Transform Your Relationship by Telling the Truth
A Honesty Europe retreat in lakeside retreat center surrounded by pine forests
Family & Friends retreat in Finland, 27 -31 August 2025
During the Family & Friends retreat in Finland, we’ll spend five days and four nights together in Finnish lakeside cottages, surrounded by a lush pine forest beside a lake in our new lovely retreat center SyVilla.
Upon request from our participants, we are again organizing a retreat for two (or more) family members, friends or a couple to join together and practice together. This retreat is open to a parent(s) and an adult child (or children), siblings, aunt/uncle & niece/nephew, cousins, romantic partners, (best) friends, etc. We enjoyed leading the Family & Friends Retreat so much in the past three years that we’re looking forward to leading again this special workshop.
Attendees will join with a partner of some sort who is important in their life and with whom they will do the exercises.
The retreat will include daily workshop sessions as well as free time for walking in the forests, mushroom and berry picking, swimming, boating, canoeing, sup-boarding and nightly saunas in our wood-burning sauna. We have created specific exercises for parents and adult children to do together.
Our goals will be to live out loud, to be happy and to not give a shit! Radical 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 improve your relationship with your parent / child / the person joining with you
- you want to find new ways and tools to express in the moment whatever is alive in you – for example sadness, appreciation, anger, anxiousness, joy or love
- you are looking for ways to use conflicts creatively, go beyond blame and find more understanding and compassion
- want to heal your relationship and find forgiveness
- you yearn deeper love and connection with your loved one you are joining with
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 other participants expressing themselves loudly at times
- participate to change your parent/child rather than working on yourself and your part in the relationship
Workshop on How to Live, Love, Laugh & Be Happy & Completely Ruin Life as You Know It
Honesty Europe's work is based on 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. That is the not so secret of Radical Honesty.
What do others say about the retreat?
“I found this [Family & Friends] retreat to be good for me as a first-timer since a good amount of basics were explained to some of the family members newer to the work. The exercises were simple but effective. In my eyes, everyone who has a family member willing to join this retreat should do it!”
–Suvi, Finland
“My long-term body tensions have relaxed – a sure sign that telling the truth the Radical Honesty way is good for me. And I am much closer to my mother now even though there were moments in the Family & Friends Retreat when I thought she would never talk to me again.”
–Lev, Spain
WHAT WILL 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 RH; and learning through theory, discussions, sharing and exercises on how to be radically honest. We’ll do group and paired exercises as well as hot seat work focused on parent and child.
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.
LOCATION
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 fishing, swimming, enjoying the many fire pits, cycling (we have few bikes), sup boarding, games such as board games, golf frisbee, croquet and basketball hoop. You can also go horse-riding in the nearby stables.
The property in Parkano about 11 kilometers from the city center and has 170 meters of shore line and is about two hectares in size. Syvilla about 80 kilometers north of Tampere and about 260 kilometers north of Helsinki. The railway is about 17 kilometers from the location and we will organize transport from the railway station.
Read more:
https://syvilla.fi/gb/
LANGUAGE
The training will be conducted in English. You can do the parent & child exercises in your common language. Translations from Finnish to English and English to Finnish are possible in the group sessions. You are welcome to join even if you have limited English language skills as the main work will happen with your parent / child.
SCHEDULE
The retreat will begin on Wednesday 27 August at 17:00 and will conclude on Sunday 31 August by 12:30.
TRAVEL
Via air from outside Finland: fly to Helsinki airport and then take a two-hour and half train ride to Parkano.
From Helsinki airport, first take the commuter train to the Tikkurila
station and then from there take the train to Parkano.
There is also a bus connection from Helsinki to Parkano, which is cheaper though takes about 90 minutes longer than the train connection.
From Parkano, we can organize a large taxi van to you to share with others.
You can also cycle or drive to the retreat site (and if you do drive, 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 book early on you will get your ticket a lot cheaper.
We recommend travelling via land. If you choose to fly, we propose you compensate for your CO2 emissions.
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 longer Radical Honesty workshops (and to help get shit done).
ARRIVING EARLY - HOLIDAY BY THE LAKE
You can arrive early or stay later in this lovely location for €70 per night. Get in touch with with us in case you want to take up this option!
TEAM
The workshop leaders will be certified Radical Honesty Trainers—and married couple—Tuulia Syvänen and Pete Jordan.
PRICE
The Early Bird price is €820 (including 21% VAT).
The Early bird price is valid until 30 June 2025.
The regular price thereafter is €860 (including 21% VAT).
The fee covers the workshop, healthy vegetarian / vegan meals and snacks, teaching, daily saunas, shared room accommodation in 2 person room or 2 person yurt and ongoing support of the group to live out loud.
We have one discounted spot for low income earner against light helping.
The price does not include travel to the location. However we can coordinate a taxi van for the participants to and from Parkano railways station.
Kindly bring your own sheets & towels. You can also rent sheets and towels at the location for 20 euros, paid in cash on arrival.
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:
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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:
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Book your spot soon! Almost all our previous retreats have sold out.
If you have any questions about the retreat, please feel free to email us at
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You are warmly welcome to the exciting journey with Honesty Europe!
Sincerely,
Tuulia & Pete
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