Psychology & Self-Awareness
Website program category as of 2022
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | ETMC Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
The Luminous Darkness: Imagination, Possibility, and Conscious Intentions for 2025
With Deborah Eden Tull
All light arises from darkness, including insight, creativity, vision, joy, and possibility. The luminous darkness is the healing presence and receptivity through which we also access light. It is the field of all potential and emergence that we sometimes forget in the context of ordinary life and habit. In this deeply restorative retreat, at the […]
The Shared Heart New Year's Couples Retreat
With Barry Vissell and Joyce Vissell
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 […]
Gestalt Practice and Principles: Cultivating Embodied Wholeness in Daily Life
With Steven Harper
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 […]
Rewilding the Mind: Technology for Well-Being
With Eve Ekman and Sará King
Our ever-increasing intimacy with technology means we live more of our lives with, through, and mediated by it. This carries both opportunities and risks to our social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions. Many are experiencing a sense of soul loss — a contracted disconnection caused by distraction, social comparison, loneliness, and lack of true connection, […]
Holotropic Breathwork®: Expanded States of Consciousness
With Stacia Butterfield
For thousands of years across many cultures, enhanced states of consciousness have been used as a strategy for meaningful transformation and self-exploration — marking life’s major transitions and rites of passage and deepening one’s connection to self, community, and the natural world. In this workshop, we will gather in the rich field of community for […]
Motivate Your Life: Unleash 360° Potential
With Justin Michael Williams
Join bestselling author, Grammy-nominated musician, and award-winning speaker Justin Michael Williams in this transformational and deeply interactive workshop at Esalen Institute. By blending science-backed strategies with empowerment, this session is designed to unlock your full potential and foster a space of connection, wellness, motivation, and confidence. In this inspiring journey, you will: Explore the 6 […]
Encounter: Meeting the Moment
With Andrea Juhan
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 […]
Accessing the Genius Within: Healing Physical and Emotional Injury With Cortical Field Re-Education®
With Judy Greenman, Tomas Prietto and Melissa Krikorian
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 […]
Somacultural Liberation: Freeing the Body Through Cultural Awareness
With Roger Kuhn
What role does dominant culture play in how we experience the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and deeper existential mysteries of our bodies? Roger Kuhn, a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigequeer activist, artist, sex therapist, and somacultural theorist, believes that viewing our bodies through a somacultural lens can help us better understand how dominant culture informs and, all […]
The Heart of Relationship: A Weekend of Gestalt Inquiry for Couples and Friends
With Perry Holloman and Johanna Holloman
Fostering close and connected relationships is one of the most important things affecting the quality of our lives. Cultivating trust and openness with a loved one, whether with an intimate partner or friend, is an essential aspect of any successful, supportive relationship. This weekend, Perry and Johanna Holloman, intimate partners and friends for over 30 […]
Healing, Rest, & Embodied Liberation for Men of Color
With Danny Fluker and Darnell Lamont Walker
Immerse yourself in a restorative workshop designed specifically for male-identifying people of color. This unique experience offers a sanctuary for growth and self-discovery, fostering a supportive community where participants can connect and build meaningful relationships. Black boys and men of color have limited opportunities to engage in mind-body healing practices, and there are not nearly […]
Cultivating Creative Resilience
With Darnell Lamont Walker and Cara Chandler
Build inner strength and resilience through a blend of gentle and restorative yoga, stress-relief meditation, Yoga Nidra, and focused writing exercises. Participants will embark on a journey to identify and overcome personal and creative challenges. This workshop begins with restorative yoga sessions to release physical tension and prepare the body for creative work, followed by […]
Authentic Alignment: Creating an Authentic Life of Purpose, Value, and Vision
With Anne Van de Water
“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 […]
Winter Renewal: Transitioning into the New Year with Ritual, Yoga and Time in Nature
With Toni Cupal
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 […]
Relational Gestalt Practice: Open Seat Intensive
With Dorothy Charles
All people have an innate ability to move toward healthy, satisfying relationships. Old patterns of behavior and fixed ideas formed in early relationships may block our ability to communicate and make contact with the people in our lives. The Gestalt approach aims to increase awareness of these patterns and our ”unfinished business” by relating in […]
Love, Sex, and Intimacy for Individuals and Couples
With Linda Bloom and Charlie Bloom
Intimacy is to the soul as food is to the body. It creates a sense of connectedness that provides access to dimensions of the self that are unavailable during ordinary states of awareness. Being present in this way reminds us that we are not separate beings, alone and adrift in the world, but inextricably connected […]
Trauma, Memory and the Restoration of One’s Self
With Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky
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 […]
Tibetan Dream Yoga
With Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
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 […]
Designing the Life We Want: Self Renewal in the Winter
With Mark Nicolson
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 […]
Make Peace With Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You From the Inner Critic
With Mark Coleman
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, […]
Secret to Belonging: How to Create Authentic Connections that Transform Communities
With Lee Mun Wah and Yi-Li Godfrey
Belonging is an essential part of the human experience. Throughout human history, we have encountered intense polarization and separation due to religious, ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation differences. This unique workshop, led by renowned documentary filmmaker and community therapist Lee Mun Wah and diversity educator and body-based psychotherapy practitioner Yi-Li Godfrey, explores how to foster […]
Love Yourself for Everyone Else’s Sake
With Mark Abramson
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 […]
Transforming Adversity Into Insight: Feeding Your Demons and Cultivating Emotional Balance
With Chandra Easton and Eve Ekman
Across various wisdom traditions, there is a common yet paradoxical invitation: Turn toward what is difficult to find freedom from what is difficult. However, when we find ourselves feeling anxiety, loss, judgment, irritation — the full bouquet of difficult emotions — facing these feelings is the last thing we want to do. Fortunately, there are […]
Integrative Gestalt™ and Hologenic™ Connected Breathwork Immersion Training
With Perry Holloman and Johanna Holloman
"Breath is a force, a medicine, and a gateway to the unconscious mind and the very essence of our Being." - The Holloman’s 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 […]
Seeding Self Renewal
With Didier Sylvain
The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars." — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower All beginnings have seeds — the starting point for new growth and new branches of our lives, the sources for new chapters. This is what annual cycles and seasons promise: As our intentions and ambitions sharpen, […]
Personal Empowerment Through the Wheel of Consent®
With Betty Martin and Marcia Baczynski
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 […]
Nurturing Connections through The Art of REPAIR
With Hazel-Grace Yates
The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life. — Esther Perel In any meaningful relationship, mistakes, tough emotions, challenging conversations, and misunderstandings are inevitable. Great relationships aren't devoid of conflict; rather, they navigate it with care and efficiency. Truly fulfilling relationships hinge on our ability to skillfully navigate conflict. With the right […]
Metta and the Divine Abodes: Meditation, Yoga, and Wisdom to Live a Better Life
With Hannah Muse
The Brahmavihārās (divine abodes) are profound practices that uncover your natural capacity to live your life easefully with love, connection, wisdom, and joy. In this experiential workshop, we’ll use daily guided meditation practices, storytelling, song, relational mindfulness practices, self-directed neuroplasticity, yoga, and somatic play to explore the classical Buddhist Heart practices known as the “boundless […]
Shedding the Old to Enter the Magnificent Wild: A Women’s Third Rite of Passage
With Jovinna Chan
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 […]
Moving Like the Ocean, Sitting Like a Mountain: Soul Motion® and Embodied Gestalt
With Zuza Engler and Scott Engler
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 […]
Embodied Belonging: Weaving Our Relationship to Self, Community & Earth through 5Rhythms and Ecopsychology
With Douglas Drummond and Jeanine M. Canty
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 […]
Setting Your Heart on Fire: A Passionate Practice to Liberate Your Life
With Raphael Cushnir
"To live in accord with love is to set your heart on fire. In the crucible of such an inferno all convention burns away. What’s left is an entirely new kind of existence, one full of passion, presence and infinite possibility." — Setting Your Heart on Fire What if you could fall absolutely in love […]
Total Immersion for Total Transformation
With Raphael Cushnir
Get ready for ecstatic rebirth! This small group workshop is for you if you are prepared and willing to: Determine the aspects of your life calling for healing and change. Move toward healing and change on the very first day. Commit to an action plan. Take a giant leap forward in consciousness. Help create and […]
Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death
With Nikki Mirghafori
In this transformative workshop, you will explore Maranasati, mindfulness of death, a profound practice for embracing life’s natural cycles of birth and death with greater aliveness, presence, and fearlessness. By facing impermanence directly, you can open your heart to live with deeper intention, presence, and less fear, freeing yourself to embrace life in its fullest […]
Entering Your Creative Universe
With Paul Heussenstamm
This workshop invites you to explore the creative spirit that resides within each of us. Whether you are an experienced artist or simply seeking to uncover your potential, this meditative experience promises to be enriching. We will begin with colored pencils to open our hearts and let creativity flow naturally. Then, with acrylic paints, participants […]
Sleep Alchemy: Secrets of Daoist Sleep Practices for Inner Peace and Renewal
With Simon Cox
What if sleep could be more than rest? What if it could be a portal to transformation and self-discovery? Ancient Daoist sleep alchemy offers powerful techniques to access profound rest while maintaining deep awareness. Rooted in the Wudang Daoist San Feng lineage, the Hibernating Dragon and Five Dragons Sleeping methods guide practitioners to harmonize body, […]
Children's Memories of Previous Lives: What They Can Tell Us About Our Own Lives
With Jim B. Tucker and Christine McDowell Tucker
Part of a new chapter of Esalen’s history, this seminar-style workshop considers the audacious possibility that reincarnation may be an empirically established fact rooted in robust and compelling scientific data. Numerous young children from across the world have reported memories of past lives. These cases have been a focus of careful study at the Department […]
Learning to Love Midlife
With Chip Conley
Are you feeling bored, stuck, bewildered, or overwhelmed in your 40s, 50s, or 60s? You’re not alone. Welcome to midlife, a time when many of us feel restless and disenchanted. New studies show that after a temporary bottoming-out of life satisfaction, we often start feeling more content and alive in the core and latter part […]
Psychodrama for Recovery from Traumatic Stress: an Experiential Workshop
With Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky
Trauma is not only about the terrible things that have happened to us but also about what did not happen — such as care, protection, and validation. The only way to create an inner sense of positivity that embraces new possibilities is to have a visceral, real-life experience with what has been missing. In this […]
Selah: Untaming
With Bayo Akomolafe and Nora Bateson
Selah is the call of grace to make art at the edge of the world. At the end of the world. — Bayo Akomolafe We are often reminded that for social change to be transformative, it must be scaled up. It must be big, written in bold fonts across the night sky. Unambiguously clear. We […]
Heal Yourself with Ayurveda
With Siva Mohan
What does healing mean to you? There is no one-size-fits-all solution for eating, sleep, immunity, and other health concerns. Your body communicates its healing needs to you, but we often lack the knowledge to interpret and respond to these signals. Health practitioners cannot fully understand your body's changing needs and signals the way you can. […]
Stages of Tranquility and Insight
With Dustin DiPerna
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 […]
Science and Spirituality: The Search for Meaning in a Secular Age
With Michael Shermer
The intellectual and spiritual quest to understand the Universe and our place in it is at the core of science, religion, and spiritual traditions. We are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals trying to make sense of the world. For millennia, we have told stories in the form of myths and through religions that have offered countless explanations. […]
Big Sur Wilderness Experience: Springtime
With Steven Harper
Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world. With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary teacher, participants will explore the beauty of this wild coast — one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world — which includes ancient canyons of redwoods, dramatic coastal beaches, rugged […]
The Path of the Wounded Healer: 5Rhythms Heartbeat and Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness
With Lucia Horan
The healing path has a trajectory. Gabrielle Roth called this, The Path of The Wounded Healer. It is here that we look closely at our healing process. We mark both where we are and where we want to be. We dance through the five stages of healing in relationship to being the victim, the survivor, […]
Yoga Nidra Retreat: Rest, Restore, and Remember Who You Are
With John Vosler
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," […]
Wild Pilgrimage: Backpacking Journey to Esalen
With Fletcher Tucker and Ariel Johnson
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 the Big Sur backcountry. Our journey will conclude at the […]
Into the Field of Possibility: Meeting Your Essence Through Dance
With Jovinna Chan
Dance is one of the world’s most ancient transformative rituals. From the whirling dervish to the Shamans, the waltz to the rave, we dance for joy, healing, and connection — guided by wisdom that transcends the thinking brain. This five-day retreat is an invitation to come together to awaken the forgotten wild, ignite your creativity, […]
Relational Gestalt Practice: The Transformative Power of Emotion
With Dorothy Charles
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 […]
Mapping Your Hero’s Adventure: A Mythogenesis PlayShop
With Robert Walter
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 […]
The Power of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion
With Shauna Shapiro
Learn how mindfulness and self-compassion can change everything about how you feel, how you relate and how you live ― for good. In this workshop, Dr. Shauna Shapiro ― a leading scientist studying the effects of mindfulness + compassion on well-being ― shows us that acting with compassion toward ourselves is the key. She explains […]
Contacting the Space Between: Gestalt, Feldenkrais, and the Subtle Body
With Kate Flore and Kevin Dockery
“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. […]
Embracing Mystery: Embodying Presence and Grounding in a World of Change and Uncertainty
With Steven Harper
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. – Alan Watts In these ever-changing times, our familiar and habitual ways of being and knowing the world are often shaken to the core. Many of us find ourselves confronting anxiety, impermanence, and disconnection. […]
Space, Water, and Wind: Tibetan Buddhist Yogic and Rejuvenation Practices
With James Bae
Profound relaxation and rejuvenation lie at the intersection of land and sky. In this weekend intensive, we will explore the Tibetan art of rejuvenation, also known as chulen, meaning “essence-taking.” These “rare” inner yogic methods of self-healing include meditations on the sky (space), bathing in natural springs (water), breathing (wind), and movement practices. Inner yoga, […]
Embodied Energy Through Drawing
With Lou Rainbow
Push the boundaries of your drawing practice, go deeper, and develop your mark-making, surface development, form, and composition using still life and nature as inspiration. In this experimental drawing course, you will be encouraged to explore playful techniques alongside more focused observational skills, all while considering scale and composition. You will be guided to work […]
Designing Warmth: From User Experience (UX) to Transcendent Experience (ZX)
With Daniel Gloyd
What I mean by good design is helping people find their natural, proper place in the cosmos. —Richard Buchanan Warmth is an essential principle of human connection, prioritized by the biological brain and spiritual heart alike. In order to thrive, we humans need to experience the interconnectedness between ourselves and the world around us. Yet […]
How We Change and Why We Don't: The Art and Science of Transformation
With Cassandra Vieten
Have you ever worked hard to make a change, only to find yourself slipping back into old habits? Want to supercharge your ability to stimulate behavior change in others when it comes to the issues you care about the most? Is it time to break free from old patterns and build your next chapter? This […]
Embracing the Divine Feminine: A Mystical Approach
With Elizabeth Philipose
Imagine reconnecting with a part of you – the Divine Feminine – that brings you back into balance and harmony with yourself and all your relations. This transformative workshop combines social and political knowledge, energy- and earth-based practices, and embodiment exercises to help you release fears, resentment, and pain while inviting intuition, surrender, and flow […]
Pathways to Partnership: Scientific Strategies for Dating and Beginning Your Next Healthy Relationship
With Amy Chan
Discover research-backed tools to create a loving relationship. Together, we’ll engage in a comprehensive exploration of the psychological and scientific aspects of dating and healthy relationships. We'll delve into the science of attraction, unlocking the mysteries of chemistry and creating and sustaining meaningful connections — all grounded in the latest research on relationships. Our key […]
Who Do You Think You Are: An Interactive Journey Through Your Past Lives and Into Your Best Future
With Michelle Brock
How can we know the future? Is it determined? How does the past, specifically past lives, influence the future? In this workshop, we will explore how our previous existences are impacting us in the present and how understanding our past lives can transform the future we are creating. Together, we will reveal the wisdom of […]
Cultivating Vitality in Body, Mind, and Spirit: The Ecosystem of Mental Well-Being
With Cassandra Vieten and Elissa Epel
What is vitality? Exuberance, vibrance, sparkle, spirit, and verve — terms rarely found in psychology textbooks. Vulnerability to depression and anxiety is widespread, and our culture traditionally emphasizes reducing symptoms with drugs that alter certain neurotransmitters, which is only part of the picture. We are living in a new era where vulnerabilities can become strengths, […]
The Rewilding of Eros: Un-Domesticating the Erotic Body and Reclaiming Erotic Sovereignty
With Victor Warring
We are erotic primates living in culturally imposed domestication. We have the lineage and bodies of hunter-gatherers, but we exist in a modern context that is deeply afraid of Eros. Like other domesticated animal species, we have been removed from the wild to live a more settled life. For many of us, this has had […]
Relational Mindfulness: For Personal & Collective Healing
With Deborah Eden Tull
Now, as we face so much accelerated and multi-faceted change, we are each called to serve what we love and want to protect from the deepest parts of our being. Relational Mindfulness offers 9 principles and practices for meeting the beautiful, dynamic, and messy field of human relating as our laboratory for awakening. It offers […]