The Hosts
The Pause is hosted by two practitioners with different backgrounds and a shared respect for precision, restraint, and depth.
Casey
Phenomenon
Casey is a yoga teacher and reiki practitioner, deeply experienced in holding space for rest, embodiment, and nervous system regulation.
She is also the owner of the boutique hotel where The Pause takes place, ensuring that the environment itself supports the intention of the experience.
Kevin
M.D.
Kevin is a medical doctor, formerly trained as a surgeon and now working in aesthetic medicine. Years of clinical experience have shaped a clear understanding of stress, recovery, aging, and the limits of constant intervention.
This perspective brings a grounded, evidence-based approach to the retreat, offering clarity without over-explanation.
Casey's story
I grew up in Texas and started my career in the tech industry, working in sales at early-stage startups. Over time, I moved from a sole contributor into sales leadership, helping build teams and scale revenue in fast-paced, high-growth environments. The work took me from Manhattan to Los Angeles to San Francisco. These were demanding ecosystems built around performance, momentum, and constant availability. For a long time, I lived very comfortably inside that rhythm.
Eventually, it became clear that the pace itself was shaping everything. How I moved through the day, how I related to my body, and how little space there was for anything unstructured. The pressure was subtle but continuous, and rest was something I postponed rather than practiced.
In 2020, I chose to pause.
I moved to Costa Rica and purchased Scarlet Villas , a small boutique hotel set in the jungle near the Pacific coast. What began as a change in location gradually became a shift in how I understood time, safety, and nervous system health. Removed from constant stimulation, my body began to settle in ways I hadn't known how to access before.
Alongside this transition, I deepened my work as a licensed yoga instructor and Reiki practitioner. My approach is quiet and non-directive, focused on creating the conditions in which the body can rest without being managed or pushed. I am less interested in effort, and more interested in what happens when effort is no longer required.
Within The Pause, my role is to hold the environment, physically and energetically. I pay close attention to rhythm, space, and tone, making sure the setting supports rest rather than demand. Practices are offered, not enforced. Silence is respected. Autonomy is central.
Owning and living at Scarlet Villas has taught me that place matters. The land, the light, the sounds of the jungle. All of it participates in the experience. When the environment is aligned, the nervous system responds naturally.
The Pause reflects my own turning point: the moment I realized that slowing down was not a loss of ambition, but a return to something essential.
Kevin's story
I am a medical doctor, originally trained as a transplant surgeon.
My early career was shaped by environments where precision, responsibility, and performance were non-negotiable. Lives depended on focus, speed, and control There was little room for anything else.
Over time, that intensity came with a cost.
After years in surgery, I transitioned into aesthetic medicine, where I now work with a very different relationship to time, the body, and care. While the setting changed, the underlying questions remained the same: how stress accumulates, how the nervous system adapts, and how the body signals when something is no longer sustainable.
Working closely with patients, often highly functional people themselves, made one thing clear: many of the issues we try to correct externally are rooted in chronic overload internally. No intervention, however precise, can fully compensate for a system that never truly comes to rest.
My move to Costa Rica was not an escape, but a pause.
Stepping out of high-pressure clinical environments (partially at least) and into a slower, more elemental setting fundamentally changed how I understand regulation, recovery, and health. Away from constant stimulation, the body recalibrates on its own terms. Sleep deepens. Breath slows. Attention widens.
This personal experience is central to The Pause.
My role within the retreat is to bring clarity without pressure. Offering an evidence-based understanding of stress, recovery, aging, and the nervous system, while respecting the fact that insight alone is rarely enough. What matters just as much is environment, rhythm, and the absence of unnecessary demand.
I don’t believe in fixing people.
I believe in creating the conditions in which the body can remember how to regulate itself.
The Pause reflects that belief, both professionally and personally.
