FF/FC

Internal use ONLY
Familiar Faculty
Offering Familiar Content

The Shared Heart New Year's Couples Retreat

With Barry Vissell and Joyce Vissell

January 9 - 11, 2026

Imagine your relationship expressing the true depths of your love and commitment. If you are in love, this retreat is an opportunity to rise even higher in love. If you are in crisis, it is an opportunity for healing on the deepest level.  We all carry some degree of negative programming from our past, and […]

Meditation and Modern Life: A Zen Meditation Retreat

With Dan Zigmond

January 16 - 19, 2026

When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. Today our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. Many of us live life in a […]

The Body of Belonging: An Exploration of Community and Connection

With Rahshaana Green

January 16 - 18, 2026

The Body of Belonging invites you to explore feelings of kinship, acceptance, and community on a somatic level, identifying the elements most significant to you. Through gentle yoga-inspired movement, breathwork, sound, and meditation, we will engage in self-inquiry practices within a group setting. Together, we will create a safe and brave space to experiment with […]

Nurturing Connections Through the Art of REPAIR

With Hazel-Grace Yates

January 19 - 23, 2026

An apology will shut a conversation down. A good repair opens one up. — Dr. Becky Kennedy Conflict is inevitable. The health of a relationship depends not on whether conflict happens but on how skillfully we repair. The Art of REPAIR is a practical, embodied, and deeply relational process that transforms rupture into connection, clarity, […]

Being Present for Your Life: Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

With James Baraz

January 23 - 25, 2026

How much are you present in your own life? Most of us spend more time worrying about the future, replaying the past, or getting lost in fantasy than experiencing what life offers us right now. This moment is our opportunity to be directly intimate with our lives while learning, through difficult lessons, how to open […]

The Alchemy of Awareness: Transforming Burnout into Meaning and Purpose

With Eve Ekman and Alejandro Chaoul

January 30 - February 1, 2026

What lies behind today’s evidence-based mind-body practices for well-being, resilience, and purpose? This three-day workshop explores the deep lineages and sacred traditions from which many modern methods arise, guided by teachers who walk both worlds of rigorous science and timeless wisdom. At MD Anderson Cancer Center, Alejandro Chaoul pioneered programs to support patients with chronic […]

Being With the Body in Depth Psychology: Trauma and its Transformation in the Unspoken Realm

With Barbara Holifield

January 30 - February 1, 2026

The body is a portal to the numinous dimensions of the soul’s life. It can lead us to healing and wholeness far beyond simple relief of traumatic symptoms — and to increased access to our feelings and a renewed sense of soulful aliveness. Jungian and depth psychology orient to the deepest currents of the soul, […]

Personal Empowerment Through the Wheel of Consent®

With Betty Martin and Marcia Baczynski

February 2 - 6, 2026

When you engage with another — whether a lover, friend, or colleague — are you doing what they want you to do or what they allow you to do? What is the difference, and why does it matter? Betty Martin's Wheel of Consent is a groundbreaking model of relating that brings greater clarity and authenticity […]

Sacred Clown: Reconnecting to Self Through the Spirit of Play

With Jet Eveleth

February 2 - 6, 2026

Our clown is the authentic, curious, and playful version of ourselves. Clowning as a life practice is the balancing of our light and shadow while laughing at our attachments. We will explore being soft, brave, and available to the moment. This workshop is an immersion practice that explores our most vulnerable and creative self. Using […]

Awe, Compassion, Gratitude, and Beauty: The Science and Practice of Self-Transcendence

With Dacher Keltner

February 9 - 13, 2026

Deep in the human mind and body are vast capacities for self-transcendence, felt in experiences of awe, compassion, gratitude, and profound beauty. These emotions enable us to gain perspective on our stresses, quiet the voice of the transactional self, orient to the well-being of others, and find a commitment to all sentient beings. These emotions […]

Accessing the Genius Within: Healing Physical and Emotional Injury With Cortical Field Re-Education® and Feldenkrais®

With Tomas Prietto, Judy Greenman and Monica Lesslie

February 13 - 20, 2026

How we sit, stand, move, and respond to our inner and outer world reflects deeply ingrained patterns wired into our nervous systems since childhood. They reflect our early solutions to physical survival in our family system. Out of awareness, these beliefs and strategies can still run our adult lives, limit our choices, and prevent physical […]

Designing the Life We Want: Self Renewal in the Winter

With Mark Nicolson

February 16 - 20, 2026

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 […]

A Black History Month Celebration: Exploring and Restoring Our Path to Healing through Empathy and Music

With LaVerne McLeod and Melanie DeMore

February 20 - 22, 2026

Join LaVerne McLeod and Melanie DeMore 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 […]

Fundamentals of Esalen® Massage

With Deborah Anne Medow and Rob Wilks

February 23 - 27, 2026

The mid-winter stars and sun-sparkled ocean waves—with glimpses of whale flumes—form a striking backdrop for exploring the renowned Esalen® Massage at its place of origin. This workshop offers an introduction to the foundational concepts and flow of the Esalen approach through a blend of experiential exercises, lecture-demonstrations, guided hands-on practice, and personal reflection. Participants engage […]

The Values Based Path to a Life of Purpose and Meaning

With Robert MacPhee

February 23 - 27, 2026

If your thoughts, decisions and actions are not being determined by your own highest values, they are certainly being determined by someone else's. — Living a Values Based Life  Join this engaging, interactive experience designed to support the discovery, clarification, and meaningful application of your highest personal values. It's a surprising fact of life that […]

Stages of Tranquility and Insight

With Dustin DiPerna

February 27 - March 1, 2026

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 […]

Relational Gestalt Practice: The Transformative Power of Emotion

With Dorothy Charles

March 2 - 6, 2026

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 […]

Moving into Stillness

With Janet Stone

March 2 - 6, 2026

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 […]

Esalen® Massage for Couples, Partners and Friends

With Robin Fann-Costanzo and Lori Lewis

March 6 - 8, 2026

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 […]

Nourish

With Janet Stone

March 6 - 8, 2026

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 […]

Movement as a Metaphor in Life and Art

With Daria Halprin

March 9 - 13, 2026

Everything I have experienced in my life, I take into my art. —Anna Halprin  What if everything you’ve experienced in your life could be danced? What if an image drawn carried a message for healing? What if a dance inspired a drawing that sparks words for a poem and the poem transforms a difficult story […]

Tibetan Dream Yoga

With Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

March 9 - 13, 2026

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 […]

Meet Your Better Half: Unlock Your Right Brain

With William Donius

March 13 - 15, 2026

Learn to activate the right side of your brain to unlock the intuition and 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 […]

Past Lives and Present Questions: What Can Children’s Past Life Memories Tell Us About Human Existence

With Jim B. Tucker and Christine McDowell Tucker

March 13 - 15, 2026

What if reincarnation is not a mere cultural belief or spiritual metaphor, but an emergent data set pointing toward a deeper structure of reality? For over sixty years, researchers at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies have compiled more than 2,000 rigorously documented cases of young children who recall past lives — often […]

Embodied Belonging: Weaving Together Self, Community, and Earth through 5Rhythms and Ecopsychology

With Douglas Drummond and Jeanine M. Canty

March 16 - 20, 2026

At the very heart of “belonging” is the word “long.” To be-long to something is to stay with it for the long haul. It is an active choice we make to a relationship, to a place, to our body, to a life because we value it. Even knowing that it may not be all that […]

Shedding the Old to Enter the Magnificent Wild: A Women’s Third Rite of Passage

With Jovinna Chan

March 20 - 22, 2026

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 […]

Awakening Spring Within: Somatic Herbalism, Plant Spirit Meditation, and Nature Connection

With Marysia Miernowska

March 20 - 22, 2026

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. – Thich Nhat Hanh Join herbalist, medicine woman, and plant spirit teacher Marysia Miernowska […]

Mapping Your Hero’s Adventure: A Mythogenesis PlayShop

With Robert Walter

March 23 - 27, 2026

Joseph Campbell used to celebrate his birthday at Esalen. When 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 […]

Yoga Nidra Retreat: Rest, Restore, and Remember Who You Are

With John Vosler

March 23 - 27, 2026

Experience five days of deep rest, reflection, and rejuvenation through movement, guided meditation, and the profound practice of Yoga Nidra. This workshop is designed to restore the body, clear the mind, and shift the habitual patterns that keep us from experiencing a state of calm, clarity, and balance. Yoga Nidra, which translates to "yogic sleep," […]

Free the Resonant Voice

With Odeya Nini

March 23 - 27, 2026

The voice is calling me, to come home, to the river that is flowing within me. — Sophia Tuv The voice is more than sound — it is the breath of our being made audible, the vibration of our essence moving through space. It is our most innate instrument, a direct channel between the soul […]

Spring Equinox Yoga Retreat

With Sarana Miller

March 27 - 29, 2026

The March equinox, a time of transition and harmony, is a wonderful opportunity to deepen our practice of yoga. The light is returning from the dark days of winter, and balance is our theme — both on the yoga mat and for our emotional and spiritual selves. Just as the plants are beginning to bud, […]

Healing Ourselves & Our lineage: Gratitude for Our Ancestors

With Erika Gagnon

March 27 - 30, 2026

Gratitude for our ancestors! We are the reality of their dreaming.  We are the tip of the arrow of our entire ancestral lineage, which traces back to the beginning of time. We all inherit our ancestors’ strength & resilience, their wisdom & their gifts, as well as their pain and trauma.  Join ceremonial leader and […]

Awaken The Artist Within: Evolution

With Erin Gafill and Tom Birmingham

March 30 - April 3, 2026

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. —Rumi Embark on a five-day journey of artistic discovery in a creative space that nurtures playful practice and community above all. This immersive multimedia experience is an invitation to explore an array of techniques and mediums, including: Torn paper […]

Moving Like the Ocean, Sitting Like a Mountain: Soul Motion® and Embodied Gestalt

With Zuza Engler and Scott Engler

April 3 - 5, 2026

Be inspired by the flame / where everything shines as it disappears. – Rainer Maria Rilke What part of your life could use some breath, space, movement, flow, and a sprinkle of humor? Where in your work or relationships are you called toward a more passionate participation — or a deeper letting go? What if […]

Sacred Tobacco: Hapé and the Art of Presence

With Glauber Loures de Assis

April 3 - 5, 2026

Hapé, a sacred tobacco preparation, has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon as a medicine for clarity, presence, and connection for centuries. Blown gently into the nostrils, this finely ground blend of tobacco leaves and sacred ashes activates the senses in a unique way, opening inner vision and anchoring attention in the present […]

Luminous Yoga Spring Renewal

With Ulrika Engman

April 6 - 10, 2026

Revamp, reinvigorate, and polish your luminous self this season with innovative yoga practices for body, mind, and spirit! This yoga renewal workshop includes energizing movement, flow yoga, core activations, meridian sequencing, tapping, rejuvenating holds, and cleansing rituals based on the five elements.  Yoga for the skin sloughs off the old with a potent five-step cleansing […]

Role Mate to Soul Mate: The Art and Discipline of Love

With Warren Farrell

April 10 - 13, 2026

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 […]

Wild Pilgrimage: Backpacking Journey to Esalen

With Fletcher Tucker and Mike Smith

April 24 - 26, 2026

In the mountains east of Esalen, an enchanting, ecologically diverse, and psycho-spiritually fertile wilderness awaits. Over four nights and five days, we will engage in a contemporary form of pilgrimage, backpacking as reverent seekers through these ancestral lands of the Esselen Tribe, now known as Big Sur’s Ventana Wilderness. Our journey concludes at the coastal […]