YOGA FOR SCOLIOSIS RETREAT
AT CENTRO SANTILLAN, SPAIN
POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19
Restore! Revitalize! Re-align!
Join innovative and experienced teacher, Alison West, director of Yoga Union and YU’s Posture, Backare & Scoliosis Center, for a unique experience of Yoga for Scoliosis. This is a rare opportunity to develop a sound practice for your back in an intimate and uplifting setting. Spend a refreshing week addressing your spinal asymmetry in a retreat center unique for the beauty of its fully equipped studio. Learn safe movements that can effectively reduce your pain, strengthen your back and help you with your curves, concavities and rotation of the spine. Explore how yoga can help re-pattern both your nervous system and your body’s mechanics to improve not only the health of your back but your overall quality of life. You will leave with new tools and feel empowered to practice safely on your own.
The enchanting Santillan resort is situated in the Andalusian Countryside embraced by quiet mountains with beautiful views of the Mediterranean. Enjoy delicious and healthful farm-to-table meals from the Center’s garden and local farmers. Swim in a salt water pool. Walk through Santillan’s lovely gardens or hike the nearby hills with their views out to sea. Indulge in the various kind of spa treatments or visit historic Malaga, with its Roman Theatre and stunning Moorish architecture or the spectacular caves at Nerja. Seville and Granada (Alahambra) are only a couple of hours away. Unencumbered by daily obligations, benefit from a deep mental and physical release that allows you to experience your practice in a new way. Make this commitment to yourself and see your spine change!
Full information package available.
Click here to email us your request.
Rest Rejuvenate Recalibrate
Re-integrate Re-align
Yoga Union, located in Manhattan and considered to be one of the most beautiful Yoga studios in NY, has the largest dedicated Yoga for Backcare and Scoliosis Program in the world with the most far-reaching program. It holds an annual Certification Program for teachers with Alison West and Kaitlyn Hipple, as well as classes, workshops, programs and series that support those in pain.
From Healing to Health
Because we have both a Backcare and a General Yoga program, our students can go from healing to health. Many students graduate from their back pain, postural issues and other problems into our regular Yoga program, taught by some of the same teachers teaching in the Backcare Center.
Our motto is “Conscious Movement, Conscious Life.”
The same awareness developed by paying attention to how the body moves
and breathes can be applied to life and how we live it.
PRICES
$500 secures your spot ($600 for single room).
Full payment due within four weeks of deposit. Save $300 with early bird!
Prices are based on double occupancy.
If you would like a private room, there is an additional charge of $350.
Early bird: Double (Shared) $2100. After December 15, $2400
Early bird: Single $2450. After December 15, $2750
• These prices include your deposit, your room, meals and Yoga classes.
• Not-included are flights, extra-curricular activities such as excursions, spa services, tips and transport to/from Malaga airport or other arrival points.
If you are travelling with someone and want to be in the same room, make sure to say so.
We will do our best to accommodate you.
Email us with SANTILLAN SCOLIOSIS RETREAT ROOM REQUEST in the subject line.
Refund Policy in the event of an emergency
- Deposit is non-refundable.
- Cancellation by February 20: full refund, excluding deposit and minus a 5% processing fee.
- Cancellation between February 20-March 20: 50% refund, excluding deposit and minus 5%
processing fee.
- Cancellation after March 20: no refund.
Please note: Centro Santillan does not offer Yoga Union refunds after March 20. Consequently, Yoga Union is not in a position to offer refunds. Make sure to get your travel insurance and send us a copy. Santillan requires that all participants get travel insurance for flights and retreat.
Don't wait to sign up!
And make your flight reservations now!
Full and final payment for all bookings is due by Monday, March 20, 2020
YOUR DESTINATION!
Centro Santillan is a hillside Yoga and Wellness Center with outstanding sea views on the Costa del Sol, 30 minutes east of Malaga. The spacious, state-of-the art yoga studio, designed and propped by Simon Low of The Yoga Academy and Adriana Marchini, features The Great Yoga Wall and is born out of an understanding of teachers’ and guests’ needs for an optimum environment and healing experience.
YOUR CENTRO SANTILLAN
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
- Group check-in after 3:30 pm June 20, 2020.
Rooms are not guaranteed available prior to 3:30 pm.
- Group check-out by 10:00 am June 27, 2020 (you can still enjoy the pool and gardens until 1pm)
There is no morning class on the day of departure, as many have to leave very early, including your group leader.
If you wish to stay at Centro Santillan for any additional days, contact them directly to check availability and make your reservation (contact info below). You are responsible, in this case, for the cost of your room and meals for the additional days you are staying. It is not always possible, as there are groups both before and after our retreat, limiting availability.
For all information regarding flights, travel agents, and much more, email us with subject line 'SPAIN SCOLIOSIS RETREAT INFORMATION.’
YOUR TEACHER
Alison West, Ph.D, ERYT, C-IAYT an international workshop and retreat presenter, is director of Yoga Union and the Yoga Union Posture, Backcare & Scoliosis Center, and a Yoga Journal presenter and writer. A published art historian before devoting her life to Yoga, she established Yoga Union in 1996. It is home to a highly regarded alignment Yoga program for beginners to Level 4 students, as well as the largest Yoga for posture, backcare, herniation & scoliosis program in the world. Alison was drawn to working with back issues through Yoga both because of the need demonstrated by students and also because Yoga offers such a holistic approach, engaging the whole body, mind and breath to promote healing. Her own mother has marked scoliosis and she herself has mild scoliosis. Helping students find relief from pain and a new sense of balanced posture and spinal health is a deep reward and a calling.
Yoga Union offers rigorous 200/500 Hour Teacher Trainings, a 120-Hour Backcare & Scoliosis Certification program, as well as both Ropes & Slings and Chair Yoga Certification programs. Alison is grateful to the wonderful teachers who grace Yoga Union with their exceptional talent and inquisitive minds, and to the students who brighten the studio with their enthusiasm and hard work. For more, see http://www.yogaunion.com/alisonwest.
Yoga Journal recently released her online Yoga for Back Health course to help those in need who are unable to come to NYC. If you would like to sign up for the course, click on Yoga for Back Health or copy and paste this link: https://bit.ly/2KfrvoD. The course is not a substitute for in person work, but it will help you understand fundamental issues and allow you to start practicing.
Use this discount code for $50 off: AlisonSaves.
To see Alison’s other articles for Yoga Journal click here.
A few testimonials about our retreat at Santillan 2019
I enjoyed Santillan so much ... that I am going back next year! High up on a mountain top, it is a true yoga retreat. The beautiful pictures cannot convey how enveloped you are in a natural environment. I felt like I was in a bird sanctuary. It was extraordinary. I also want to give a thanks to a cooking staff who took care of my special dietary needs. The entire staff interacted with us on a human and sincere level.
The modern yoga studio looks out over the Mediterranean and, when not being used for class, it is open for private practice and meditation.
The best part was being with Alison West, a master yogi and pioneer in yoga for scoliosis and back care for an entire week! She is a caring and sharing teacher who creates a collegial learning environment. By the end, I felt like all the participants were great friends on a wonderful renewed path of yoga.
~ Yoga for Backcare & Scoliosis Teacher Kristine Kuolt
My many Sunday classes of Yoga for Herniation & Posture classes at Yoga Union with Kristen Woods & Christy Kokami inspired me to take the Yoga retreat in the mountains of Malaga. The excursion was lead by their teacher, Alison West; the Director of Yoga Union in New York City. I
say “inspired” because back pain had been part of my life for the past nineteen years. Physical
training usually helped, but after a few years it would be back and, this time, PT was not helping.
Honestly, after a few sessions at Yoga Union, I became a follower.
So, when I heard about this trip to Spain on the southern coast with Alison West, I was driven to
make this my summer vacation in a beautiful environment with gorgeous views and sounds of
nature.
I could go on about my experience but to tell you this trip has changed my life is amazing to
me. I am awake to things in my life that I was completely incapable of changing. Alison is quite
an experience. Her years of study along with her ability to guide us as unique people with our
own issues is more than unusual. It was a great experience!!
And a truly beautiful place to be with a group of people who were all dedicated to the experience.
~ Patty Arnold
Ma très chère Alison,
Je voudrais encore une fois te te dire combien je suis touchée et reconnaissante pour tout l'enseignement que tu m'as transmis avec passion et grande générosité. Je ne te remercierais jamais assez de m'avoir fait prendre conscience de ce qui se passait dans mon corps...depuis des années je m'interrogeais sur ces douleurs chroniques que je n'arrivais pas à soigner malgré la pratique, malgré ma sadhana, malgré de nombreux workshops de Yoga dédiés aux problèmes de dos et de nombreuses heures de recherche; de visites infructueuses chez les médecins, rhumatologue, kinésithérapeute, ostéopathe, acupuncteur!
Pour tout t'avouer, quelques temps avant de te rencontrer j'avais décidé de renoncer à pratiquer et enseigner le Yoga...Tout arrêter...Tout arrêter alors que le Yoga est avec moi depuis l'enfance, qu'il fait partie de moi, alors que j'avais prévu ma reconversion professionnelle : Faire le grand saut et quitter mon travail de publicitaire depuis plus de 20 ans pour enfin réaliser mon RÊVE ,celui d'ouvrir mon studio de Yoga et d'enseigner à plein temps. Mon rêve se transformait en cauchemar.
Et puis, notre rencontre, ce premier jour à Gironne ou je suis arrivée recroquevillée par la douleur incommensurable. Tu m'as regardé en disant "ah pour un prof de Yoga ... se tenir comme cela... c'est curieux! " Cela faisait un mois que j'étais en crise aiguë...que rien ne soulageait, je ne pouvais plus enseigner.
Tu as immédiatement pris soin de moi comme un oiseau blessé. Il a suffit d'une posture supta baddha konasana pour tracter la colonne vertébrale et je me sentais déjà mieux! Les jours suivants, la douleur à diminuée progressivement.
Puis tu m'as soutenu dans mon désire de revenir en Espagne pour une retraite de Yoga à Malaga [...]c'était comme une évidence de dire oui!
A Malaga, suspendu dans un havre de paix au promontoire de la montagne, jours après jours, grâce à ton accompagnement et à ton enseignement pour "garder une colonne vertébrale neutre", les douleurs ont complètement disparues!
Je n'oublierais jamais le jour ou tu m'as dis cette magnifique métaphore pour redresser mes épaules : "vole petit Papillon, vole" [Barbara wears a beautiful antique butterfly pendant at her sternal notch]. Tu m'as fait pousser des ailes et depuis je pense avoir pris mon envole sans le fardeau de la douleur...légère très légère je suis devenue.
Cette phrase j'en ai fais mon MANTRA, elle me donne de la force et du courage pour continuer à aller plus loin et toujours plus haut.
Ce pendentif que je porte toujours sur moi, tu en a fais un talisman, tu y as insuffler de la vie. Merci.
"Il n'y a pas de hasard, il n'y a que des rendez-vous" Paul Eluard Tendresse
~ Barbara Abbes
Student from Tunisia, who decided to join retreat after her weekend with me in Girona.
About our Blue Osa Costa Rica retreat, April 2018
“My expectations were to spend a lot of time doing yoga and enjoy a luxury resort. Yes, the yoga
far exceeded my expectations. Alison, Kristen and Kaitlyn are amazing. I could not have expected
such profoundly healing yoga from such amazing women. Truly, I was blown away.”
“I had never been to a yoga retreat before- so had no expectations. But everything was just perfect-
so clearly met and exceeded my expectations.”
“The focus on true alignment, back care, chronic health & pain issues was a dream for me. I loved
that it was more about form and healing than about flow and intense yoga. I was completely out of
shape on arrival and did not feel judged or overwhelmed by the content of the class or that
everyone was in such great shape:)”
“What I like best about the yoga classes--personal progress achieved through intensive practice.”