Workshops

Join LaVerne McLeod and Guest Faculty Jayson Fann for a weekend of exploration and celebration of Black History Month as we express ourselves, connect, play, and honor humanity. 

Together, we will explore what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes to understand and empathize with viewpoints that might differ from our own. We will build a safe container of trust and get curious about what might be lying beneath the surface —  while moving toward resilience and empowerment. 

Using empathy, visualization, and movement exercises, we will connect and relate to one another, letting go of what no longer serves us and learning effective responses to life’s challenges.

Enhancing this historical month through healing pathways is guest presenter Jayson Fann, a cross-cultural educator, interdisciplinary artist, and musician who studied at the University of Ghana. Jayson has been awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the State of California for his work in cross-cultural bridge building and has performed as a soloist at the Oakland and Monterey Symphonies.

In this workshop, Jayson will explore the significance of African Diaspora music in global culture, spirituality, and the Civil Rights Movement. He will reveal the rhythmic intricacies, harmonic patterns, and profound spiritual undertones that define the musical expressions of this rich heritage. He’ll also demonstrate how these musical forms provide solace, resilience, and spiritual rejuvenation for communities confronting oppression and adversity. Instruments will be provided for participants to join in a musical celebration!

This workshop is highly recommended for all races, identities, gender expressions, and nationalities. It can be a creative catalyst for educators, therapists, and artists that leads to one’s own inner healing. Those in leadership roles working with diverse populations may find this workshop to be a source of empowerment. Together, let’s connect our heart centers to the path that nourishes and heals us.

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Recommended Reading: Corn Hollow, 2nd edition by LaVerne Hillis McLeod and The Crossroads of Social and Climate Justice by LaVerne Hillis McLeod.

“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.

The body is a living narrative, an interconnected web of our physical, emotional, and intellectual experiences. Every organ, bone, body part, and movement holds an energy, a feeling, a memory that calls our attention and seeks expression. With curiosity and care to the stories our bodies hold, we become embodied artists, choreographers of our life experience.

This workshop will be a creative exploration and discovery of what truly matters in your life through movement and art making, listening to the body, and listening to the heart. When we don’t take time or know how to be creative listeners, the body will tell its stories in disabling ways. Encountering our bodies creatively, we discover artful ways to re-story ourselves, bringing new vision to the life themes that matter to us.

A process called Body Mapping will lead participants through an art based journey with each body part. Challenges and resources will be identified and explored as rich material for movement, art making, group collaboration, and ritual. Participants will explore personal and group creativity, body-mind connections, and engage with psychological themes relevant to our historical and everyday lives.

Morning sessions will focus on somatic awareness – individual and group movement exploration to tune the physical body to sensation and feeling. Afternoon sessions will facilitate creative encounters with the art mediums of dance, drawing, and spoken and written narrative. Evening sessions will be devoted to presentations of the work created, reflection, and questions generated by the day’s work, releasing activities and meditative art practices.

Participants will explore:

Expanding body awareness through somatic movement experiences.

Utilizing the creative arts to explore life narratives. Learning methods for movement/dance and expressive arts that can be applied to their personal and professional practices.

Practicing approaches to improvisation and performance designed for the beginner and the experienced alike.

Employing the arts as a psychological process and communication tool.

The Halprin Life Art Process developed at Tamalpa Institute innovated groundbreaking work in the fields of somatics, psychology and artistic practice. Anna and Daria both worked with Fritz Perls, Ida Rolf, and Will Schultz in the early experimental days of Esalen.  

This is an approach to movement/dance as a healing art that is accessible to everyone and is offered in underserved communities. 20% of faculty tuition goes to Tamalpa ArtCorps social justice programs.

Recommended reading: The Expressive Body in Life, Art & Therapy, by Daria Halprin

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 ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey, as we gather together and explore the healing wisdom of the “Americas.” We will learn about the importance of ancestral lineage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and we will examine what this means in the context of our modern daily lives as we share healing wisdom and practices together. This is your opportunity to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns, and to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing & “doctoring” ceremony and water blessing.

You will be invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage, and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you will strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.

We are all interconnected in this giant web of life, and every day is a gift in the service of unconditional love: for yourself, your community, humanity, and our planet. If you feel the call to be a part of a new humanity that lives in harmony and balance upon this Earth, then we invite you to join us in this celebration of life.

Note: Please bring a journal to write in, and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.

Special Note on Gift Economy:  For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feeling of gratitude, value, and desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.

BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops.  For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com

Perimenopausal and menopausal transitions are more than biological phases to endure; they are sacred passages that forge a woman into her fullest expression — as a truth-bearer, a pathfinder, a beauty maker, and a new creation.  

When the monthly cycles end,you’ll undergo tremendous transformations in your body, mind, emotions, and psyche. Crossing this monumental threshold awakens your inner sage, a wild knowing that has been sacredly woven from deep intuition and your soul’s language.

Join Jovinna as she weaves a web of story, nature, movement, and community to capture the magic of this time of life. Anchor the new story for yourself and future generations, infusing meaning and sacredness into this wild and inspired time.  

Over the weekend, there will be:

• Practices of yoga and Conscious Dance to recharge the body and mind.
• Time to be immersed in nature and connect with your elemental being.
• Rituals and ceremonies to honor these important thresholds of transformation.

Let this be a time of celebration with reverence and levity as you meditate in the field of endless possibilities without your old roles, identities, and patterns.

Please bring a journal, a small piece of cloth that represents your old self, and an article of clothing that you’d like to wear for the ceremony of renewal.

This workshop includes an additional $50 faculty tuition.

“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.

What if our lives could feel magical? What if we felt supported in every way?

Join us for this delightful weekend as we connect with plants, ancestors, and ancient wisdom from Mesoamerica and Peru to nourish our hearts and replenish our spirits.

Ayni is the Quechua word for “sacred reciprocity” — the way we humans can be in the right relationship with the world around us. These are the times that Indigenous prophecies have long predicted: an opportunity to create the life and the world that we know is possible. We will work with our ancestors to build our spiritual support team and partake in a plant medicine ceremony with cacao. We will learn how to make specific offerings to the land that help you create magic in your life.

Being at Esalen provides a special opportunity to be in connection with the elemental spirits of the native coastline and the sacredness of the land where the sweet and thermal waters meet the ocean.  

During our time together:

• We will learn the ancient Peruvian philosophy of Ayni — how to live in sacred reciprocity.
• We will learn to make offerings to connect with a team of support.
• We will be supported by the sacred plant medicine of cacao in a ceremonial space that supports our emotional release and healing.
• We will experience the power of plants and community healing.

Our weekend will feature guest faculty whose magic will enhance our experience and understanding.

Kyle McBride is an international chef, food justice advocate, fermenter, and wild food enthusiast. He draws inspiration from the abundance and diversity of nature and seeks to honor our sacred connection to the earth through his food.

As an Indigenous medicine woman, it is my privilege to share the Quechua and Mazotec traditions that honor living in the right relation with the Earth for thousands of years. I invite you to share a weekend of Earth-based practices in the community with love, support, and guidance.

Bring pictures of ancestors and anything that you want to add to our altar.

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.

Since falling in love is biologically natural, but sustaining love is biologically unnatural, Soul Mate focuses on the art and discipline of sustaining love. You begin with learning how to appreciate your partner so specifically and frequently that your partner feels fully seen and loved.

You then practice both the art and discipline of hearing your partner’s criticisms without becoming defensive. For example, so you don’t have to fear “walking on eggshells” before sharing a concern, your partner first learns how to prepare her or himself to emotionally associate your criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved.

Soul Mate is designed as the next evolutionary shift beyond active listening. Active listening allowed the criticizer to feel heard, but failed to teach the person hearing the criticism how to emotionally associate the criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved. The problem? Unless the receiver of criticism feels safe the person sharing their concern cannot feel safe.

You will learn a series of practices you may integrate into your everyday life:

Six methods of sustaining a “conflict free zone” for 166 hours of your 168-hour week.

A “Caring and Sharing Time” the remaining two hours by practicing six mindsets that allow you to not feel defensive when criticized.

“Eight Wisdoms” as a foundation for deepening your love

The four “depleters of love,” aka the “Four C’s” (Criticisms, Complaints, Controlling, and Complacency)

How to use your new skills with your children, parents and colleagues at work.

How to use music and dancing to revitalize your love (to be practiced by dancing before each session)

To sustain your practice after the workshop, I invite you to multiple free, ongoing, group follow-up calls to resolve stumbling blocks. If you wish to review the insights and exercises at any time, you will also have the option of purchasing a Zoom version of the course.

This workshop is for couples of all genders and sexual orientations.  Developed over the past 30 years, the workshop is also used by many health professionals in their work with clients and patients.

Recommended resources: Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, pp. 1-87, by Dr. Warren Farrell; additional video content on warrenfarrell.com.

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.

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.

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

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 one human being to love another, that is the most difficult of all of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, for which all other work is but preparation. — Rainer Maria Rilke

A great relationship requires more than just staying together. Until we enjoy trust, intimacy, caring and love with our partner, we are merely sharing an arrangement, not a true partnership. Yet for an alarming number of couples, the dreamy honeymoon period of infatuation can quickly dissolve into a cold and joyless relationship or end in divorce. The biggest mistake that many people make is not that they expect too much from their relationships, but that they desire too little. A true partnership can be a means through which our deepest longings are awakened and ultimately realized.

In this experiential workshop, we will work in dyads, small groups and the group as a whole. The lecture component will be interactive, with plenty of time for Q&A from the group. We’ll also practice mindfulness meditation. Together we will examine the unique qualities that exceptional relationships embody and identify the various means through which it is possible to develop and integrate those qualities, and to manage the inevitable differences that arise. We will identify and engage in practices that can transform the quality of connection in ways that promote co-creativity, unconditional acceptance and spiritual awakening. This workshop provides tools that can promote enduring love and deep intimacy.

Recommended reading:  Happily Ever After and 39 Other Myths About Love, Secrets of Great Marriages: Real Truth from Real Couples about Lasting Love, and 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married: Simple Lessons to Make Love Last and That Which Doesn’t Kill Us : How One Couple Became Stronger at the Broken Places by Charlie and Linda Bloom

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concept of “self versus nature” to discover how to live in harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine. This is your opportunity to examine what that means while sharing healing wisdom and practices. This workshop will offer the tools to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns, to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul, and to honor and heal all you have inherited from your ancestral lineage, along with the social, cultural, racial, religious, and historical energies tangled in your lives. You will learn about the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies.

Learn about the importance of ceremonies, sacred altars, and medicinal plants and participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing and “doctoring” ceremony, and a water blessing prayer ceremony.

You will be invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.

We are all interconnected in this giant web of life, and every day is a gift in the service of unconditional love for yourself, your community, humanity, and our planet. If you feel the call to be a part of a new humanity that lives in harmony and balance upon this Earth, we invite you to join us in this celebration of life.

Note: Please bring a journal to write in, and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.

Special Note on Gift Economy:  For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feeling of gratitude, value, and desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.

BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops.  For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com

Sitting in stillness to draw a flower, tracing the mountain’s slope with brushstrokes by eye, following the sound of waves down corridors of memory, and free association through writing – these are gestures of connection as much as they are creative acts. Join us for an intimate creative workshop on the enchanted grounds of Esalen Institute and along the trails of the Big Sur coast to explore art making as a relational practice with the wild.

Immersed in the outdoors during the first lovely days of summer, we will write, draw, and craft to nourish our innate creative capacities and cultivate kinship with the land. We will hike to set ourselves on the creative path, grounding our bodies and opening our senses as we move through the landscape. While emphasizing a spirit of play and practice over product and gathering inspiration and materials from the environment, we will engage with a variety of media as pathways of meaningful connection with the self and the natural world.

Acknowledging Big Sur to be a precious, biodiverse wilderness and the sacred ancestral land of the Esselen Tribe, our artistic gestures will be humble offerings of reverent attention to the living world. May we joyfully participate in a collective creativity – one we share with the trees, boulders, rivers, birds, and all beings – to honor the Earth and our interconnectedness.

Activities will include:

• Writing exercises in prose and poetry inspired by the land.
• Botanical, landscape, and experiential drawing practices.
• Wildcrafting paintbrushes and inks from sustainable materials in the environment.
• Check-in circles to facilitate meaning-making and relationship-building amongst our cohort.
• Mindfulness and nature awareness practices to expand awareness of self and landscape.

Please note that this workshop is for people with all levels of creative practice, including those with no previous experience. You do not need to identify as an “artist” to participate. Various hiking abilities can be accommodated, but bear in mind that day hikes will be up to five miles long with rugged, uneven, and sometimes steep terrain. Participants must be able to sit on the ground for periods of time. If you have any questions about your ability to participate, please read the workshop FAQs or email info@wildtender.com. Answers to frequently asked questions about the workshop can be found here.

This workshop includes a $40 material fee and $60 of additional tuition for park fees and art supplies.

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.

Since falling in love is biologically natural, but sustaining love is biologically unnatural, Soul Mate focuses on the art and discipline of sustaining love. You begin with learning how to appreciate your partner so specifically and frequently that your partner feels fully seen and loved.

You then practice both the art and discipline of hearing your partner’s criticisms without becoming defensive. For example, so you don’t have to fear “walking on eggshells” before sharing a concern, your partner first learns how to prepare her or himself to emotionally associate your criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved.

Soul Mate is designed as the next evolutionary shift beyond active listening. Active listening allowed the criticizer to feel heard, but failed to teach the person hearing the criticism how to emotionally associate the criticism with an opportunity to be more deeply loved. The problem? Unless the receiver of criticism feels safe the person sharing their concern cannot feel safe.

You will learn a series of practices you may integrate into your everyday life:

Six methods of sustaining a “conflict free zone” for 166 hours of your 168-hour week.

A “Caring and Sharing Time” the remaining two hours by practicing six mindsets that allow you to not feel defensive when criticized.

“Eight Wisdoms” as a foundation for deepening your love

The four “depleters of love,” aka the “Four C’s” (Criticisms, Complaints, Controlling, and Complacency)

How to use your new skills with your children, parents and colleagues at work.

How to use music and dancing to revitalize your love (to be practiced by dancing before each session)

To sustain your practice after the workshop, I invite you to multiple free, ongoing, group follow-up calls to resolve stumbling blocks. If you wish to review the insights and exercises at any time, you will also have the option of purchasing a Zoom version of the course.

This workshop is for couples of all genders and sexual orientations.  Developed over the past 30 years, the workshop is also used by many health professionals in their work with clients and patients.

Recommended resources: Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, pp. 1-87, by Dr. Warren Farrell; additional video content on warrenfarrell.com.

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.