Honesty and Forest Bathing retreat

Honesty Europe’s Honesty & Forest Bathing Retreat in Finland surrounded by pine forests by a beautiful lake!

Soak in the trees and the moss, 20-24 August

During the Honesty & Forest Bathing Retreat, we’ll spend five days and four nights together in Finnish lakeside cottages, surrounded by a lush pine forest beside a lake.
The retreat will include honest sharing, honesty exercises and forest bathing as well as free time for mushroom-gathering, 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 deepen our relationship to the forest!
Most exercises and sharings will be done outdoors, using the proven healing powers of the forest.

While sharing honestly about ourselves we can soak into the scents, sounds and visuals of nature.
The forest will be our companion and retreat space in this journey.
Honesty is a way to create connections and to stay present to our experience and bodily sensations.

This retreat is for you if:

you want to experience more freedom in your life
you want to spend time in nature
you want to deeper our relationship to forest
you want to learn more ways to calm your nervous system with trees and learn many ways to soak into nature
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
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
you are not comfortable staying in the forest for big part of the day
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

Retreat on How to Live, Love, Laugh & Be Happy
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.

In this Honesty & Forest Bathing Retreat we will combine the power of honesty and open sharing in the forest and exercises in the forest. Some forest emersion exercises are individual and done in silence and some are small group exercises.
We will have time to share about the experiences after the exercises.

What we do
On each day, we’ll do some in the morning conscious movement and forest meditation.
During the day we will do sharing, honesty exercises and forest mind / forest bathing activities in the forest.
Forest bathing exercises will include exercises using all senses in the forest and also different kind of meditative activities including time to emerge into the forest.

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 sauna & jacuzzi, swimming  & sup boards, walking on the forests, enjoying the many fire places including one on the island, games such as golf frisbee, 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 1.7 hectares in size.

Syvilla about 80 km north of Tampere and about 260 km north of Helsinki.
The railway station is about 17 km from the location.
Read more:  https://syvilla.fi/gb/

Language
The training will be conducted in English.

Group size
This group is limited to 16 participants.

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.

Schedule
The retreat will begin on Thursday 20 August at 17:00 and will conclude on Monday 24 August by 12:30 (so that you can get the 13:15 train from Parkano after the retreat).

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/
Buy your ticket early and save quite a bit on your train journey!

Arriving early or staying later – holiday by the lake!
You can arrive early or stay later for €80 per night. Get in touch with with us in case you want to take up this option!
Syvilla will bill this separately.

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.
They are also Forest Mind Instructors and trained in Forest Bathing in Japan.

Price
The Early bird price for the retreat is €470 (including 21% VAT).
(+ the lodging, breakfast &sauna 80 eur per night 4 x €80 =€320 if you stay in Syvilla = the total price €790).

The Early bird price is valid until 30 June 2026.

The regular price for the retreat is €540 (including 21% VAT).
(+ the lodging, sauna & breakfast €320 = the total price €850).

The fee covers the workshop, healthy vegetarian / vegan meals and snacks, teaching, and ongoing support of the group to live out loud.

The lodging in Syvilla costs 80 euros per night (240 euros in total), this includes breakfast, daily saunas, shared room accommodation in 2 person room or yurt.

Syvilla has a single room available for additional fee of €80.
Email us in case you want to book it.

Kindly bring your own sheets & towels.
You can rent sheet and towels at the location for €20, paid in cash upon arrival.
Syvilla will bill the lodging separately with due date of start of the retreat.

The price does not include travel to the location, however we can book you a taxi van from the railway station.

We have two discounted spots for low income earners / students against some helping.
Message us to know more!

Sign up
https://www.honestyeurope.com/product/honesty-europe-honesty-and-forest-bathing-retreat-in-finland-20-24-august-2026/

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 and Forest Bathing Retreat, please feel free to email us at info@honestyeurope.com.

You are warmly welcome to the exciting journey with Honesty Europe!

Sincerely,
Tuulia & Pete
www.HonestyEurope.com