PRESENTS
A 7-Day Somatic Leadership Retreat to Clear What Is Holding You Back From Living Your Authentic Soul-Led Mission
September 26 to October 2, 2026
Synergy in Uvita, Costa Rica
Only 10 seats remain.
Feel into the experience before you say yes
In this short video, you will receive a walk-through of the Ascension Retreat, who it is for, and how the experience unfolds across 7 days in Costa Rica.
Meet your facilitator
JAKE WHAN
Visionary | Transformation Coach | Somatic Therapist | Breathwork Facilitator | Spiritual Guide
"Jake is fully present, comes from a space of pure love and authenticity, and welcomes every part of every being...seeing all beings as Creator. This creates resonance and full safety in the container and interpersonally." - Sarah S.
A nervous-system-informed guide with deep spiritual roots
Jake Whan has spent the past decade working at the intersection of trauma-informed somatic practice, spiritual direction, and leadership development. His work has supported spiritual seekers, healers, therapists, founders, and artists in learning how to live in deeper relationship with God through bodies that once felt tense, guarded, or disconnected.
His approach is steady, precise, and deeply relational. Jake pays close attention to breath, micro-signals, and each person’s real-time capacity, creating a space where participants can open and process at a pace their nervous system can genuinely sustain. The work is never about pushing, but rather about helping the body rediscover safety and coherence from the inside out.
The Ascension Retreat emerged from years of witnessing how many thoughtful and spiritually attuned people still feel quietly alone within their own bodies. This container was created to offer a different experience - one where you are carefully guided, deeply supported, and not left to navigate the journey on your own.
Meet the world-class facilitators supporting you along your journey
The Ascension Retreat is held by a team of grounded, attuned facilitators who support the emotional, relational, spiritual, and logistical flow of the experience. Alongside Jake, each team member brings a distinct form of care so participants can feel deeply supported from arrival through integration.
Lilly
Lead Feminine Facilitator
Lilly Terry is a transformational coach and facilitator devoted to helping people reconnect with who they truly are. Her work blends emotional healing, subconscious transformation, embodiment, and spiritual exploration to release the patterns and conditioning that keep people stuck in fear, stress, and disconnection.
Known for her grounded presence and intuitive guidance, Lilly creates spaces where people can meet themselves with honesty, compassion, and curiosity — softening the defenses that have kept them disconnected from themselves and the people around them.
Drawing from 7 years of study in meditation, nervous system awareness, and consciousness work, Lilly helps participants uncover the beliefs shaping their lives and cultivate deeper self-trust and emotional freedom. She believes healing is less about becoming someone new and more about remembering who you've been all along.
John Paul is a transformational coach and men's empowerment guide who guides both men and woman deep into their body's to release subconscious patterning and claim their divine power.
John Paul
Masculine Support Facilitator
John Paul
Masculine Support Facilitator
Sarah
Feminine Support Facilitator
Sarah is a trauma-informed healing practitioner with over two decades of lived and professional experience at the intersection of chronic illness, nervous system regulation, and spiritual transformation. Drawing from her own profound healing journey — one that has taken her through autoimmune disease, chronic pain, and a complete rebuilding of body, identity, and purpose — she brings a quality of presence that is both deeply grounded and spiritually attuned.
As a feminine support facilitator, Sarah holds space for participants during breathwork, somatic, and energy work with a steady, compassionate attunement that honours each person's unique pace and capacity.
Taylor Lee is a conscious experience designer and facilitator with a passion cultivating environments where you feel truly held, seen, and connected. Her work is to ensure each element of the retreat experience is intentionally curated to serve the purpose of connecting you with your inner guidance so you can live your soul’s unique mission in life.
Taylor
Retreat Success Facilitator
Meet the world-class facilitators supporting you along your journey
The Ascension Retreat is held by a team of grounded, attuned facilitators who support the emotional, relational, spiritual, and logistical flow of the experience. Alongside Jake, each team member brings a distinct form of care so participants can feel deeply supported from arrival through integration.
Lilly
Lead Feminine Facilitator
Lilly Terry is a transformational coach and facilitator devoted to helping people reconnect with who they truly are. Her work blends emotional healing, subconscious transformation, embodiment, and spiritual exploration to release the patterns and conditioning that keep people stuck in fear, stress, and disconnection.
Known for her grounded presence and intuitive guidance, Lilly creates spaces where people can meet themselves with honesty, compassion, and curiosity — softening the defenses that have kept them disconnected from themselves and the people around them.
Drawing from 7 years of study in meditation, nervous system awareness, and consciousness work, Lilly helps participants uncover the beliefs shaping their lives and cultivate deeper self-trust and emotional freedom. She believes healing is less about becoming someone new and more about remembering who you've been all along.
John Paul
Masculine Support Facilitator
John Paul is a transformational coach and men's empowerment guide who guides both men and woman deep into their body's to release subconscious patterning and claim their divine power.
Sarah
Feminine Support Facilitator
Sarah is a trauma-informed healing practitioner with over two decades of lived and professional experience at the intersection of chronic illness, nervous system regulation, and spiritual transformation. Drawing from her own profound healing journey — one that has taken her through autoimmune disease, chronic pain, and a complete rebuilding of body, identity, and purpose — she brings a quality of presence that is both deeply grounded and spiritually attuned.
As a feminine support facilitator, Sarah holds space for participants during breathwork, somatic, and energy work with a steady, compassionate attunement that honours each person's unique pace and capacity.
Taylor
Retreat Success Facilitator
Taylor Lee is a conscious experience designer and facilitator with a passion cultivating environments where you feel truly held, seen, and connected. Her work is to ensure each element of the retreat experience is intentionally curated to serve the purpose of connecting you with your inner guidance so you can live your soul’s unique mission in life.
John Paul
Masculine Support Facilitator
Who this is for
This container is for you if you know you're here for a mission.
You know you're here to lead, serve, speak, build, heal, or create in a way that feels deeply true to who you are.
And yet, fully stepping into that truth has felt out of reach, because your body and soul are quietly carrying what has never been fully released.
This unprocessed weight has been dimming your trust in your own voice, pulling you away from your calling, and leaving you feeling disconnected from the clarity, peace, and joy that come from living in true alignment.
This retreat was created with one clear intention: to safely guide you through a deep emotional healing process so you can release what has been holding you back and return to yourself feeling grounded, open, and aligned with your soul.
Over 7 transformative days in Costa Rica, you will move through somatic healing experiences, breathwork journeys, emotional healing practices, integration sessions, and time in nature.
Jake and the retreat facilitators have done this work within themselves. They show up with the depth, care, and presence needed to hold space for deep transformation, so you can experience breakthrough after breakthrough, safely and at your own pace.
You will leave with:
Clarity around your soul-led mission and the unique gifts you are meant to share with the world
A regulated nervous system and the release of deep-seated emotions like shame and guilt, replaced by love, coherence, and clarity
A direct reconnection to your divine essence, remembering who you are, your connection to God, and the love you already hold within
A state of being fully alive in your true, authentic expression
A transformed life through somatic healing practices that clear the internal blockages that have previously held you back
If you feel called to be in this space, click the button below to reserve your spot:
From:
held back by energetic blocks
To:
living in your soul-led mission
The Ascension Retreat is a carefully facilitated 7-day experience designed to help you slow down, reconnect with your body, and release the emotional patterns that have been keeping you stuck.
This is not about escaping your life for a week. It is about creating the space to return feeling more connected to your body, more grounded in your truth, and more aligned with your purpose.
This work is deeply personal. Each person will move through the experience differently and receive the support they need along the way.
Before
Disconnected from your body or unsure how to feel grounded within yourself.
Carrying emotions that you have not yet had the space or support to process.
Caught in cycles of anxiety, tension, numbness, or shutdown.
Feeling out of balance within yourself and unsure how to return to center.
Connected to your purpose in your heart and mind, but disconnected from it in your body.
You have done a lot of inner work but still feel like something has not fully shifted.
Having meaningful insights but struggling to carry them into your daily life.
Mentally overstimulated and disconnected from what your body needs.
Craving deeper connection and lasting transformation.
During
Somatic healing experiences to help you reconnect with your body and feel more grounded within yourself.
Emotional healing practices to help you process what your body has been holding.
Breathwork journeys to regulate your nervous system.
Masculine and feminine embodiment practices to restore inner balance.
Group coherence practices that allow you to experience the power of being witnessed and supported.
1-to-1 hot-seat coaching for direct guidance around what is arising.
Integration circles that give your body space to absorb what has opened for you.
Time in nature to rest, reflect, and reconnect.
Shared meals and spacious moments to support connection and integration.
After
More grounded in your body and better able to make aligned decisions.
Lighter, clearer, and more available for the work you feel called to do.
Better able to stay grounded when stress, uncertainty, or discomfort arises.
More able to recognize what belongs to you and what you are ready to release.
More open to the love and guidance already within you.
More able to hold your mission with clarity and presence.
More able to turn insight into lasting change and live your mission consistently.
Know yourself on the deepest level and more connected to your inner guidance.
More able to turn spiritual insight into embodied action and live in deeper alignment with your authentic soul mission.
What you'll experience
There’s a noticeable difference between knowing your purpose and living it in an embodied, authentic way.
Spiritual insight alone can only take you so far. Before you can step fully into your mission, you need to process what your body has been carrying and bring your nervous system into a more regulated state. This is how you release the energetic blockages - stored emotions, fear, unprocessed grief, and survival responses - that are standing in the way of you living out your soul’s mission.
This work transforms your entire being, creating change at the level of your body, your nervous system, and your soul. As these shifts begin to take root, your purpose is no longer something you simply feel called toward, but something you fully embody.
You do not need to be perfectly healed before beginning to live your mission, but you will also not be able to sustainably serve others from a place of lack. The more grounded, regulated, and connected you become, the more naturally your service will flow - and the more aligned you'll be with your soul and mission. Doing the work on yourself first, and as a consistent, maintained practice, is what it means to be truly embodied.
Over the course of 7 days, you will move through transformational experiences designed to support your journey home, including:
Somatic Healing Experiences
You will be guided through practices that help you attune to what is happening within your body, allowing you to move beyond intellectual understanding and gain awareness of your emotional patterns and inner truth.
Emotional Healing Practices
You will be safely guided to feel and release stored emotions from your body at your own pace.
Breathwork Journeys
Breathwork will be used as a pathway into deeper connection, emotional release, and inner clarity.
These journeys will take place in the yoga shala, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Costa Rican jungle.
Masculine and Feminine Embodiment Practices
You will explore practices that support a healthier relationship with your inner masculine and feminine energies, noticing where you may be overcontrolling, overgiving, holding back, or struggling to receive.
Group Coherence Practices
There is something deeply powerful about healing in community. You will have opportunities to witness others, be witnessed in your own process, and experience the reminder that you are never alone on this journey.
1-to-1 Hot-Seat Coaching
You will have opportunities to receive direct coaching from Jake and guidance from the facilitation team around what is arising for you.
These moments create space for personal insight, reflection, and deeper support within the group container.
Integration Circles
The retreat is not designed to move from one intense experience into the next without room to breathe.
Integration circles give you the space to process what is unfolding, reflect on what you are learning, and allow your nervous system to settle before moving forward.
Questions with Jake
There will be space to ask questions, receive guidance, and explore how the work relates to your life, relationships, purpose, and spiritual path.
Family Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners
Each day, you will share nourishing meals with the group.
Breaking bread together, slowing down, laughing, reflecting, and simply being with one another are part of what makes the experience feel human, grounded, and whole.
Nature Excursions
You will step outside the retreat center and spend time in the surrounding land.
Planned excursions include:
Whale’s Tail Beach
Uvita Waterfall
The retreat center is also located near a river that leads toward the ocean, giving you space to reflect, rest, and integrate between sessions.
Sep 26 to Oct 2, 2026
Synergy in Uvita, Costa Rica
Stories from past participants
Hear directly from those who brought their guarded hearts, tender stories, and hungry souls into this space.
"It felt like home."
It felt amazing to be held and guided and to feel the support and the love. Just being with all these amazing people andjust knowing that you're not alone. Everyone is just so kindand the support and love here is just something that Ihaven't felt in a really long time. It felt like home. It was all just an all around amazing experience.
– Rachel Rowley, Utah
"It felt like a deeply personal experience"
The moment that something truly shifted was during the Q&A. I brought up some of my history and how it's beenimpacting me recently. It was really a transformational experience.
– Steve Sapourn, Colorado
"It's beyond words."
...my connection to God, how it was before and how it's now is completely the opposite than it was. Not being connected to my heart, to my body, and now I can truly sense the God in me, in each one of us that attended, or in each human being everywhere.
– Nik, Slovenia
Jake is a wonderful healer and holder of space. He is very professional while also being personal, getting into the deeper 'issues' of others/opening up their heart more. I really appreciated the Q&A. Although I did not participate directly, the community watching witness and involvement as a helping healer was EXTREMELY powerful for me. Overall: this retreat and community feels written in the stars for me. It has been amazing to connect with other in this way. I truly will remember this as one the best things I have ever invested in myself. I feel a deeper knowing of who I am. I feel more confident in my path (especially because my 3D is so up in the air rn). Everyone was safe and high vibrating. I have reached areas of my soul I did not know were possible - from inner child to Yesus to even connecting to a past life/ancestor.
I feel even more deeply connected to God. I feel how easy and effortless it is to call on and receive clear, loving guidance from God in any given moment. I felt so held, safe, and supported in this space. There was room for all emotions without judgement. This experience has already been a major catalyst for me. I didn’t leave feeling refreshed or renewed as I thought I would. It opened old wounds and shined light on places I was hiding from. It has convicted me to walk my path with even greater faith and devotion. I’m grateful and excited for this next chapter of my life where I am more deeply aligned and of service. Thank you for a beautiful initiation.
There were many moments things shifted for me, all the exercises taught me a lesson. The most profound experience I had though was through the breathwork when I got to the part of me that really needed help. Giving love to my inner child and being a vessel to release generational trauma on my Native American side of the family has finally given me peace in my life. Now I feel I can finally live in alignment with my life’s purpose, whatever that may be. This retreat is for everyone. Everyone needs to realize how special they are how much they matter. We are in a middle of a spiritual war right now and experiences like this is what is going to save this earth. These types of experiences teaches others that we are all connected and that God is within all of us.
what it felt like to experience this retreat
Where you'll stay
Everything is taken care of so you can stay present, grounded, and focused on the work you came here to do.
Eco-Luxury Lodging at Synergy Costa Rica
During the retreat, you’ll be staying at Synergy Costa Rica, a luxurious eco-retreat center in Uvita, surrounded by lush jungle, ocean air, and peaceful natural beauty.
You’ll have the option of a private or shared room, depending on your preference. Each room is designed to support deep rest and comfort, and includes:
Air conditioning
Private bathroom
Fresh linens
Access to the peaceful grounds and natural surroundings
Your environment is part of the experience. You’ll be held in a space designed for rest, reflection, connection, and renewal.
Organic Chef-Prepared Meals
You’ll be nourished with thoughtfully prepared meals by a professional chef using fresh, local, and organic ingredients, designed to support your body throughout the retreat experience.
Investment
Ascension Retreat
September 26 to October 2, 2026
Synergy in Uvita, Costa Rica
Private Room
Ascension University Members: $5,200
General Admission: $5,500
Shared Room
Ascension University Members: $4,700
General Admission: $5,000
Payment Plans
Payment plans are available.
Please reach out to discuss an option that feels right for you.
Location & retreat space
Logistics & frequently asked questions
You are wise to be thoughtful about where you bring your body, your story, and your spirit.
The Ascension Retreat is designed to be a deeply supportive experience from the moment you arrive. Below, you will find clear answers to the most common questions about meals, lodging, travel, and what to expect during your time in Costa Rica.
Nourishment, Rest, and Support
Each day, you will be nourished with local, organic meals, along with organic smoothies and desserts.
Meals will be shared as a group, creating space for connection, laughter, conversation, and rest between sessions. Dietary preferences can be accommodated, and you will be invited to share your needs in your intake form before the retreat.
While the experience is intentionally immersive, your days will also include space to pause. You may spend time by the river, rest in your room, connect with nature, or simply be with yourself.
Where is the retreat taking place?
The retreat will be held at Synergy in Uvita, Costa Rica.
Which airport should I fly into?
Please fly into San José International Airport.
How will I get to the retreat center?
A shuttle bus will pick up participants from San José International Airport at 1:00 p.m. on September 26 and bring the group directly to the retreat center.
How will I return to the airport?
The return shuttle will leave the retreat center at 9:30 a.m. on October 2 and bring participants back to San José International Airport.
Some participants may choose to stay an additional night in San José and fly home on October 3.
What transportation is included?
Transportation during the retreat is included. Flights are not included.
Can I extend my stay?
Yes. You may extend your stay at the retreat center through October 9 for $137 per night, plus tax.
What is included in the retreat investment?
Your investment includes the full retreat experience: all teachings, somatic healing experiences, emotional healing practices, breathwork journeys, embodiment practices, group coherence work, hot-seat coaching, integration circles, nature excursions, organic meals, smoothies, desserts, lodging, and transportation during the retreat.
What is not included?
Flights are not included. Any additional nights outside the retreat dates are also separate.
What are the room options?
You may choose between a private room and a shared room. You will have your own bed with either option.
Can dietary preferences be accommodated?
Yes. You will be asked to share any dietary preferences in your intake form so your needs can be thoughtfully accommodated.
Do I need experience with breathwork or spirituality?
No prior experience is required.
Whether you are just beginning or already deep on your path, the retreat is designed to meet you where you are. You will be guided with clarity, care, and presence throughout the experience.
What if I feel nervous about group settings?
It is completely normal to feel some hesitation about being in a group environment. The Ascension Retreat is designed to be a grounded and supportive place to begin feeling more comfortable in your own body and in shared space with others. Many of the practices are inward and reflective, including closed-eye breathwork and somatic exercises that allow you to stay connected to your own experience.
You are always invited to participate at the pace that feels right for you. Vulnerability naturally grows over the weekend as trust develops, but there is never pressure to share or open beyond what feels genuine. The group container is intentionally held to be respectful, supportive, and safe.
Throughout the retreat, we also explore practices that help expand your confidence in group settings. The intention is not only to help you feel at ease with others, but to nurture your ability to show up fully, trust yourself, and bring your unique gifts forward in the world.
Are payment plans available?
Yes. Please reach out to Jake to discuss payment-plan options.
What is the refund and cancellation policy?
Due to the intimate nature of the retreat, payments are non-refundable.
If something unexpected arises and you need to cancel, you may request to transfer your tuition to a future retreat up to 30 days before the retreat begins.
Within 30 days of the retreat, transfer requests are handled on a case-by-case basis, with care for both capacities.
How many spots are available?
The Ascension Retreat Costa Rica container is limited to 21 participants.
If your body is asking for this, listen.
You do not need to force a decision.
You do not need to have every question answered before you take the next step.
But if you know you are here for a mission, and something within you is asking for the space to release what has been holding you back, listen.