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The Intimacy Project: A Three-Retreat Journey with Emergence

Name: The Intimacy Project: A Three-Retreat Journey with Emergence
Start: 2026-11-19
End: 2026-11-22
Location: Menla
Rating: 4.78

4.78111 reviews

Phoenicia, NY 12464, USA

November 19 - 22, 2026

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Melissa

Sanjay

Melissa Kaplan

Melissa Kaplan, MPA, AACEP, is a somatic practitioner and spiritual activist. She is a Senior Faculty member at the Institute of Core Energetics and Embodied Relationship Mentor based in New York City and Upstate New York. In her private practice with individuals, couples and groups, she believes that eros is the awakening force that transforms our defenses, our negative beliefs, distorted feelings, and disconnection from animism. Her group work is emergent, relational and emphasizes intimacy across difference. She works with trauma that is held in the body in order to increase our capacity for pleasure and ground in our true selves so that we may step into our most expansive and rooted emotional leadership. She teaches self-intimacy through body, spirit, emotion, and connection to land. Melissa is an alumna of Harvard Business School with a focus on Executive Leadership and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration. Melissa was an international CEO for more than a decade and brings her extensive cross-cultural experience into her practice. She is an author and graduate of the Orphan Wisdom School.

Sanjay K. Evran

Sanjay is Armenian, born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and currently lives in the Hudson Valley, New York. He is a Somatic Therapist in private practice since 2016. Trained in Bioenergetics and Core Energetics, both body-based psychotherapy modalities. He also trained at the Radical Aliveness Institute, which specializes in systemic complexity and group work. He is currently an Associate Faculty member and serves on the Ethics Committee at the Institute of Core Energetics in New York. He teaches internationally as a Junior Faculty Member at the Netherlands Institute of Core Energetics.

Details of this retreat

Intimacy on all levels — with self, with others, with all beings

Please follow this link for registration and an interview.

Sanjay and Melissa are launching the next level of their Emergence Group: The Intimacy Project. Three residential intensives in the Hudson Valley, NY, over a period of seven months. One committed group of humans who want to go deep into themselves, and with each other. Small group practices in between retreats to deepen the work and the connection between group members.

Intimacy = in-to-me-see. In our modern culture, the word intimacy is often associated with a romantic situation or couple. Sanjay and Melissa are using this word differently. To them, intimacy is the proximity you have in any given moment with your present-moment experience — with yourself, with any other person, and with the world that surrounds us. This is what they intend to cultivate, with a group of willing humans who want to know themselves and break through their own self-imposed barriers.

Returning again and again as a circle builds the trust needed to go to places unknown — exactly where something more true begins to emerge. As leaders, Sanjay and Melissa bring specific themes for the group to explore, staying responsive to where the group's own intelligence wants to go.

The group will draw on a rich toolkit to guide this exploration — Core Energetics, Radical Aliveness, Bioenergetics, Family Constellations, and Circling. Each modality offers its own doorway into presence: some work through the body, some through direct relational encounter, some through the ancestral patterns we carry from our families of origin. Together, they offer a full-spectrum practice for meeting what's real.

Schedule:

Thursday, November 19

3 - 6 pm Arrival, Check-In, and Registration
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7 - 9 pm Opening Session

Friday, November 20

8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Session
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5:30 pm Afternoon Session
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7 - 9 pm Participant Led Evening Activities (Optional)

Saturday, November 21

8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Session
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5:30 pm Afternoon Session
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7 - 9 pm Participant Led Evening Activities (Optional)

Sunday, November 22

7 - 11 am Check-Out of Rooms
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Session
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 4 pm Final Session and Departure

*Please note this schedule is subject to change.

Getting Here

Menla, Phoenicia, NY 12464, USA

Accommodation

Deluxe Double (Shared Room)

Deluxe Double Room with Two Full Size Beds and Private Bathroom Free Phone and Hi-Speed Wifi Internet Access Available Air Conditioning All Rooms in Lhasa are Handicap-Accessible, Including Four Rooms with Wheelchair Accessible Showers. Deluxe Double Rooms with Private Bathrooms are Located in the Lhasa Inn * Please note rates include meals and accommodations. This booking is for one bed in a double shared room: We May Assign You a Roommate if You Do Not Register with One.

Economy Premium Single - Shared Bath

Standard Premium Single Room with a Queen or Full Bed and Shared Bathroom Up to 10 guests share two large bathrooms. Each bathroom has two shower stalls and two toilets. A phone is not available but high-speed WiFi is available in the room Phone Access Available in Upper Level Of Conference Center. All calls are free of charge This Lodging Type is not ADA Compliant. * Please note rates include meals and accommodations.

Economy Single - Shared Bath

Standard Single Room with a Twin Bed and Shared Bathroom Bathroom is Shared with One to Six Other Guests on Your Floor. A phone is not available but high-speed WiFi is available in the room Phone Access Available in Nearby Conference Center and also Lhasa in Business Center. All calls are free of charge. This Lodging Type is not ADA Compliant. * Please note rates include meals and accommodations.

Economy Double - Shared Bath (Shared Room)

Standard Double with Twin Beds and Shared Bathroom The bathroom is Shared with other rooms on the same floor. High-speed Wi-Fi is available in the room. Phone Access Available in Nearby Conference Center and also Lhasa in Business Center. All calls are free of charge. This Lodging Type is not ADA Compliant. * Please note that rates include meals and accommodations * Please note: this is an open door policy room, meaning there are no keys to lock the door (we have lockers you can use at Lhasa if needed) * This booking is for one bed in a double shared room: We May Assign You Roommates if You Do Not Register with others

Customer Reviews

4.78 out of 5.0 average rating

Mariel • Nov 05, 2026

5.0

Verified

Radiance Retrear at Menla

What a beautiful experience carefully curated and guided by Connie Viglietti in a magical, special place. The meals were cooked with love and the spa was delightful. Look forward to going again next year.

Anonymous • Nov 05, 2026

5.0

Verified

Loved the yoga retreat

Wonderful weekend of yoga and enjoying company of great group! Beautiful countryside with fall foliage and streams . Really remarkable. Clean rooms and very tasty food . Great yoga , wonderful teaching and beautiful place .

Donna • Nov 04, 2026

5.0

Verified

A perfect retreat

Everything was ideal. My room in the inn was spacious and thoughtfully designed, from the writing desk to the shower room, and I wished I had had time to avail myself of the beautiful reading nook and library down the hall. The food was nourishing and good, and the mostly volunteer staff was courteous and kind.

The sacred nature of Nature was tangible everywhere, and I appreciated seeing the various shrines celebrating it. The beauty along the upper and lower roads, as well as the middle way to the conference center, where my program took place, even in the latter part of Autumn, lifted my heart.

I'm very grateful for the time I spent there, and will gladly return.

Anonymous • Nov 04, 2026

1.0

Verified

Awful Lodging, Service, and Food

I've done the retreat circuit for over 30 years but had never been to Menla. I attended for a specific program. The program itself was disappointing and the teacher left early, leaving the assistant to teach the last two sessions, which involved quite a bit of self-promotion. The grounds are beautiful, but besides this the food was awful - you can feel the attempt to cut costs with food when one dinner is primarily a HUGE baked potato. The phone in our overpriced accommodations did not work and we were told it would be fixed - which it never was during the week's stay. Also during a week's stay, the garbage was not collected once, and piled up in our room and the shared bathroom (which was also not cleaned at all during our stay) - but the best part was having to take toilet paper back to our lodging from the conference center bathroom because despite repeated requests, we were never brought any once what was supplied had been used. I will never attend Menla again for any reason.

Nancy • Oct 29, 2026

5.0

Verified

Cultivating Joy- A Ketamine Assisted Mindfulness Retreat

What a fabulous location and place for this amazing retreat at Menla! The food was great, the grounds were gorgeous and the buildings/ facilities evoked a feeling of peace, honor and tranquility. There is a feeling of spacious stillness at Menla. Look forward to returning.

The Intimacy Project: A Three-Retreat Journey with Emergence

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Melissa Kaplan

Sanjay K. Evran

Details of this retreat

Getting Here