Vipassana

why we love it
We'll happily entertain the idea of climbing mountains, month-long detoxes, and even committing to a week with the in-laws but there's just something about the idea of a ten-day silent retreat that strikes fear in our hearts. During this course, participants are immersed in Vipassana, a centuries old meditation style from India. It's a technique of self-observation that aims to increase awareness, clarity, and peace. Prepare yourself for sleep, simple meals, and lots of alone time. Think you can do it? There are centers across the world, including nine in the United States (you can see all location at Dhamma.org).
Originally featured in Treatment Centers for Intense Healing
Health And Beauty

Bridges to Recovery
We've heard great things about this mental health treatment center, which offers residential treatment for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, complicated grief, PTSD, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Their clinical team is made up of therapists and psychiatrists who help tailor every treatment program is to the individual. Programming includes five-plus individual therapy sessions a week, twice- or thrice-daily group therapy, family and couples therapy, medication management, and holistic modalities like EMDR, yoga, meditation, massage, art therapy, and acupuncture.

Hoffman Institute
Many friends of goop credit the Hoffman Process as being the transformational experience in their life, helping them distinguish behaviors and patterns inherited from childhood with who they actually are as adults. The primary outpost is in St. Helena, California, where they offer year-round, week-long programs that are completely immersive (i.e. you check your phone when you arrive), with occasional sessions in Connecticut. This residential retreat will help you break the cycles of compulsive ways of being so that you can begin to make choices from a new place of clarity and love. You can read more about the process here. They also offer scholarships for those who can't pay the full rate.

Esalen Institute
This old school New Age destination will make all your hippie dreams come true. Book a personal enrichment workshop and bed down inside a cozy cabin on the cliffs of beautiful Big Sur and spend your days exploring healing modalities such as reiki, dance, massage, or yoga, or truly engaging with new paths to wellness through mindfulness, creative writing, crafting, or art. The healing arts center is open to all and is worth a visit if you're in the area—and same goes for the hot springs, which are open to the public from 1-3 AM and require same-day reservations (bathing suits not required).

Gottman Institute
By taking a no-nonsense scientific approach to relationships, Drs. John and Julie Gottman are able to identify what works and what doesn't so that couples can create true intimacy, strong friendship, manage conflict, and support a shared vision for their future. During the Art and Science of Love weekend workshops that happen all around the country, attendees are introduced to the nine elements of healthy coupledom, which the Gottman's call the Sound Relationship House. It reads like a road map to happily ever after if you're willing to do the work. They also offer intensive workshops at their own home in the San Juan Islands—we've heard that couples arrive on the brink of divorce, and leave more in love than ever.

Tassajara Zen Center
Whether searching for relief from an overactive "monkey mind" or battling bigger demons, the Buddhists at this Sōtō Zen monastery—the oldest in the United States—believe meditation can be the tool that quiets the storm. Built in 1967 deep inside the Los Padres National Forest just southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the center offers three and five-night retreats on topics as introductory as The Nature of Zen to as specific as Finding Equanimity in a Difficult Profession: A Retreat for Lawyers.

Hoffman Institute
Many friends of goop credit the Hoffman Process as being the transformational experience in their life, helping them distinguish behaviors and patterns inherited from childhood with who they actually are as adults. The primary outpost is in St. Helena, California, where they offer year-round, week-long programs that are completely immersive (i.e. you check your phone when you arrive), with occasional sessions in Connecticut. This residential retreat will help you break the cycles of compulsive ways of being so that you can begin to make choices from a new place of clarity and love. You can read more about the process here. They also offer scholarships for those who can't pay the full rate.

The Breakthrough Program at Caron
Created by marriage and family therapist, Ann Smith, the Breakthrough personal growth workshop intends to meliorate roadblocks on the path to healthy relationships, satisfaction, and overall happiness. Located at Caron Treatment Center’s Pennsylvania facility (which is in of itself an excellent rehab where people experience a lot of success in overcoming addiction and trauma), this 5-day in-treatment program focuses on Experiential group therapy. By watching past traumatic events acted out by fellow group members (these consist of no more than 10 people), participants confront childhood traumas head on and learn to overcome them with the help of two full-time therapists. After completing the program, participants are encouraged to seek private therapy (or some form of follow-up care) in addition to practical advise on applying the tools picked up throughout the course of the program to everyday life. Specialized workshops geared specifically toward couples and veterans are available as add-ons or as individual treatments.

On-Site
On-Site's various courses take a 360 degree approach to mental health, customizing solo, couples, and group sessions as they progress, incorporating clinical approaches along with more experimental modalities to help participants break dysfunctional cycles for good. While the tools and techniques employed throughout the programs can help anyone show up more for their own lives, those looking to heal deeper wounds around sexuality, love addiction, and codependency in particular can dive deep into the work in their programs in Montana, Tennessee, and Guatemala.

Sedona Vortex Retreat
Ride the waves of healing energy among the beautiful Red Rocks of Sedona, Arizona. Sign up for a day long retreat and head off into the wild where your guide will help you tap into the transformational energies that are created where electromagnetic lines intersect. Though some may be wary of the New Age ways (add-ons include drum journeys and shamanic sound healings) even skeptics can't debate the beauty of the epic landscape. Sedona Vortex Retreat doesn't provide accommodations; we'd recommend bunking up at the L'Auberge de Sedona.

The Meadows
The trauma and addiction specialists at The Meadows lead participants through Survivors Week, a workshop based on the book, Facing Codependence, that's geared towards uncovering, understanding, and releasing any childhood traumas that may be blocking a person from being their best self and living their best life. And while people from all walks of life touch down in Arizona to explore their past to heal their future, those in crisis can check into the center for more serious support in conquering addictions (sexual, alcohol, drug, love, work, gambling) as well as issues including depression, eating disorders, and PTSD.
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