Writers Retreat: Reveal & Express Yourself

Claudia Gallo, RYT 500

Originally from San Jose, Costa Rica, Claudia spent more than a decade traveling, living, and teaching around the world. She lived and taught mostly in Malaysia, but constantly took workshops and other trainings in other parts of Southeast Asia and the USA, always deepening her practice and learning creative ways of sharing the yoga traditions. She has recently moved back to Costa Rica and is one of the in-house yoga instructors and the retreat manager at Danyasa Yoga Eco-Lodge.

Claudia did her first 200-hour teacher training in India at Himalaya Yoga Valley in 2011, and her 300 hours were completed in 2017 in New York at YogaWorks. Claudia also has a vast interest in healing and restorative practices, which led her to dive deeper into energy work, yin yoga, yoga nidra, and most recently, expressive embodiment practices.

As a third-generation instructor with a background in sports and adventure, Claudia possesses an energetic yet serene personality that invites you to a journey within. Her well-rounded classes focus on the awareness of the body, importance of the breath, calming of the mind, and opening of the heart—inviting you to a deeper connection and balance of the mind, body, nature, and spirit.

Each class with Claudia is creative and sometimes challenging, yet always very grounding. She pays special attention to proper alignment, and her cues are clear for both beginners and advanced practitioners. Claudia will always make you feel comfortable, at ease, and inspired with her down-to-earth personality. Her classes flow with grace, and her voice nurtures you to places deep within.

Committed to sharing wellness in an integrative and functional way, Claudia’s events, workshops, and retreats reflect the love and passion she has for the practice—qualities she is able to transmit so practitioners’ hearts are touched and inspired to look within, tap into their inner wisdom, and come back into full trust.

Sophie Hardy

Sophie Hardy will guide a sacred ceremony for our group during the retreat. Born from a long lineage of Celtic and Druidism, Sophie comes from a heritage of medicine women, witches, and healers—powerful women who worked with plants and herbs, who were deeply connected with nature and her wisdom. They are still alive within her; their presence flows freely through her blood. Since a young age, magic, miracles, and strange occurrences have flowed through and around her. She struggled to see their blessings, and for a long time chose to run away from her gifts and magic. Instead, she chose to be a businesswoman of the Matrix—to be part of the illusion, to be materialistic and superficial. She also chose to become abandoned, poor, and alone—a single mother fending for the life of her children. Life has shown her that she is strong and resilient—and that she can evoke the warrior within. After experiencing a deep victim mentality and almost taking her own life, she received strong messages to begin a series of rebirths that would lead her into true alignment with love, vulnerability, and surrender. The last 30 years of her life have been spent in Central and South America with indigenous communities and shamans. She immersed herself in their ancestral wisdom, their medicinal plant ceremonies, and their legends and lores and connecting with the sacredness of life. She is here to teach you how to live in an abundant, natural, and authentic way—one that follows the path of ancient wisdom.

Rodolfo Carrillo

Rodolfo Carrillo is an author, speaker, trainer, healer, and consultant. As a conscious leadership shaman, he developed the powerful SER model for personal mastery and profound transformation. He started meditating at seven years old and has been in a deep spiritual path ever since. This has guided him to seek, travel, and study ancient wisdom and traditions all over the world, visiting places like Tibet, Egypt, Perú, and the Hopi Land. Rodolfo has a very interesting and unique combination of business skills and experience coupled with spiritual wisdom that triggers profound transformation through his work, which is motivated by his drive to serve others in their own spiritual and professional development. His purpose is: to contribute to raising the consciousness of humanity so that we can create a healthier society and world where people and organizations interact with compassion and can thrive through a greater state of wellbeing. During our retreat, he will lead a workshop on the power of your life story.