Juan Pablo Barahona Fernández is a Costa Rican businessman who, for years, has cultivated an image as a spiritual guide in the tourism sector in the Quepos and Savegre areas, as well as throughout the country and internationally. He presents himself publicly as a transformational leader, holistic yoga instructor, healer, and coach, and is the founder of platforms with international reach through which he claims to have guided thousands of people through personal development processes.
Together with his wife, from whom he is currently separating, he owned the resort complex The Nest, located in El Silencio de Savegre, in Quepos. The resort operates as a “sanctuary” for luxury private retreats, aimed, according to its own advertising, at “visionaries, leaders, and seekers” willing to pay for intensive personal transformation experiences. Its offerings include sacred ceremonies, somatic work, guided breathing, energy-unblocking therapies and sound healing sessions, among other modalities.
To provide these services, The Nest employs a team of therapists and practitioners. Among them was Wendy Villanueva Campos, a massage therapist, who on February 11 of this year filed a complaint against Barahona with the Quepos District Attorney’s Office, alleging 43 counts of sexual abuse against adults. She claims that for two years, he subjected her to a systematic pattern of pressure, manipulation, and threats related to her job to force her to perform sexual massages on him against her will. The investigation is being processed under case number 26-000077-1890-PE.
Interferencia contacted Barahona, who, in response, forwarded messages in which a person identifying herself as his attorney, whose last name is Peña, addressed the journalist.
Later, from a different number, that person contacted this media outlet, asked not to be named, but stated that she was a family law attorney and added that her client was unaware of the aforementioned complaint and had not been charged by the Prosecutor’s Office in connection with any complaint.
To date, Barahona is a well-known figure in his field. He presents himself as the founder of The Quantum Flow Membership, a membership program he describes as a community focused on weekly practices for reconfiguring the nervous system. According to its promotional materials, this program aims to help people improve various areas of their lives through personal development processes, group support, and exercises geared toward emotional and spiritual well-being.
One example of his work is the “Art of Living” retreat, scheduled for June 21–26, 2026, at Blue Spirit Retreat (a retreat center) in Nosara. In the promotion for this event, which is also shared on his social media, Barahona presents himself as a facilitator of a space focused on personal reconnection through yoga, mantras, harmonization practices, and an ancestral cacao ceremony. The event is described as an experience to “open the heart,” reconnect with vital energy, and develop a more mindful life.
When asked about the situation, Yatzo Líos, the event’s general manager, expressed surprise and stated that she had no knowledge whatsoever of the criminal complaint alleging sexual abuse against Juan Pablo. Líos emphatically clarified that the accused is not part of the retreat’s team of facilitators or instructors, but is formally registered as a regular guest who paid in full for his attendance. His only scheduled participation consists of a single cacao ceremony that he himself offered free of charge and voluntarily as a gift to the retreat—a contribution that the organization accepted.
Juan Pablo Barahona will participate in a cacao ritual in Nosara.
A forced routine
Wendy is 43 years old, a nursing student, and works as a massage therapist. As she explained in an interview with Interferencia on Radios UCR, she is the mother of a girl with a congenital heart defect, diagnosed at birth, which forced her to put her studies on hold and turn to massage therapy to financially support her daughter’s care.
She began working with Barahona and his ex-wife in late 2021, after her sister—who, as she noted in the interview, “didn’t know Juan Pablo was like that”—recommended her when the couple was looking for a trusted therapist.
According to the account in the criminal complaint, during 2022, Villanueva treated the couple without incident over the course of about ten sessions. The breakdown occurred on May 26, 2023, when Barahona asked her for the first time to massage his intimate area, arguing that he had “a lot of accumulated energy in that area” and “pressure in the genital area” that was affecting his sex life with his wife.
In the interview, Villanueva added that he justified the request with an alleged spiritual technique learned from “a master,” according to which stimulating certain genital areas helped a spiritual practitioner keep their energy “free of any burden that might hold them back spiritually.”
According to the complaint, when she refused, Barahona replied that she would then have to “find another massage therapist who could help him with his need.” Villanueva interpreted that response as an implicit threat of dismissal, but she continued with her normal work, she said.
The pressure was repeated on June 13, 2023, and, faced with his insistence and another reference to the possibility of letting her go, she agreed—though she set conditions: she would wear latex gloves and do it only that one time, partly because her daughter, who lacked her own immune system, could die from any infection she might transmit to her. Barahona reluctantly agreed, Wendy said.
She recounts having acted “against her will” and in a situation of “absolute vulnerability,” compounded by the fact that her daughter had just undergone heart surgery that had prevented her from working for weeks.
What Wendy believed would be a one-time exception turned into a forced routine. On November 16, 2023, Barahona again demanded that she perform the intimate massage, according to her testimony:
He asked me again to give him the intimate massage, saying that, even though I had made it clear during the previous session that I would do it only once, it hadn’t worked for him and he was still having sexual problems—that he couldn’t have sex with his wife—and that he felt a lot of hard lumps in his testicles. I was immediately frightened and became very nervous because I didn’t want to perform that intimate massage again—one I had felt compelled to do—so while I was giving the massage, I very subtly told Juan Pablo that I was sorry, but no, that I had been clear in stating that I don’t provide that service, that what happened in the previous session was an exception, and that I didn’t feel comfortable,” Wendy said.
Faced with her refusal, Barahona explicitly told her that he knew she was going through financial difficulties and that, if she couldn’t give him what he needed, “he would be forced to find a new massage therapist and that, starting today, she could no longer return to The Nest resort.”
According to Wendy, part of Barahona’s argument to convince her was that his wife was aware of the situation and in agreement, and that it was actually a “situation of necessity for the couple, given the sexual problems between him and his wife.”
According to the complaint, Barahona’s pressure reached a point where he told her directly: “Wendy, the thing is, I’m not going to be able to relax like this anymore; it’s not working for me,” insisting that he needed her to “help him.” Villanueva recounts that, although she felt she was “violating her ethical boundaries” and that deep down she did not want to repeat the intimate massage she had already been forced to perform once, she ended up agreeing again “while in a state of complete vulnerability.”
According to her account, she once again performed the massage on the perianal area, the perineum, the testicles, and the penis, without touching the head or the tip of the penis. The session left her “morally devastated and deeply shaken,” as she felt she was being forced to do something she never wanted to do and that Barahona, according to his own account, “was well aware” was against her will.
The mandatory twenty minutes
Starting in January 2024, according to the complaint, Barahona imposed a fixed condition that each session include twenty minutes of relaxing massage followed by an intimate massage. The complaint details specific dates between January 2024 and June 2025 when this occurred. In the interview, Villanueva added that on occasion he would call her to attend to him between clients at the retreats, when they only had thirty or forty minutes available, telling her: “It doesn’t matter, just give me the intimate massage and then we’ll see when you’ll give me the other one.”
According to the complaint, in March 2024, during one of those sessions, Barahona ejaculated. She describes being left in a state of shock. He apologized to her but begged her not to tell his wife and to continue giving him massages. According to the complaint, the ejaculation occurred again during several subsequent sessions, in some of which he explicitly asked her to “keep going” under threat of firing her if she stopped.
Villanueva stated that she repeatedly insisted to Barahona that his wife needed to be made aware of the situation, and that he responded by saying his wife knew “exactly what was going on” and was “very happy with the results,” even though Wendy later found out that his wife was unaware of the situation.
That situation took a heavy psychological toll on me, to the point where I had nightmares in which I was forced to have sex with him. I felt sexually abused and exploited; he was taking advantage of my financial situation—and, therefore, my vulnerability—to satisfy his sexual desires,” Wendy reported.
“Similarly, other uncomfortable things happened during every session—for example, he would walk around the room naked while playing music, drinking water, and answering messages, all right in front of me before starting the massage. Instead of going to the bathroom in the adjoining room, he would urinate off the room’s balcony, knowing that I could see him through the glass wall.”
The last session
On August 9, 2025, Wendy recalls, the last session took place. The appointment took place at Barahona’s apartment in Escazú and not at The Nest, since, as the complainant explains, he had suffered an accident that prevented him from traveling to the complex. “Before the session, I had sent Juan Pablo a message telling him that I was no longer going to give him intimate massages and that I wanted to let him know in advance,” she said.
“When I arrived, he was completely naked in the living room. Against my will, Juan Pablo hugged me tightly and pressed himself against me while completely naked, rubbing his penis against my legs. I felt uncomfortable and tried to push him away with my hands, but he grabbed me even tighter; pulled me closer to him, rubbed his penis against my legs even more, and immediately began laughing and saying, ‘Rocío (whom Wendy recalls as Juan Pablo’s personal assistant), take a picture of us—take a photo so you can send it to your boyfriend to make him jealous, a photo so he can see that you’re with a real man,’ she recounted in her complaint.
Villanueva explained in the interview that she decided to file the complaint after, during that last session in August 2025, she explicitly told Barahona that she didn’t want to continue doing what he was asking her to do, and he reacted, in her words, “violently” and “aggressively.” Before that, she had shared what was happening with her partner and her sister, who suggested she quit her job, but her daughter’s medical condition kept her financially dependent on that income. According to her account, she is currently receiving psychological counseling, and the District Attorney’s Office is also arranging for support in that area.
After that incident, Wendy decided to quit her job and, shortly afterward, told her ex-wife what had happened. According to her account, her ex-wife told her that she knew nothing about it, that she would never have condoned such behavior, and that the alleged “couple’s agreement” that Barahona had repeatedly invoked to pressure her never existed.
She told me that she knew absolutely nothing about this and that she would never have approved of or allowed this behavior—not only because it implied that he had been unfaithful, but also because he would have been abusing a service provider at The Nest. She apologized to me, even though it wasn’t her fault, and told me she would support me in whatever I needed. After that, I realized that all along Juan Pablo had lied to me about his wife’s alleged knowledge of the situation, which made it even more evident that what he forced me to do against my will was sexual abuse that went on for a long time,” the complainant said.
In an interview, Villanueva mentioned that she is aware of other alleged victims. She spoke of a massage therapist in a situation similar to her own and of a client who was allegedly assaulted after receiving a discount on a private session. According to her, testimonies from foreign women have also come to light.
Regarding her motivations for going public with the allegation, Villanueva was emphatic in the interview: “For me, it’s very important that people like Juan Pablo be barred from these kinds of events and activities where people—especially women—are so vulnerable,” she stated, adding that “we cannot continue to allow predators like him to act with impunity.”
Interferencia spoke with a person involved in the retreat community, whose identity is being withheld at their request. This person said that earlier this year, Wendy told her that Barahona had abused her.
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