Commonweal

Commonweal Established as a nonprofit in 1976, on land leased from Point Reyes National Seashore in Bolinas, Ca

Founded in 1976, Commonweal conducts programs that contribute to human and ecosystem health—to a safer world for people and for all life—through a program focus in four areas:

HEALTH & HEALING
Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies
Cancer Help Program
The Center for Healing and Liberation
COVIDStrategies
Foundation for Embodied Medicine
Healing Circles
Healing Circles Bay Area
Healing Circles Globa

l
Healing Circles Houston
Healing Circles Langley
Healing Yoga Foundation
Natura Institute | Commonweal Garden

EDUCATION & THE ARTS
Center for Creative Community
Power of Hope Youth Camp
Taproot
The Courage & Renewal Network of Northern California
Gift of Compassion
Integrative Law Institute
The New School
Regenerative Design Institute
Visual Thinking Strategies

ENVIRONMENT & JUSTICE
Biomonitoring Resource Center
Collaborative on Health & the Environment (CHE)
Juvenile Justice Program
Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies
The Resilience Project
SafetyNEST Science

The Commonweal Retreat Center is an integral part of Commonweal’s work. The Retreat Center, which houses up to 22 people, is available for personal or professional retreats, conferences, and workshops when not in use for Commonweal programs.

How can a rematriated science address the roots of the polycrisis? Can society move beyond an anthropocentric, male-domi...
09/06/2026

How can a rematriated science address the roots of the polycrisis? Can society move beyond an anthropocentric, male-dominated science to a relational one rooted in justice and care? Join Commonweal New School's Visiting Scholar Melissa Nelson this fall as she explores these issues during her residency at Commonweal.

As an Anishinaabe ecologist and transdisciplinary scholar-activist, Melissa is working to find ways to return to and revitalize the Indigenous and feminist roots of science by highlighting ways of knowing that are based on epistemologies of care, belonging, kinship, and respectful intimacy with the natural world and each other.

Meet Melissa and find out more about her worldview at this event—first in conversation with Host Jaune Evans, and then in an experiential process around her new work.

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The Rematriation of Science: Restoring Balance through Indigenous Knowledges
with Melissa K. Nelson and Host Jaune Evans

* Tuesday, September 29 | 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm PDT
Join us in Gallery Commonweal and on Zoom

$15 suggested, no one turned away

Learn more and register to attend (required) by following the linktree in bio. Look under "Events."

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Art credit: Catalina Cortes

09/05/2026

* Podcast Premiere

The polycrisis doesn't just degrade the ecosystems we live in, it undermines our human capacity to imagine, communicate, and shape meaning. A crisis of meaning is significant, especially when we feel paralyzed to act. Are there narratives that can help us to contextualize our day-to-day lives and encourage us to take action to protect, preserve, and restore the things that matter most?

Alejo di Risio—journalist, environmental consultant, and cultural strategist—set out with a small team of Omega Resilience Awards (ORA) researchers to interview ORA Fellows who have long been engaged in this kind of resilience work—people grounded in environmental stewardship, land connection, and sustainable practices across the Global South.

This weekend, join Host Susan Grelock Yusem for a conversation with Alejo where they explore the meaning of ecological imagination, narrative as resistance, local wisdom at global scale, and the power of community. Watch to the end for an interactive dialogue with the full Ecology Research Team, including Belén Felix and Mauro Fernández.

Find the premiere on YouTube by following the linktree in bio.

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Look for new podcast releases on Saturdays, just in time for your weekend listening.

At Commonweal, we feel grateful for a wonderful community of folks to interact with both in person and online. You leave...
09/02/2026

At Commonweal, we feel grateful for a wonderful community of folks to interact with both in person and online. You leave so many insightful comments on our various platforms—we can't uplift every single one, but as we go forward we'd like to acknowledge more of these thoughtful contributions.

Today we're thankful for this YouTube comment on the Commonweal New School podcast episode "Can We All Become Healers?"

User martina2Bpoems says:
"'You can be wounded and whole.' I have listened to this wonderful talk many times, and I am so grateful to both Rachel and Vivek, for the gift of the language and imagery around what they are saying to us in this talk. All people who work with people who are ill or in crisis will benefit from hearing this talk."

We couldn't agree more, Martina. Thank you for taking a moment to share your thoughts on this episode from our archives, which features Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Watch or listen to this podcast episode by following the linktree in bio. Look under "Rachel Naomi Remen" or "Podcasts."

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Look for new podcast releases on Saturdays, just in time for your weekend listening.


Commonweal staff are known to bring "head, heart, and hands" to the work we do in the world. You can see this spirit at ...
08/31/2026

Commonweal staff are known to bring "head, heart, and hands" to the work we do in the world. You can see this spirit at play during a field trip to the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, where Common Knowledge Press team members learned from Charles Spitzack how to make woodblock prints for future press publications. They said the experience was "a really rich day immersed in a workshop. A very active meditation and respite from everyday life." We hope the beauty and creative energy will carry over into future publications from the press.

Common Knowledge Press is Commonweal's publication project, originally founded in our early years and relaunched for our 50th anniversary. New installments in our Founders Series are coming soon.

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Photo credits: Susan Grelock Yusem and Erin O'Reilly

08/29/2026

* Podcast Premiere

How do you define community? Where do you go to learn, to be heard, and to process the challenges of the world around us? At Commonweal, we curate spaces for everyday people to come together, ask questions, share knowledge and stories, and be immersed in the more-than-human world around us.

This weekend, you can share in one of these experiences by joining us for a talk with Commonweal New School Visiting Scholar Dr. Catherine Olweny. In this episode, Catherine discusses the narrative therapy techniques she's learned and developed over many years of practice, as well as the challenges faced in remaining empathetic and whole-person focused in today’s healthcare system.

Find the premiere on YouTube by following the linktree in bio.

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Look for new podcast releases on Saturdays, just in time for your weekend listening.

What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer is the first publication in the Founder's Series by Common K...
08/24/2026

What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer is the first publication in the Founder's Series by Common Knowledge Press.

This book started out years ago as working letters shared with participants in Commonweal's Cancer Help Program. Now, on our 50th anniversary, we're making it available to anyone who needs it.

- Follow the linktree in bio for a free digital download. Look under "Articles & Publications."
- The print edition is available at Point Reyes Books.

"Love is the greatest healing force." — Michael Lerner

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Photos: The second print run of What Matters Now, picked up directly from the printer. Credit: Erin O'Reilly

"Gathering in a circle is another everyday Commonweal technology. A circle is our basic frame for large-group meetings. ...
08/23/2026

"Gathering in a circle is another everyday Commonweal technology. A circle is our basic frame for large-group meetings. Our monthly staff meeting is a circle. When something rattles the culture, like a terrible violence or tragedy, we gather in a circle, sitting side-by-side and facing the center together." —Susan Grelock Yusem, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Commonweal

This summer a new exhibit has come to Gallery Commonweal exploring sacred technologies—like the healing power of gathering in a circle—that are in daily practice at Commonweal, and have arisen naturally from 50 years dedicated to the healing arts.

Let's Go Quiet features artwork by visionary artist Jon Marro and is on display now until September. Find out more by following the linktree in bio. Look under "Events."

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Art credit: Jon Marro, in the Let's Go Quiet exhibit July - September 2026
Photo by: Albert Strietmann, taken July 12 in Gallery Commonweal

08/22/2026

* Podcast Premiere

What really matters in life? When we filter out the noise and pressure of fast-paced days defined by tech, how do we come back to the heart of what it means to be human?

This weekend we invite you to join Host Serena Bian for a conversation with former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. Through stories, reflection, and imagination, Dr. Murthy offers insights into how we might become more fully human while building a future rooted in connection, dignity, and care.

Find the premiere on YouTube by following the linktree in bio.

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Look for new podcast releases on Saturdays, just in time for your weekend listening.

The July full moon rises over the coastal bluffs in this photo, and there's just one more week until it returns for an A...
08/21/2026

The July full moon rises over the coastal bluffs in this photo, and there's just one more week until it returns for an August flyby. Where is your favorite spot to catch a glimpse of our celestial neighbor? Let us know in the comments below.
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Photo credit: Beau Vincent

Address

451 Mesa Road
Bolinas, CA
94924

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14158680970

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