In Association With

Esalen Institute

Urban Permaculture Guild

Facilitators & Instructors

Kat Steele

Michael Kramer

Course Description

Permaculture is a holistic design system for creating and sustaining regenerative human settlement patterns for healthy living. This permaculture course offers a new way to teach solution-based, eco-social design concepts by applying the principles of permaculture to the teaching of permaculture. Teachers and practitioners in any field can apply these skills and practices. This course will cover every aspect of being an effective educator and promoter of mutually beneficial relationships for a more sustainable and just future. By taking the approach of whole-person learning and using teaching combinations from educators from all over the world, this course provides invaluable information about facilitating and how to frame concepts and ideas to people from all walks of life and cultural contexts. This course also teaches the basics of how to administer the core permaculture design course, as well as planning and preparing for specialized permaculture-focused workshops and practica.

Highlights to Include:

1. •How to identify learning styles and adapt to various audiences
   

2. •Techniques to help you organize and prepare quickly and effectively
   

3. •A comprehensive manual and DVD of permaculture resources and teaching materials
   

4. •Course planning, marketing, and evaluation
   

5. •Constructive critique of participant presentations
   

6. •Teaching tools and the core exercises of the permaculture curriculum
   

This course offers powerful teaching practices gleaned from the leaders’ many years of permaculture teaching. Their experience, combined with the knowledge of permaculture teachers and mentors from around the globe, make this one of the most comprehensive teacher trainings available.

Introduction to Permaculture Weekend Workshop - Jan 10 - 12

Start the course off with this introduction to Permaculture Weekend Workshop! Permaculture is a design system inspired by nature and based on principles that can guide you, your household, and your community “beyond sustainability” to a more harmonious, ecologically friendly, and lower-impact existence. By adopting the ethics and applying these principles in our daily lives, we can transition from being dependent consumers to responsible producers. This journey builds skills and resilience at home and in our local communities that will help us prepare for an uncertain future.

During this workshop, you can learn the basics of permaculture design theory and action, and gain a solid understanding of how you can apply permaculture principles in your home, garden, apartment, farm, or business. This course also gives a comprehensive overview of sustainable design techniques for your immediate environment, and the basics of designing resilient systems including energy cycling, nutrient cycling, animal systems, and veggie growing systems. We’ll use examples of existing urban and rural permaculture systems, projects, and designs to show how you can use permaculture design to create positive change. For more information click here.

Tuition

$650 -  $3550 - variable depending on lodging options.

Daily Schedule

Sun, Jan 12: 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Jan 13 - 16: 9:30 am - 12:45 pm

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Jan 13 - 16: 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Mon, Tues, Thurs: 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Fri, Jan 17: 9:30 am - 11:30 am

About Esalen

Esalen is situated on 120 acres of Big Sur coast, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise sharply above the Pacific Ocean. The grounds were once home to a Native American tribe known as the Esselen, from which the institute got its name. This location also is a Monarch butterfly wintering site. Perhaps the facility is best known for a key feature of its cliff-side natural hot spring baths. The property is divided by Hot Springs Canyon. Hot Springs Creek serves as a freshwater source, along with underground springs.

Esalen is located about 45 miles (72 km) south of Monterey and Carmel along scenic Highway 1, and nine miles (14 km) north of Lucia. It is about a three-hour drive south of San Francisco, or a five-hour drive north of Los Angeles.

Esalen was founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price in 1962. Their goal was to explore work in the humanities and sciences, in order to fully realize what Aldous Huxley had called the "human potentialities". Michael Murphy expands on Huxley's influence on California's cultural history in the 2010 documentary, "Huxley on Huxley". Esalen soon became known for its blend of Eastern and Western philosophies, examined in experiential and didactic workshops. Over the years Esalen hosted a notable influx of philosophers, physicists, psychologists, artists, and religious thinkers.

Testimonials

“Great course! Now I have some huge commitments & tools & inspiration & strength, to life - me - the world. I deepened what I had inside. Thanks!”

- Irene, Mexico City, Mexico

“Outstanding instructors, facilitators and teachers of this profound and complex course. Awesome team! I had one of the best weeks of my life!”

- Ayernye, Santa Monica, CA

“The course was excellent! I feel really fortunate to have been here. Thanks to All! Blessings and Abundance!!”

- Devin, Cotati, CA

More Information

For questions and more information email Kat Steele: kat.steele(at)esalen.org

To Register Click Here.