Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Esalen workshops are designed to facilitate self-exploration, personal growth, and healing in a group setting. They are led by visiting faculty who represent a spectrum of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives.

We offer need-based financial scholarships. Apply now.

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

Esalen workshops are designed to facilitate self-exploration, personal growth, and healing in a group setting. They are led by visiting faculty who represent a spectrum of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives.

We offer need-based financial scholarships. Apply now.

Forget the Plan, Follow the Beat

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Chakra Rituals: Heal, Transform, and Reignite the Spark of Life

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Cristi Christensen with Guest Musician Marques Wyatt
Chakra Rituals: Heal, Transform, and Reignite the Spark of Life
July 7–11, 2025
July 7–11, 2025
July 7, 2025
July 7–11, 2025

The chakra system is one of the greatest gifts the ancient yogis and rishis of India shared with the world: a powerful spiritual map for our healing and the awakening of our consciousness so we can fully come alive! This week is an invitation to explore this map and unlock the unbridled joy, creative power, and freedom that lives inside of you.

The ultimate goal of yoga is to live in embodied enlightenment. It is to know and feel the current of mukti (the force of liberation that expands you in the direction of pure potentiality and higher consciousness) and to feel and celebrate bhukti (the gift of embodiment and all the pleasures and abundance of earthly reality). This workshop offers us the opportunity to bring these concepts into reality and into our living beings.

Through embodied ritual practices of yoga, live music, dance, meditation, sounding, and communion with nature, you will begin to shape an intimate connection with each of your energy centers. Together we will work to break through the blockages that keep you stuck and stagnant — preventing you from healing and experiencing the fullness of your power and life. We will dive deeply into the chakra system through accessible, dynamic, and interactive discussions and exercises.  

Each day, Cristi will guide us in her signature, dynamic chakra-based vinyasa, woven with mudra, kriyas, and pranayama, supported by the sacred rhythms and healing soundscapes of our musical guide DJ Marques Wyatt.

These practices will be enhanced by a variety of daily rituals, ranging from:

  • Interactive lectures and discussions about each of the chakras.
  • Movement meditations
  • Transformational dance practices, including The Deep Exhale Experience and JourneyDance.
  • Deeply nourishing soma practice and journaling.
  • Somatic Sound Healing
  • Spending time in nature to activate our chakras through the five sacred elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space.

Join us as we turn the yoga dance floor into a ritual of self-expression. You’re invited to experience every ritual as a prayer to your highest self to return you home to your body and nature, awaken pleasure, and give you permission to feel. Ignite your power. Heal your heart. Claim your vision and voice. Connect to your own divinity and celebrate this gift of life!

Recommended reading: Chakra Rituals by Cristi Christensen

July
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Healing Through Creativity: Merging Art and Psychology for Personal Growth and Change

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Pamela Hayes Malkoff
Healing Through Creativity: Merging Art and Psychology for Personal Growth and Change
July 21–25, 2025
July 21–25, 2025
July 21, 2025
July 21–25, 2025

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.

  • Bring your inner monster to life through art, and then engage with it through conversation to gain clarity and understanding.
  • Delve into themes of control, shifting perspectives, and transformation through the power of poetry.
  • Draw your own emotional landscape and gain practical tools to continue your healing journey long after our time together.
  • Compose your personal Declaration of Independence (to free yourself from what keeps you stuck) and collage your flag representing your new state of mind.

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.

July
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Summer Yoga Gathering

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Janet Stone with Guest Musician DJ Drez and Guest Faculty Marti Nikko and Nat Kendall
Summer Yoga Gathering
July 21–25, 2025
July 21–25, 2025
July 21, 2025
July 21–25, 2025

Step away from the noise of daily life and reconnect to the sanctuary of your own heart, where love — in its purest, most expansive form — resides. This retreat invites you to reconnect with the boundless love that lives within you, a love that transcends conditions, circumstances, and partnerships.

Through yoga, sound healing, chanting, breathwork, dance, and community connection, we will journey together, rediscovering the boundless love that remains constant and unwavering. Whether in partnership or standing alone, this is an opportunity to experience “capital L” love — the love that never fades.

Join us on this sacred journey back to love, where the mind quiets and the soul reawakens so you may carry this timeless, unwavering love with you into all that you do.

July
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Empowering Creativity

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Daria Halprin
Empowering Creativity
July 28 – August 1, 2025
July 28 – August 1, 2025
July 28, 2025
July 28 – August 1, 2025

Since time immemorial, movement, dance, and the expressive arts have provided individuals and communities with a sense of soulful expression, healing, inspiration, spirit, and connection. We now need to reconnect with these ways more than ever.

The Life/Art Process®, developed by Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin, bridges body awareness, art expression, and psychological processes, providing people with an opportunity to experience dance and the expressive arts as a way to learn, heal, expand creativity, and develop new strategies for personal and professional life. This groundbreaking, innovative approach to human development, embodied creativity, and transformative learning began in the 1950s, and the tradition continues today.

Daria Halprin’s work connects dance, somatics, psychology, and artistic practices to foster personal, group, and community development and creativity. In this workshop, movement, dance, drawing, poetic dialogue,  reflective exchanges, and witnessing practices will generate new thresholds of exploration and expression, catalyzing new resources for daily life.

Morning sessions will focus on somatic awareness and individual and group movement exploration to tune the physical body to sensation and feeling. Afternoon sessions will facilitate creative encounters through dance, drawing, and spoken and written narratives to explore our life experiences. Evening sessions will be devoted to questions generated by the day’s work, reflection, and releasing activities, including creative play and meditative art practices.

Participants will be invited to:

  • Experience how movement, dance, and expressive arts can be applied to their personal and professional practices.
  • Develop body/mind awareness and connection.
  • Expand creative expression.
  • Experience improvisation and performance.
  • Explore old material in new ways and generate new resources to bring into daily life.
  • Play with artistic expression as a psychological tool.

Daria will be joined by Guest Musician Miles Lassi. Miles has performed in over 150 cities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia with many different ensembles, ranging from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to national Broadway tours like the Tina Turner Musical. He has also recorded with many award-winning artists.No previous artistic experience is necessary. This workshop is designed for everyone!

.Recommended Reading: The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy by Daria Halprin

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Breaking Free From the Likability Cage: A Replenishing and Empowering Workshop for the Emotionally Exhausted Woman

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Nancy Colier
Breaking Free From the Likability Cage: A Replenishing and Empowering Workshop for the Emotionally Exhausted Woman
August 1–3, 2025
August 1–3, 2025
August 1, 2025
August 1–3, 2025

Summer is the time to take a break, step off the treadmill of modern life, take care of oneself, and refill the tanks before gearing up for the busyness of fall. What does taking care of yourself really mean—for you? What do you want and need at this moment in your life; what genuinely takes care of you?

For many women, these are questions we never ask ourselves, much less express or dare to live by. We’ve been trained to know what everyone else wants and needs but not what we want and need. We know who we are in all of our roles to and for other people, but not who we are for ourselves. We sacrifice authenticity for likability, abandoning ourselves in order to be pleasing and manage other people’s perceptions of us. But there’s a longing inside us that wants to live a more truthful and vital life—a life that’s truly ours.  

This is a workshop for that longing. Through teaching, meditation, journaling, and dyad and group dialogue, you will be invited to:

  • Become aware of where and how you abandon yourself by taking care of others at the expense of yourself.
  • Free yourself from the likability cage and let go of being who everyone else needs you to be.
  • Make the shift from doing self-care to being self-caring, rebuild your relationship with yourself to be on your own side, and reconnect with your truth.  
  • Bring your own still small voice back into the conversation and into your life.
  • Build the tools (and courage) for an authentic life, tell the truth, and value a relationship with yourself as much as with others.
  • Come to trust, believe, and know that you matter.

The good news is this: Once you recognize the call of your own wanting, you’re already in the process of changing and reconnecting with your inherent vitality. “What do I want?” starts showing up as a question that matters, and indeed, you start showing up as someone who knows that she matters. Join this weekend of adventure and build the real-life tools, behaviors, and choices to live this change forward and create a truthful and self-affirming life.

Recommended Reading: The Emotionally Exhausted Woman: Why You’re Feeling Depleted & How To Get What You Need By Nancy Colier

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Mythology, Yoga, and Falling in Love with Existence at the Edge of the World

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Hannah Muse
Mythology, Yoga, and Falling in Love with Existence at the Edge of the World
August 18–22, 2025
August 18–22, 2025
August 18, 2025
August 18–22, 2025

When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence? —Gabrielle Roth

Your life is not simply a task to be managed but a mythopoetic mystery to be lived. Take a break from the mundane and let yourself be enchanted again. This workshop offers a profound opportunity to commune with the deeper aspects of Self through movement, inquiry, and mythology. To dream. To play. To feel alive.

Since the beginning, humans have looked to stories to make meaning of our lives. Revered mythologist and 1960s Esalen faculty Joseph Campbell wrote, “Mythology is the penultimate truth — penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words.” On this retreat, we’ll engage with daily stories that have the power to help us make sense of our lives, nourish, teach, inspire, empower, and heal us.

Experiential practices include:

  • Archetypal wisdom and nondual yogic mythology
  • Breathwork and meditation
  • Yoga (all levels), dance, and somatic journeys
  • Self-inquiry and writing
  • Rewilding, song, and nature ceremony

Music, nature, poetry, connection, and ritual are exquisitely curated for your hero/heroine’s journey. Our nourishing schedule is balanced harmoniously with relaxing meals, community care, and soaks in Esalen’s healing baths.

Whether you’re searching for renewed meaning in life, navigating life’s complex transitions, or simply enjoy being enchanted, this workshop will help awaken your spirit to courage, gladden your heart, calm your mind, and widen your perspective to vast possibilities. You might just fall in love with existence again.

Grace awaits.

August
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 The Power in Your Hands: Turning from Screens to Souls

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Shannon Algeo
The Power in Your Hands: Turning from Screens to Souls
August 18–22, 2025
August 18–22, 2025
August 18, 2025
August 18–22, 2025

What will you do with your one wild and precious life? — Mary Oliver

Do you yearn to spend less time scrolling online and more time being present, creative, and embodied in your real life? In just two decades, technology has rapidly reshaped our psyches, relationships, and communities. The average person now spends the equivalent of 61 to 80 days a year on their smartphones. Apps increasingly hijack our attention while human empathy has steadily declined.

Though living a phone-based life can be overwhelming and feel hopeless, the power is in your hands. This workshop invites you to recover your focus, creativity, and humanity. In community, we will reckon with the impact of the digital age and remember the wisdom of our somatic and ensouled selves.

Psychology, attachment theory, neuroscience, and ancient wisdom all affirm the same truth: There is regenerative power when we go offline together.

New research reveals that insecure attachment styles (anxious or avoidant) make us more vulnerable to compulsive smartphone use as we seek a digital "secure base" over human connection. By rebuilding our capacity to turn toward one another, we can re-parent ourselves and repair relational ruptures from our past.

During our time together, we’ll explore how to rewire our neuropsychology and rekindle our creative potential. Your hands are the living hands of your ancestors. What wants to be expressed through you?

Each day will include:

  • Morning meditation to connect to the inner self.
  • Lectures on the psychological and relational impacts of technology.
  • Guided exercises to reflect on our attachment histories and “styles.”
  • Interpersonal practices to replace screen time with real connection.
  • Collective ritual for going offline intentionally.
  • Practices in poetry, movement, ritual, song, and nature-based meditation to re-engage and reignite the creative spark.
  • Community gatherings to rest and restore, including Yoga Nidra for attuning to the technology of the heart.

The digital age calls for re-humanization. Join us to discover the tools, strategies, and community needed to make a meaningful change and reclaim your whole self.

Recommended reading: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, Trust Your Truth by Shannon Algeo

August
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 Free The Resonant Voice: A Retreat for Vocal Embodiment and Release

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Odeya Nini
Free The Resonant Voice: A Retreat for Vocal Embodiment and Release
September 1–5, 2025
September 1–5, 2025
September 1, 2025
September 1–5, 2025

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 freed from inhibition, the voice carries the power to heal, connect, and transform. This is an immersive experience to return to the source of your voice — the primal, unbridled sound that lives within you. Through deep listening, 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:

  • Explore vocal embodiment, using the body as a resonant chamber for sound.
  • Engage in practices that dissolve tension, unblocking emotional and physical expression.
  • Awaken the imagination and open new pathways of vocal creativity.
  • Let breath and vibration guide us into dynamic, liberatory self-expression.
  • Experience the joy of surrendering to our voice, allowing it to move through us freely.

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.

September
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Dance of the Chakras

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Amy Secada
Dance of the Chakras
September 1–5, 2025
September 1–5, 2025
September 1, 2025
September 1–5, 2025

Step into a sacred dance journey through the seven chakras — your body’s energy centers — designed to awaken, align, and elevate your being. This mind-body-spirit practice combines free-form and guided movement with visualization and breathwork, weaving together principles of yogic philosophy, healing Afro-Indigenous movement, and somatic awareness.

Developed for dancers of all levels and backgrounds, Dance of the Chakras offers a holistic approach to embodiment and a pathway to raise your energetic frequency. Through conscious movement, you are invited to activate and balance your chakras, release stored emotions, and open new pathways of vitality, presence, and inner freedom.

This is more than a workshop — it’s a transmission. With each breath and beat, you will be guided into a full-body activation, revitalizing your mind, body, and spirit. It’s time to reconnect to the wisdom of your body and feel the heartbeat of Mother Earth dancing through you. Let’s explore dance as a current of prayer.

September
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Joyful Metamorphosis: Embrace Uncertainty Through Play

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Stacie Blanke and Anthony Veneziale
Joyful Metamorphosis: Embrace Uncertainty Through Play
September 5–7, 2025
September 5–7, 2025
September 5, 2025
September 5–7, 2025

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.

This workshop includes an additional $12 for materials.

September
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Into the Field of Possibility: Meeting Your Essence Through Dance

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Jovinna Chan
Into the Field of Possibility: Meeting Your Essence Through Dance
September 8–12, 2025
September 8–12, 2025
September 8, 2025
September 8–12, 2025

Dance is one of the world’s most ancient transformative rituals. From the whirling dervish to the Shamans, the waltz to the rave, we dance for joy, healing, and connection — guided by wisdom that transcends the thinking brain.

This five-day retreat is an invitation to come together to awaken the forgotten wild, ignite your creativity, and dance our way to wholeness. Through an alchemical combination of movement, nature, and sound healing, we’ll reconnect our bodies and minds,  digest our feelings and emotions, and open ourselves to the wisdom of our hearts. Most of all, we’ll expand our vision to include a bigger perspective on our spiritual and human interconnectedness.

The practices we’ll cultivate this week will help you:

  • Release fear, inhibition, and judgment.
  • Trust your body’s innate wisdom to guide you.
  • Revive a sluggish nervous system.
  • Clear energetic blockages.
  • Step into your uniqueness and self-expression with confidence.

Allow yourself to be nourished by this sacred land, the hot spring waters, the time we share together, and the friends you’ll make. Experience the beauty, awe, and wonder of being alive so you may return home rejuvenated and inspired to continue walking your unique life path.

This workshop includes an additional $55 in faculty tuition.

September
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The Buddha, the Brain, and Bach: Exploring Practice in Mind, Music, and Life

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Barbara Bogatin, Nikki Mirghafori and Clifford Saron
The Buddha, the Brain, and Bach: Exploring Practice in Mind, Music, and Life
September 15–19, 2025
September 15–19, 2025
September 15, 2025
September 15–19, 2025

You are what you practice. Or, as the Buddha said, “Whatever you frequently reflect and ponder upon, that becomes the inclination of your mind.”

This essential observation is examined from our intertwined perspectives on contemplative practice, brain science, and music. Through interactive inquiries and guided meditations, Nikki Mirghafori will lead a journey into mindfulness and compassion cultivation. Neuroscientist Clifford Saron will take us on a voyage of discovery into the mysteries of the brain and neuroplasticity. San Francisco Symphony cellist Barbara Bogatin will inspire us with Bach and provide a rare glimpse from inside the process of musical creativity.

Each day unfolds with a thematic focus, allowing us to dive deep into the three intertwined practices and perspectives. Together, we will:

  • Experience guided meditations on the themes of samatha (concentration), vipassana (insight), and metta (loving kindness), and their application to daily life.
  • Learn how scientists understand the impact of musical and meditative practice on our brains and bodies as revealed through current research.
  • Understand how mindfulness practice enhances musical craft and expression.
  • Share ongoing learning in group discussions and inquiries.
  • Exult in the joy of music through deep listening to live cello performances.

This workshop is for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of themselves and their connection to others through the lens of mindfulness, science, and creativity. Whether you’re a meditator, musician, clinician, or simply curious, you’ll find valuable tools and perspectives to enrich your personal and professional life. No previous experience in meditation, music, or brain research is necessary!

Join us for this unique exploration of how these practices can harmonize, offering paths to inner peace and more joyful engagement with the world.

Qualified participants can receive 18 CE credits via the Spiritual Competency Academy. Click HERE to learn more.

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Crafting the Sacred Trilogy of Native American Instruments: Flute, Drum, and Rattle

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Guillermo Martinez
Crafting the Sacred Trilogy of Native American Instruments: Flute, Drum, and Rattle
September 15–19, 2025
September 15–19, 2025
September 15, 2025
September 15–19, 2025

Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for an unforgettable journey into the sacred traditions of Native American instrument making and music. This immersive, hands-on workshop invites you to reconnect with the spirit of sound by crafting three profound instruments: a Native American bamboo flute, a 14″ elk-hide medicine drum, and a gourd crystal rattle.

Designed for beginners and enthusiasts alike, this workshop begins with an exploration of the Native American flute. You’ll not only learn to play this sacred instrument — with guidance on breath control, finger positioning, and melodic phrasing — but you will also craft your own Native American-style flute using bamboo. Through this experiential journey, you’ll discover the flute’s power to express emotion, foster introspection, and create a deep sense of connection.

Next, delve into the sacred art of drum making as you create a 14” elk-hide medicine drum — a profound instrument that serves as the foundation of a trilogy of sacred tools in Native traditions. Guillermo will share the cultural and spiritual significance of the medicine drum and its role as a vessel of healing, rhythm, and spiritual resonance. Using traditional techniques, you will stretch the elk hide and lace the drum by hand, crafting a one-of-a-kind instrument that carries your unique spirit and purpose.

Lastly, connect with the power of resonance as you create your own crystal rattle using ethically sourced gourds, crystals, and natural materials. By blending traditional techniques with your personal intention, you’ll craft a sacred tool for healing, ceremony, and transformation.

No prior musical experience is necessary — just an open heart and a willingness to listen deeply. All materials will be provided, including tools and components for flute, drum, and rattle making.

This workshop has a $200 material fee, which covers all materials for instrument making.

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Moon Lodge: Honoring the Sacred Feminine

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Lucia Horan and Dr. Julie Von
Moon Lodge: Honoring the Sacred Feminine
September 26–28, 2025
September 26–28, 2025
September 26, 2025
September 26–28, 2025

How empowered do you feel as a woman navigating this world? What is your relationship to the feminine? And to female wisdom? Join us inside the Moon Lodge, a place for exploration — for women to find tribal and ritual healing.

The 5Rhythms is a map that teaches us how energy moves. It shows us the patterns, rhythms, and cycles of life — Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness — and can be a direct path to the embodiment and empowerment many of us do not feel in a time of patriarchy.

This workshop will be about celebrating the body of Woman and the sacred feminine within us all. Through dance, meditation, massage, acupressure, and ritual baths, we will share in the Sisterhood of humanity. We will poultice our wounds and celebrate the great gifts of our ancestors.

This workshop includes:

  • 5Rhythms moving meditation
  • Mindfulness meditation
  • Restorative acupressure techniques
  • Women’s health practices
  • Women’s counsel
  • Group sharing

Dr. Julie Von, a specialist in women’s health, will present the Chinese Medicine perspective on the five elements, psychosomatic process, restorative acupuncture, and self-care. She will teach us to prioritize these pillars and recognize when we are out of balance.

Lucia Horan will integrate the stillness of Buddhist mindfulness meditation with the moving meditations of the 5Rhythms®. In sitting meditation, we have the opportunity to observe the mind and body at rest through silent introspection. In the practice of the 5Rhythms, we engage in mindfulness while in motion. Together, these two polarities mirror the dance of life and open the door to peace, well-being, and balance.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

September
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Authenticity Unleashed: The Science and Soul of Unlocking Your Power, Confidence, and Truth

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Justin Michael Williams
Authenticity Unleashed: The Science and Soul of Unlocking Your Power, Confidence, and Truth
September 26–28, 2025
September 26–28, 2025
September 26, 2025
September 26–28, 2025

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.

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Resource and Renew: 5Rhythms and Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness

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Lucia Horan
Resource and Renew: 5Rhythms and Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness
September 29 – October 3, 2025
September 29 – October 3, 2025
September 29, 2025
September 29 – October 3, 2025

Through the practices of 5Rhythms dance, mindfulness meditation, and self-care, we weave together a retreat focused on healing and celebration. Looking back over the past few years, it is clear that many of us are exhausted. In times of turmoil and change, self-care and kindness are needed to connect us to the ability to recharge and renew. In order to move forward with energy, passion, and creativity, it is vital to seed these qualities in our daily life so that we may cultivate resilience.

Do you need to integrate more self-care into daily life? Would you like to be better resourced and have more energy? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, you are in perfect alignment to participate in this workshop.

The 5Rhythms is an externalization process that releases and balances the systems of the body through movement. It is a method of dance focused on presence versus performance. We pair this process with seated meditation to quiet the heart and mind, allowing for stillness and integration. Bringing both together mirrors the dance of life. We come together to create an environment that cultivates and nurtures joy, calmness, and ease.

Each session will be primarily focused on Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms moving meditation practice. We will complete each practice with a 10-15-minute seated meditation. Included will be a discourse on 5Rhythms, mindfulness, and self-care. All practices taught during this course lend to the experience and wisdom of resourcing and renewing vital life energy to send you home with skills and tools to apply to your daily life.

This workshop will include:

  • 5Rhythms dance
  • Seated meditation
  • Sharing circles
  • Discourses on mindfulness and 5Rhythms

No experience is necessary. All workshop hours contribute to 5Rhythms® Teachers Training.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

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Earth-Body: An Eco-Somatic Backpacking Journey & Retreat

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Noël Vietor and Ariel Johnson
Earth-Body: An Eco-Somatic Backpacking Journey & Retreat
October 10–12, 2025
October 10–12, 2025
October 10, 2025
October 10–12, 2025

The Earth holds us, breathes with us, moves through us.

Since time immemorial, human beings have lived in deep, reciprocal relationship with landscapes—our movements shaped by terrain, our nervous systems regulated by the rhythms of seasons and tides, our sense of self inseparable from the more-than-human world. Yet, in this modern, frenetic age, we are conditioned to see our bodies as isolated, our healing as individual, and “nature” as separate. This retreat is an invitation to remember an older truth: to inhabit our own bodies fully is to reinhabit the living Earth.

Rooted in the Gestalt traditions of Esalen and the emergent field of eco-somatics, our four-day backpacking journey will guide us through the wilds of Big Sur—Esselen tribal territory—in an immersive exploration of belonging, awareness, and interconnection, followed by a weekend of retreat and integration at Esalen Institute.

While trekking through awe-inspiring wilderness, we will engage in somatic practices that reawaken our felt kinship with the natural world. Embracing slowness and spaciousness, we will attune to gravity, breath, and the sensuous aliveness of place. Silent hiking, intuitive movement, meditation, and earth-based ritual will dissolve the false boundary between self and landscape. Exploring embodiment as an intimate community, we will move beyond notions of individual self-care to a lived experience of healing as relational and ecological.

Through this retreat, we step into a different rhythm—one guided by the living world around and within us. As we listen with our whole bodies, we begin to sense the reciprocity woven into all things. What emerges is not just connection but remembering—a return to a relationship as ancient as our true body: the Earth.

Important Notes:

  • The full experience takes place over six days, from Tuesday, October 7th to Sunday, October 12th, 2025.
  • This is a partner program with Wildtender, an organization based in Big Sur exploring the embodied intersection of wilderness and wisdom traditions. Prior to registering with Esalen, you will need to register and pay tuition fees through Wildtender for the wilderness portion of the program. For more details and to register, visit wildtender.org/earthbody
  • Experience with backpacking is not required. Wilderness skills will be taught before and within the program, and participants will be supported in preparations. Please see Wildtender’s program page for a more detailed hiking itinerary and backpacking eligibility criteria.
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The Embodied Teacher: Purpose, Practice, Presence, Power

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Sadia Bruce
The Embodied Teacher: Purpose, Practice, Presence, Power
October 13–17, 2025
October 13–17, 2025
October 13, 2025
October 13–17, 2025

Designed for yoga and embodiment teachers who feel the ache of fragmentation, stagnancy, or disconnection in their teaching, this five-day immersion invites you to sit in and ultimately teach from what philosopher Bayo Akomolafe calls “the warmth of the fracture” — where insight dawns, and deeper presence becomes possible. It is a call to those who sense that teaching is not merely a practice, but a sacred act of co-creation, transmission, and care. In a world aching for wisdom, clarity, and connection, the art of true teaching has never been more vital, nor more rare.

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Esalen in Big Sur, this immersion invites you to step beyond method and mimicry — into the electrifying territory of presence. Here, you’ll remember yourself as a living instrument of purpose, practice, presence, and power.

Rooted in the philosophy and practice of yoga, this experience is for sincere embodiment educators— and for facilitators, guides, and space-holders seeking to align their inner life with their outward offering. Whether you’re a seasoned teacher or simply curious to bring more coherence, confidence, and vitality to your work, you are welcome.

Each day unfolds in dialogue with the land and one another, weaving asana, breath, meditation, somatic inquiry, ritual, and improvisational teaching labs into a living curriculum. Together, we will name and tend the invisible currents that shape our teaching: the hopes, fears, doubts, and devotions that live beneath the surface. We will wrestle with the temptation toward performance, and return instead to the more difficult, more vital task of presence.

Let us reclaim teaching as a radical art form: part discipline, part devotion, all jazz. You’ll learn to riff with reality to transmit something alive. This isn’t about mastering new techniques, but about transmuting the raw material of your life into something that speaks and serves. The process is intimate, catalytic, and grounded in the understanding that the most impactful teachers are those in right relationship with their own unfolding.

Through this journey, you will be invited to:
• Root yourself in the four pillars of transformative teaching: Purpose, Practice, Presence, and Power
• Reclaim your personal story, passions, and practices as instruments— not obstacles— of your offering
• Dismantle the invisible barriers— shame, doubt, contraction— that mute your authenticity
• Learn to teach not from choreography, but from the wellspring of lived, embodied knowing
• Awaken the poetic intelligence, relational agility, and magnetic presence that make teaching transformational rather than transactional

This is not another training, but an initiatory laboratory of becoming — a space to re-encounter your voice, clarify your offering, and remember what only you can teach, how only you can teach it.

Recommended reading: The Courage to Teach, Parker J. Palmer; Let Your Life Speak, Parker J. Palmer; Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living, Donna Farhi; The Second Circle, Patsy Rodenburg; Human Becoming, David Richo; Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks

October
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Browse More Workshops

Are you looking to immerse yourself in the peace, space, and natural majestic beauty of our campus without taking a workshop?

Choose Your Dates
Letting go of entrenched ideas — who we are, how the world works, our place in it — is a challenge. It takes energy. Time. Space. Security. This growth encourages us to examine ourselves and understand our connection to the whole. This more flexible, less structured model of change encompasses both personal and communal, aligning with the core of our mission. Self-Guided Explorations are designed to function outside of the group structures of our workshops for a more freeform, spacious healing journey. These experiences are for those who want to immerse themselves in the peace, space, and natural majestic beauty of our campus, exploring the edges of personal growth and open group classes when compelled. The beauty of our Big Sur campus supports serenity for the mind, the body, the spirit, and offers nourishment for all three. Exploring human potential.Our dynamic open class schedule changes weekly, but always features opportunities to sit in meditation and mindfulness, explore embodiment and movement practices, and connect with nature. An opening circle, hosted by an Esalen Staff member or a visiting teacher, welcomes you as you begin your stay. A closing circle on the final day provides a reflective conclusion to your time with us. Feeding mind and body.Savor three hearty, healthy meals per day. Our kitchen draws on global culinary traditions, using the fruits of the Esalen Farm & Garden and other local Big Sur providers to create delicious meals that support holistic health — for you and for the earth.Creating space for reflection.Esalen’s beloved mineral hot springs perch dramatically over the Pacific Ocean, a juxtaposition of intimate and infinite. A core part of Esalen from its inception, the baths and tubs are an ideal place to reflect, find clarity, and set new intentions.
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