Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm

Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm is a four-day healing retreat for women at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Led by Ann Saffi Biasetti, it draws on somatic practice and yoga to help women who live with disconnection, criticism, or conflict with their bodies build a kinder, more embodied relationship with them.

No prior experience with somatic work or yoga is needed. The retreat is open to women of all backgrounds and levels of embodied awareness.

What to Expect

The program treats embodiment as a way of reconnecting with the body as a source of wisdom, feeling, and aliveness. Over the retreat you look at how disconnection from the body develops, how healing becomes possible through presence and self-compassion, and how an embodied life can be sustained with gentleness and intention.

Sessions combine reflection, somatic practices, and gentle movement. Together you will:

- Explore the cultural, personal, and inherited experiences that shape body disconnection.
- Reconnect with your body and release old stories through Body Forgiveness.
- Build emotional resilience and self-compassion for working with grief, shame, regret, and self-blame.
- Learn how to sustain an embodied life through presence, community, and connection.

The aim is a lifelong relationship with your body that is rooted not in control or criticism, but in compassion, curiosity, and belonging.

The days follow the steady rhythm of Kripalu. Opening day begins with check-in from 2:00 pm, a Kripalu Yoga class from 4:45 to 6:00, dinner, and a first program session from 7:30 to 9:00 in the evening. On the days that follow, yoga class runs from 6:30 to 7:45 am, breakfast is taken in silence, and program sessions meet from 8:30 to 11:30 am and again from 1:00 to 4:30 pm, with lunch between them. Another yoga class comes at 4:45 before dinner, and Saturday adds an evening session from 7:30 to 9:00. On the closing day there is yoga, silent breakfast, and a final session from 8:30 am to noon, followed by lunch and departure. Actual times and room locations may shift, and the schedule given at check-in is the one to follow.

About Ann Saffi Biasetti

Ann Saffi Biasetti is the presenter of this retreat and the author of the book it is named for, Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm: A Somatic Guide to Forgiving and Healing Your Relationship with Your Body. The book is recommended reading for participants.

The Setting

Kripalu is a center for yoga and health in the Berkshires town of Stockbridge. Accommodations are intentionally simple, meant to help you unplug and feel grounded. You can choose a private single-occupancy room for solitude, or a community-style dormitory if you prefer connection during your stay. Rooms are ready by 4:00 pm, and a luggage room is available if you arrive earlier. Check-out on the last day is at 10:00 am, though you may stay on campus and take part in workshops until 2:00 pm.

Three meals a day are served, and breakfasts are held in silence.

Before You Go

Registration covers the program, three daily meals, more than ten yoga classes over the stay, and access to the Kripalu grounds and facilities. Accommodation is booked separately. Healing Arts sessions and items from the Kripalu Shop and Cafe are available for purchase. The retreat is taught in English.

Participants are encouraged to arrive a day early for a day of rest and relaxation, which also lets you experience the final day of Contemplative Week in silence.