side-lying position is especially satisfying for pregnant clients and those uncomfortable on their back or front because of health challenges. Many receivers prefer this relaxed posture, which provides easy access to the ribs and enhances the breath.

Students will apply the flowing Esalen® Massage strokes with more precision, safely and gently turn the client on the table, add depth with the forearm, and mobilize joints with stretches. Effective alignment for giver and receiver, draping, and daily self-care will be emphasized as we focus on Esalen® Massage as an awareness-based practice.

Each class will consist of brief experiential lecture-demonstrations and supervised practice at the table —with plenty of time for feedback, questions, and self-reflection. This class is designed for those who enjoy giving massage and are looking for something more, as well as birth doulas, healthcare professionals, and practitioners seeking new horizons who also wish to reconnect with nature while being embraced by Esalen’s dramatic seacoast setting.

21 hours CE credit through the EMBA; CAMTC transcript credit available.

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.