Esalen® Massage Certification Training (DE / EN)

Learning with Heart, Presence, and Hands

Do you love touch, movement, and genuine meeting between people?
Do you long to work with care — not on others, but with them — while staying connected to yourself?

The Esalen® Massage training at Kientalerhof opens a space where learning becomes an experience — through presence, touch, movement, and embodied awareness.
Across five modules, you’ll explore massage as a living dialogue of perception and contact. You’ll grow confident in your practice, trust your hands, and attune to the natural rhythm of giving and receiving.

This training welcomes everyone who wishes to understand massage more deeply — from newcomers with open curiosity to experienced bodyworkers who seek to bring greater mindfulness and presence into their work.

Structure and Flow of the Training

The Esalen® Massage Training at the Kientalerhof Campus for Bodywork is offered as a 200-hour program.
It unfolds in five modules, each building on the next, and takes place throughout the year.

• Module 1 – Introduction (15 hours, weekend format)
  Offered several times a year in Kiental and Wetzikon.

  This introductory module can also be taken immediately before Module 2.
  It is scheduled this way to support participants traveling from afar — allowing them to attend Module 1 over the weekend and continue directly into Module 2 at the same location.

• Module 2 – Immersion (35 hours, 5 days)
  Held every September in Kiental.

  Modules 1 and 2 can be taken individually, independent of the full training.

• Modules 3, 4 and 5 – Certification Training (each 50 hours, 7 days)
  Take place in November, March, and June at Kiental.
  These three modules form one continuous training and can only be booked as a complete package.

See the overview: Dein Weg zum Esalen® Massage Practitioner.pdf

If you live in Switzerland and wish to learn more about registration options with ASCA or EMR, please visit our page→ Anerkennung der Esalen Massage bei ASCA und EMR.

Content and Learning Path of the Training

The Esalen Massage Training offers professional and personal development in bodywork on all levels — physical, emotional, and mental.
Its purpose is to understand touch as a living form of communication, guided by presence, mindfulness, and trust.

Presence and Quality of Touch

At the heart of the training lies the cultivation of a clear and mindful attitude.
You will learn to experience touch as a space of awareness — grounded in respect, appreciation, and inner calm.

Esalen® Massage is a presence-based awareness practice.
Within it, touch becomes a form of inquiry, feeling, and being — an invitation to meet yourself and others here and now.

Presence means being awake and connected — with your breath, your body, the other person, and the unfolding moment. It deepens the sense of aliveness and forms the foundation for authentic contact in bodywork.

Techniques and Bodywork

You will learn the long, connecting strokes — the heart of Esalen® Massage — and explore gentle stretches, joint mobilizations, and deep tissue techniques that release tension and invite new movement into the body.

The flowing rhythm of these long strokes is complemented by still holds, detailed touch, and other forms of manual work — always with the intention to calm the nervous system and support the body’s natural capacity for regeneration.

Anatomy is taught in a playful and practical way — not through memorization, but through feeling, sensing, and applying.
This approach nurtures an intuitive understanding of how structure, movement, and touch come together as one.

Mindfulness and Movement

Somatic movement practices such as meditation, yoga, conscious dance, breathwork, and Continuum are woven into the rhythm of the training.
They help you stay grounded, present, and connected to your own body throughout the learning process.

These practices support self-regulation, inner calm, and embodiment — qualities that form the living foundation of a mindful touch practice.

Communication and Personal Growth

Mindful feedback, group exchange, and body awareness exercises nurture your ability to listen — with your hands, your eyes, and your heart.
Through this, you cultivate embodied presence and self-awareness as the ground of all touch.

The training is rooted in the tradition and spirit of the Esalen Institute, where bodywork is seen as a path toward awareness, healing, and human growth.

A central aspect of this tradition is Gestalt communication — a practice of authentic expression and conscious listening.
We speak from our own experience (“I feel…”) rather than about the other (“You are…”).
We learn to notice bodily sensations, thoughts, and emotions, and to communicate them with clarity and presence.
In this way, encounters arise from authenticity — a dialogue that invites connection rather than interpretation

Learning at Kientalerhof

The training takes place at Kientalerhof, the Campus for Bodywork in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland.
Here, learning, community, and nature come together to create a space that supports growth, renewal, and inner quiet.

Teaching Team, Dates, and Fees

All practical information — including dates, prices, accommodation, the teaching team, and detailed module descriptions — can be found directly on the Kientalerhof website:

→ www.kientalerhof.ch/en/method/esalen-massage/

Internationally Recognized – Taught in Two Languages

The training is officially recognized by the Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association (EMBA) at the Esalen Institute, USA, and follows its certified training standards.

Starting with the 2026 program, the training will be offered in both German and English.
Participants from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds — from Switzerland, across Europe, and beyond — are warmly welcome.
A basic understanding of English is helpful and required, though perfection is not expected.

Voices and Impressions from the Training: