March 3-7, 2025 at ESALEN INSTITUTE.
To register and for more information visit the ESALEN website.
Need a scholarship? Apply here.
This is an IN-PERSON workshop.
“If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for?” –Alice Walker, author
How can art contribute to healing while staying centered in the creative process? What kind of art-making responds to the therapeutic experience? What does it mean to live an aesthetic life? And what is possible when we do?
In the early 1960s, a new interdisciplinary approach was developed to explore and respond to these questions: The Halprin Life/Art Process. This work influenced the worlds of dance, environmental design, theater, and psychology. This workshop will be an immersive experience in that approach to the creative process, movement, and healing art. It is aimed at those who identify as artists as well as those who are simply lovers of art seeking to open the doors of their own creativity.
We will enter into an exploration of art-making as a way to encounter and explore themes, challenges, and dreams that are informing our lives. Maps and methods will be taught that are easily accessible and applicable to personal and professional practice.
The opening welcome session will create an environment of group collaboration, including intention setting, play, and collaboration. Each day that follows will emphasize different mediums, including movement/dance, drawing, and poetry/narrative. On the fourth day, we’ll develop ritual performances for participants to present artwork dedicated to something personal and meaningful.
Participants may expect to leave with the following:
- Specific models to facilitate embodied art-making
- Examples of art as a healing force
- A communication tool that supports giving and receiving feedback
- Community building exercises
- A personal art practice that supports living an aesthetic life
For more, please view this short video: An Afternoon with Daria Halprin
Participants must bring the following: Writing materials and a special writers journal, a box of varied and well supplied Craypas pastels/water colors if desired.
No previous artistic experience is necessary. This workshop is designed for everyone.
Photos by Lesley Ehrenfeld Chapman with Tawny Sterios, Peter Sterios, Kate Hinkens, and Elliot Mercer. Photos by Tamalpa Institute with Tamalpa Training Program students.
Daria Halprin, MA, REAT, RSMT:
With her mother Anna Halprin, she first came to Esalen to work with Fritz Perls in the 1960s and returned as a workshop leader in 1975. The Halprin work was innovative in situating movement/dance and expressive arts as an approach to healing for individuals and communities.
Daria co-founded Tamalpa Institute where she directs training programs The Life/Art Process®. She has served on faculty at European Graduate School (Switzerland, Malta), CIIS, JFK, Alanus University, and UC Berkeley, as a keynote presenter at numerous conferences, in educational, health, and art centers throughout the world.
Published writings include Principles and Practices in Expressive Arts Therapy (1999), The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy (2003); Dance, Somatics and Spirituality, (2014).
Photo by Nicole Combeau
DATE:
March 3, 2025 - March 7, 2025TIME:
All DayPRICE:
LOCATION
Esalen Institute55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
