Workshops

In today’s unpredictable world, mastering negotiation is essential for effective leadership.

This highly interactive workshop will immerse you in real-world negotiation scenarios that mirror the complexity of today’s challenges. Using the Systemic Multi-Constituency Exercise (SMCE) method, you’ll engage in dynamic role-play simulations where competing interests, shifting alliances, and high stakes force you to think strategically, adapt quickly, and build trust in uncertain environments.

One such immersive simulation exercise, “The Coastal Crossroads,” places you in a pristine coastal region at the center of a heated development dispute. As members of a diverse coalition — including local government, Indigenous land stewards, environmental activists, fishermen, and luxury resort developers — you must negotiate land use policies, economic opportunities, and environmental protections while balancing sustainability, cultural heritage, and economic growth in the face of competing interests and escalating tensions.

Throughout the workshop, expert facilitation, peer feedback, and structured debriefs will help you refine your approach to coalition-building, resilience, and conflict navigation. You’ll explore negotiation strategies that extend beyond the bargaining table — leveraging human connection, systemic thinking, and creative problem-solving to lead with confidence in high-stakes situations. You will emerge with actionable strategies to manage complex challenges in leadership and everyday life.

Join us for an immersive experience that will transform how you think about negotiation, equipping you with practical tools to navigate chaos, crisis, and complexity with clarity and strength.

**Special Notes on Attendance:

Full Workshop Participation Strongly Encouraged.

This workshop is designed as a deeply immersive experience in which each session builds upon the last, culminating in a collective debrief and reflection on Sunday. To honor the integrity of the process and the group experience, we ask that all participants commit to full participation from Friday through Sunday.

Past workshops have shown that when participants come and go, it disrupts the flow of engagement and can diminish the experience for both the individual and the group. The immersive nature of this training relies on trust, presence, and continuity, and stepping away from key moments may limit the depth of your own learning as well as the collective insights of the group.

We invite you to fully step into this journey, embracing the challenges, breakthroughs, and transformations that emerge when you stay fully engaged from beginning to end. If you have any concerns about participation, please reach out to ntf@negotiationtaskforce.org in advance so we can support you in making the most of this experience.

To facilitate the assignment and creation of personalized roles for each participant in this immersive experience, workshop registration will close on August 8th, 2025.

This workshop includes an additional $50 for materials.

What does it truly mean to show up as your authentic self at work, at home, and in all your relationships? How can true authenticity enhance your relationship with yourself and others? What does science have to say about the practice of authenticity?

The good news, research conducted at Harvard University has proven that authenticity is a skill, not a trait—which means you can learn practical methods to become more confident, express your true self, and go after your biggest goals.  When you embrace your authenticity, you unlock the confidence to ask for what you truly want, the courage to step into your power, and the freedom to live a life that feels true to you.  This potent music-infused workshop delivers science-backed, actionable strategies to help you bring your most powerful, authentic self into all areas of your life.

Called an “Inspirational Powerhouse,” Grammy-nominated musician and bestselling author Justin Michael Williams introduces the four skills to build true authenticity that work at every level of your life. Explore tools to enhance your personal and professional relationships, boost confidence, and help you navigate conflict without losing yourself.

In this workshop, you will be invited to:

• Learn the Harvard-backed science of authenticity and how to apply it in every situation–including at home, in friendships, romantic relationships, at work, in leadership roles, or navigating your next big move in life.
• Gain the most effective skills to boost confidence and silence inner doubts, overthinking, and anxiety.
• Discover how to stay authentic during conflict, even in high-stakes conversations.
• Understand what it means to be your truest, most authentic self and how to express it in any environment—and how to use authenticity to drive success.

This program has been designed from the ground up to include people of all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds and empower everyone to bring their full selves, build lasting connections, and create lives that reflect their deepest truths.

We all long to be happy. We all long to feel at ease, to be at peace, and to know that we’re okay and we belong. When it feels like the world is on fire, when divisiveness is commonplace, it can seem harder than ever to access such belonging — both personally and collectively.

Most of us are deeply habituated to believe that we are separate — from one another, from the world, and even from ourselves. We are habituated to fall for the story that we must fix ourselves in order to earn and experience deep connection.

We forget that belonging is already seated in the heart of who we are — and that it’s always available if only we look within. When we do, we can transform far more than just our own lives.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Have you ever touched this peace, this contentment, this deep return to belonging but then feared losing this experience?
• Have you ever struggled because you recognized the world around you did not reflect this experience of your true nature?
• When faced with the enormity of the collective problems before us, have you wondered how one individual’s spiritual practice can make a tangible difference in our world?

These questions will guide our time together as we explore how meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative technologies can — and must — be applied collectively. Our daily meditation practice will serve as a framework onto which we will begin to weave teachings with personal reflections. You will have the opportunity to connect to yourself, others, and the world beyond in solo and group exercises and discussions that inspire us to put our values into action.

Join us in this return to belonging — this remembering of the deepest truth of who we are — with the intention of using this understanding to transform our own lives and the world we share.

Recommended reading: The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together by Caverly Morgan

The Body of Belonging invites you to explore feelings of kinship, acceptance, and community on a somatic level, identifying the elements most significant to you. Through gentle yoga-inspired movement, breathwork, sound, and meditation, we will engage in self-inquiry practices within a group setting. Together, we will create a safe and brave space to experiment with accessing a sense of belonging. Drawing from ancient and Indigenous wisdom, we will work toward dismantling the individualistic ways of being that contribute to our growing sense of separateness.

Loneliness is an epidemic eroding the fabric of who we are as a collective. It is so prevalent in the United States that the surgeon general has issued an advisory to call attention to the importance of social connection for individual and community-wide health. The hyperindividualism that has been promoted as our best way of “succeeding” has left us feeling lost and alienated. In our overfocus on self, we’ve lost sight of how connection, community, and a felt sense of belonging are central to our well-being.  

Participants will be invited to connect with their individual needs as it relates to belonging. They will build skillfulness in advocating for belonging by centering and nourishing connection and community to realize the resilience that comes with healthy interdependence.

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:

• Unlearn limiting beliefs, inherited stories, and toxic patterns of being and doing.
• Explore transformative practices that move energy, disrupt patterns, and metabolize trauma.
• Build greater capacity and resilience for the discomfort of change and the uncertainty of (im)possible futures.
• Cultivate an everyday practice of collective care that ensures all of us can be well.
• Reimagine ways of being, doing, surviving, and thriving together.

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.

Great leaders encourage collaboration, promote inclusion, and make others feel seen and heard. Their greatest tool? Compassion. Compassion isn’t a static trait that people either have or don’t have; we all have the ability to grow our compassion intentionally through practice. A clinical psychologist and renowned expert in compassion, Dr. Shapiro uses her scientific and clinical expertise to give us concrete strategies for compassionate leadership. You will be introduced to the surprising science behind compassion, the latest research on neuroplasticity, and the most powerful tools and practices to lead teams that are connected, collaborative, creative, and successful. You will be given a science-based roadmap to re-engineer internal states, manage stress, boost creativity, and cultivate a culture of safety and connection.

Together we will:    

• Explore the science of compassion and how it facilitates learning, connection, and trust.
• Train in powerful, science-based practices of self-compassion and mindfulness to cultivate essential skills for leadership.
• Develop our skills to build connection, safety, and belonging in individuals and teams.

This workshop is appropriate for anyone curious about leadership, compassion, and how to deepen a sense of community and purpose. These practices have the power to transform our individual and collective lives.  All are welcome.

Recommended Reading: Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire the Brain for Calm, Clarity + Joy and Good Morning, I Love You: A Guided Journal for Calm, Clarity + Joy by Shauna Shapiro.

This workshop includes an additional $375 faculty tuition. *For anyone facing financial hardship, Dr. Shauna Shapiro invites you to contact her directly for a tuition scholarship at slshapiro@scu.edu.

Imagine reaching the end of your life and realizing your biggest regret is that you never found the courage to live authentically because you lived the life others expected. In this workshop, we will embark on a transformative journey inspired by the wisdom of Human Design and the spirit of Esalen. Human Design blends ancient wisdom from astrology, the I Ching, the Mystical Kabbalah, and the Hindu-Brahmin Chakra system with modern insights from quantum physics, helping you uncover your inner guidance system and intuition to live a life aligned with who you truly are. Esalen is renowned for its focus on experiential learning, offering opportunities to experiment with new ideas and practices, creating space for connection and growth.

Through this journey, we’ll explore how to align daily decision-making with your true self, embrace your natural gifts, and connect with your life’s greater purpose. Practical applications include making wise choices, fostering growth, and building relationships rooted in who you are. To deepen our understanding, we’ll engage in embodiment practices, integration techniques, and interactive sessions designed for hands-on learning.

This workshop invites you to step into your potential. By loving yourself, trusting your intuition, and following your inner authority, you can transform your life and create a meaningful way of living.

Participants are asked to bring their birth details, including birthdate, birthplace, and time, along with a journal. Join us in exploring new ways of living true to yourself within a supportive community.

Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and reflect. We rarely allow ourselves the opportunity to stop and look at what is changing — or discover what we truly need to feel fulfilled.

This very interactive workshop will include lots of experiential exercises. Though we will cover valuable theory and there will be plenty of reflection time, this will not be a series of talks/lectures. There will be movement, coaching, a little dance, and lots of opportunity to share insights. Active participation is strongly encouraged; however, participation will always be voluntary.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to challenge,nurture and express ourselves. Participants will have the opportunity to learn what brings them joy and purpose, and then cultivate a vision to serve as a foundation for both the next year and next phase of life.

We will engage in a progression of individual and group exercises focused on reflection, movement, and listening to our inner wisdom. We’ll discover how to navigate major life transitions and learn skills to access our intuition. We will uncover the behaviors that support our overall success, and reveal which ones undermine our goals and fulfillment. If you are passionate about having a more powerful and authentic impact on the world around you, this program of renewal will be especially valuable.