Workshop led by Certified Trainers, Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan.
Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth and Living Out Loud:
8-Day Intensive Radical Honesty Workshop in Tegueste, North Tenerife, Canary Islands
Join Radical Certified Radical Honesty Trainers Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan for this fun, intense, and truly transformational immersive experience on the sunny island of Tenerife in Spain!
**This workshop is FULL - email info@honestyeurope.com to join the Waitlist
Authentic Connection
The key to intimacy is honesty. Learn the core honesty skills as a way to transform yourself and your relationships.
Transformational Communication
Clear and direct communication is a game-changer. Learn the tools to resolve conflict both within yourself and with others.
Self-expression & Self-compassion
Discover what wants to be expressed moment-to-moment while cultivating the tools for self-compassion.
A Supportive Environment
There are so few places where you can be your FULL self. Use this supportive environment to discover who you really are in the moment and emerge a changed person.
The Immersive Experience
There's nothing like the full-time, communal experience of a Radical Honesty immersive workshop. To really see yourself anew, notice how you've held yourself back, and relearn how to connect authentically with others, you need time, community, and great facilitators.
Throughout your 9 days at the workshop, Tuulia and Pete will lead the group through a series of learnings in Radical Honesty, including honesty skills training, lectures, paired and group exercises, hot seat work, couple's work, meditation and movement, naked work, and life stories.
At a beautiful villa on the island of Tenerife you can:
Enjoy the sunshine and warmth of the Canary Islands.
Connect in a deep way with others.
Talk about the things that are shameful or embarrassing or difficult for you to talk about.
Experience compassion.
Learn to express whatever arises in you in the moment: excitement, fear, anger, attraction, appreciation, embarrassment, happiness.
Experience the sensations in your body as they arise.
Learn and practice being present in the here and now.
Watch this video to hear us (and others) talking about the RH 8-day intensive workshop:
ARE YOU READY TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?
Learn to:
Let go of shame, fear and attachment to approval
Be completely and compassionately honest
Get out of your comfort zone
Share with others - laugh out loud, cry and yell, smile and dance
Ask for everything you want; expand your ability to give & receive
Heal relationships with full-body forgiveness
9 days and 8 nights
The retreat will take place at a large, historic Tenerife style villa, which has cozy bedrooms, a large outdoor area, terraces, and outdoor swimming pool.
With lots of room to spread out and lots of privacy, we’ll have plenty enough space to dance, laugh, yell and cry to our heart’s content!
In other words, we’ll have everything you need in terms of comfort for a successful transform-your-life-for-the-better workshop! During the afternoon breaks, you can dip into the pool, lounge on a terrace, stroll through the groves or meander along the rural area and the hills starting from our back yard.
The leaders of the workshop will be Certified Radical Honesty Trainers Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan. They will be assisted by Radical Honesty Trainer Candidate. We will also have a cook preparing our meals and another staff member helping the cook.
(Note: If you’re interested in participating in a future Radical Honesty Trainer’s Training, attendance at an RH 8-Day Intensive Workshop is a prerequisite for attending the TT.)
Brad Blanton—Radical Honesty founder—says this about the 8-day intensive workshop:
“The 8-Day workshop is an experiential course in living out loud, increasing your capacity for intimacy and creativity, and living your life on purpose, instead of residing in the jail of your mind and reacting to life’s circumstances while believing you’re in control.
“In our workshops, we get together to make some agreements about what we will do together for the next nine days. One of the most important agreements is that we will tell the truth to each other completely for the next nine days. If that was all that occurred, and there were no other agenda whatsoever, the course would be powerful because the power of that agreement alone is incredible.”
What is the program?
We will begin each day with about 20 minutes of conscious movement and 20 minutes of meditation, followed by breakfast and a morning session of teaching, group conversations and paired exercises. We will then have a healthy lunch and an afternoon siesta. After the break, we will continue working with “hot seat” work, teaching, meditation, movement or dancing, and more paired and small group exercises. At around 20:00, we’ll eat dinner.
After dinner, one by one, each person will spend about 45 minutes telling the whole story of his or her life, and this will be video recorded. By the time the workshop has ended, each participant will have told their own life story and will have heard the telling of everyone else’s. Each person will also receive a copy of the recording of them telling their story. They can later watch their video with their parents, (ex-)spouses, siblings, lovers and friends with whom they have unfinished business in life and use the video-watching as a way to start honest conversations.
On about the fifth day, we’ll all get naked. This work will be video recorded. One at a time we’ll stand in front of the group and talk about what we like and don’t like about our body. We will also tell our sexual histories: when we first discovered we were a sexual being, when we first masturbated, how and with whom we like to have sex, how many sexual partners we’ve had, our favorite and least favorite sexual experiences, and so on. Though we’ll probably get embarrassed, with good coaching and complete sharing of the truth and support from the group we will face our shame/fears/taboos—and get over them.
People often presume this will be some sort of “sexy” experience. Usually, the experience is anything but sexy. Mostly the naked work is about embarrassment and shame and suffering—and about how our avoidance of those aspects of ourselves often controls our lives. Quite often, the participants who, beforehand, scare themselves the most about doing this exercise are the very ones who benefit the most from it!
Then, together, we’ll review the videos of our naked work. One by one, each person will sit in front of a television screen and observe his/her video while receiving feedback about it. For some people, the process of watching oneself on a television screen, naked, while talking about his/her sex life can be a more confrontational process than the original experience of standing naked before the group. Again, the willingness to face the experience and live through it can provide a decrease in the intensity of the sensations related to shame/embarrassment and a change in perspective on one’s own life in the direction of compassion for oneself as well as compassion for others. And then, most likely, we’ll appreciate ourselves and others for doing this work and live more fulfilling lives with less shame about ourselves and our bodies.
Just as with the life story video, each participant will receive a copy of their naked work video to share with others in his or her life. (And the original files of those recordings will then be deleted.)
As you can imagine, by the sixth or seventh day, people will have gotten to know themselves and each other pretty well. What happens—and it happens again and again with very diverse groups of people—is pretty much the same each time: Everyone falls in love with everyone else. Now, isn’t that a hell of a thing? Imagine all the time and energy we have wasted putting on acts and pretending who we are in hopes that others would love us for our performance, when actually what we needed all along was to drop the act and tell the truth—and be ourselves!
Brad Blanton says this about the lead trainers:
“If you do a workshop with Tuulia, it’ll change your life. […] Pete is a calm, level-headed and compassionate trainer. He’s a good listener and has a great ability to stay present and focused.”
Some past participants have expressed this about our Radical Honesty 8-day workshops:
“I judge this workshop to be one of the best things I’ve done so far in the area of life improvement (and I’ve done some). I feel tempted to say ‘life changing’ as I now navigate through the world with a sense of freedom & expansion unknown to me before. I felt very safe & seen during the entire, very intense time. I judge Tuulia & Pete to be highly competent coaches and inspiringly authentic.” --Silke
“After having already done a few Radical Honesty workshops, the 8-day intensive went much deeper and showed me even more than before what stories I tell myself to make myself unhappy. By being in this environment for a longer amount of time and with the closeness created in the group, I took a big step in knowing who I really am and daring to show myself.” --Arjen
“I appreciate the way Tuulia and Pete masterfully held the space during workshop sessions, allowing each of us to explore and express what was coming up for us. They both have changed my life for the better, and I am so grateful! I hope to follow in their footsteps and use Radical Honesty someday to support others while living out my wildest dreams.”
--Chelsea
“I attended two intensive 8-day retreats with Tuulia and Pete. Both have been very powerful experiences that changed my life profoundly. I cried, laughed, shook, danced, shouted, cuddled, whispered, sang. I told the story of my life and was naked with people I had met only a few days before. And I survived. And I fell in love with these strangers. And I fell in love with myself. Today, I breathe and live more freely. Thank you.” –Participant
Tenerife
During our stay, the weather is expected to be very pleasant with temperatures ranging between 15 and 23 degrees. If you choose to stay longer in Tenerife, you’ll have a variety of options for things to do. A major attraction is the Teide National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and its 17-km-wide volcanic crater. The Mount Teide volcano rises 3,718 meters above sea level and a cable car lifts visitors 1,200 meters to a spot that affords amazing views. There are many hiking possibilities in Teide as well as along the island’s coastline. You can also visit tropical gardens, go on a whale and dolphin watching tours, view interesting architecture, visit beautiful historic towns and, of course, play in the surf and lay on the beach.
Our Lovely Villa!
Our lovely villa Finca de Picacho dates back to 1876. The five buildings are characteristic of the culture and architecture of Tenerife. The finca is located in a 60.000 m2 ground with private trail that elapses inside untill the Picacho de los Lázaros top, natural setting rich in Canary flora and fauna in an vineyards, fruits and traditional agriculture environment .
The resort is located in the Pico Bermejo between Tejina and Tegueste villages, in the municipality of La Laguna.
We can enjoy sunshine all day in the big garden. You can swim in a swimming pool and enjoy your breaks in the lounge chairs and play table tennis. The property consist of five buildings and a dining hall. In total, the finca has 9 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.
The villa is close to the Anaga nature reserve (Biosphere Reserve) with many walking and hiking routes. We are about 3 kilometers away from Bajamar and Punta del Hidalgo beaches. Walking routes to the Picacho de los Lázaros start from our back yard.
Weather
During our stay, the weather in Tenerife is expected to be very pleasant with the average temperatures ranging between 15 and 22 degrees Celsius. Evenings will be chillier.
Lodging
The accommodation will be in two-person bedrooms.
When does the workshop begin and end?
The workshop will begin at 17:00 on Friday 1 March 2024 and will finish at around 13:00 on Saturday 9 March.
Make sure you can arrive on time and stay the full duration of the workshop.
Can I stay a little longer?
Yes! If you want to arrive a day early (checking in at 18:00 on 28 February) or depart a day later (checking out at 10:30 on 10 March), you can book those additional nights at the villa for an additional €60 per night. Breakfast is included in the fee.
Note! You need to book your stay early so the owners can block the room for you.
Who can participate?
Anyone! No prior experience with Radical Honesty is required. You will, though, have to agree to the workshop’s commitments: to keep confidentiality, to tell the truth, to support others in telling the truth, to be on time and present, to allow the trainers to coach you and to ask for what you want. We also recommend you read Brad Blanton’s books Radical Honesty and/or Practicing Radical Honesty before the workshop.
Commitment
Everyone at the workshop will be expected to commit to participate in every session, including the naked work, body movement, meditation and telling of life stories. If you have any concerns with any of the program, we are happy to discuss those concerns with you.
How does one register?
The group is limited to 15 participants. We expect this workshop to be fully booked (as have the other 8-day workshops we’ve organized and/or led in Germany, Italy and Spain). So, if you want to attend, we suggest that you book your spot sooner rather than later.
To sign up or to receive more information, please write to info@honestyeurope.com, or go here:
How does one get there?
Fly to the Tenerife North airport since it’s located much closer to the villa than Tenerife South and take a taxi from the airport (17 minutes drive).
Another option is to hire a car with other participants for your travel from and to the airport as well as for afternoon excursions arrival to the beach or others excursions before or after the workshop.
How much does this cost?
The early bird price is €2,650 (including 21% Dutch VAT) and is valid until 30 November 2023.
The regular price is €2,900 (including 21% Dutch VAT).
To secure your spot at the early bird price, you can pay a deposit of €500 now and the balance by 30 November.
The fee covers the 8-day workshop, daily healthy vegetarian/vegan meals and snacks, shared accommodation, the teaching and follow-up after the workshop.
In cases of financial hardship, we are willing to create longer payment schedules. Please get in touch with us and we’ll work out a solution together.
Cancellation terms:
Please note that we do not offer refunds. However, you can transfer your ticket to another person. Let us know via email if someone else will fill your spot. We advice you to have an insurance covering the fee in case of a cancellation due to sickness.
Support Available
If paying for this retreat is a financial challenge to you, then please be aware of the existence of the Honesty Europe Support Fund, which offers financial support to those who otherwise could not afford to attend Honesty Europe’s workshops and retreats. Read more about the Support fund here.
Ready to live out loud and be happy?
You are warmly welcome to join us on the journey to an honest life!
Tuulia and Pete
Who are the trainers?
Tuulia Syvänen is the certified Radical Honesty trainer who has led the most RH workshops in Europe. She also does 1:1 and couples coaching. For two decades, she held leadership positions at international, non-profit organizations that are concerned with social and environmental justice issues. A native of Finland, she has lived in Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada.
Having grown up in a dysfunctional family—where difficulties and negative feelings were often swept under the rug—Tuulia became passionate about self-expression and self-awareness, and learned the importance of setting one’s boundaries. Most important, she learned the power of honesty. Her life’s mission is to help create more love and connection between people through honest sharing.
Tuulia participated in her first Radical Honesty training in 2012 with the founder of Radical Honesty Dr. Brad Blanton and continued her training under the guidance of Dr. Blanton and RH Master Trainer Taber Shadburne. She has led more than 50 RH workshops in various European countries. She has also attained a four-year certification in the Human-to-Human Coaching and Therapy Program in Finland and is a certified leader of Dr. Fischer’s Rebuilding Divorce Seminars. She earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Tampere and has an adult son.
Pete Jordan is the only certified Radical Honesty trainer in the Benelux countries. He organizes and co-lead Radical Honesty workshops around Europe with his wife, Tuulia, as well as does 1:1 coaching.
Pete has changed his life for the better by committing to live honestly, expressing his resentments and appreciations in the moment and by asking for what he wants. A major breakthrough for him was to have honest talks with his ex-wife and four siblings. He has broken the traditions of his childhood’s family and began to talk about things he was afraid of and embarrassed about and what he didn't like in his childhood.
Pete has great listening skills and he is keen on developing and learning every day. His vision is to support others to live happier, freer lives. Born and raised in San Francisco, Pete has lived in Amsterdam for almost two decades and still makes himself happy each day he wakes up in that city. A writer by profession, Pete has a passion for cycling and has contributed his writing and photographs to several Dutch cycling publications for more than a decade. He is in the midst of following a three-year training to become a Somatic Experiencing practitioner. When he is not organizing or attending Radical Honesty workshops or spending time with his teenaged son, he can be found meandering around Amsterdam on his bike. (And he feels some tightness in his stomach now as he writes this stuff about himself in the third person.)