Our teachers are curated for their quality, depth, integrity and alignment with our educational purpose. Since 1982, a distinguished faculty of authors, educators, activists, artists, performers, and practitioners have shared their work at our Cortes Island campus and in Vancouver.
Residency Service Program
Package Dates
Cortes Island
The 2019 Resident Service Program is now full. Please check back in January, when applications will be opened for the 2020 season. Support our work and get behind-the-scenes experience with our month-long immersion program, including: 3 wonderful Hollyhock meals each day Comfortable shared accommodation with other residents 4 hours/week of dedicated yoga, personal growth, mindfulness practice, island adventures, and guided nature immersion Access to a variety of onsite amenities and activities, including ocean-view hot tubs, presenter evenings, oyster BBQs, morning rows, guided hikes, and more. 30 hours/week of active service alongside our staff, including experience in our kitchen, housekeeping, garden,…
Writing to Awaken: Memoir as a Path of Transformation
With Mark Matousek
August 23 - 28, 2019
Cortes Island
Memoir is a path of self-knowledge. Learn to tell the whole truth and your essential stories will emerge, bringing insight and transpersonal wisdom. Writing exercises and group dialogue guide you toward creative discovery, increased mindfulness, and better composition. Everyone welcome.
Forest to Sea: Earth Based Medicine
With Yarrow Willard
August 23 - 27, 2019
Awaken the herbalist within and deepen your connection to the healing power of the natural world. Learn to recognize health and disease, stagnation, and flow as you sharpen your senses and build relationships with the medicinal plants, mushrooms, and seaweeds of the west coast.
The Art of Spiritual Guidance (2 year program)
With Thomas Atum O'Kane, PhD
August 23 - 28, 2019
Cortes Island
A Two-Year Training Program. Spiritual Guidance is an art, a gift and a calling that has been long practiced in contemplative traditions to support spiritual development and personal transformation. This in-depth training takes an interfaith approach while encompassing insights from transpersonal and Jungian psychology. -- Thomas Atum O’Kane, PhD, holds a doctorate degree in transpersonal psychology and is a former senior teacher in the Sufi Order International.
Podcasting: The Story from Hear
With Jennifer Moss and Jenni Schine
August 28 - September 1, 2019
Tune into the power of sound, listening, and community storytelling. Attentive sound-walks, story creation guidance, and technical skills for podcast production, advance your acoustic projects within a supportive, group environment.
Come of Age: Meditations from the World Tree, Withered
With Stephen Jenkinson
August 28 - September 1, 2019
Contemplative sorrow: the kind that is courageous and willing to learn the trouble of its time in a way that principled anxiety is not. We might yet craft an eloquence that serves the terrible beauty we are about to bequeath to the young. For elders in training, young and old.
Into the Heart: A Nature Retreat with Horses
With Oriane Lee Johnston and Kera Willis
September 1 - 4, 2019
Being in the presence of horses rebalances us by bringing the energy fields of our hearts and brains into a state of coherence. Experience guided body meditations in the field, and enjoy up-close connection and joyful play with horses. Everyone welcome. Limit of 12 participants.
Garden to Table: Cooking & Mindful Movement
With Rebeka Carpenter
September 1 - 6, 2019
Cortes Island
Cultivate a nourishing experience with Hollyhock chefs, gardeners, and yoga teachers. Enjoy hands-on culinary play inspired by the harvests of the garden, and refresh with gentle yoga and mindful movement. A rare opportunity to discover the process from garden to table, and to create some of Hollyhock’s extraordinary vegetarian dishes!
Climate Hope: Tools for Thriving in the Climate Era
With Karen Mahon and Hollyhock Leadership Institute
September 1 - 5, 2019
Cortes Island
In these times of growing uncertainty, climate change, and social upheaval, it can be difficult to hold our centre and maintain hope. Explore tools to strengthen your capacity for cultivating joy, acceptance, and collective action. Foster the personal and community resilience needed to face these unprecedented times, boldly and creatively.
The Naked Voice Wisdom School
With Chloe Goodchild
September 1 - 6, 2019
Your authentic voice is your soul’s most intimate friend. Learn sound mantras, sonic codes, and deep-inquiry practices to access the unconditional loving presence within you. Release inhibition and allow self-remembrance to arise. Everyone welcome. -- Chloë Goodchild is a sound visionary, subtle activist, spiritual teacher, and author.
New Universal Gathering
With Akaya Windwood
September 6 - 11, 2019
Cortes Island
Cultivate and affirm leadership practices that grow other thriving leaders, rather than prioritize the development of single leaders or organizations. Envision a series of vibrant and emergent meeting, sharing, teaching, and learning spaces that center the wisdom of brown women, and in doing so, include all humans. By application.
Create to Liberate
With Khari Wendell McClelland and Rebekka Goldsmith
September 6 - 11, 2019
Explore music, visual art, writing, movement, and imaginative play for self-development or for working with groups. Expand your individual and collective creativity to live a more meaningful, joyful and connected life.
Whole Human Health: Functional Medicine 2.0
With Dr. Lawrence Cheng and Dr. Devon Christie
September 6 - 11, 2019
Cortes Island
Embody your well-being potential! Create your own personalized optimal wellness plan for lasting health and happiness informed by a synthesis of integrative and functional medicine, mind-body medicine, and leading-edge neurobiology.
Your Soul’s Plan: Awakening to Your Life Purpose (Vancouver)
With Robert Schwartz
September 7 - 8, 2019
The Post at 750
What soul plan did you make before you were born? What circumstances and relationships did you choose and why? Find the answers in a “Between Lives Soul Regression,” along with insight, healing, and a greater capacity for joy. Recognize life’s challenges as the great teachers and healers your soul intended them to be. Robert Schwartz is an international speaker and author of Your Soulʼs Plan and Your Soulʼs Gift. yoursoulsplan.com
Social Venture Institute Hollyhock
With Hollyhock Leadership Institute
September 11 - 15, 2019
Cortes Island
Join entrepreneurs and leaders working in social ventures at our breathtaking Cortes campus. Connect with peers and build skills that will equip you to face the day-to-day challenges of running a socially conscious enterprise. From case studies to topical workshops to peer learning circles, SVI provides a confidential setting to support the growth of your business and mission. Designed for leaders of established business and non-profit enterprises. Pre-approval required.
From Age-ing to Sage-ing®: A New Paradigm for Growing Older
With Annie Klein and Nancy Gray-Hemstock
September 15 - 19, 2019
Enhance and embrace the aging process with self-discovery and spiritual unfolding. Transform your life and imbue the next chapter with meaning, connection, service, and joy!
The Gift of Ground: A Yoga & Nature Immersion
With David Procyshyn and Fiji McAlpine
September 15 - 20, 2019
Find your ground – physically and mentally – through the practice of yoga, pranayama (breathwork), meditation, and guided nature immersions. Learn to source the stability, energy, and harmony of the earth to discover a newfound lightness in your practice and in your life.
Seriously Funny: In Writing, In Life
With Janelle Hanchett and Lisa Page Rosenberg
September 15 - 20, 2019
Humourless writing is dead writing. Learn how to incorporate humour into your own work as we celebrate the comedic in art: literature, film, theatre, and even political analyses. Infuse your narratives with humour, even in the most difficult of subject matter.
Your Money or Your Life
With Vicki Robin and Grant Sabatier
September 20 - 25, 2019
Put money in service to your values rather than your life in service to money. Develop a clear-eyed, compassionate, and systematic way to see and transform your beliefs and behaviors. Save more, spend less, and flatten debt. Expect lecture, games, conversations, journaling, and even laughter.
Move Without Pain: Essential Somatics
With Martha Peterson
September 20 - 25, 2019
Cortes Island
Learn to use your brain to reprogram your muscles and defy creaky old age. Create a routine of easy, safe and essential somatic movements to eliminate chronic pain and keep you moving fluidly and effortlessly throughout your life. -- Martha Peterson, CHSE, CMT, author of Move Without Pain, “tried everything” for chronic pain before finding Hanna Somatics.
Shifting Tides: Autumn Equinox Yoga
With Natalie Rousseau
September 25 - 29, 2019
Gather together in honour of shifting tides, the autumn equinox, and our movement towards the dark season of the year. Explore yogic wisdom practices and teachings to gracefully transition from summer to fall, with an emphasis on personal ritual and true self care.
Painting & Drawing: Transforming the Ordinary
With Lori Goldberg
September 25 - 29, 2019
Set your creativity free. Connect with your intuition and unique visual intelligence, while building skills in the techniques of drawing and painting. This insightful hands-on program is a playful exploration into self expression and awareness. All levels welcome.
Embody Your Leadership through Conscious Movement
With Bettina Rothe
September 25 - 29, 2019
Lead your life with conscious embodiment. Become more resilient, present, and confident through body-based leadership principles, 5Rhythms® movement, and Japanese wooden sword practices.
Fireworks Factory: Camp David for Marketers
With Darren Barefoot & Julie Szabo
September 29 - October 3, 2019
Cortes Island
Fireworks Factory is unlike any marketing and communications conference you’ve been to before. It’s an intimate, four-night retreat where big ideas like trend spotting, neuromarketing, and campaign ideation will change the way you think about marketing and impact the way your organization communicates with the world. It’s also where you’ll meet thought partners, co-conspirators, and even friends.
Envisioning Peace: Foundational Practices
With Farah Nazarali
September 29 - October 3, 2019
Bridge the inner practices of yoga, Buddhism, and meditation with the outer relational skills of nonviolent communication and conflict resolution. Use body, mind, and speech to envision peace, communicate with courage, and contribute to a fair and just future for all.
Living Awake: Grief, Grace & Gratitude
With Lilli Ruth Rosenberg and Katheryn Trenshaw
September 29 - October 3, 2019
Cortes Island
Now is the time to live your most radiant life from a place of resilient well-being. Experience and learn how surrendering into life’s rising and falling cultivates essential happiness and true freedom.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Levels 1-2 (Vancouver)
With Alina Frank & Dr. Craig Weiner
October 4 - 6, 2019
Blue Horizon Hotel, Baker+Arrowsmith Rooms (31st floor)
Learn powerful evidence-based Clinical EFT tapping techniques to quickly and effectively create changes in negative emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours. This training is for individuals looking to use EFT for self-help, and to integrate it safely into professional client-based practices. -- Alina Frank & Dr. Craig Weiner, DC, are internationally respected EFT trainers and directors of the EFT Tapping Training Institute.
Flying SOULO: Your Story on Stage
With Tracey Erin Smith
October 7 - 12, 2019
Transform your life’s stories into a Solo Theatre Show or Keynote. Through improvisation, writing exercises, and one-on-one coaching, uncover the stories that need to be told and reveal your truth in a powerful and entertaining show.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): 5-Day Professional Training
With Mark Lau, PhD and Andrea Grabovac, MD
October 7 - 12, 2019
Take your next step on the transformative journey to becoming an MBCT teacher. MBCT is an empirically validated group program designed to prevent depressive relapse. For mental health professionals. Pre-approval required. Drs. Lau and Grabovac, MBCT mentors with the UCSD Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute, also offer an MBCT Retreat for Health Professionals at Hollyhock, May 31-June 5.
Meditation & Internal Arts: Balancing Movement and Stillness
With Dr. Mark Sherman and Paul Bromley
October 12 - 17, 2019
Open your body and relax your mind. Chinese Internal Arts such as Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and Bagua offer insight into the subtle energies of the human body. Interweave these practices with mindfulness and meditation to reawaken your capacity for healing and presence.
Mindfulness Meditation
With Robert Beatty
October 12 - 17, 2019
Wake up from the trance of everyday life. You are not your moods, anxiety, compulsions, past wounds, or addictions. Awaken to the freedom, love, compassion, and joy that is your natural state. This program is held in silence (except sessions) — common areas on campus are shared spaces. -- Robert Beatty MES, MSW, is a Buddhist meditation teacher of 35+ years.
The Joy of Missing Out: A Digital Mindfulness Retreat
With Christina Crook and Christina Malecka
October 17 - 21, 2019
Recover rest, identify your values, and master focal practices that will empower you to embrace the joy of missing out and find balance in a wired world.
Wild Mushrooms & the Mycology of Consciousness
With Paul Stamets, D.Sc (Hon.)
October 17 - 21, 2019
Cortes Island
Save the world, one mushroom at a time. Fungi offer powerful, practical solutions to enhance both human and ecosystem health. Roam the wilds of Cortes Island and learn mushroom identification, easy-to-grow cultivation methods, as well as various culinary and medicinal applications. -- Paul Stamets, D.Sc., is a renowned, award-winning mycologist. The Star Trek Discovery series recently named a character - Astromycologist Starfleet Lt. Commander Stamets - in his honour.
Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents & Their Adult Children (Vancouver)
With Dr. Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté
November 22 - 24, 2019
Explore what it takes to outgrow and transform old dynamics in parent/adult-child relationships. Clear the way for a new relationship grounded in authenticity and mutual compassion, unencumbered by what came before. -- Dr. Gabor Maté is the author of 4 bestselling books published in 25 languages, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, and recipient of the Order of Canada. Daniel Maté is an award-winning theatre composer and lyricist who also runs a popular "mental chiropractic" service.