A Healing Retreat in Costa Rica: Connecting with The Higher Self 2024!

The Healing Apprenticeship and Reiki Healing Certification in Costa Rica 2024!

We are currently offering an opportunity for you to join our retreat with a friend or partner that both of you receive a $200 discount if you book together!

Are you ready to clear the obstacles that prevent you from sustainably being yourself? Have you had enough of the same problems showing up again and again, no matter how long you are in therapy or practicing meditation, yoga, or other spiritual practices? Imagine a week where your sole focus is your own healing through powerful guided meditations, Reiki, breathing, chant, and movement practices, in deep connection with your higher wisdom, in a supportive group of fellow wisdom seekers, nestled in the Costa Rican jungle against the backdrop of the Caribbean Sea. Our collective journey includes tropical birds, howler monkeys, sloths, flowers, and lush greenery. You are nourished and renewed by delicious, locally-sourced meals, an on-site pool, walking trails, the ancient Goddess Tree, and a beautiful beach on the Caribbean Ocean just steps away. Join us! 

Highlights

Morning movement, chanting, and meditation

Reiki Training, Practice, and Attunements

Teachings and experiential practice of connecting with the Higher Self and inner wisdom

Breathing, singing, dancing, and music

Cahuita National Park exploration

Seven nights accommodation

Delicious, locally-sourced, primarily vegetarian meals

 

 

Daily Costa Rica Retreat Schedule

The Program 

Your days will begin with a simple movement and chanting practice before breakfast to connect with yourself and ground in presence. Morning sessions will offer foundational spiritual teachings, practices, and meditations of the Healing Apprenticeship program to cultivate and support your connection to the Higher Self and your connection to the Higher Selves of others. Teachings and practices are focused on developing a living, working faith and a system to ground and center in the body; releasing stuck patterns and energy, and re-balancing energy centers; and distant vibrational healing.

The morning teachings and practices are intense. Previous experience with meditation, Yoga, Qi Gong, or similar reflective/grounding practices will prepare you for this journey.

The afternoon sessions will focus on Reiki training. Each participant will receive all the First and Second Degree Reiki Attunements, training, and practice as a Certified Second Degree Reiki Practitioner in the Usui Reiki Lineage. Previous Reiki experience is not necessary. 

Evenings offer time for group processing to integrate the day’s work, followed by movement, singing, and dancing to music from DJ Mystical, where you can shake loose what’s no longer needed and invite optimal energy and balance into the body.

There will be free time each day for relaxation and reflection. And we will explore the beautiful walking trails and beaches of Cahuita National Park on Friday afternoon. 

Costa Rican Retreat: The Healing Apprenticeship 2024! - Michael Swerdloff - Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki

What is the Healing Apprenticeship?

The Healing Apprenticeship is a program of teachings and practices drawn from Taoism, Sufism, Kabbalah, and traditional Tibetan and early Christian mysticism, aimed at clearing imbalances in energy centers and pathways to rebalance the entire human system: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic. They are old, inner-based teachings that have been traditionally passed on in small groups while in a slowed brain rhythm within which the thinking mind can relax.

What will I learn?

The Healing Apprenticeship practices and teachings focus on cultivating a direct relationship with source energy and individual lineage to clear and rebalance anything in the system that is out of alignment. You will learn to:

  • Connect with the Higher Self, the Divine within and beyond us. 
  • Identify and connect with your unique spiritual lineage. 
  • Clear and re-balance your energy centers and pathways.
  • Access inner discernment and wisdom, your inner physician.
  • Identify and illuminate areas of blocked awareness and self-deception.

What is Conscious Dance?

Goddess Garden Costa Rica Retreat Center

To learn more about The Goddess Garden, please visit their website:

www.thegoddessgarden.com

Costa Rican Retreat: The Healing Apprenticeship 2024! - Michael Swerdloff - Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki

Costa Rica Retreat Timeline

  • Day 1 · San José & Cahuita
  • Arrive at Juan Santamaría International Airport
  • Group transfer from airport to resort
  • Check-in at The Goddess Garden Eco Resort
  • Free time
  • Opening circle
  • Welcome dinner
  • Day 2· Cahuita
  • Morning movement and meditation
  • Breakfast
  • Create Group Agreements and Basic Teachings on Connecting With The Self
  • Lunch
  • Free time
  • Begin Reiki Training and First Attunements
  • Dinner
  • Breathing, movement, and music
  • Days 3-6 · Cahuita
  • Morning movement and meditation
  • Breakfast
  • Teachings and experiential practice of Connecting with The Higher Self
  • Lunch
  • Free time
  • Reiki Training, Practice, and Attunements
  • Dinner
  • Breathing, movement, and music
  • Day 7 · Cahuita
  • Morning movement and meditation
  • Breakfast
  • Teachings and experiential practice of Connecting with The Higher Self
  • Lunch in Cahuita
  • Cahuita National Park
  • Reiki Training, Practice, and Attunements
  • Dinner
  • Breathing, movement, and music
  • Day 8 · Departure
  • Breakfast and check out of accommodation
  • Group transfer to Juan Santamaría International Airport
  • Journey ends

.

Costa Rican Retreat: The Healing Apprenticeship 2024! - Michael Swerdloff - Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki

Costa Rica Retreat Recommendations for what to bring:

  • Passport – if you are not from Costa Rica (Please do remember this! Make sure it is not expired! More details here: http://www.costarica-embassy.org/index.php?q=node/72 )
  • Light Jacket or rain poncho (The evenings are sometimes cool and might rain during our stay.)
  • Your favorite dance pants! Yeah!!
  • Hiking shoes
  • Flip-flops or sandals
  • Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, etc…)
  • Any medications
  • Money Belt (Important for keeping money safe)
  • Luggage Lock (To lock your luggage for safety while traveling)
  • Day pack (for excursions/hikes)
  • Small flashlight or headlamp 
  • Sunscreen (very important even if you don’t burn easily; we are near the equator!)
  • Water Bottles 
  • Insect repellent (good to have for hikes)
  • Swimsuit (There is a swimming pool at Goddess Garden, and the beach is a 5-minute walk!)
  • Old beach towel (GG does not provide towels that can be taken to the beach because of the black sand. Given the climate, air drying works fine, but if you prefer a beach towel, please bring one with you!)
  • Camera
  • A Guidebook if you are planning on traveling before or after the retreat
  • Bring a Spanish phrase book or a translation app on your phone for people who want to improve their Spanish.
  • Journal (to document your adventure!!)

Costa Rican Retreat: The Healing Apprenticeship 2024! - Michael Swerdloff - Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki


Costa Rica Retreat Accommodations

Fragrance & Chemical Free

We ask for your awareness about the personal products you bring and use at this retreat. Most commercial products are not only toxic to the sensitive rainforest environment; they are also at odds with a balanced human energy system. Please be fragrance-free throughout the retreat and minimize the use of conventional products as much as possible. Please contact us with any questions; we are happy to offer guidance.

Accommodations 

The Goddess Garden is a tropical oasis nestled between the Costa Rican rainforest and the Caribbean Sea, making it the perfect location for your retreat.

At this resort, sustainability is at the forefront of their design. Spread across 14 acres, they offer a unique experience of witnessing nature revealing its beauty.

The Goddess Garden offers a wide range of facilities and amenities to discover, including Caribbean-inspired bungalows, three group spaces, an open-air restaurant, a spa, a large open-air swimming pool, exotic gardens, and much more. Their resort is just a five-minute walk from a serene and private beach, making it an ideal location to unwind and disconnect.

We are currently offering an opportunity for you to join our retreat with a friend or partner that both of you receive a $200 discount if you book together!

*Dorm (4-6 people): $1299

*Triple: $1499

*Double: $1699

*Single occupancy: $1899

(Travel costs to Costa Rica not included)

A deposit of $500 is required, with full payment by 12/31/2023.

 

Please complete this Google Form here to register now!

Costa Rican Retreat: The Healing Apprenticeship 2024! - Michael Swerdloff - Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki

Your Costa Rica Retreat Facilitators

Michael Swerdloff (he/him) has been a Counselor, Coach, Social Worker, Community Organizer, Educator, Writer, and Reiki Master for over twenty-five years. He promotes peace, integrity, and safety through Counseling, Reiki, Movement, Meditation, and as a Conscious Dance Host and DJ. Along with his Private Practice, Michael is the Program Manager at Dance New England, a volunteer-centered non-profit that hosts dance events cultivating a vibrant multi-generational community. Michael has received training from H.H. the Dalai Lama, The Gottman Institute, and other revered Teachers and Healers. He is an Ordained Minister of Natural Healing from The Seminary Training Program. Michael has been clean and sober since 1989 and practices Meditation, Reiki, Yoga, and Dance/Movement daily.

 

Ellen Santaniello (she/her) is a licensed, holistic psychotherapist based in Rhode Island with specialties in Internal Family Systems, transpersonal work, and psychedelic journey integration. She’s had a 40-year international performing career as a singer and percussionist in an unusually diverse range of musical styles, and is a student of Andean shamanism, Himalayan tantra, and other body-based mystical practices.