Summer Aliveness: Contemplative Practices for Joy, Emotional Balance, and Deep Resilience (EE2Z26)
Elissa Epel, PhD and Eve Ekman, PhD
July 11, 2026
Please only register for one of the two formats: On-Land or Online.
Registration closes at 9:00am (Pacific Time) on July 11, 2026. A waiting list will be created if the program fills early. A recording* will be available following the program.
This program offers 4.5 CEs at $45. For more CE details, see below.
Description:
Held within the fullness of summer, this workshop offers a chance to pause in the richness of being alive amid the complexity of our lives and the world. Through contemplative practice and guided restoration, we create space to soften, listen, and return to the senses—and to our innate capacity for love.
Blending contemplative practice with contemporary science, this day-long workshop explores how emotional awareness supports resilience, vitality, and meaningful connection. We engage in practices that cultivate awareness, connection, and positive emotional states that support nervous system regulation, enhanced allostasis, and adaptability. Through meditation, breathwork, and reflection, we’ll explore how resilience includes moving gently through sadness and frustration while savoring the many joys abundantly present in life.
This work is not about striving toward a distant goal. It is about learning how to be here—steady, responsive, and open-hearted—amidst a complex and changing world.
Sliding Scale: Our sliding scale options for this program include financial support for our teachers. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you can afford: your generosity supports the teachers as well as Spirit Rock and your fellow practitioners who need to pay less.
Online Sliding Scale: (EE2Z26)**
Benefactor – $175
Sustainer – $95
Basic – $75
Scholarship Rate (BIPOC, Mudita/Karuna) – $45
**For Online Program: All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org no later than 12:00pm (NOON) PT on the day prior to the program date.
*Recording Note: Registration includes unlimited access to this program’s recording. You must register by the deadline above. The recording will be available in ~10 days after the program.
Important Note for CE participants: If you are interested in receiving continuing education credits (CEs), you must register and pay for CEs prior to the start of the program (no retroactive CEs will be given) and you must attend the entire program. Please review the CE information below.
Cancellation Policy – Online: Drop-ins, Daylongs, Multiday Programs (1-3 days), Family Programs/Series, CEC fees:
- NO REFUNDS
- Open Credit, or Donation to Spirit Rock = if cancel by midnight, the day prior to program start (Pacific Time)
- No Open Credit = if cancel day of the program, or beyond
Continuing Education (CE) credit available:
This intermediate-level program offers 4.5 Continuing Education (CE) credits/contact hours for $45.
This program is applicable for licensed and license-eligible mental health and health care professionals, including psychologists, social workers (LCSW, LSW), counselors (LPC, LCPC, LMHC), marriage and family therapists, nurses (RN, NP), chiropractors, and other health care professionals, seeking education in emotional awareness and stress resilience. Please review our Continuing Education information page for provider details, and to determine if your association or board will accept credits offered by Spirit Rock.
Care providers live and work at the intersection of their own emotional lives and those of the people they serve. The capacities this program cultivates — recognizing reactivity, meeting difficult emotions with equanimity, and sustaining the kind of inner steadiness that makes genuine connection possible — are not incidental to clinical practice; but can provide a solid foundation to the work. Grounded in Dr. Epel’s research on stress physiology and allostasis and Dr. Ekman’s work in emotional awareness training for health professionals, this program offers clinicians across disciplines both the science and the lived experience of resilience as a renewable resource.
Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
At the end of the program, participants will be better able to
- Describe the relationship between emotional awareness, stress physiology, and resilience through the lens of contemplative practice and contemporary science.
- Utilize contemplative and body-based, somatic techniques to support nervous system regulation and adaptive responses to stress.
- Identify patterns of emotional reactivity and apply strategies for responding to difficult emotions with enhanced clarity, equanimity, and self-awareness.
Attendance policy for CE participants:
- Full, live attendance is required. Incomplete attendance nullifies CE eligibility, as board regulations do not permit partial credit for partial attendance.
- Certificates are issued only to those who meet the attendance requirements—without exception—to maintain compliance with our provider licenses and ensure the continuation of future CE programs.
- To ensure your attendance is recorded:
- Sign in to Zoom with the same email used for registration, before joining the program. Zoom can keep you signed into a different account from a previous meeting. Check how you are logged into Zoom before the program begins.
- Join on time using the Zoom app or a web browser (phone dial-ins are not tracked).
- Stay logged in and engaged for the duration of the program.
- Maintain a stable internet connection; participants are responsible for their own connectivity.
- After the program, participants who meet the attendance requirements will be emailed a form to submit their professional information. There is a one-week deadline to complete and submit this form to receive the Certificate of Attendance.
Please note:
- Please visit our Continuing Education information page for complete provider details and additional CE information, including attendance requirements and our cancellation and grievance policies.
- Professionals with other license types or credentials may find our programs applicable for continuing education. Please confirm acceptance with your licensing board or certifying organization before registering for CE. Spirit Rock does not confirm CE applicability for license types beyond the scope of Mindful CECs’ provider approvals.
- Credit is awarded for instructional time only and does not include extended silent meditation, if offered.
- Continuing Education is sponsored by Mindful CECs.
- Mindful CECs is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Mindful CECs maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
- Mindful CECs is a provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP17985 for 4.5 contact hours.
- Conflict of Interest Statement: This instructor may have authored publications relevant to the subjects covered in this course, and may teach additional programs. The instructor might reference these publications and programs during the course, and the instructor may receive financial compensation if participants choose to purchase them.
About the Teachers
Elissa Epel, PhD
Elissa Epel is a Professor at UCSF. She studies how chronic stress can impact biological aging (including the telomere/telomerase system) and food addiction, and how self-regulation and meditation may buffer stress effects and promote psychological and physiological thriving. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, President-Elect of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine […]
Learn more about Elissa Epel, PhD
Eve Ekman, PhD
Eve Ekman, PhD, MSW, is a contemplative social scientist designing, delivering, and evaluating tools to support emotional awareness in the fields of health care, wellbeing, and technology. Eve draws from interdisciplinary skills and first-person experiential knowledge from clinical social work, integrative medicine and contemplative science, and meditation. Eve is lead teacher for Cultivating Emotional Balance, […]
Learn more about Eve Ekman, PhDCategories : CE Credits, Daylong, Event/Program, Hide End Date, Hybrid, Online