WHAT’S INVOLVED

The retreat includes daily light, casual yoga, 3 healthy vegetarian meals a day, and private or shared accommodations—all in a stunning eco-retreat center with a secluded stream, pools, and waterfalls, surrounded by magical flora and fauna.

During our workshop sessions we’ll be doing a mix of:

• Paired and group exercises

• Group discussions

• Learning somatic practices

• Gestalt-style hotseat work

• Personal in-session coaching

…all with two certified and experienced Radical Honesty Trainers.

You’ll be supported in meeting the parts of yourself you’ve exiled or judged—your desire, shame, neediness, and anger—and in working with instead of against them. You'll better understand how you self-sabotage, project, and respond to triggers, and how honesty can be a medicine for anxiety and depression. The retreat will be an encouraging space for fostering healing and a growth mindset, all so you can live more boldly, and shape a life that's authentic, exciting, and deeply gratifying.

This retreat is absolutely for LGBTQIA+ folks, ages from young adults to seniors, those who’ve never done a Radical Honesty workshop. For notes on accessibility please see the FAQs section.

***This retreat may be an emotionally intense experience for you—it is for most. We will spend a lot of our time focusing on remaining present in our bodies and present to our individual experiences; we will also spend time expressing and processing emotions, including sadness, resentment, and appreciation, and there will inevitably be crying and raised voices, along with lightness and laughter. If you have unaddressed trauma this workshop may not be a healthy choice for you.***

WEEKLONG SCHEDULE

We’ll begin with an evening session and then 6 full days in sessions will follow.

DAY 1: November 9 (FIRST EVENING SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
6:30-8:30pm

Arrive anytime November 9th. The program will begin with a group dinner at Cascada Elysiana at 6:30pm, followed by brief introductions. (We will solidify the schedule for the first evening when within a couple months of the retreat.)

DAY 2 - 7: November 10 - 15
10am - 5:30pm

All day workshop centered around group and partner exercises.

3 meals/day provided, and breaks throughout the day.

Optional (casually guided, brief) daily yoga at 8am and group breakfast at 8:30am, then session begins at 10.

DAILY SCHEDULE

8am Optional Yoga and Meditation

8:45am Breakfast

10am-1pm Morning Workshop Session

1-1:30pm Lunch Break

1:30-5:30pm Afternoon Session

5:30-6pm Dinner

Note: Schedule is approximate and may change

LOCATION & TRAVEL

Cascada Elysiana, San José Province, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica

The eco resort, Cascada Elysiana, is seated in the valley of San Juan de Dios in Costa Rica, near Dominical. For how to get there, see the FAQs at the bottom of this page.

ACCOMMODATION & RATES

Shared rooms, private rooms in shared homes, and private cabins are available.

Price ranges from $1500 to $3200 depending on the accommodations you choose. All options include 3 meals/day and workshop sessions.

REGISTRATION

Register by making a $1500 non-refundable deposit. If the rate for your accommodation choice is more than $1500, then we’ll be in touch to coordinate your additional payment which will be due on or before November 1st, 2025.

Come relax, relate, and retreat with us in the lush beauty of Costa Rica

If this retreat seems to be what you’re looking for but you’re hesitant for any reason and you’ve got questions or concerns, then please reach out! You can contact me, Lindsay, at takerootcoach@gmail.com and I’m happy to write and answer your questions, or to set up a time to chat.

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS

Your workshop will be led by Radical Honesty Trainers Lindsay St. Antoine and Tony Shawcross.

Lindsay St. Antoine

I partner with folks who are ready and aspiring to get free and intimate through self revealing, who are eager to emerge as their bold, authentic selves and create a life of exhilarating self expression and deep realness.

I’m an honesty coach and Radical Honesty Trainer in Denver, Colorado. In addition to providing honesty coaching, I also lead in-person and online Radical Honesty workshops.

I began working with Radical Honesty Enterprises in 2014, filling many roles within the company, ending with my role as COO in 2021. I was certified as a Radical Honesty Trainer in 2017.

I have a great capacity for being with and fully witnessing people in their shame, embarrassment, anger or darker emotions, and ushering in whatever naturally arises for them in those spaces, and then what emerges in the clearing. I support people to stick with themselves (and each other) in these vulnerable and often uncomfortable spaces, and fully experience their whole experience. In doing so, shifts can occur, full body forgiveness naturally arises, and they may come to know themselves and be able to share themselves fully with others.

Tony Shawcross

Radical Honesty has given me greater access to understanding my body, my subconscious mind, and my internal biases and filters than I ever had before.

As long as I can remember, I've had a passion for unbridled, authentic conversations and collaborative creative expression, and am grateful for how Radical Honesty has contributed to my work in film, music and writing. -Tony 

Tony worked closely with Brad Blanton and Radical Honesty beginning in 2014. As a video producer, editor and writer, Tony helped produce Radical Honesty online workshops and videos, editing and compiling hundreds of hours of footage in ways that give him a unique level of familiarity with the work of Radical Honesty.

In addition to being a Certified Radical Honesty Trainer who co-leads Radical Honesty workshops and runs a monthly meetup group, Tony has been trained in several modalities including Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, and Psychedelic Facilitation with certifications in Trauma-Focused Psychedelic Psychotherapy from Innate Path Dynamic Attachment RePatterning from Trauma Solutions and Psychedelic Pharmacology from Ben Malcolm.

FAQs

What’s the benefit of going to Costa Rica to do a Radical Honesty workshop VS doing it online?

The main benefits:

• Being in person with the facilitators and fellow participants is often a much more intimate and intense experience, allowing for so much more to show up in our space together

• The adventure of going on your own or with your partner to a new experience, in a new place, and interacting in new and brave ways, face to face with new people!

• The adventure of traveling to and being in Costa Rica and being in the mind-blowingly beautiful jungle!

• As Tony mentioned in Part 1 of this newsletter, “When we're working to build new ways of relating to ourselves and our partners, it’s good to be in a new setting that supports new neural pathways.
  
  Cascada Elysiana is integrated with the land and nature in a way few places are, and I find it energizing and invigorating to be in such a beautiful place with fresh air, fresh water, fresh food, and fresh faces.
  
  Even the act of traveling there subconsciously programs our psyche for a new experience and context of investing in ourselves and our relationships... and you are worth the investment.”

How serious or “strict” is the vibe? Will this feel like a vacation or a workshop?

While we consider this a pretty intensive workshop (particularly if you’ve never been to a multi-day retreat or workshop before), it’s intended to be less intense than our 8-Day Residential Workshops where The Naked Work happens.

Our session periods during this retreat are a few hours shorter each day than the 8-day workshops, with evenings off to do as you please. 

That said, we intend for participants to be present for the full duration of all workshop sessions and to communicate with us ahead of time if that won’t be possible for any reason. The workshop sessions build on each other and rapport and trust develops within the group through each session, and your absence would have an impact on the group. 

This retreat is a space for the whole range of human emotions. There will inevitably be lightness and laughter, as well as anger, raised voices, and crying. We’re trained and practiced at being with you through all of that, and we’re here for it. 

Will I have time to myself? Are there evening offerings?

Our workshop sessions will end each night at 5:30, followed by dinner at the Lodge. After that, you’re free to spend the evening as you’d like. Some folks like to have alone time to rest and recharge after the intense days with the group, and others like to keep the action going. 

Some evening options:

• Staying at Cascada Elysiana and hanging out on your own

• Participating in optional evening sessions that *may* be offered by guest facilitators

• Hanging out at the Lodge with other participants and guests

• If you arrange transportation, you can head out to Dominical, the small town about 30 minutes away from the retreat center.

*Although we won’t have a strict rule about abstaining from alcohol during the retreat, we do request that you take it easy with any alcohol you do consume in the evenings so you’ll be in good shape and feeling well for the workshop sessions. 

Who will be at the retreat?

We’re limiting the group size to 20 people. The participants are couples and folks coming on their own, varying ages, and currently everyone signed up lives in the states.

Where in Costa Rica is the retreat, and how close is it to the beach? What will the weather be like?

We’ll be at the Cascada Elysiana Retreat center in the Southern Pacific area of Costa Rica. November, during the shift toward the “dry season” is a beautiful time to visit. Weather will generally be between 80 and 90 degrees fahrenheit with little rain.

The retreat center is a 30 minute drive to the nearest tiny town, Dominical, and the beach. 

Where/how do sessions happen? Is it accessible?

We’ll have a dedicated indoor session space in one of the homes with A/C. Depending on where you’re staying at the retreat center, it may take you 10-15 minutes to walk to the session space. When in this space we’ll be sitting in chairs in a circle, and we encourage you to bring what you’ll need to sit comfortably and take good care of yourself (we’ll have some pillows, etc to help with this and will encourage standing, stretching, etc during sessions, as much as you need/want).

Depending on the weather, group energy and mood, etc. we’ll do some sessions in various outdoor areas. 

*Unfortunately the workshop session space is not wheelchair accessible due to a somewhat long, steep, and uneven hike to the space, and that is the case for much of the retreat center.

Walking from the Main Lodge (where we’ll have all of our meals) to our session space is, “The equivalent of climbing about 8 flights of stairs on uneven ground.”

What are the accommodations like at the retreat center and how much will it cost?

Cost for the retreat depends on the accommodations you choose and range from $1500 per person for shared bunkhouse sleeping arrangements with shared compost toilet bathrooms and outdoor showers, up to $3200 per person for a private home with A/C. You can find photos and details about all of the options here. 

How will I travel from the airport to the retreat center?

The drive from the airport to Cascada Elysiana takes about 3.5 hours. Tony and I will be arriving at SJO airport on the afternoon of the 9th and we’ll carpool with participants arriving at/around the same time.

We’ll support you in connecting with others who may be arriving around the same time as you so you may also carpool if you’d like.

If you’re arriving at SJO prior to the 9th and want to work out transportation to Cascada Elysiana on your own, please check out the detailed description on their site for travel from the airport to the retreat center. 

The easiest way to get to Cascada Elysiana is by flying into San Jose's airport, Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), and taking a taxi to the retreat center.

The retreat center is 3.5 hours from the airport and a taxi ride generally costs $100-150, so we suggest trying to share a taxi with other workshop members if you can -- if you consent to it, we will create a google spreadsheet list of the workshop members' information so you can coordinate a shared taxi with someone.

We can provide you contact information of a trusted taxi company, or you can find your own transportation. Renting a car is not recommended as parking is limited. For potential group excursions, we will provide transportation offsite.

Are the waterfall photos actually taken at the retreat center?

Yes! Cascada Elysiana is a total natural wonderland and has creeks, cascades and small pools around the land, and a spectacular 190ft (58m) waterfall which is a 10-15 min hike from the Main Lodge. It’s considered an Easy/Moderate hike, and is unfortunately NOT wheelchair accessible, as it’s located deep in the mountain.

The power of the falls varies throughout the year, depending on rainfall and whether it’s the dry or wet season.