This retreat will offer a safe space in which to reflect on your childhood, however supported or unsupported it may have been. It will guide you to be curious about how your adult life today is influenced, and sometimes sabotaged, by those experiences. It will introduce you to your inner child: the part of you that was wounded during your childhood and that is reactive when it is triggered. It will offer you the skills both to recognize what was positive about your childhood, and to re-parent yourself in the ways that you wished you had been parented. When you listen to and soothe your inner child, when you connect to the child you once were, you can allow your thoughts and actions to come from an adult space of calm rather than from an inner child’s space of hurt and lashing out.
When we experience trauma (including what some might consider small, inconsequential traumas) and when we don’t process them effectively, we become more fragmented in ourselves. We create survival methods that protect ourselves from more harm, yet in the process, parts of us may get suppressed, compartmentalized, or taken advantage of. This retreat seeks to help you reunite your fragmented pieces so that you can embrace the whole you!
Befriending your inner child and re-parenting it may sound strange, but it can help you navigate the world more smoothly, including all of your relationships, be it with your parents, family, friends, partner, children, or even with yourself. It can also support you to live life from a more balanced space, with more confidence, joy, self acceptance, and compassion.
Throughout this retreat, we will practice yoga – including movement, meditation, breathwork, and yoga philosophy, such as the concept of svadhyaya, or self study – to guide us through this journey.
Tentative Retreat Schedule:
Friday
3pm Check-in and relax
4pm Opening Ceremony – meet your inner child and understand why this work is key to improving your life
5pm Dinner
8pm Reflection Workshop – be curious about your childhood, both the positives and the challenges., and find awareness about which of your needs went unmet. End the night with a slow yoga practice.
Saturday
8am Yoga and Pranayama (yoga breathing) – breathe and stretch with your inner child!
9am Breakfast
10am Compassion, Validation, and Acceptance Workshop – befriend and listen to your inner child through journaling
Noon Lunch
1pm Curiosity – explore your inner child’s playfulness and creativity including creative mandala project and river exploration
5.00pm Dinner
7pm Transformation and Metamorphosis Workshop – let go of patterns in which you have got stuck through a fire dance ceremony followed by breathwork
Sunday
8am Yoga and Mantra Chanting – as you hold space and soothe your inner child
9am Breakfast
10am Re-parent Your Inner Child Workshop – be the parent you always needed, supporting your inner child in a way that transforms your life and makes your inner child feel unconditionally loved and safe through role-playing and journaling
Noon Lunch
3pm Closing Ceremony – reflection on what we have learned and a final meditation
5pm Depart
Daniella Gould is Owner and Instructor of Santosa Yoga and Health based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a MA in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley, is RYT 200, Y12SR (addiction recovery), and breathwork certified. She has also attended multiple trainings, including on trauma, resilience, self-regulation, inner child work, parenting, social justice, meditation, and mindfulness.
Daniella has applied yoga philosophy to many facets of her own life. It has changed how she views and relates to herself, her husband, and her son in such a transformative way that she loves to share the practical benefits of yoga, meditation, breathwork, and yoga philosophy with others.
For Daniella, yoga is about connecting people with their bodies and breath in order to quiet the noise and distractions that often accompany our hectic lives. She loves to help students apply yoga philosophy to their lives in a practical, understandable way. Ultimately, she thinks that yoga allows us to find contentment and satisfaction, making it easier to navigate life’s challenges.
She enjoys working with students of all levels, and believes that everyone can benefit from yoga, meditation, breathing practices, and yoga philosophy regardless of flexibility and/or experience. She teaches with humor and playfulness, and she aims to make all students feel welcome and at ease in a supportive, safe space.
Daniella has taught retreats in a number of locations, but Casa Grande is her favorite space-to-date to take people on transformative journeys.