This retreat is an invitation to go beyond the veil and begin the ancient, necessary work of returning to yourself. Rooted in the understanding that how we organize our bodies is how we organize the world, our journey will weave movement, ritual and embodied inquiry to shift patterns of urgency, control, and disconnection into creativity, trust, and real collective power.
This is the work that makes the other work possible — the foundation beneath every vision, every relationship, every act of courage toward a different future. Designed for those who sense that the world will not change until we do.
Join movement educator, author, and activist Kerri Kelly for a week-long immersion or recovering ourselves and re-weaving the story of who we are and what is possible.
Esalen Institute has a rich history serving as both sanctuary and crucible for evolving the consciousness of activists, leaders, and healers. Located on the ancestral lands of the Esselen people, Esalen is renowned not just for it’s offerings, but for it’s profound and natural beauty on the cliffs of the pacific coast where three water sources converge: a fresh-water spring (Porter Springs), mineral hot springs, and the Pacific Ocean. I have been many times and can testify: it is a powerful portal for healing and transformation.
At the heart of this retreat is Movement for the Movement — an embodied practice space for personal and collective liberation. Through intuitive, improvisational movement guided by music, sensation, and awareness, we explore how the patterns we want to dismantle out there live in here — in our nervous systems, our posture, our ways of relating. The way we move through our bodies is the way we move through the world. This is where we begin to move differently. Our journey weaves four directions:
Unlearn — surface the cultural stories embedded in your posture, your patterns, and your pain, and begin to loosen their grip.
Transform — reorganize the patterns of control, scarcity, and separation that have run your inner life, and feel what opens when they no longer do.
Recover — reclaim the wisdom, histories, and ways of knowing that dominant culture has obscured or erased.
Co–create — practice, together, what it actually feels like to move from a different story entirely.
GROW: Daily movement practice, nature-based ritual, political education, mythology and ancestral healing
STAY: 4 nights at Esalen Institute — iconic destination on 120 acres of Big Sur coastline
NOURISH: Three meals a day, farm-to-table from Esalen's own organic garden
SOAK: 24-hours access to Esalen's natural hot springs, perched cliffside over the Pacific
RESOURCE: Access to the nature, trails, and cliffside ocean of Big Sur
SPACE: Space for rest, stargazing, reflection, and creative making
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA
The Mythical Body is an immersive exploration of the cultural stories and myths that shape how we experience our bodies, relationships, leadership, and lives. Through embodiment and reflection, participants are invited to unlearn limiting patterns, recover what has been lost, and explore new ways of being.
The experience moves through four interconnected practices: Unlearn, Transform, Recover, and Co-create. You’ll explore embodied patterns, cultural conditioning, and ways of knowing while practicing new possibilities together in community
This workshop is designed for people who sense that meaningful change requires personal transformation. It may especially resonate with people interested in embodiment, leadership, justice, collective liberation, and creating a different future.
The workshop is led by Kerri Kelly, a master coach, movement educator, and author of American Detox. Her work sits at the intersection of embodiment, justice, and leadership.
The workshop experience includes your workshop, accommodations when staying on-site, meals, coffee, tea and snacks, access to Esalen’s hot springs and campus features, and access to open classes. Additional services such as Esalen Massage and other Healing Arts sessions are available separately.
The workshop takes place at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, from October 12–16, 2026. Esalen offers multiple registration options, including on-site accommodations, off-site stays, and individual day passes, depending on availability.