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
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, hosting, store, maintenance, and production departments. Available Session Dates: April 22 – May 23 May 23 – June 24 June 24 –…
Council of Waters and Trees
With Amos Clifford and Christy Thomson
July 17 - 21, 2019
Sink deeply into the medicine of the forest. Combining Forest Therapy (Shinrin-Yoku) and the Way of Council, embark on a healing encounter with the more-than-human world, and gain skills for council leadership.
The Future of Children
With Phillip Moore
July 17 - 21, 2019
Cortes Island
Experience the new educational paradigm. Re-wire your brain to the domain of possibilities by embracing all methods of learning. Connect with nature through a set of experiences that awaken new ways of teaching and exploring through play, imagination, songs, stories, and expanded consciousness.
Aung Medical Qi Gong
With Dr. Steven K.H. Aung, CM, MD, OMD, PhD
July 18 - 21, 2019
Cortes Island
Realign vital energies with this ancient Chinese wellness practice of breath work, concentration, and movement. Learn hands-on how to intuit, assess, harmonize, and heal vital Qi for yourself and loved ones. -- Dr. Steven K.H. Aung, MD is a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine at the University of Alberta and a recipient of the Order of Canada.
Summer Gathering: Navigating the Tides of Change
With Rick Ingrasci & Peggy Taylor
July 21 - 26, 2019
Cortes Island
If you want to create a new culture, throw a better party! Join a diverse group of multigenerational change makers for some serious fun. Share your gifts and projects, and learn about local solutions catalyzing wide scale social change. -- Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH, is a social entrepreneur and coach to NGO leaders. Peggy Taylor, M.Ed., is a master facilitator and co-founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment.
The Mystery of the Soul
With Margie Gillis and Thomas Atum O'Kane, PhD
July 21 - 26, 2019
Cortes Island
The mystery of the soul can be embraced, experienced, danced, and explored, but never exhausted or diminished. Reclaim and celebrate the mystery of your soul with dance and spiritual teachings.
Time of Transition
With Thomas Atum O'Kane, PhD
July 26 - 31, 2019
Cortes Island
Life changes are times of passion and opportunity. Working with teachings from Jungian psychology and various spiritual traditions, detach and break free from old roles and expectations. Ritual, reflection, and wisdom guide your journey and passage toward your new sense of self. Thomas Atum O’Kane, PhD, holds a doctorate degree in transpersonal psychology and is a former senior teacher in the Sufi Order International. atumokane.com
Dancing from the Inside Out
With Margie Gillis
July 26 - 31, 2019
Cortes Island
Move into your body’s experiential wisdom to reveal the soul in motion. Listen to your body’s inner impulses, conversations, and emotions to deepen your well-being along with your artistic and creative expression. An exceptional opportunity. All levels welcome. -- Margie Gillis is an internationally acclaimed dancer/choreographer, performing for 40+ years, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Healing Family & Ancestors: Ritual and Resonance
With Jill Purce
July 26 - 31, 2019
Transform inherited patterns into magical blessings. Jill’s unique ceremonial, shamanic healing rites, using chant and family constellations, restore coherence within family fields in oracular ways, unavailable in normal therapy. Excluded relations are reintegrated as powerful allies. Relatives do not need to be living. Individuals and families welcome. Renowned internationally, author Jill Purce pioneered both the sound and ancestral healing movements. healingvoice.com
Science & Spiritual Practices
With Rupert Sheldrake, Merlin Sheldrake and Cosmo Sheldrake
July 31 - August 4, 2019
Science sheds new light on many spiritual practices, including rituals, pilgrimage, meditation, chanting, and rites of passage. Explore spiritual traditions and reconnect with the natural world through singing, listening, looking, telling stories, thinking, and having fun. Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, biologist and author, is joined by sons Merlin, PhD, and Cosmo. Full bios online. sheldrake.org
SUP Yoga: Breathe, Stretch, Float
With Jen Craig-Evans
July 31 - August 4, 2019
Experience the magical combination of stand up paddleboarding (SUP) and yoga. Move fluidly with the ocean beneath you and feel the invigorating saltwater breeze on your skin. Guided forest meditation walks and SUP yoga evokes relaxation and empowers you to move naturally. Prepare to be humbled, and to laugh. A lot.
Founders + Friends
With Hollyhock Leadership Institute
August 1 - 4, 2019
Cortes Island
Gather with Hollyhock Founders + Friends for a few wondrous summer days on the shores of Cortes Island. Celebrate Hollyhock’s history of inspiring, catalyzing, and training changemakers. Learn about our history, current activities, and future; in a relaxed mix of culture, conversation, and scrumptious meals. Enjoy the company of great people, bask in the beauty of this special place, and help envision Hollyhock’s next chapter.
Hollyhock Founders + Friends Fundraising Soiree
August 3, 2019
The Watsons - Next to Hollyhock
Hollyhocks Annual Fundraising Soiree. Join us for an enchanting evening under the stars. This multigenerational gathering is the highlight of our season as we celebrate Hollyhock's work, founders, and friends.
The Art of Leadership
With Robert Gass
August 4 - 9, 2019
Cortes Island
This dynamic, internationally acclaimed program is for leaders actively engaged in making a difference in the world. Through this powerful transformational training, learn to empower and engage others in effective action to broaden the impact of your work. -- Dr. Robert Gass, co-founder of Rockwood Leadership, is a globally-renowned coach to top non-profit, business, and political leaders.
From Point-and-Shoot to Brilliant Photography
With Dr. Charles Steinberg
August 4 - 9, 2019
Master the magic of light, composition techniques, and visual storytelling. Make quantum leaps in skill and creativity with a fun, supportive group of new and experienced photographers. All equipment and devices welcome, including smartphones. -- Charles Steinberg is a published photographer with several beautiful books.
Reel Youth Inter-Generational Film Project
With Mark Vonesch and Tiffany Moses
August 9 - 14, 2019
Co-create and inspire meaningful intergenerational connections through film production! Sign up as a youth/elder pair, or individually. Be featured in a film and/or learn the art of documentary filmmaking and create a short film that celebrates the life and wisdom of an older participant.
Song of the Drum, Dance of Life
With Gordy Ryan and Zoë Ryan
August 9 - 14, 2019
Activate the fire in your hands, the heat in your feet, and the love in your heart. Sing, dance, and play with drum masters, in a soulful journey to the well of inspiration and creativity. Everyone welcome. -- Gordy Onayemi Ryan, Zoë Ryan, Sanga Francis, Ade Harris - the core of the Olatunji Drums of Passion - performed with Babatunde Olatunji.
Falling Awake: The Ecology of Wonder
With David Abram
August 9 - 14, 2019
Awaken your animal intelligence, shake your senses free from outmoded concepts and invigorate your felt experience. Through elemental encounters with the land, creaturely shapeshifting, and heartfelt conversation, open a new relationship between your body and the breathing earth. -- David Abram, cultural ecologist and geophilosopher, is author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal.
Deep Noticing for Distracted Writers
With Sarah Selecky
August 9 - 14, 2019
Cortes Island
Writers will learn how to drop into a state of wordless receptivity, and bring presence into language and story. The writing will be generative and unexpected; participants will experience ripples of insight and a renewed love for their craft.
Sharing the Path: For Couples
With Judith Ansara & Robert Gass
August 14 - 19, 2019
Cortes Island
Rediscover and deepen the joy, intimacy, and renewed aliveness of your loving partnership. Break free from negative patterns while learning practices of authenticity, self-responsibility, empathy, deep listening, problem solving, and sacred sexuality. Enjoy a deeply connecting time together and take home profound tools to support your life as a couple.
Running with Balance, Mindfulness & Strength
With Marilyn Arsenault and Lindsay Lynk
August 14 - 19, 2019
Purposeful running and breathing eases the mind and body. Learn to balance mobility and stability in the body, while minimizing injury. Enjoy functional daily movement practices, creative running techniques, and meditative trail running. No experience required.
Art Inspired by Ancient Alphabets
With Saki Mafundikwa
August 14 - 19, 2019
Since the dawn of humanity, along with the need for food, clothes and shelter, the urge to communicate has been encoded into our DNA. Learn about all the known scripts of the world, and unpack them as inspiration to creating art and design.
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 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.
Alchemy of Group Facilitation (Vancouver – November)
With Julian Griggs
November 18 - 20, 2019
Blue Horizon Hotel
Finding meaningful and enduring solutions to real-life problems requires engagement with multiple interests across many lines of difference. Learn to empower groups with divergent perspectives to resolve conflicts, find creative solutions, and function at their full potential. Julian Griggs is an internationally-certified facilitator with 25+ years of experience. dovetailconsulting.com
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.