Body Process: Soul Motion® and Embodied Gestalt

Body Process: Soul Motion® and Embodied Gestalt is a five-day healing workshop at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, for people who want to meet their feelings, creativity and sense of connection through conscious movement. It brings together Soul Motion® and body-based Gestalt, and it suits anyone drawn to embodied presence. Therapists and social workers can also earn continuing education credit. Zuza Engler and Scott Engler lead it.

What to Expect

The week is mostly experiential, with some time for teaching and discussion. Each day begins with movement, breath and sensory awareness. From there the group explores its inner landscape through solo and guided movement journeys, then works in pairs and small groups, practicing being seen and heard. Some of the practice moves outdoors, drawing on the Big Sur landscape. Circles of sharing and silence give room to reflect and integrate.

The music is wide-ranging, and silence is treated as part of the material too. The aim is to travel through the landscapes of relating: to self, to others, to the world, and to the larger Mystery. The organizers say plainly that waking up together can be glorious and sometimes clumsy, and that the practice builds empathy and relational fluidity.

The first day opens with a How to Drop into Esalen orientation from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, followed by an evening session from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. The middle three days each have a morning session from 9:45 am to 12:30 pm and an afternoon session from 4:00 to 6:30 pm. The final day closes with a session from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.

About Zuza Engler

Zuza Engler has spent close to three decades on a path of kinesthetic investigation into consciousness, through motion, stillness and process inquiry. She teaches Soul Motion® and Open Floor Movement, created Embodied Inquiry, and is a long-term Buddhism and Gestalt practitioner. She is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) to sponsor continuing education programs.

About Scott Engler

Scott Engler is a longtime student of presence and healing. He supports adults, children and infants through Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and offers workshops in trauma resolution for the family. He holds a third-degree black belt in aikido.

The Setting

Esalen Institute sits on the Big Sur coast. Founded in 1962 by Michael Murphy and Dick Price, it grew out of the 1960s search to understand human potential and has long been a center for experiential learning in psychology, somatics, meditation and the arts. Guests stay on campus and have access to the hot springs and other campus features.

Meals are included: breakfast, lunch and dinner, with coffee, tea and snacks. Lodging ranges from shared sleeping bag space, where guests bring their own bedding, and bunk rooms to private standard and premium rooms and yurts, some with ocean or forest views. Guests may also attend with accommodations off site.

Highway 1 access to northern Big Sur has been managed through Caltrans convoys, which run at 7:00 am and 5:00 pm each day. These are the only times to travel into and out of the area, so plan arrival and departure around them.

Before You Go

No prior experience is named as a requirement. The workshop offers 18 continuing education credits for LMFT, LCSW and LPCC professionals, and a small fee applies for the certificate.

Tuition, housing, meals, hot springs access and the open class schedule are included. Esalen Massage and other healing arts sessions, specialty coffee, tea and bar purchases, and bookstore items are extra.

Three books are suggested for reading beforehand: Body Process: A Gestalt Approach to Working with the Body in Psychotherapy by James Kepner, Spirituality of the Body by Alexander Lowen, and The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness by Pema Chödrön.