Workshop led by Certified Trainers, Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan
Honesty Europe Summer Retreat in Finland surrounded by pine forests and lakeside cabins!
Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth in Finland, 25-30 June 2024
During our ninth(!) annual Honesty Summer Retreat in Finland, we’ll spend six days and four nights together in Finnish lakeside cottages, surrounded by a lush pine forest beside a lake. The retreat will include daily workshop sessions as well as free time for mushroom and berry picking, swimming, boating and nightly saunas in our large wood-burning sauna.
Our goals will be to live out loud, to be happy and to not give a shit! Honesty is a way to create connections and to stay present to our experience and bodily sensations.
This workshop is for you if:
you want to experience more freedom in your life
you want to let go of shame, fear and attachment to approval
you are looking for using conflict creatively and want to go beyond blame
you desire to learn the art of asking for what you want
you want to heal your relationships and find forgiveness
you yearn deeper love, connection & intimacy
The workshop is not for you if you:
don't want to tell the truth
want to stay in your comfort zone at all times
don't want to hear participants expressing themselves loudly at times
participate to change others in your life rather than yourself
Workshop on How to Live, Love, Laugh & Be Happy & Completely Ruin Life as You Know It
Honesty Europe’s work is direct communication that leads to intimacy. It is the difference between making a performance and laughing and playing with friends. Honesty is kind of scary fun that turns out better than you thought it would. Lying is work and a pain in the ass and makes you lonesome as hell.
We claim that lying is the major source of all human stress. It wears us out and eventually kills us. When people engage honestly, energy that was wasted maintaining a performance to make an impression is suddenly available for real creativity in playing together. When we admit our pretenses we can refresh our relationships and powerfully create new ways of living together.
What We Do
On each day, we’ll do some yoga, meditation and workshop sessions. The sessions will include an introduction to Radical Honesty; a deeper dive into honesty work; and learning through theory, discussions, sharing and exercises on how to be fully and wholeheartedly honest. We’ll do group and paired exercises as well as hot seat work.
Our retreat center Syvilla
Our lovely retreat center Syvilla is located beside the clean Lake Kovesjärvi in a lovely spot of lawn, flowers and forest. It has many buildings including fully renovated yet historically important main red building, an old barn turned into lodging spaces and a kitchen & big space for gatherings and parties, a large terrace which can be covered for rain, an old smoke sauna turned into lodging, a sandy beach, a wood-burning sauna and a smoke sauna by a lake, a wood-burning hot tub and jacuzzi and big hangout areas by the shore, our own small island and a lot more.
Leisure activities include walking on the ice, enjoying the many fire places including one on the island, enjoying snow, games such as board games, golf frisbee, and basketball hoop. You can also go horse riding in the nearby stables.
The property in Parkano is about 11 kilometers from the city center and has 170 meters of shore line and is about 1.7 hectares in size.
Syvilla about 80 kilometers north of Tampere and about 260 kilometres north of Helsinki.
The railway is about 17 kilometers from the location.
Read more: https://syvilla.fi/gb/
Group size
This group is limited to 16 participants.
Language
The training will be conducted in English. Finnish speakers will have the opportunity to do paired exercises together in Finnish.
Schedule
The retreat will begin on Tuesday 25 June at 17:00 and will conclude on Sunday 30 June by 13:00.
Leisure time
We will also have free time for connecting, relaxing, swimming, walking in the forest, berry and mushroom picking, rowing a boat, hammock lounging, fishing and appreciating nature in the Finnish summer.
Travel
Via air from outside Finland: fly to Helsinki airport and then take a two-hour and half train ride to Parkano. (There are also a limited number of flights that also fly in directly to Tampere airport.) From Tampere, we will direct you the rest of the way to the lake (probably via a local bus).
From within Finland, take a train to Parkano. From there, we will organize a shared taxi van for you.
If you drive to the retreat site, we will probably ask you to carpool with others.
You can buy the train tickets via this website: https://www.vr.fi/en/
When you a week before you will get the ticket about 5-6 euros cheaper.
Arriving early or staying later – holiday by the lake!
You can arrive early or stay later for €70 per night. Get in touch with with us in case you want to take up this option!
Community
Participants will be asked to assist in the cooking, serving and cleaning up of meals/snacks as a way to help create a community during our five days together. This is commonly done in Honesty Europe’s retreats (and to help get shit done).
Team
The workshop leaders will be certified Radical Honesty Trainers—and married couple—Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan.
Price
The Early Bird price is €890 (including 21% VAT).
The Early bird price is valid until 30 April 2023.
The regular price thereafter is €940 (including 21% VAT).
Note! This retreat is a day longer than most of our retreats 🙂
The fee covers the workshop, healthy vegetarian / vegan meals and snacks, teaching, daily saunas, shared room accommodation in 2 person room or yurt and ongoing support of the group to live out loud.
The price does not include travel to the location, however we can organize a taxi van from the railway station.
Kindly bring your own sheets & towels. You can rent sheets and towels at the location for 20 euros, paid in cash on arrival.
We have a single room available for additional fee of €80. Email us in case you want to book it.
You are also welcome to bring your tent or camper and sleep in them.
We have two discounted spots for low income earners / students sleeping in a tent, camper or sleeping hammock (tentsile).
Cancellation terms
Please note that we do not offer refunds. However you can transfer your ticket to another person. Let us know via email in case someone else will take your spot.
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.
Support for BIPOC
If you are low income and are black, indigenous or a person of color (BIPOC), you can request a discount from us. Message your request to us at: info@HonestyEurope.com
Note: we might take a few days to answer your request.
Is this workshop for me?
Honesty Europe’s workshop often have therapeutic impacts, however workshops are not therapy and are not meant to replace personal therapy. This workshop is not for you if you have major untreated traumas.
Our workshops and retreats can be physically and psychologically stressful. If you have an acute mental health challenge, please first discuss with your therapist / doctor and then with us before registering.
You can reach us at: info@HonestyEurope.com
Workshop Agreements
(required for participation)
In this workshop, we will strive to create an environment and space where everyone feels safe to express their emotions, share their thoughts and experiment with each other. Therefore, we require all workshop participants and workshop leaders to agree to the below agreements.
On the first evening of the workshop, we will devote time to discussing each of the agreements and addressing any questions anyone has about them before we actually agree to them.
If you have questions or concerns about any of this, please contact us at: info@HonestyEurope.com.
1. I agree to tell my truth.
(You decide how much you want to share and we do invite you to explore going a bit outside your comfort zone in sharing.)
2. I agree to support others in telling their truth.
(Being willing to remain present and willing to hear others sharing.)
3. I agree to keep confidentiality.
(No sharing things about workshop participants to people outside the workshop without the participant’s consent.)
4. I agree to be on time and present.
(You’ll be on time for the workshop sessions and stay until the end of them. You’ll be physically present and do your best to also be mentally present (e.g. by leaving your phone outside the workshop space, etc.).)
5. I agree to ask for what I want.
(An invitation for you to voice and ask for everything you want. We do not guarantee, though, that you will get everything you ask for.)
6. I agree to take more than I give.
(Keep the focus on yourself rather than on others. You are allowed to speak, take time, take space and take care of yourself. We invite the others to do so as well.)
7. I agree to only consensual touch.
(No touching others without their permission; no physical violence.)
8. I agree to be led by the workshop leaders.
(Being willing to try out the proposed language in coaching situations and join the exercises during the workshop.)
Book your spot soon! Almost all our previous retreats have sold out.
If you have any questions about the Honesty Summer Retreat, please feel free to email us at info@honestyeurope.com.
You are warmly welcome to the exciting journey with Honesty Europe!
Sincerely,
Tuulia and Pete
www.honestyeurope.com
About 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. She has led more than 100 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 BA 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-leads Radical Honesty workshops around Europe with his wife, Tuulia, as well as does 1:1 coaching. As a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, he also offers 1:1 S.E. sessions with clients to support them in healing from trauma.
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. 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.)