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

Devotion is the Divine streaming through you, from that place in you, before time. — Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

A beautiful longing for the sacred lives in each of us, awaiting our surrender to the currents of devotion. In this workshop, song, story, and yoga connect us to the great mystery and imbue our hearts with deep remembrance. By learning the stories and songs of the ancestors, we reclaim a sense of belonging. Nature ritual initiates a fresh spiral of rebirth for our wild hearts. Meditation and embodiment drench us in the divine. With equal parts courage and tenderness, we’ll hone our beings to be vessels for devotion to move through.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Yoga and embodiment practices
• Songs and stories of the ancients
• Meditation and self-inquiry
• Sacred fire ceremony
• Rewilding and nature ritual

Our nourishing schedule of experiential practices will be balanced harmoniously with relaxing meals, community connection, and starlit soaks in Esalen’s healing baths. Music, nature, poetry, and relational play will be woven together artfully throughout. We lovingly invite you to discover the way of devotion, offering a pathway home to the vastness of your being.

Grace awaits.

This workshop includes an additional $25 faculty tuition.

In this introductory workshop, couples, partners, and friends will refine their relationship with touch, our forgotten language. Participants will be encouraged to ask for what they want,  listen to each other, gain sensory skills in initiating and receiving touch, experience the felt sense of muscle release, and close with a balanced tenderness. Seasoned instructors will offer exercises, massage demonstrations, and at-the-table guidance during paired practice. The simple principles of Esalen® massage – presence, attending rather than fixing, self-care, and slow-paced strokes encompassing the body – will build a heartfelt experience with our partner or friend, and perhaps most significantly, ourselves.

By the final session, participants will share and take home the basics of a classical Esalen massage. Experienced practitioners and caregivers will find it refreshing to apply the Esalen method and notice its effect as their rhythm slows and the mind becomes focused on compassionate contact rather than technique.

Touch soothes us and evokes an opening to spirit. Participants experience a healthful balance of body, mind, and the vast awe of this natural setting. The edgy wildness of Esalen’s grounds, canyons, hot springs, and mountain backdrop sustain deeper connection.

Through the practices of 5Rhythms dance, mindfulness meditation and self care, we weave together a week of healing and celebration. In times of turmoil and change, self care, compassion and kindness are qualities required to help us resource and renew. Looking back at all we have, it is clear that many of us are exhausted. In order to begin to move forward with energy, passion and creativity, it is important we can seed these qualities in our daily life.

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

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

Each session will be primarily focused on Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms moving meditation practice. We will complete each practice with a 10-15 seated meditation. Included will be a discourses on 5Rhythms, Dharma & self-care. All practices taught during this course lend to the experience and wisdom of resourcing and renewing our vital life energy.

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

This workshop includes $100 additional faculty tuition.

After the holiday season, it's time to return inward to focus on your inner artist. Whether you are just beginning or returning to your creative journey, this workshop utilizes approachable yoga, meditation, and writing modalities to unlock the creative within. 

Using humor and mindfulness, you are invited to affirm your inner artist, recognize your creative blocks, and understand your process. We will disconnect from our devices and default-world lives to immerse ourselves in the open air of Esalen. Move your body, find your breath, observe your mind, and fill pages with your words while being guided to relinquish fear and live fully in your creativity. 

This workshop will include: 

• Journaling and creative writing.
• Creative pathways to finding and writing your story.
• Hatha-inspired yoga movement and restorative yoga. 
• Yoga Nidra and awareness meditations. 
• A playful and supportive community to cultivate your inner artist.

As educators, storytellers, and human do-ers, Darnell and Cara believe in growth, happiness, and the powerful symbiosis between storytelling and movement — and they invite you to lean into the magic of that relationship. This workshop will foster an encouraging environment designed to cultivate techniques and rituals, fuel creativity, and provide the confidence to integrate it all into your daily life and discover your identity as an artist.

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 ever dived into the ocean of Tantra? Join Tantric scholar-practitioners Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Edward Cantú as we explore Tantric practices and perspectives on topics like freedom from external interference and self-sovereignty (Sanskrit svādhikāra), the link between physical and so-called “subtle bodies,” and the creation of physical mandalas (maṇḍala) or circles and other shapes that potentially can transform our internal and external environments.

Together, we will immerse ourselves in the latest research and ethnographic “participant observation” that challenge and reframe our conventional understandings of what Tantra was, is, and can be. Staying true to the roots of Esalen, we will also intertwine discussion with authentic South Asian folk musical performances, songs, and guided meditations for a creative, visceral experience for the mind, body, and heart. Our collective practice of these new understandings will illuminate Tantra’s connections to a wide variety of vibrant artistic and meditative practices in an eye-opening and unforgettable way.

In this workshop, you’ll be invited to:

• Develop an embodied understanding of Tantra.
• Creatively explore your divine potential.
• Enjoy the benefit of overcoming negative projections and self-generated illusions.
• Learn practical modes of meditation, including internal visualization and externalization through mandalas.

We invite both couples and individuals to join us in this workshop that blends meditation, art, and music with a holistic inquiry into Tantra’s power and therapeutic potential to unlock a happier and more fulfilling life. Bring an open mind as we explore deep questions about our bodies and minds in a safe space and nurturing environment.

Please Note: This workshop is NOT about “Tantric Sex” and experiencing enhanced sexual pleasures, although many discussions will address gender identity and sexuality.

This workshop has and additional $100 of faculty tuition.

The Artist lives within everyone! Art can be made out of just about anything! It’s a time to leave the critic behind and allow oneself to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit. It’s also a time to enjoy the company and camaraderie of like-minded peers. Now is your time to discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and to find out how meaningful and grand a shared, creative experience can be.

In this transformative workshop, we will use repurposed material in a whole new context of re-creation.

Come experiment with a vast array of reused materials to create mixed-media mosaics, sculptures, and collages. There will be an assortment of recycled glass, metals, wood, plastics, paper, photographs, fabrics, and old artifacts — bits and pieces of the past and present.

In a beautiful, nurturing, supportive setting, we will reclaim and shape society’s scraps and discarded objects into re-imagined meaning. Find your own inner voice of expression as you delve into the process of creating art out of different materials and mediums,  and learn new skills.

Not only will you have the opportunity to explore your own expression and immerse yourself in solo creations, but we will also engage in a collaborative group project to enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.

There is a transformative joy that comes from engaging with others in the artistic process. It opens doors unseen and forges deeper bonds between people. This exciting, shared experience teaches us how beautiful it is to break down barriers and collaborate.

This workshop is geared toward anyone with the desire to create. From the beginner to the advanced, this is a time to explore new possibilities. Together, we will:

Explore our own creativity and immerse ourselves in solo artistic expression.

Engage in a collaborative group project and enter the whimsical world of community-oriented magic and play.

Leave the critic behind and allow ourselves to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit.

Discover the joys of art based on community and collaboration and how meaningful and grand a shared experience can be.

If there are any recycled materials, special mementos, poems, or photos you would like to bring and include in our creations, please feel free!

This workshop includes an additional $115 materials fee.

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

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.

By slowing down and tuning in, we can allow sound, wonder, and movement to usher us into an altered state of consciousness. Many physicists call this the quantum field; other scholars and shamans refer to it as “unity” or “cosmic consciousness.” Sound journeys with alchemy crystal singing bowls can transport us into a deep state of inner tranquility and lighten the way by clearing and releasing the stress and tensions held within.

We welcome you to join us for a wonderful experience of renewal, healing, and love as we gather together to restore body, mind, and spirit. Authentic movement will invite us to embody the vibrational qualities of the heart. As these grace states are elevated, we can begin to transform the world within and around us.

Each day will include a blend of nourishing sound journeys, experiential activities, movement, bespoke teachings, and group discussion. Together, inspired by the beautiful earth, healing mineral waters, ancient redwoods, fresh ocean air, and starry skies, we’ll find connection and wonder. Come away with new practices and inspiration for the journey ahead.

• Open your heart’s capacity to give, receive, and attract love.
• Remove blockages, tension, and stress.
• See and hear the world with new appreciation.
• Learn the science of sound healing, why and how it works.

Special guest Damaris (Penny Vieregge) will join us to share the poetry of Hafiz as we join together to celebrate World Sound Healing Day and send out a sonic Valentine to our beautiful world!

Come away with a renewed sense of peace, gratitude, and love, as you return home with new practices and inspiration for the journey ahead.

Recommended Reading: The Ancient Language of Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Science of the Divine by David Elkington; Sound Medicine: How to Use the Ancient Science of Sound to Heal the Body and Mind by Kulreet Chaudhary, MD

Awaken the codes of radiant love with yoga, nature, and community. In the yoga tradition, there are seven key energy centers called chakras that support transformation in body, mind, and heart. Each chakra helps to transform wounds into wisdom and pain into love.

Learn how to activate these seven centers with breath, movement, and sound currents. The chakras help us to embody prosperity, intimacy, courage, love, clarity, intuition, and connection. They support us with greater vitality and healing energy. Think of the chakras as portals through which we unlock gifts in body, psyche, and life.

Together, we’ll explore the alchemical practices of:

• asana (physical yoga postures)
• pranayama (breathing techniques)
• mantra (healing sound vibration)
• mudra (energy seals created by the hands)
• meditation (expanded states of awareness)
• guided visualization with the seven chakras

Alchemize from root to crown on this journey through the seven chakras uniting the mystical and physical forces within you. Key practices include asana (physical postures of yoga), pranayama (breathing techniques), mantra (healing sound vibration), mudra (energy seals), meditation (expanded states of awareness), and vichara (self-inquiry).

In this Alchemy of Love retreat, Sianna and Masood will share stories, music, and practices to amplify the love frequency in your life. There will be four thematic journeys:

Friday: Radiance — a welcoming practice with breath and asana, grounding energies, root support, setting the foundation, calling in intentions, and soaking in deep rest for full-body restoration. This session focuses on the first two chakras connected to earth and water.

Saturday: Power to Transform — a more up-tempo practice of dynamic breathing techniques, core work, functional movement, introduction to backbends, and creative patterns of movement. This session focuses on the chakras connected to fire and air.

Saturday: Renewal and Rejuvenation — a more relaxed practice to explore deep hip openers, forward folds, and twists with expanded states of consciousness through mantra and meditation. This session focuses on the upper three chakras to the elements of space, unification, and transcendent energies.

Sunday: Alchemy of Love — a soulful practice with deep breath, heart fire vision, standing poses, backbends, and community connection. Culminating with a Chakra Radiance dance party with mantra, music, and love frequency!

Join Heidi Rose Robbins for an enlivening exploration of your astrological chart. Through group study, movement, writing, and poetry, we’ll bring our astrological map to life – and in so doing, practice loving and acting courageously and fully embracing our next life steps.

In this workshop, we will come together in the beauty of the circle to share wisdom and empower one another through the act of witnessing and being witnessed. Your astrological chart is a lens through which you can see yourself and the gifts you have to share. As we learn astrology, we can become ever more generous and daring, naming our fears and uncertainties and courageously offering up our gifts to liberate love in others and ourselves.

Our time together will include:

• A study of our personal astrological charts to uncover our greatest gifts, most difficult challenges, and clues about our next life steps.

• Embodiment as we move and stretch into new territory by experiencing astrological energies on our feet. (No movement expertise necessary in any way.)

• Journaling and collage to explore our charts by giving voice to the planets and the astrological signs through art.

• Using poetry to reveal and help different aspects of our astrological map come to life.

You don’t need to know anything about astrology, poetry, or movement. Just come open and available with the willingness to embrace the richness of your astrological map.

Recommended reading: Everyday Radiance: 365 Zodiac-Inspired Prompts for Self-Care and Self-Renewal by Heidi Rose Robbins; Zodiac Love Letters by Heidi Rose Robbins; Wild Compassion by Heidi Rose Robbins

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

Explore your unique creative process and express your human potential in a weekend deep dive with The Brothers Koren.

Discover your distinct creative personality and how to find harmony and coherence in your own creative process.

The brothers specialize in facilitating a safe space for you to move beyond the inhibitions and align to your authentic expressive impulse by identifying and supporting your distinct voice and creative code.

By using their embodied voice techniques, creative process design flow, and collaborative games, you will learn how to hold a space for playfully encountering your own brilliance and bring your creative expression to life.

Bring your voice, your ideas and your curiosity. All creative modalities are welcome. Art, music, voice, entrepreneurship, anything!

The brothers believe that almost everything we do in life involves a level of creative energy; from writing a song or painting a picture, to choosing what to wear in the morning and having a conversation – we are constantly improvising and using our creative life force.

However, many of us feel disconnected, blocked  and disempowered in our creative process. Some of us end up feeling stuck or shut down in different stages of our creations, whether experiencing trouble starting or finishing ideas.

What might be possible for you if your creative process was back in flow? The brothers are ready to help you reframe what it means to be creative, and to connect back to the way nature intended it. Life is a radically creative act. Join them and explore what is possible!

No creative experience necessary.

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.

Join Janet in this nourishing and revitalizing weekend, designed to replenish the nervous system and adrenals, boost the immune system, and ground our hearts and minds in simplicity. We will drop down through body-mind-spirit to find space between effort and surrender, allowing our internal systems to release toxins and integrate the powerful wellness generated by our bodies through our physical practices. Slow and fluid movement, restorative postures, meditation, pranayama (breathwork), and chanting will refill the mind, body, and spirit.

We will create space in our body for introspection and move out of the cyclical fight-or-flight response to cultivate sustainable power, rest and healing.

We’ll practice:

• Slow yoga to build sustainable power.
• Restorative postures for regeneration.
• Meditation toward stillness.
• Pranayama to balance hormones and the whole being.
• Chanting to awaken the heart’s longing.

Please bring an eye pillow. If you are driving, please also bring a sandbag and bolster.

CE Credit Available: 10 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $110 faculty tuition.

Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying is one of the oldest and most comprehensive systems of concentration in the Buddhist tradition. Sometimes called the Elephant Path, this approach was originated by the great Buddhist master in 506 A.D., and it is now the main method of training the mind in the Tibetan tradition. 

In this weekend meditation retreat, participants will learn the stages of the Elephant Path using the body as the primary object of concentration. Students will also receive an introduction to the basic stages of ordinary insight. By the end of our time together, students will have all the instructions necessary to successfully incorporate a robust meditation practice into everyday life.

Training the mind in this way can lead to a direct experience of equanimity and can put the student in a range of practice wherein pointing out the real nature of the awakened mind is possible. No experience with meditation is required. If you have your own preferred meditation pillow and mat, please bring them.

Restore.

It can take time and great effort to move away from the ego affirming busyness of modern day life toward a reflective stillness. In this workshop we will cultivate this slowing, deepening, and going within.

In a community setting, we will allow ourselves to dive below the surface of our thoughts and identities to know ourselves more intimately and untether from the chords that hold us to old behaviors and belief structures. Our practice will include:

• Slow nourishing yoga movements.
• Restorative postures to cultivate regeneration.
• Meditation, mantras, writing, and intentional silence.

With the power of this land, the healing waters, strength of community, and nourishment of slowing down, we will move toward a listening, supple, healing body.

Please bring an eye pillow, and if you are driving, please also bring a bolster and sandbag.

CE Credit Available: 25 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $220 faculty tuition.

A consistent meditation practice can lower stress, improve health, strengthen relationships, and increase happiness. A regular writing practice can help you make sense of the world and your place in it while making you a better and more creative writer. This combination writing and meditation workshop invites writers and meditators of all levels to delve deeply into both practices and combine their benefits.

Our daily guided meditations will nourish your creativity by encouraging you to be present, establishing a strong mind/body connection, and helping you access emotion and empathy — all important tools for writing.

Daily bursts of free writing will provide opportunities to tap into your creative energy — without judgment — so you can do your most original and authentic writing. Both practices will be supported by discussions of the craft of writing to help you master the technical aspects of storytelling. Each day, we will set aside time to share our work in a safe and supportive environment.

By the end of the workshop, everyone will have acquired the tools necessary to develop daily meditation and writing practices — and make them stick. Participants will also receive a free month’s membership to Creative Caffeine Daily, an online community to inspire, share work, and provide feedback.

Recommended Reading: “Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, “Writing Down the Bones’ by Natalie Goldberg, “Wherever You Go, There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Love Yourself For Everyone Else’s Sake  

Mark Abramson designed the course as a deep dive into self-compassion after seeing students achieve self-kindness from work with his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Clinic at Stanford University. Thirty years of teaching have taught Dr. Abramson that bringing kindness and compassion to one’s self is truly the most altruistic of all practices.

Imagine always being able to count on your own mind being kind to you — no matter what challenges life presents. That is your birthright, and now is the time to claim it! Immerse yourself in this mindfulness-based approach to self-love and compassion.  

Mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative practices have entered all spheres of our society, including corporate settings, sports,  performance, medicine, and psychology. Science has confirmed that ancient mental and physical training systems, such as meditation practices, confer health benefits for immunity, brain architecture, and pain management, as well as mental and physical resilience.

During our time together, you are invited to:

• Learn mindfulness meditation practices.
• Connect and experience your own loving attention.
• Learn to take back control of your body/mind to create a more peaceful you.

Throughout the weekend, you will have the opportunity to unite your body, mind, and soul into a self-nourishing whole person while strengthening your ability to give love to others by first loving yourself.

Recommended Reading: Love Yourself For Everyone Else’s Sake by Mark Abramson

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