Residential Program 10th Anniversary

A Day in the Life of the Residential

After our buffet-style breakfast (all meals are buffet, with good meal choices for various dietary requirements), each of our 6 full days begins with a lecture/discussion. This year both Frank and Donna will lecture, and most likely Lynne and Gary will also.

There are three other sessions in the day. Two of them will be spent in your "home group." We divide the community of 30 people into 3 home groups. The activities in the home group depend in part on that group's particular history at the Residential. In general you can expect to do some experiential work with the faculty and engage with the other groups members, all of which will also be discussed for teaching purposes.

The third session of the day will be spent in smaller "break-out" groups. The groups are structured to encourage daily practice by each member, and a faculty member will be present to offer instruction and supervision.

In the evenings we offer optional sessions. Usually a "veteran" member of the Residential community offers experiences/experiments in an area of interest to them. Topics have included dreams, art therapy, our relationship to money and values, improvisational theater and others. For the past several years two different participants have facilitated a "writers' workshop" in which participants have experimented with free-writing, case writing and poetry. This has proven to be a powerfully expansive activity fro some people who never thought they could write.

Last year we also had a community meeting mid-week in the evening. We will likely have two meetings this year.

We continue to experiment and evolve as a program and as a community every year, so although this basic structure remains pretty constant, there may be changes based on past evaluations and on our sense of the trajectory of our learning community at this point in time.

Is the Residential site easy to access?

You will be given instructions as to how to get to the Residential once you have paid your deposit. If you are flying, you can arrange flights to Santa Barbara that will require a change of planes in Los Angeles. There is also bus transport from Los Angeles if you prefer. And usually some residential participants who will be coming from the LA area will volunteer to drive to the Residential with folks who fly into LA. That can be arranged by contacting .

For more information or to register for this program, please contact us or use our online registration form.

© 2007 Pacific Gestalt Institute