Costa Rica
SUMMER 2023 RETREAT
Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, Yoga
& Ancient Alternative Modalities
for Transformation
Meet Your Line Up!
Join us for an experience
of a lifetime!
1st degree Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt
Founder & CEO of She-Jitsu
Retreat Host
Fourteen years of experience on the mat with 12 of those years dedicated to cultivating skills as a highly intuitive instructor. As a blue belt, she was one of the first to attended the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Instructors Certification Program and the Gracie Women Empowered Instructor Program. Her work is highly influence by Rener and Ryron Gracie where she spent many hours on the mat beside the two. She began adapting the philosophies she learned through the Gracie Academy and combined them with her own Mindfulness practices she established as she was on her own healing journey through recovery from addiction and CPTSD.
Her story has been in the public eye and the interest of many students and instructors around the world as she's learned to maneuver through the traumas in her life and transform her practice to help others in a trauma based approached. Her methods and story has been published in magazines and news articles over such as Women in Business, Gorgo, and Meditation Magazine.
It was after her recovery from bulimia, a serious mental health and eating disorder with a low recovery rate, she went on to published her first book “The Mindful Cookbook,” as a way to help others take the difficult step towards changing their eating habits and lifestyle through conscientious eating. After almost losing her life to trauma and addiction, she was able to turn her life around and create a thriving life of beauty and abundance.
With so many odds stacked against her, she went to war with what she calls, “The enemy within,” and she won. She survived and is living to tell her story and help others fight the war within themselves. Her mission fuels her fire and now travels teaching seminars, speaking at events and hosts retreats all over the world.
More than just teaching jiu-jitsu, her goal is to guide men and women into confident versions of themselves. The focus is on improving self-worth, building confidence, and having power and control over their own lives.
Through her mindfulness and trauma informed approach, she offers a new perspective and empower individual growth on and off the mat.
Trauma Specialist
Babaylan (Filipino Shaman)
Intuitive Guide & Healer
Retreat Host
Polly is a Trauma Specialist with a focus in Alternative & Ancient Holistic Modalities. She has a degree in Sociology which led her on the path to understanding traumas rippling effect on an individual and the people close to them.
She studied Trauma Release under Dr. David Bercelli and Paul Darby but went on to modify her approach using yogic practices and her ancestral gifts and abilities. She’s helped many Oklahoma City Firefighters and OKCFD who were working through on the job traumas and some that were part of the rescue teams of the Murrah Bombing.
She studied at the Integral Yoga Institute in Coimbatore, India and their US ashram, Yogaville. Her yoga study is in meditation, pranayama, yoga asanas, Yoga Nidra (a guided experience that takes you into a deeper brave-wave state that can’t be reached through conventional sleep) and the Ayurveda approach to yoga practices.
She was selected at the age of 5 to become a Filipino shaman known in her culture as a Babaylan. She has the gift of foresight, tracing a person’s pain to their root causes, energetically freeing blockages in the body and mind, realigning a person’s spine, hips and pelvis without any physical manipulation, guiding others towards a path of healing, healing at a supernatural pace and expanding a person’s energy to help them raise their own which leads them to healing and releasing internal anchors and blockages.
She graduated from Institute of Integrative Nutrition in Bio-Individuality and Life Coaching to seamlessly blend her modalities, practices, focus of studies and gifts into an Intuitive Guidance and Healing coaching business.
Lisa Caunitis
Certified Yoga Teacher
E-RYT500, YACEP
Special Guest Teacher & Speaker
Lisa is also a Certified Yoga Therapist and a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider. She has earned certifications in both Reiki Level 1 and Reiki Level 2, Prenatal Yoga, Yin Yoga, Thai Massage, Barre and Yoga Nidra. She has over 5,000 hours teaching private client in one on one sessions and group classes tailoring each session to meet their needs, understanding their physical and emotional limitations in relation to yoga poses and asanas that will induce feelings and increase their physical agility and mobility. She spent many years running her own studio, The Pink Lotus Yoga in Swedesboro, New Jersey. She is the Lead Instructor of the 200 hr Yoga Teacher Training program that helps other to pursue their passion of yoga leading them on their path to healthier state of being.
She has a deep knowledge of Yoga Theory and the role the chakras play in our overall health. How chakras can hold onto traumas we've experienced physically, emotionally or even indirectly. She teaches others asanas specifically designed to help you move through and balance your chakras creating peace in unity within yourself and the landscapes of your life.
Most of the time the imbalance that we feel are directly linked to the chakras. In this retreat you will receive a questionnaire to have a better understanding of where that imbalance is and work specifically with you to prescribe specific pranayama and a yoga flow / asana specific to you and your emotional and physical needs.
She has a diverse clientele of all ages and she understands age is just a number; it is not so much where you're at but where you want to be and providing a road map and plan to getting there. She gets her most joy with working with seniors that are tapping back into their youthful spirit and the knowledge they bring to their practice of Gentle Yoga, Chair Yoga and Restorative Yoga.
Tell me more...
FOOD
Normal dining times in Costa Rica is lunch from noon to 3pm and dinners 6pm - 9pm. During this retreat we will be working to embrace the cultural norms of Costa Rica. We will however be providing breakfast options available in the fully stocked kitchen with fresh items from the local market place of San Jose along with Costa Rican coffee and juices. If you have a routine of drinking protein shakes, we encourage you to bring your personal protein powder.
You will be experiencing the local cuisine as we feast on traditional Costa Rican meals for lunch and partake in the practice of the mid-afternoon coffee and coffee breaks to encourage group socialization creating collective support and unity.
On field trips, we will either be provided with a sack lunch or experience the local cuisine of the area. Please bring additional money for eating out at least twice on this trip. (money exchange rate is USD to CRC). If you are vegan or vegetarian, please let us know on your application so that meals may be made accordingly. We understand everyone that is vegan is also vegetarian, but vegetarians cannot be vegan.
LODGING
Beautiful luxury lodge where you will be able to stay and connect with other students. You will not only be learning from the amazing instructors, but through direct, human connection of your lodge-mates you will be able to deeper your experience through supportive, organic lifelong connections. This luxury lodge has outside seating to stargaze and experience the morning and evening breezes and sounds of Costa Rica. The lodge is equipped with a spacious kitchen, dinning area and caveats for privacy. The main lodge has three spacious bedrooms furnished with three queen size bunkbeds.
The entire lodge has a very organic, earthly - bohemian vibe to help you tune into nature, tune out the world and bring yourself back to center. You will be able to stargaze and enjoy the beautiful night sky from the location of your lodge. The lodge is located on the Banal Mountain where you will be able to witness the sunrise in the east on the Caribbean Sea and the sunset on the westside of the mountain over the Pacific Ocean. Because of the location, on a clear night the stars will feel so close you will be able to touch them. We will be using these elements to connect, recharge and appreciate the magnitude of being born in our own uniqueness.
How physical will this retreat be?..
SKILL LEVEL
There will be outside excursions; being mobile is important to the field trips and any activities we'll be doing onsite. If you are not an active person, please to check with your doctor before beginning any form of exercise.
JIU-JITSU
You do NOT need to know Jiu-Jitsu to take part in this retreat. Jiu-Jitsu is a powerful practice and modality that brings out your inner warrior. If you are a beginner or new to Jiu-Jitsu, you will not be left behind. If you are intermediate or advanced, you will not be held back. There will be yoga for beginners and intermediate. Jiu-Jitsu will be all levels. This is an amazing opportunity to learn self defense techniques, broaden your current practice, move over internal blocks you're experiencing during practices or matches and learn from yourself about how your body reacts and teach it to step back and learn how to respond to move forward.
YOGA ASANAS , FLOWS & YOGA NIDRA
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience yoga in several different forms from three, very different experienced teachers. You will learn about your personal blockages of energy, where your trauma feels anchored and then have a flowed provided to you to balance the chakra where the block is and activate its counter chakra. You will be able to experience morning, yoga flows and practices and join where you are in your body. You will be given the opportunity to learn eye yoga for concentration and experience the powerful modality of Yoga Nidra, the yogic sleep, to tap into healing from the delta brain-wave. You will feel immediate sense of peace, clarity and purpose.
IMPORTANT DETAILS
COSTS & APPLICATION PROCESS
Costs does not airfare, spending money, additional onsite extra spa amenities, meals & beverages on the field trip(s) or excursions. There is an application to complete prior to attending the retreat. We want to ensure your experience is conducive to your needs and expectations.
The application will go over
-
your current skill levels in yoga and jiu-jitsu (are you a student, instructor, beginner or no experience)
-
personal (and confidential) medical information
-
dietary needs
-
journaling experience
-
meditation & journaling practice
-
describing your morning practice or routines
-
your circadian rhythm & chronotype
-
expectations and your reason for wanting to attend
-
and other highly valuable questions for us to get to know you better
VIP OPTION
-
Personal One on One Individual assessment and sessions
-
3 Intuitive Guidance & Healing sessions: includes energetic spinal realignments with Polly Behringer
-
Mind-mapping obstacles and helping you find your path with Polly Behringer
-
3 Personal One on One sessions: includes individual trauma based instruction
-
Personal session in overcoming trauma on the mat in personal session with Jennifer Gray
-
COST $4500*
NEW YEAR, NEW ADVENTURE OPTION:
-
COST $3200*
-
This does not include VIP options.
AIR & GROUND TRANSPORTATION
-
Flights are not included in the price of the retreat. Airport to fly into & out of will be SJO (link provided below) into San Jose. A shuttle to and from the airport will be provided. Shuttle service is provided for travel to field trip locations.
CHECK IN & CHECK OUT
-
Summer of 2023 (dates to be determined) Please complete application process now.
CANCELLATION POLICY
-
75% refund for cancellation 60+ days before retreat start date.
*No prices include airfare, travel expenses, travel insurance or spending money.