Of The Body
- Mar 9, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 8
Retreat Dates: May 2nd-8th, 2027
Hosted By: Erin Lazzaro + Madison Ripley
Of The Body is a 5 day, 50 hour learning immersion into the language of the body. Part certification, part exploration, part remembering something we all already know. This is for any human with a body!!
This work isn't about learning something new. It's simply about remembering what's already there and developing the awareness, skill, and confidence to use it as intented to.
We'll explore:
The history and power of touch
Anatomy, fascia, and body mechanics
How to read the body's patterns and signals
Giving and receiving touch with presence and intention
Boundaries, consent, and creating safety
Nonverbal communication and connection
Emotional awareness and holding space
Masculine and feminine dynamics within touch
When touch supports—and when it doesn't
Building trust in your hands, your intuition, and yourself
meet your hosts
Erin Lazzaro, LMT, RYT500
It's both! If you know you know. If you don't, you will after a few minutes of me.
As a young child, verbal language was always so difficult. Making sound was easy but comprehending the sound coming out of my mouth was forever confusing. When I was introduced to structured movement everything started to make sense. Dance was a language I fully understand without anyone having to break it down.
So my childhood and young life was lived in movement, it shaped my path forward. I moved to New York City to pursue this language of dance. I performed professionally from 18-30.
At the same time, I craved more touch, more movement, so I became a massage therapist and held a small practice in NYC along the years. Touching bodies for a living was a language I learned to know intimatly. I touched people's bodies on their worst days, I touched them on their best. I learned how to speak through my hands and listen through their stillness.
Yoga was the logical next step. Why wouldn't it be? Movement, touch, depth and so much more all wrapped up into one.
So now, it's both! Or all. I teach to learn, I learn to remember, I remember to be. And the secret to it all? To do it together.
Curiosity = Creativity = Self Love
Madison Ripley, ERYT500 + Yin
I AM ALL THE WAY ALIVE.
There are pieces of me that are overwhelmingly intense and pieces that are boundlessly graceful.
I’ve learned over the years to stop holding any of me back. I don’t hold on and I don’t hold back,
As those who hold tightly, eventually lose grip.
I used to hold tightly to everything, white knuckle gripping on how I expected anything and everything to be.
Controlling myself into believing that I was in control.
Through this practice I’ve learned trust.
To trust in the brilliance of myself.
To trust in the my capacity to navigate this moment,
Trust that it’s all exactly as it should be.
I am obsessed with the endless contraction and opening that is nature (that is us).
I am equally obsessed with teaching people to feel that endless contraction + expansion, to not fear this innate process.
My big joy comes from witnessing what happens when people remember their truth.
When people remember who they are before anyone or anything told them what to be.
Brilliant.
I will teach you to play the instrument of your body, moving anything out of the way that wasn’t yours to begin with.
I promise to listen to you with the whole of my heart and ask you questions that drive you into yours.
I hold your heart as I would hold my own daughters, as I hold my own, with safety and love and warmth.
I lead in my humanness, and invite you to relish in yours.
sample schedule
arrival: May 2nd, 2027 at SJO Airport by 2pm local time
departure: May 8th, 2027 at SJO no earlier than 2pm local time
6:00am-6:30am Coffee + Tea
6:30am-8:00am Morning Movement with Erin
8:00am-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am-12:00pm Classroom + Hands On Workshop
12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm-3:00pm Afternoon Workshop
3:00pm-4:00pm Body Reading
4:00pm-4:30pm Integration
4:30pm-6:00pm Evening Yin with Madison
everything included
7 days at Flō Retreat Center
All meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) made with fresh local ingredients
Daily yoga and movement classes
50 Continued Education Hours/Certification
Airport shuttle to and from San José International Airport (SJO)
Professional retreat photography
Full access to Flō’s yoga shala, pool, gym, and hiking trails
pricing
Deposit: $600 to reserve your spot | Payment Plans: Available by request
Shared Room:$2,300 per person
Private Room - Single Occupancy: $2,700 per person
Private Room - Double Occupancy: $2,500 per person
Explore more details of our accommodations here!
