From Esalen to the Everyday: 20+ Years of Mind-Body Practice in the Real World

nanhebert
Jun 16
3 min read

What a cliffside institute taught me about presence, integration, and living a therapeutic life.

“Your body is not a problem to solve. It’s a place to come home to."

Over twenty years ago, I stepped into a lineage I didn’t yet have words for—one that would root my path as a therapist, teacher, and facilitator of embodied transformation. Roughly ten of those years were spent in Big Sur, California, at Esalen Institute, not only studying and teaching, but living inside a field where mind, body, and spirit were never separate.

What began as personal healing became professional calling.

What started in the sacred container of Big Sur cliffs and natural hot springs evolved into a way of seeing, sensing, and working with others that I now carry into everyday life and practice.

Esalen: A Living Laboratory

Esalen wasn’t just a place—it was an organism.

A living, breathing experiment in consciousness, presence, and relational depth.

There, I immersed myself in somatics, Gestalt awareness practice, East/West psychology, bodywork, movement, ritual, and relational inquiry. I trained with and alongside lineage holders like Peggy Horan, Susan Harper, Ellen Watson, Perry and Johanna Holloman, Michael Clemmens, Gabrielle Roth, Erica Gagnon, and many others—who taught not just techniques, but presence as a transmission.

I learned that the body is the unconscious.

That deep listening doesn’t start with ears, but with fascia, breath, and nervous system.

That transformation doesn’t happen through force—but through attunement, inclusion, and space.

Bringing It Home

As poetic and powerful as those years were, the real work is and has been bringing that wisdom back into the world, like a water bearer—into office spaces, Zoom rooms, group circles, hospital visits, classrooms, and kitchen tables.

Today, my private practice and teaching sit at the intersection of:

Somatic psychology grounded in both traditional and intuitive knowledge
Gestalt awareness as a non-pathologizing, embodied spiritual practice
Psychedelic integration rooted in regulation, rhythm, and meaning-making
Non-traditional relationships held with nuance, consent, and evolving language
East/West psychology that honors paradox, inner ecology, and soul

I’m also a faculty member at Naropa University’s somatic counseling program, and a PhD student at CIIS in Somatic Psychology, where I continue to explore how ancient traditions and contemporary neuroscience converge in the body.

Through these lenses, I support clients—many of whom are artists, seekers, high performers, teachers and clinicians themselves—in the ongoing process of unfurling, of returning to something real, vital, and innately wise.

Practice as Everyday Ritual

The beauty of a place like Esalen is the way it lives in you long after you leave.

The ocean rhythm becomes your breath.

The Gestalt circle becomes your mirror.

The barefoot walk down the bluff becomes a way of being with the world.

These days, I see clients not at the edge of the Pacific, but in the liminal spaces of their lives:

One disentangling from a role that no longer fits...
One learning to feel again after years of dissociation...
A couple in the midst of relational evolution, learning to stay close without control...

This is the everyday Esalen—not as location, but as practice.

A commitment to awareness, embodiment, and relational integrity in real time.

An Invitation

If you’ve ever longed for a deeper connection to your body, your truth, or your becoming—you don’t have to go to Big Sur to begin.

The wisdom is already here, in your breath, your skin, your longing, your rhythm.

Whether we meet in person, in session, or through these words, my work is to help you return—again and again—to the knowing that you are already whole.

From Esalen to the everyday, the practice remains the same:

Stay present.

Stay embodied.

Stay open to what’s real.

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Want to learn more about upcoming offerings, schedule a session, or mentorship? Reach out!