Mary has been teaching at Esalen Institute in Big Sur since 1975. Esalen is a gorgeous retreat site right on the ocean in Big Sur, with natural hot spring baths and delicious food, much of which is grown in their own organic gardens.

 

MARY GOLDENSON - 2009 ESALEN INSTITUTE WORKSHOP

Relationships:  A Journey of Growth

Week of November 15-20, 2009

 

Relationships present profound opportunities for personal development and spiritual fulfillment. Healthy relationships are the foundation of healthy families and ultimately a healthy society. If we embrace the challenges of our relationships they become great teachers, mirrors reflecting unseen and often rejected parts of ourselves. Relationships provide the opportunity to experience both our greatest pain and joy. The challenge of this journey is to:

·         Open ourselves to all of life: suffering and joy, success and failure, gain and loss

·         Fully acknowledge to ourselves the truth of who we are

·         Commit to living our deepest values and dreams, and make powerful choices to actualize them

 

This workshop is for all who wish to look deeply into themselves and their lives through their relationships: fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, lovers and partners. Come alone or together. In a supportive environment, you will have the opportunity to heal old wounds, learn new skills to help you in troubled times, and actively create the heartfelt and spiritual relationships you desire. Mary Goldenson, clinical psychologist and author of It's Time: No One's Coming to Save You, will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, dance, imagery, meditation and breath work to help you express your truth and take responsibility for your feelings.

Relationships:  The Courage to Begin

The week of January 10th - 15th, 2010

 

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate test and proof, the work for which all the other work is but preparation. — Rilke
 

Life is a precious gift. We have all experienced moments of feeling totally alive, especially within our relationships. When beliefs, defenses, fears, and emotions from the past enter into our present-day relationships, we lose our ability to feel love, trust, and joy.
 

The goal of this workshop is to experience these restrictive patterns and to create new ways to relate to ourselves, others, and our work, thus enabling us to create new beginnings. This workshop can help you:

 

• Find out how your relationships mirror you

• Clarify what you want and how to get it

• Examine ways you sabotage yourself

• Learn more about how others see you

 

Learn practical tools and knowledge that will help create empowered relationships

 

In a supportive and safe environment, experiential exercises will help you become more adept at listening, empathizing, truth telling, creative problem-solving, and taking responsibility to create the relationships you want. Come alone or with a partner. The workshop will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, dance, imagery, and meditation.

Recommended reading:  Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.

 

 

The Courage to Be You: Letting Go and Moving On

The weekend of January 29th - 31st, 2010

 

Dr. Mary Goldenson

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it?  They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.  — Rumi

Much in life is beyond our control. Our choices lie in how we respond to these moments. We can develop the ability to move into these moments with aliveness and passion. This choice is an act of courage. This workshop will help you explore what you are holding in, holding onto, and holding back that keeps you from experiencing who you truly are. “The courage to be you” means the ability to appropriately express the repressed anger, fear, resentments, sadness, joy, and laughter that keep you stuck in old patterns. Using emotional release work, writing, movement, Gestalt, meditation, and silence, the workshop will provide a safe environment to explore your deepest emotions.

 The focus will be on:

 

• Having adult relationships with partners, parents, and children

• Taking full responsibility for your life

• Discovering your own personal rhythm of closeness

• Distinguishing accountability from blame

 

The workshop constitutes an in-depth life review. All that is required is a willingness to engage wholeheartedly.

 

 

 

 

PREVIOUS ESALEN INSTITUTE WORKSHOP

 

Communication and Partnership

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

Underlying all our relationships—husband, wife, lover, friend, daughter, son, mother, father—is the need to communicate. Too often we learn to express our needs through control, power struggles, addictions, dependency, guilt, denial, and unreasonableness. This workshop is about healing the soul-wounds sustained in our attempts at partnership. The focus will be on:

Exploring the possibilities of equal soul partnership

Learning new ways to express our fear, sadness, grief, and love

Defining what we need to change in our relationships

Learning different language styles to better connect with our partners

Learning ways to heal, forgive, and move on to a mutually beneficial relationship

Come alone or with a partner. The workshop will provide a safe, supportive environment to learn new practices of breathwork, communication skills, movement, and Gestalt, making it easier to express your truth and take responsibility for your feelings and issues.
 

This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.
 

 

Start Over:  Choose Aliveness and Intimacy

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

We have all experienced moments of feeling totally alive, yet much of our life is spent in a half-asleep, half-committed state of being. While there are many life-situations beyond our control, we choose how we respond to these events. The choice to be passionately alive is an act of courage. To choose life is to:

Open ourselves to all of life—suffering, joy, success, failure, love, and grief

Fully acknowledge the truth of who we are

Commit to living our deepest values and dreams

Define what we must change in our relationships

Learn new ways to heal, forgive, and communicate
 

The challenge is to honestly address the ways in which we have compromised, given up, or lied to ourselves and others. This workshop is designed to bring to awareness our unconscious choices of how we deaden ourselves and to create the possibility for new aliveness and passionate involvement.
 

Come alone or with a partner. A safe, supportive atmosphere will be provided, using communication skills, movement, Gestalt, and Reichian work.
 

This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.
 

 

 

A New Beginning:  Courage & Heart

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

One Day you finally knew What you had to do, and began
                                                                                                                -Mark Oliver

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
                                                                                                                -Mark Twain

“In this workshop,” Mary Goldenson writes, “we will courageously peer into the depths of our hearts and minds to ask:

- Does my life reflect my heart’s desires?
- If fear did not stop me, what might I be doing differently? 

- What truths do I need to tell to live?
- To whom or what have I given power over my life? What must I do to reclaim it?
- How shall I live, knowing I shall die?

“More than the answers, our questions define where the real meaning of our life resides. Firmly grounded in the moment, we will explore ways to reconnect with our source of creativity and spirituality.”

This workshop offers ways to help complete the past, be open to the present, and create the future. A safe, supportive environment will be provided. Didactic and experimental exercises will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, imagery, dance, and meditation.
This workshop may have to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.
 

CE Credit for MFT’s and LCSW’s

 

 

Forgiveness & Intimacy:  A Time of Acceptance

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

A life is about relationships. Creating an alive and honest connection with an intimate partner requires us to go deeply into our hearts and allow the courageous self to emerge. This journey to intimacy begins with the path of forgiveness. How does forgiveness lead to intimacy?

- It allows us to let go of anger, resentment, and grief.
- It allows the agitated mind to move more deeply into the healing heart.
- It resolves separation from ourselves and from others.
- It allows us to complete unfinished business.

The workshop will present ways to help complete the past, be open to the present, and create the future. It will offer a safe, supportive environment that will include taking risks, intense bodywork, Gestalt imagery, dance, and meditation.
 

The workshop can be especially helpful for those dealing with boundary issues, the effects of a dysfunctional family life, or addictions that have been used as defense against intimacy. It is appropriate for everyone: individuals and couples, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons, and healing professionals.

 

The workshop may have up to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.
CE Credit for MFT’s and LCSW’s

 

It's Time:  The Courage To Be You

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

Much in life is beyond our control. Our choices lie in how we respond to these moments with aliveness and passion. This choice is an act of courage.
 

This workshop will help you explore what you are holding in, holding onto, and holding back that keeps you from experiencing who you truly are. “The courage to be you” means the ability to appropriately express the repressed anger, fear, resentments, sadness, joy and laughter that keep you stuck in old patterns. Using emotional release work, writing, movement, Gestalt, meditation, and silence, the workshop will provide a safe environment to explore your deepest emotions.  The focus will be on:

-Having adult relationships with partners, parents, and children.
-Taking full responsibility for your life.
-Discovering your own personal rhythm of closeness.
-Distinguishing between accountability and blame.
 

The workshop constitutes an in-depth review of our lives. If you are willing to engage wholeheartedly, it can help you to accomplish the transformative change you seek.
 

This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.

 

Relationships:  A Spiritual Journey

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

Relationships present profound opportunities for personal development and spiritual fulfillment. Healthy relationships are the foundation of healthy families and ultimately a healthy society. If we embrace the challenges of our relationships they become great teachers, mirrors reflecting unseen and often rejected parts of ourselves. Relationships provide the opportunity to experience both our greatest pain and joy. The challenge of this journey is to:

- Open ourselves to all of life-suffering and joy, success and failure, gain and loss.
- Fully acknowledge to ourselves the truth of who we are.
- Commit to living our deepest values and dreams, and make powerful choices to actualize them.
 

This workshop is for all who wish to look deeply into themselves and their lives through their relationships: fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, lovers and partners. Come alone or together. In a supportive environment, you will have the opportunity to heal old wounds, learn new skills to help you in troubled times, and actively create the heartfelt and spiritual relationships you desire. The workshop will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, dance, imagery, and meditation to make it easier to express your truth and take responsibility for your feelings.

 
This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
 

Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time-No One’s Coming to Save You.

 

The Courage to Be You: Letting Go and Moving On

 

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it?  They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.  — Rumi

 

Much in life is beyond our control. Our choices lie in how we respond to these moments. We can develop the ability to move into these moments with aliveness and passion. This choice is an act of courage. This workshop will help you explore what you are holding in, holding onto, and holding back that keeps you from experiencing who you truly are. “The courage to be you” means the ability to appropriately express the repressed anger, fear, resentments, sadness, joy, and laughter that keep you stuck in old patterns. Using emotional release work, writing, movement, Gestalt, meditation, and silence, the workshop will provide a safe environment to explore your deepest emotions.

 

 The focus will be on:

 

• Having adult relationships with partners, parents, and children

• Taking full responsibility for your life

• Discovering your own personal rhythm of closeness

• Distinguishing accountability from blame

The workshop constitutes an in-depth life review. All that is required is a willingness to engage wholeheartedly.

 

 

Public Speaking:  Powerfully Presenting Yourself

Mary Goldenson & Robert Corff 

 

Why are some people so inspiring and impactive when they speak? What inhibits us from delivering our message? This workshop will explore the inhibitions to self-expression and communication, and help participants move beyond them with more freedom in both personal and professional life. It is designed for those who want to develop a more powerful personal and public presentation, and better professional and business communication skills. 

 

The leaders combine their expertise in the fields of psychology and the performing arts to guide you through this pulse-raising adventure. The focus will be on self-exploration through individual and group work. Participants will use voice and body to express themselves with more power and passion. 

 

Courage, passion, and clarity need not be restricted to rare moments in life. Learn to express yourself more fully and experience the satisfaction of being more authentic and self-assured. This process can help awaken your dreams and invigorate your life

 

 

 Relationship: A Spiritual Journey

 

Relationships present profound opportunities for personal development and spiritual fulfillment. Healthy relationships are the foundation of healthy families and ultimately a healthy society. If we embrace the challenges of our relationships they become great teachers, mirrors reflecting unseen and often rejected parts of ourselves. Relationships provide the opportunity to experience both our greatest pain and joy.

 

The challenge of this journey is to:

 

·         Open ourselves to all of life—suffering and joy, success and failure, gain and loss

·         Fully acknowledge to ourselves the truth of who we are

·         Commit to living our deepest values and dreams, and make powerful choices to actualize them

 

This workshop is for all who wish to look deeply into themselves and their lives through their relationships: fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, lovers and partners. Come alone or together. In a supportive environment, you will have the opportunity to heal old wounds, learn new skills to help you in troubled times, and actively create the heartfelt and spiritual relationships you desire. The workshop will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, dance, imagery, and meditation to make it easier to express your truth and take responsibility for your feelings.

 

 

 

Win/Win: The Path to Peaceful Solutions

 

When people experience conflict and their needs continually go unmet, they participate in a retaliatory cycle or “getting even” process. All conflict contains need—the need for power, for approval, for inclusion, for justice, or for identity. Mediation interrupts the retaliatory process, circumventing the likelihood of costly arbitration or litigation. During mediation the disputants have the opportunity to confront each other and express their strong emotions and opinions before a neutral party. Confrontation precedes resolution, communication precedes negotiation. 

 

This workshop teaches:

• The five steps of negotiation

• How to constructively manage disagreement

• Communication amid resistance

• How to ask productive questions

 

In a safe and supportive environment, the workshop will address personal, work-related, and relationship issues using experiential and didactic methods, case studies, handouts, and open discussion. The course is for individuals or couples seeking ways to address conflict and identify creative resolutions; for professionals addressing the issues of our times (divorce, separation, blended families); and for those considering mediation as a second career or as an adjunct to their profession.

 

 

Letting Go and Moving On—Completions and Transitions

 

Often in our lives we feel incomplete with the past. Unresolved issues inhibit us from moving into the present with an open and generous heart. Though we experience them as “finished,” old memories continue to haunt us. When we exist more in the past than in the present, it is time to make the distinction between “finished” and “complete.” Transitions without completions foster unsuccessful marriages, friendships, and careers, producing sorrow and, some believe, the causes of illness. Transitions are crossroads in our lives that give us the opportunity to complete the past, reconnect with our present truth, and renew our passion, courage, and commitment for the future. The focus of this workshop is an in depth review of our lives to try to discover what needs to be transformed from “finished” to “complete.” The workshop will provide a safe, supportive environment that includes risk taking, intense bodywork, Gestalt, imagery, movement, and meditation to keep us committed to the process of discovering ourselves.

 

 

The Courage to Be You: Letting Go and Moving On

Dr. Mary Goldenson
 

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it?  They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.  — Rumi

 

Much in life is beyond our control. Our choices lie in how we respond to these moments. We can develop the ability to move into these moments with aliveness and passion. This choice is an act of courage. This workshop will help you explore what you are holding in, holding onto, and holding back that keeps you from experiencing who you truly are. “The courage to be you” means the ability to appropriately express the repressed anger, fear, resentments, sadness, joy, and laughter that keep you stuck in old patterns. Using emotional release work, writing, movement, Gestalt, meditation, and silence, the workshop will provide a safe environment to explore your deepest emotions.

 

 The focus will be on:

 

• Having adult relationships with partners, parents, and children

• Taking full responsibility for your life

• Discovering your own personal rhythm of closeness

• Distinguishing accountability from blame

 

The workshop constitutes an in-depth life review. All that is required is a willingness to engage whole heartedly.