Workshops

“Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is important to me?”

Asking yourself these questions will activate your inner authenticity and allow you to move forward and live your life in alignment with your truest self. The answers to these questions will help you navigate life’s journey with direction, motivation, and inspiration. Perhaps the greatest regret of the dying is that they lacked the courage to live a life true to themselves.

In this workshop, you will reconnect with your authentic self through a series of exercises — such as guided meditation, self-inquiry, journaling, Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as tapping) — and one-on-one and group sharing and embodiment practices. This curated process is designed to allow you space to get clear about:

• Your purpose
• Your core values
• Your message
• Your big vision

With that clarity, you can create your manifesto, a written statement declaring who you truly are. Let that sink in: We will first uncover this hidden self, and then, together, we will manifest this being into reality.

Together, we will explore:

• Guided meditation to calm the mind and tap into your inner guidance and higher potential.
• Self-inquiry to explore the powerful questions that connect with your true self and what matters most to you.
• Journaling with a focus on cognitive processing to reduce stress, improve memory, boost mood, regulate emotions, increase physical vitality, and improve relationships.
• EFT tapping to clear subconscious blocks and rewire your subconscious mind.

Discover practices to connect and practical tools to reprogram your subconscious mind and heal your connection with your truest, deepest, highest self. You will also learn to apply these insights for authentic interactions with others. As you deepen the embodiment of your native self, you’ll experience the freedom of simply being you. This is one of the greatest victories possible: living a courageous life true to yourself — with no regrets.

Please bring a journal and pen to every session.

Recommended Reading: Everyday Initiations by Anne Van De Water

A journey to heal oneself and awaken deeply from within. Through meditation, yoga, and time in nature, we will tap into the stories our bodies have to tell and develop skills to nourish ourselves in 2024.

This workshop focuses on the transition from one year to the next as an opportunity to purposefully cultivate a sense of renewal. During our time together, you will be guided to explore and experience what this means for you personally.

Ritual invocations of energy and the power of the Esalen grounds themselves will support your healing journey by providing an intentional space for you to reflect on all you have experienced individually and collectively within your community during the past year.

Throughout the weekend, we will share new ways of grounding and connecting to the sacred energy of nature and the elements constantly surrounding us.  This supports the act of renewal, cultivates greater presence, and creates capacity to build and replenish energy throughout the coming year to support continued health and well-being.

In this workshop, all participants are invited:

• To understand themselves at a much deeper level.
• To begin deep personal transformation and discover tools to support their work.
• To gain a heightened sense of awareness and presence in ritual practice.
• To experience new ways of relating to nature, to receive the energy around them, and to form relationships with the natural world.
• To experience how healing resonates within a community.

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:

• How to recognize judging thoughts.  
• To deal effectively with inner critic attacks.
• How to distinguish between negative judgment and wise discernment.
• The importance of self-acceptance, self-compassion, and  love as antidotes to the critic.
• The need and role of humor in helping us with the critic.
• To cultivate forgiveness in response to judgment.

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.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

Recommended reading: Make Peace with your Mind – How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic, by Mark Coleman

“I have never seen anyone who took a huge risk for growth that was not rewarded 10,000 times.” — John O’Donohue

To encounter someone, something, or someplace implies that it’s unexpected or a surprise. Encountering the moment means coming face-to-face with the unknown. In movement practice, we train ourselves to stay open, curious, centered, and responsive at the front edge of any encounter — counterbalancing those innate primal reactions to fight, flee, freeze, or please.  

Rather than withdrawing, playing it safe, or tolerating things you shouldn’t, imagine being adept at staying present and standing your ground clearly and authentically. Picture a world where we are able to express opinions, feelings, discontents, and appreciations skillfully while remaining wholeheartedly open to outcome and change.  

In this workshop, within a supportive and challenging environment, we will create “safe emergencies” — situations intense enough to command our attention that are managed with care and support, to help us risk moving beyond habitual self-defeating patterns. Participants can receive real feedback and gain plenty of practice making new choices in relation to others.  

20 CE units available for full attendance of this course

• CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA) which is co-sponsoring this program. The Spiritual

Competency Academy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

• The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.
• LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.
• SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN Provider CEP16887) for licensed nurses in California. RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years after the course concludes.
• For questions about receiving your Certificate of Attendance, contact Nicole@AndreaJuhan .com

For questions about CE, contact Spiritual Competency Academy at info@spiritualcompetencyacademy.com.

Join us for an immersive experience where ancient breath practices intersect with contemporary Gestalt to unleash the transformational power of awareness. For millennia, diverse yoga traditions have harmonized breathwork with mindfulness to nurture psychological healing and spiritual growth. Today, science is validating the profound impact of breathwork and embodied awareness on stress management and immune resilience. Visionaries like Bessel Van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score) champion the fusion of breath, movement, awareness development, and educated touch in healing trauma.

This twelve-day full immersion module at Esalen will be a sanctuary for professionals seeking to infuse Gestalt and breathwork into their practices as well as anybody on a journey of self-discovery. Participants will be able to learn about and experience different forms of breathwork. Extended two-to-three-hour breath sessions can open expanded states of consciousness for self-exploration of deeper, authentic dimensions of our being. Shorter “daily-dose” practices can be used for at-home exploration. Gestalt inquiry is a potent tool for developing presence to explore and understand both our and our clients’ experiences in an immediate, felt-sense way.

We’ll also learn when and how to use educated, attuned touch and body awareness, both with individuals and when facilitating groups. Perry and Johanna will share their extensive experience using different modalities of touch in combination with breath to focus awareness on specific areas of the body holding trauma and resisting change.

Moreover, engaging in Movement Practice™ will enhance our embodied presence and cultivate stronger connections among us in the group field. Early morning optional creek dips will be offered to awaken our natural vitality.

Embark on this transformative journey crafted to nurture your personal healing and spiritual growth. Acquire essential skills to enhance your practice, whether you’re a professional who wants to enhance your expertise or an individual dedicated to deepening self-inquiry.

For those that are interested in certification, the Holloman Institute will offer one for health care professionals and massage practitioners. This will be a 75 hour Certificate which requires documenting 10 sessions given post seminar in Hologenic Connected Breathwork. The certificate cost is $100.

Recommended Reading: Breath by James Nestor.

This workshop explores ways of representing and befriending our inner experience. Therapies that work all start from a basic sense of calm and safety. The calmer we are, the more we can allow ourselves to know what we know, and to feel what we feel.

Trauma changes the way the brain processes information and the body engages with the world. Trauma makes people afraid to know what they know and feel what they feel. This is expressed in heartbreak, and the state of being out of sync with oneself and one’s surroundings. This course explores how, because of altered biological systems, traumatized people continue to be trapped by their history and react to current experience in a myriad of ways as a replay of the past, and shows ways to break the cycles of re-enactment and suffering.

We will study and experience the capacity of EMDR, yoga, Internal Family Systems, sensorimotor practices, psychodrama, theater work, and neurofeedback to help people overcome a traumatic past and regain the capacity to be fully alive in the present.

Bring a notebook. Wear clothing that allows free movement as you are able.

Recommended reading: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

The many advances in trauma work and trauma therapy recognize how physical, emotional, and psychological harm can profoundly impact our sense of self and our capacity to physically regulate the nervous system.  

In this workshop, we will bring spirituality into the conversation and explore how our emotions can be a resource for recovery, helping us tune into our specific emotions. Our emotions can be a portal back to ourselves and our spiritual qualities. 

Those managing past trauma can lose access to their living consciousness, bodies, nervous systems, and true nature. This inability to be with the fullness of your authentic self can limit your capacity to live in a meaningful way, leading to grief, depersonalization, and a deep longing for who you used to be.

During our time together, we will turn inward by:

• Working directly with spiritual practices, including mediation, inquiry, journaling, body-centered awareness, and gentle movement.
• Creating a safe container and heart-full space.
• Introducing a spiritual orientation toward our emotional soul, focusing on appreciation for the gift of emotions as the door to our spiritual nature.
• Uncovering how our hidden and forbidden emotions can become portals to our various spiritual qualities.

The natural response to trauma is to dissociate, shut down, and become numb to protect oneself. Over time, a distorted sense of self can form, but we are not defined by our painful histories. With great tenderness, curiosity and courage,  we can recognize the effects the past can have on our spiritual path and discern what is needed to effectively navigate this part of our journey. Who and what we truly are can always be rediscovered.

This workshop invites you to be open to the possibility that, no matter the trauma, our authentic nature remains pure — and steadfastly available when we turn toward our true selves.

Recommended Reading: In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness by Peter A. Levine

We sleep one-third of our lifetime, an average of 20 to 25 years. Dream yoga is a practice that spans every moment, waking and sleeping. It is a powerful tool of awakening used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Foundational practices in dream yoga change the practitioner’s relationship to all experiences, develop conscious awareness and often lead to lucidity in dreams. Unlike in the Western psychological approach to dreams, the ultimate goal of Tibetan dream yoga is the recognition of the nature of the mind or enlightenment itself.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will discuss the relationships between dream and waking, and dream and death. He will show how the causes of dreams are related to the six chakras, and how we can heal blocks in the chakras. He will teach the “four preparations” for sleep and the uses and methods of lucid dreaming.

Recommended reading: Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep and Rinpoche, Sleep & Awakening the Sacred Body.

Gestalt Practice at its core is an awareness practice in which we cultivate embodied, present-moment awareness of the unfolding experience of the here and now on a journey toward authentic growth, wholeness, and aliveness.

Drawing from the foundations of Gestalt Practice, wisdom traditions, and contemporary approaches that cultivate awareness, we’ll learn to become increasingly aware of our habitual, reactive, behavioral and emotional patterns — especially those that may no longer be skillful — for a more deeply embodied daily life. We will exercise our emotional and somatic intelligence in parallel to support, respect, and gently turn toward what arises moment to moment — to allow more space and appreciation for silence, sensation, emotional expression, and communication.

During this workshop, we will explore the rich practices and principles of Gestalt Practice. By applying them to everyday life, we’ll begin to experience the simple yet profound potential for showing up more fully and authentically for the daily presentations of living an awake life.

Gestalt Practice cultivates curiosity, equanimity, and acceptance with greater choice for creative possibilities. Rather than focusing on fixing or achievement, this approach offers methods to encourage you to:

• Cultivate awareness and embodied presence.
• Grow responsiveness, resilience, and choice.
• Trust in your organism’s inherent capacity for self-regulation and co-regulation.

Together, we’ll explore the elements of this approach, primarily through experiential personal practices, interactive exercises, and Gestalt Awareness Movement. Practices and exercises will be done solo, in pairs, triads, and groups, allowing participants to grow their awareness and learn how we can deepen our relationships — to self and others. There will be time for some participants to experience classic one-to-one Open Seat practice sessions with Steven in the roles of Initiator and Reflector while in the context of the group. To enrich our understanding, we’ll touch upon the rich history, theory, and neuroscience that supports this approach.

Through Gestalt Practice, we bear witness to ineffable mysteries that can bring us to living life more fully. Participants are invited to show up:  choosing to be present, paying attention to what has heart and meaning, and open to what life presents — letting life live through us.

The workshop is appropriate for all levels of experience with the understanding that participants are exploring a model of an awareness gym or lab — not a therapy. A welcome letter will be sent upon registration along with additional information about our time together.

Join us to experience deep rest and renewal! You need and deserve this.  So many of us are overtaxed by constant demands, burdens, and worries, especially those of us providing extra support for others through caregiving, healthcare, activism, and other service-oriented jobs.

We bring you expertise in the science, art, and practice of restoration from stress.

• Learn the practical and cutting-edge science of stress resilience.
• Be guided into states of deep rest and rejuvenation through meditation, yoga nidra, and restorative yoga.
• Awaken all of your senses to reconnect with your body and increase vitality through gentle yoga, expressive movement, nature immersion, and sound healing.

Immersed in the beauty of nature at Esalen, our work is well supported. We will learn and practice new ways to restore ourselves, and you will develop a toolbox of short practices that support your daily rejuvenation and sustained vitality.

Joseph Campbell used to celebrate his birthday at Esalen. 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 would conclude, “and what Esalen is about.” In 1988, the year after Campbell died, his friends —recalling his dictum: “What you do, you do with play”—gathered at Esalen to inaugurate “Campbell Week,” a tradition that morphed into this PlayShop, which has continued annually ever since..

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. Toward that end, we will use myth-making tools—drums & dance, music & 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.

“Re-vision — the art of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, from a new critical direction — is for us an act of survival. Until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves. We need to know  the past differently than we have ever known it, not to pass on a tradition, but to break its hold over us.” —Adrienne Rich

Please bring a meaningful but expendable totem, an unsung story, or an evocative song.

Recommended reading: Anything by Campbell. Anything that makes you laugh. Poetry.

When the world around us is polarized and the future is uncertain, gathering in community, living in our bodies, and expressing the truth is more important than ever.

In this transformative four-day writing workshop, we’ll use ritual and deep writing to connect with our inner voice, discover the healing power of language, and birth powerful true stories onto the page. Evocative prompts, movement, and guided meditation will lead you deeply into the world of language and story. Discover how to “find the story beneath the story,” why writers need to “slow down where it hurts,” and the secret of crafting tales rooted in the immediacy and physicality of the moment.

As we alternate periods of writing and movement with listening to each other from a place of deep acceptance, you’ll benefit from the strength of a supportive writing circle, witness the healing power of language, and experience the transformation that occurs when we tell true stories and are deeply heard. Open to anyone willing to connect with their creativity in the context of a safe, confidential community. Both emerging and seasoned writers are welcome to attend

This workshop includes a $25 materials fee.

“A brain without a body couldn’t think.” — Moshe Feldenkrais

“We want to get you to a place where gravity is your friend, a nourishing force.” — Dr. Ida P. Rolf

Human beings are relational by nature. We are an intricate web of anatomy, energy, space, and time that takes shape through our life experiences. Our physical structure, function, and sense of self are reflected in our fascial layers and formed by our early development, by principles of self-organization, and by how we engage with our environment.

When we fall into habitual patterns, parts of ourselves become undeveloped, unseen. If our bodies are given a setting in which to relate to gravity, others, and our environment with curiosity and attunement, we can be free to move and relate with more choice and ease.

Using the grounds, waters, and spirit of Esalen as our laboratory, Kate and Kevin will use the Feldenkrais Method and Gestalt process as a guide to contact and nurture the influences of the subtle body – our relationship to ground, gravity, and the space between.

In this workshop, participants will:

• Identify the habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating ease in our lives.
• Investigate how the subtle body is influenced by the principles of emotional anatomy, tensegrity, neuroplasticity, and self-organization through experiential movement.
• Be guided through Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons tailored toward the subtle body and creating more sophistication in functional movement.
• Explore sensation, weight, gravity, and relationship through movement and contact.
• Learn tools of Gestalt Relational Process to increase presence and awareness and integration of ourselves.

Recommended Reading: Feldenkrais, The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion; Gladis, Tales of a Wounded Healer: Creating Exact Moments of Healing; Bodywise: An Introduction to Hellerwork for Regaining Flexibility & Well-Being.

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 activity. All participation will be voluntary at all times.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to both challenge and nurture 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.

This workshop includes an additional $15 of faculty tuition.

Integrative Gestalt Practice™ is a method of self-inquiry developed by Perry and Johanna Holloman over the last 30 years. Self-inquiry is a powerful practice for discovering and living that which is most authentic in us.

This in-depth program is for those wanting to experience the practice of Gestalt Inquiry to support their self-exploration. Integrative Gestalt Practice is particularly helpful in life transitions and with vital questions affecting the quality of our lives and relationships (family, friends, intimate partners), careers, and overall life purpose. The powerful tools presented in this seminar will continue to be helpful in daily life long after. The practice of Gestalt Inquiry can imbue us with an internal sense of agency, clarity, and strength and connect us to what many describe as a sense of “inner guidance.”

In this workshop, we will explore the different internal “parts,” or “sub-personalities,” which arise in different situations, such as our workplaces, in our intimate relationships, or with our families of origin. Becoming familiar with and accepting these different aspects of ourselves — which function to support and protect us — is an important part of developing “integrated awareness,” which can bring our different parts into working relationships with each other, giving us a sense of wholeness and clarity in life.

Perry and Johanna will combine experiential practices involving breath, movement, and structured “inquiries” in dyads and triads with individual “open-seat” work to create a well-rounded program suited for people who want to self-explore in a safe group setting.

Recommended Reading: Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Frederick S. Perls and Steve Andreas, Diamond Heart Book One Elements of the Real in Man by A. H. Almaas

This workshop includes an additional $50 faculty tuition.

Learn to activate the right side of your brain to unlock the insights necessary to break through self-limiting patterns. Based on a Nobel Prize-winning discovery in neuroscience, this methodology helps you think outside the box and live a more creative, productive, happier life.

William Donius, author of the New York Times bestseller Thought Revolution, spent a decade researching and developing this brain-enhancing methodology. He has taught these skills to a wide range of people, from students and corporate executives to scientists and artists. This innovative approach inspires more creative solutions than conventional thinking or brainstorming sessions. Through easy-to-learn exercises, you can discover ways to harness your intuition and uncover profound insights about yourself that make change possible. You’ll develop practical tools you can apply each time you face an important decision or obstacle in life. You can go home with new ways to unlock your own inner genius and create the life you long for.

Please bring a notebook or journal and a pen.

Recommended Reading: Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius by William Donius

This is an era of chaos, change, and grief for the world. As we continue moving through these unprecedented times, we are required to face difficulties that may seem insurmountable. We invite you to a weekend retreat to hold together what should not be held alone.

Have you experienced loss and the natural emotions of sadness, anger, fear, and love? How do you process your losses and move through your life? Many of us have not yet found safe and effective ways of expressing these emotions and we can feel burdened, both emotionally and physically, with the cumulative weight of our unfinished business.

Using the tools of the 5Rhythms movement practice combined with a process of grief work grounded in emotional presence, non-judgment, and supportive witnessing, participants will come together in a safe space to help heal mind, body, and spirit:

Lucia is a dancer and Trauma Sensitive mindfulness teacher with more than 25 years of global teaching experience. She will facilitate the 5Rhythms movement practice as a way of experientially accessing and transforming the emotional states that come with grief.

Peter is a physician with more than thirty years of experience in HIV/AIDS, palliative care, and grief work for caregivers, and was certified as a 5Rhythms teacher in 2021. He will facilitate an exploration of stages of grief, using story-sharing as part of releasing and working through losses.

The weekend also includes didactic and experiential sessions focused on natural and distorted emotional responses to grief, caregiving vs. caretaking, and more.

Please bring photos or other mementos of anyone whose memory you would like to bring into the workshop.

Suggested Reading: Surviving The Fall by Peter Selwyn, Dancing With the Dharma Edited by Harrison Blum, Maps to Ecstasy by Gabrielle Roth

This workshop includes an additional $75 faculty tuition.

For more information about 5Rhythms, click here.

Join us for a total reset done the Esalen way: seven powerful days tending to heart, mind, body, and spirit. Reconnect with your sense of purpose and power while immersed in the medicine of our iconic, energized setting within a community of similarly minded seekers.

Not for the faint of heart, this deep retreat experience is a heroic dose of Esalen. You’ll engage daily with our lineage practices (Sensory Awareness, breathwork, intuitive movement, Gestalt process, and more) as never before —  intensely, purposefully, and under the close and compassionate care of our world-class resident faculty to usher you toward the most expansive version of yourself yet.

Each morning begins with embodied movement and seated meditation practice, followed by a silent communal breakfast. You’ll spend the first part of your day experiencing Sensory Awareness and Gestalt process. After some integration time and a nourishing lunch, you’ll transition to a yoga-based therapeutic movement session.

Afternoons are devoted to one-on-one, presence-based coaching sessions and bodywork with expert practitioners and gifted energy workers. A communal dinner is followed by either the balancing, down regulating practice of transformational breathwork accompanied by music at the silent baths — an experience reserved for this group — or the sublimely transportive modality of Yoga Nidra.

Prior to arrival, you’ll connect privately with a faculty member to set your intentions for the week. During your time at the Institute, you will experience:

• Daily morning meditation and embodiment practice.
• Therapeutic movement and breathwork each afternoon.
• Small group and one-on-one Gestalt coaching sessions that allow you to metabolize your learnings.
• Opportunities to engage with the healing properties of the water and the land.
• A private ceremonial bathing ritual.
• Two Esalen Massages.
• An alternative healing service (astrology reading, Reiki, energetic cleansing)
• Premium accommodations and communal meals
• Additional only-at-Esalen encounters designed expressly for your cohort

We’ll follow up with you after your experience, and you’ll have the opportunity to join a remote reintegration session and receive guidance to help you stay on the path.

This experience is most appropriate for those in sound health. The activity level, while accessible and adaptive, is high.

This workshop includes an additional $500 tuition fee.

Experience five days of deep rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. Using the profound practice of Yoga Nidra, movement and guided meditation. We will restore the body, clear the mind, and shift the habitual patterns that keep us from being calm, clear and balanced.

Yoga (meaning “union”) Nidra (meaning “sleep”) is a path to that liminal state of being between waking and sleeping. This is where you can systematically release stored physical, emotional, and mental tensions.

Let go of old beliefs and habits that keep you stuck in the past and fearful of the future. Experience your emotions fully, knowing you have unchanging, unshakable ground beneath you — a calm inner presence that allows you to see clearly.

We will work with both our bodies and our minds and  create clear intentions to live, not from unconscious and automatic past programming but from a new perspective — an aware, deliberate way of being. We will learn how to take this felt sense of being — this new awareness of the True Self — back into our personal lives, family lives, work lives, and love lives.

Together, we will cultivate new tools to help us negotiate those times when we are under stress and feel lost, tired, and confused — when we forget who we are. These guiding instruments will help put us on the path to gaining life mastery,  welcoming your challenges, and remembering your True Being.

This workshop is an opportunity to recognize one’s wholeness, the truth of who you are, and that deep down inside is an inner peace that has always been there.

All that is being asked of you is to show up, lie down, and let go. Yoga Nidra will do the rest. Please bring blankets, a yoga mat, an eye pillow, and anything else you need to lie comfortably on the floor for extended periods of time. And we’ll have opportunities to practice outside, so bring layers!

Recommended Reading: Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, by Kamini Desai; and Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation Healing, by Richard Miller

Join Dr. Deborah Egerton for this exploration into how to lead from the heart when faced with life’s challenges. Find your place in the rehabilitation of our humanity through love, light, and connection.

Setting aside binary thinking and the assignment of stereotypical roles, we come together to honor and explore the totality of the energies that allow us to be our authentic selves rather than a version of ourselves. The authentic self rises when we let go of the flawed dualistic mindset that our feminine energy provides only nurturing support and our masculine energy is our source of power and strength. Understanding how to access the totality of our being is to embrace the guiding force of love that resides within. In Leading From The Heart, participants will step into their true power. Together we will explore concepts that are often foreign to the feminine — how to bypass the heart in an attempt to demonstrate strength and avoid exposing ourselves as leaders to the undesirable types of vulnerability.

This workshop is designed to provide a guided exploration into the center of our being by identifying our three centers of intelligence, thus gaining access to and realignment with the heart center. Participants can expect to uncover what “gets in the way” of finding compassion for themselves and others when faced with real-life conflict. Together we will cultivate the skills and awareness for true connection and for presence to lead with our hearts.

Participants will:

• Explore the Humanity Mosaic as a method for acknowledging, honoring, and celebrating our individual identity and discover how it can reveal our blindspots.
• Connect with one another in group discussions to experience how actions, behaviors, and beliefs can be the result of unexplored trauma and early influences, and find ways to address the root causes of our patterns of behavior.
• Share experiences that allow us to see when we may be dropping into toxic behaviors and reactions and learn how they can provide a wake-up call to manage our responses to disconnects.
• Participate in group discussions to uncover what is blocking us from accessing compassion and understanding during conflict or patterns of unconscious judgment and find ways to lead with the heart when faced with future challenges.
• Experience a safe and open space to find balance through reflection and strength through vulnerability.

We are faced with so many divides and disconnects because we have forgotten how to maintain contact with our true hearts. We have left behind the messages of love, kindness, and understanding taught to us by our ancestors, parents, teachers, pastors, rabbis, spiritual leaders, and counselors, and replaced them with self-preservation, isolation, and judgment—”me and mine” versus “us and ours”. As we dive into the inner work, we will discuss how we have fallen into pre-programmed patterns of responding to challenges and explore the “roadblocks” each of us face when accessing the heart space. The unique approach of finding the root cause of our judgment, biased beliefs, and possibly inequitable value systems allows participants to apply what they’ve learned to real-world scenarios and take action in their lives to reconnect across any division they may be facing by leading with the heart.

Recommended reading: Foundational Enneagram Knowledge https://www.deborahegerton.com/enneagram and https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/

This workshop includes a $50 materials fee.

Embark on an intentional wilderness journey through the sublime and seldom-traveled backcountry of Big Sur, concluding at the coastal grounds of the Esalen Institute. Among the fleeting gifts of Spring – free-flowing creeks, boundless wildflower fields and vibrant wildlife – immerse in the wild with an intimate cohort (up to twelve participants), practice awareness and community, and learn fundamental skills to feel at home on the earth.

Over the course of five nights and full days on the trail, we will embody a contemporary form of pilgrimage, traveling as reverent guests through this sacred wilderness (historic Esselen tribal territory). We will rise with the sun, carry only what we need, wander with presence and curiosity, and gather meaning from our inner and outer landscapes. Much of our time on the trail will be spent in spacious, contemplative, and challenging hiking. As the sun sets behind the mountains, we will share stories and meals by the fire, and sleep beneath a blanket of stars.

Inspired by Esalen’s co-founder Dick Price, who found healing and transformation wandering the Big Sur wild, we will engage Gestalt practices from the Esalen lineage – including group check-ins to help us connect with ourselves, each other, and the land. As we hike and camp, we will engage with what the landscape reveals, encounter philosophies and poetry of the wild, and learn foundational wilderness and backpacking skills.

After our trek, we will arrive at Esalen for a weekend of rejuvenation and integration of our wilderness time. Through the ardor and intentionality of our trek, may we shed some of what no longer serves us, and connect deeply with the sacred, living world.

Highlights of our Wild Pilgrimage include:

• Four nights and five days of backpacking in the Big Sur backcountry, in the contemplative spirit of pilgrimage
• Foundational backpacking and wilderness skills
• Natural history, philosophy, and nature connection practices
• Gestalt practices from the Esalen lineage
• Weekend of integration at Esalen

Important Note: This is a partner program with Wildtender, an organization working at the intersection of wilderness and wisdom traditions. Visit wildtender.com/esalen2024 for more details and to apply. Please note the full experience takes place over seven days, from Monday, April 29th to Sunday, May 5th. Prior to registering with Esalen you must have registered and paid tuition fees through Wildtender for the wilderness portion of the program.

What is vitality? Exuberance, vibrance, sparkle, spirit, and verve — terms rarely found in psychology textbooks. Vulnerability to depression and anxiety is widespread, and our culture traditionally emphasizes reducing symptoms with drugs that alter certain neurotransmitters, which is only part of the picture. We are living in a new era where vulnerabilities can become strengths, and what used to be stigma becomes common humanity. Good mental health is being redefined in terms of stress resilience, post-traumatic growth, and vitality.

This workshop explores evidence-based tools for living a vibrant life, even in the presence of stress, depression, anxiety, or any pain we may be carrying. We will help you build your own ecosystem of mental well-being — including new ways to foster vitality and purpose through caring for the brain, body, and gut. In this workshop, we’ll review the latest scientific findings on practices such as:

• Hot and cold exposures
• Optimal physical challenges
• Breathing techniques
• Meditation
• Embodied movement

A mental health renaissance is underway. Mental well-being is being redefined, and a range of evidence-based, whole-person approaches are gaining ground. Learn from renowned authors and cutting-edge scientists to create a flourishing ecosystem of mental well-being for yourself and your clients.

Additional embodiment practices will be provided by Guest Faculty Member Nichol Chase.

Nichol’s yoga practice is informed by a vast and eclectic set of influences that blend invigorating flow with precise and insightful instruction and extensive study with a variety of innovative teachers. She is a Garrison Institute Fellow and a faculty member and teacher trainer for The Mazé Method.

12 CE credits available for professionals through the Spiritual Competency Academy.  Additional Continuing Education information here.

Recommended reading: The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease by Elissa Epel; The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel; Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Clinical Practice: Guidelines for Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals by Cassandra Vieten; Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life by Cassandra Vieten

This workshop includes an additional $30 of faculty tuition.

When you are a leader, often people don’t understand all the complexities you face or the weight of your responsibilities. Being in charge can be isolating and lonely; it can feel like others are looking at a projected image instead of the real you.

Whether you’re leading an organization, managing a team, or are a coach, you know your capacity to form solid and trusting relationships is key to your success. You must become a “Relational Leader.”

As we move into higher levels of leadership and influence, we must bravely face our inner psychology to “get real” about the hidden core relational patterns holding us back.

In this workshop, we will create opportunities to shift these patterns through experiential activities, small group work, and Gestalt-based experiences. You will discover new skills to understand others, dynamic ways to build rapport quickly, and the confidence to navigate conflict and tension. Along the way, you’ll get to know a new network of like-minded leaders you can tap into for understanding and support.

• Discover your hidden relational patterns.
• Learn new skills to understand other people’s worldviews.
• Learn dynamic ways to build rapport quickly.
• Gain the confidence to navigate conflict and tension.
• Create a network of like-minded leaders you can tap into for support.

Join us for this incredible opportunity to connect, grow, and become.

This workshop includes an additional $100 in faculty tuition.

Join us as we dive into the mystery of spirit and matter in our human lives.

There are great and painful misunderstandings about the relationship between our physical nature, expressed in our instincts; our emotional nature, expressed through our relationship to love; and our spiritual nature. For centuries, these three realms have been held in opposition to one another. This is best expressed in the apparent polarity between heaven and earth. During our time together, we will dive deep into these apparent polarities, opening up the possibility that these realms not only serve each other but are expressions of each other.

We will inquire into these realms through the lens of the Diamond Approach, a modern-day spiritual path that utilizes the wisdom of modern psychological perspectives and ancient spiritual knowledge. Through this inquiry, we will uncover the interplay between the forces of the human soul and our most subtle spiritual nature. Rather than seeing spirit and the body as separate realms, our explorations will reveal them to be a unified expression of the true harmony of our nature. The power, excitement, and passion we all possess can become our entry into the deepest realms of the soul.

We will engage your direct experience through sensing, inquiry, meditation, and group exercises to support your understanding and experience of what we call Divine Eros. We will support the meeting of these forces with a love of truth expressed in curiosity, kindness, and respect.

By opening up the realm of the Eros, we can see how love not only unites the mind and body but also our desire for a deeper connection with the realization of our spiritual natures. Eros, which includes sexuality, is a profound force in the soul whose liberation is needed for deep inner work. The body and its forces can become vehicles for direct experience of the sacred nature of our instincts and desires, including our desire for freedom.

Our exploration will be grounded in meditation practice as a way to understand the various forces at work in our spiritual practices.

Have you ever worked hard to make a change, only to find yourself slipping back into old habits? Want to supercharge your ability to stimulate behavior change in others when it comes to the issues you care about the most? Is it time to break free from old patterns and build your next chapter? This workshop is for people in the process of change and those who work as change agents with individuals, groups, and organizations and in society.

Through dialogue, experiential practice, and creative process, we will bridge the science of breakthroughs with indigenous, religious, spiritual, and secular models of transformation. You will:

• Learn what works and what doesn’t to inspire lasting change in yourself and others.
• Explore how peak experiences, a-ha! moments and awe can stimulate change.
• Examine how we and those we work with can get stuck or lost, and find ways to shake free from periods of inertia or patterns that prevent us from moving forward.
• Investigate the transformative potential of pain, hitting bottom, and post-traumatic growth.
• Delve into stories, symbols, and metaphors of transformation to guide your path.

Join us for this transformational exploration of our most deeply entrenched behaviors. Learn how to break free from the patterns that no longer serve you — and create new habits that will change your life.

Additional embodiment practices will be provided by Guest Faculty Member Nichol Chase.

Nichol’s yoga practice is informed by a vast and eclectic set of influences that blend invigorating flow with precise and insightful instruction and extensive study with a variety of innovative teachers. She is a Garrison Institute Fellow and a faculty member and teacher trainer for The Mazé Method.

Continuing education credit is available for professionals through the Spiritual Competency Academy, an approved sponsor of CE by the American Psychological Association. If you plan to apply for CE credit, please notify the Faculty during your first workshop session. Additional Continuing Education information here.

This workshop includes an $30 of additional faculty tuition.

Our sense of self develops in connection with others and our experiences in early relationships. They shape our beliefs — about ourselves, other people, and what is possible for us in our lives. While we cannot change the past, we can change the parts of our lives that we find difficult or unfulfilling through new experiences of contact. When our need for understanding and emotional attunement is met, our limiting beliefs can change.

In this workshop, we will:

• Learn skills that will increase our presence and awareness.
• Improve our ability to make good contact.
• Explore how to establish healthy boundaries.
• Develop and track awareness of our physical sensations and emotions.
• Communicate our needs and wants effectively.
• Discover habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating the type of connection we long for.

This workshop includes time for basic gestalt awareness practices, a mixture of didactic and experiential exercises, and individual “open seat” sessions with Dorothy and with the support of the group.

Recommended reading: Korb et al., Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory; Mann, Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques

Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world. With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary teacher, participants will explore the beauty of this wild coast — one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world —  which includes ancient canyons of redwoods, dramatic coastal beaches, rugged rocky mountains, and soft grassy slopes.

Drawing from nature and using various experiential awareness practices, individuals will be encouraged to open to the landscapes of both the natural world and their inner world. It is said that Big Sur is not just a place but a state of mind. This wilderness experience seeks to merge mind and place, then to embody what is learned.

Participants in this weeklong workshop will venture out into the emerging springtime magnificence of Big Sur on day-hikes between four to eight miles. Steven will draw from a wide range of contemporary and age-old wisdom traditions, borrowing from psychology, meditation, aikido, and the natural sciences to weave together a holistic experience of self and the natural world.

Each hike will begin right after breakfast and conclude in time to enjoy the hot springs and dinner at the Lodge. Evening sessions will include informal sharing and basic awareness practices with attention to incorporating what we’ve learned into our daily lives.

All levels of experience are welcome. Be prepared for the invigorating challenge of physical activity that the mountains of Big Sur require and the opportunity to simply sit still in quiet reflection. More information and a waiver will be sent upon registration. For an equipment list and frequently asked questions about Steven’s workshops, visit FAQs.

This workshop has $80 of additional faculty tuition and $40 for park entrance fees.

How do we celebrate aging and become wisdom holders for our communities in a youth-obsessed culture? As we ripen into the late summers and autumns of our lives, how can we let go of what no longer serves us and enjoy the abundance of each precious moment?

The experience of living through many years and different eras affords the ability to see life through the lens of compassionate presence. In this retreat, we will celebrate this perspective and create space in our hearts and minds for joy and curiosity about the future.

During this time together, we will:

• Build the foundations of a consistent, sustainable self-care practice, including qigong, gentle meridian stretches, and shiatsu self-massage.
• Explore the profound influence of breath on the autonomic nervous system and the relationship between breath and the quality of mind.
• Open to the subtleties of the energy body, thus recognizing ourselves and all things as manifestations of the life force.
• Develop healthy routines for a daily sitting practice and learn to consider meditation as intimacy with the self.
• Practice silent inquiry, followed by group dialogue about grief, loss, death, mentorship, gratitude, and freedom.
• Savor poetry from different wisdom traditions as nourishment from the divine.
• Dance and sing — or, if you prefer, walk and hum — and play improv games offering laughter as gifts of the spirit.

Students aged 50 and older are welcome. Basic mobility is required; otherwise, please come with someone who can assist you. You must be able to lie on the floor and put your legs up the wall for five minutes and accept your physical limitations without judgment. Please come with a beginner’s mind, even if you’re not a beginner.

Recommended Reading: Still Here by Ram Dass

For thousands of years across many cultures, enhanced states of consciousness have been used as a strategy for meaningful transformation and self-exploration — marking life’s major transitions and rites of passage and deepening one’s connection to self, community, and the natural world.

In this workshop, we will gather in the rich field of community for an immersive experience and personal exploration of enhanced states of consciousness. Our time together will include strategies for navigating, integrating, and preparing for these experiences. Holotropic Breathwork® offers language, method, and structure for turning inward and working with deeply personal material as it emerges, uniquely, from one’s own intrinsic intelligence. We will be supported by time-honored practices that are simple, yet powerful. These unique states can offer us unmediated access to the self as a deep source of healing, insight, and evolutionary potential. Participants will experience four Holotropic Breathwork sessions, with two as “breather” and two as “sitter.” Your time assisting others in “non-ordinary state” space will complement your personal exploration. Additionally, contemplative practice, movement, expressive arts, and time in community will support the integration process throughout the week.

Originating from the pioneering psychedelic researcher, Stanislav Grof, and his late wife, Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork is a particularly useful practice for those interested in or training to work in psychedelic-assisted therapy.

This workshop is suited for all those of heart who are curious about exploring enhanced states of consciousness and opening to an evolutionary process of unfolding. New or novice explorers/breathers are very welcome, along with experienced navigators/breathers. The fundamental urge to grow, to heal, and to be transformed in a truly authentic way drives us not outward but inward, toward the depths of our own being, toward a deep mystery within. This inward journey strengthens and nourishes our senses in a way that can revitalize our daily lives with creative and emergent energy.

Recommended Reading: Holotropic Breathwork by Stan Grof

Awe is the feeling of encountering vast mysteries that transcend our current knowledge and understanding of the world. In its greatest sense, it is an astonished and transformative appreciation for the moral beauty of others, for nature, for the arts — and is always rooted in a spiritual understanding of life.  

In this new, paradigm-shifting workshop, we will uncover the latest scientific understandings of awe. By engaging in evolutionary and neuroscientific approaches to the mind, and considering the narrative and cultural meanings of awe, we will begin to tease out where this feeling lives in our own minds and hearts, and learn how to cultivate it more deeply.

Together, we will discover a number of practices to cultivate this transcendent amalgam of reverence, astonishment, and admiration in our own lives and how to deepen one’s relationship to it. We’ll travel by way of reflective writing, using expressive writing principles and models from Contemplative Studies.

During our time together, we will:

• Learn the latest science and scholarship on awe and wonder.
• Engage in contemplative practices related to awe.
• Learn about literary, poetic, and aesthetic approaches to awe.
• Learn to cultivate an awe-related writing and reflective practice.
• Cultivate an awareness of possibilities for awe in everyday life.

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.

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 activity. All participation will be voluntary at all times.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to both challenge and nurture 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.

This workshop has an additional $30 of faculty tuition.

We all have spirit guides. They are part of your soul family and spiritual GPS. Tuning into them takes patience, trust, and assistance from the Other Side. Learn to access your spirit guides in this kind-hearted immersion that welcomes seekers at all levels of experience and at any stage of healing.

This unique class dives deeply to understand and amplify the unseen support, healing, and unconditional love from spirit guides. Most people are unaware of the guides they are born with, let alone how to connect with them. Yet many of us have experienced a loving presence at critical moments of our lives or in our moments of serenity. What would be possible for your life if you could access that unconditional love, support, and guidance in a more dependable way?

This special and intensely personal class is designed for those who are ready to connect with the spirit guides who are always by your side, just waiting to assist, support, play, and dance with you. Connecting with your spirit guides is a profoundly intimate and expansive experience. Once this connection is made, it is forever — to utilize as you wish and create whatever you desire of it.

This course will introduce and connect you with your guides and set in place a framework to engage with them steadily and reliably. Each session is interactive and includes instruction and meditation practices to ensure that your experience creates the conditions for spiritual expansion. With support, you can better focus your energies to live an empowered, compassionate life that you love. The support and love available to you from the unseen world means you are never truly alone or disconnected.

This class is for the moderately experienced spiritual seeker who is energetically sensitive, open, and curious to receive support from beyond the veil. Previous meditation practice is helpful but not required. This course is great for people who:

• Have a regular meditation practice and want to experience more active guidance and inspiration from the Spirit World.
• Experience intuitive hits but get frustrated or doubt themselves because they don’t have the experience regularly.
• Somewhat understand what meditation is, are clear there’s something beyond what we can touch, and are passionately curious to learn more.
• Are in need of spiritual restoration and are ready to show up and reconnect with the most resilient part of themselves: their Spirit.

This workshop has a $30 material fee.

Join Enneagram master educator Dr. Deborah Egerton for this foundational exploration of the Enneagram. Experience the work through her unique approach to the Enneagram, which stems from a deep, rooted understanding that as humans we all have a desire to belong.

Through a blend of experiential activities and a deep dive into inner work, you’ll be empowered with new tools, knowledge, and community connection to begin your Enneagram journey.  

The Enneagram, when studied and implemented correctly, teaches us how to be together in community through connection and interrelatedness. Our ability to relate to one another is dependent on how we invest our time and efforts into understanding the connections.

We will explore each of the 9 Points of the Enneagram through the basic fear and basic desire, core motivation, levels of development, and the connections to the other energies within the Enneagram.

Participants will:

• Connect with their peers in group discussions to experience how their dominant Enneagram energy can manifest differently.
• Use group discussion, experiential activities, and Q&A sessions to help determine where they “stand on the Enneagram map.”
• Examine the Levels of Development, exploring and discussing how each of our Enneagram energies can look when operating from a healthy, average, and unhealthy level.
• Share experiences that allow us to see when we may be dropping into toxic behaviors and reactions and learn how they can provide a wake-up call to manage our responses to challenges.

As we dive into each Enneagram energy, we will discuss how the energy can manifest in the real world and look at the way in which these energies navigate challenges across differences. The unique approach of learning the Enneagram through this inclusive and comprehensive method allows participants to apply what they’ve learned to real-world scenarios and take action in their lives to reconnect across any division they may be facing.

Join us for this comprehensive and inclusive exploration of the timeless Enneagram wisdom.

Recommended reading: Foundational Enneagram Knowledge https://www.deborahegerton.com/enneagram and https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/

This workshop has a $50 materials fee.

Join us on a profound exploration of self-discovery and personal growth. In this immersive weekend workshop, participants will use the Enneagram to delve deeply into the inner work. Through engaging discussions, introspective exercises, and powerful insights, Dr. Egerton will guide you toward unraveling the layers to find your authentic self.

Together, we will explore the profound questions that fuel our journey. What drives us? What are our core values and aspirations? How can we align our actions with our deepest desires? Dr. Egerton will illuminate the many paths toward fulfillment and purpose and how the Enneagram can help you navigate them.

With the support of our empathetic community, you will be given tools to unlock the wisdom and clarity that resides within. Gain a deeper understanding of yourself, cultivate self-compassion, and embrace the power of personal growth.

Take a step towards uncovering the meaning and work that can bring a sense of tranquility, productivity, and purpose. Join us and embark on this remarkable journey toward a fulfilled and purposeful life.

Participants can expect to:

• Explore their personality structure and harness these insights to navigate conflicts, fortify relationships, and elevate their energetic frequency and emotional intelligence to new levels.
• Learn the difference between what it looks like when we are operating at the high side (authentic self) and low side (shadow self) of our Enneagram energies.
• Uncover and release stagnant energy that hinders personal growth and no longer aligns with their greater purpose, fostering a renewed commitment to the well-being of both individuals and humanity.
• Embark on a transformative inner journey, embracing the ongoing process of self-discovery to emerge as complete and enlightened human beings. This journey paves the way for a life filled with profound joy, boundless compassion, and enduring love.

By the end of this rejuvenating weekend workshop, you’ll emerge refreshed, revitalized, and prepared to step into the world as your authentic self — a person capable of extraordinary feats through love, authenticity, and compassion. Join this empowering journey toward self-discovery and leave radiating the light that resides within you.

This workshop has a $50 Materials Fee.

Rhythm is the universal mother tongue. It is the language of the soul. — Gabrielle Roth

Silent introspection through seated meditation and the dynamic movement practice of the 5Rhythms® both support unlocking gateways to celebration and joy. Together, we will unite these healing modalities in an environment that cultivates peace, balance, and well-being. Through sweat and stillness, we will ride the rhythms of the mother tongue and turn the heart toward self-realization.

The 5Rhythms dance method, focused on presence versus performance, is where movement becomes the metaphor for all of life. It teaches us how energy moves and where it gets stuck. The rhythms of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness help us to more skillfully understand and navigate the inner and outer landscapes of reality.

Trauma-sensitive mindfulness builds a container to hold both movement and stillness in a way that supports all you are facing. This approach offers tools that allow you to both “work with” and “be with” what is present.

This workshop will include:

• 5Rhythms practice and theory (expect both gentle and vigorous movement)
• Trauma-sensitive mindfulness practice and philosophy
• Seated meditation
• Walking meditation
• Live music
• Sound healing
• Sharing circles

Please note that though this is trauma-informed work, trauma is not the specific focus of this workshop.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.