Professional Chairwork Training 21-24 August 2025 Parkano | Finland (by application)

Description

Honesty Europe is proud to offer for the second time: Professional Chairwork Training!
(Also known as hot seat / empty seat work)

This application-only skills training is for trainers, trainer candidates, therapists, group leaders and coaches who Honesty Europe has worked with before.

We will focus on the skills of leading clients in chairwork (hot seat).
This will include how to introduce and set up chairwork, how to facilitate with various options, and how to integrate chairwork into various practices.

We will cover various topics and styles of chairwork including:

• completion of unfinished emotional issues with alive, death and unknown/abusive people,
• paired and couples work
• parts work, including disowned parts and voices
• decision making
• body part and body image issues, body pain
• Voice Dialogue style chairwork
• shame and using the group in individual chairwork – empowerment, support

We will also go through how to use pace, voice, silence, grounding and resourcing in chairwork.
How to recognize and stabilize situations of overwhelm, freeze or dissociation.
We will discuss when chairwork is not a recommended approach.

This training is informed by our experience with Radical Honesty, Gestalt Therapy, Transformational Chairwork, integrated psychotherapies, Voice Dialogue, Hakomi Mindful Somatic and Somatic Experiencing. However, this is not a Radical Honesty training.

This training is focused on practical application of various chairwork options and modalities.
We will do demos, have time for conversations and Q&A of the demos and have plenty of time in small groups for practice.

As a facilitator or a coach you can use chairwork both in group setting and individual or paired sessions (couples, family members, work place facilitation etc).

This training is for professional learning and it is not meant for personal work or processing. However, you can get some good personal support and insights about yourself during sessions.
At times, you will be a practice client in small groups and possibly also a demo client in the big group sessions.

What past attendees have said about this event

“Pete & Tuulia—together with the participants—created an atmosphere in which I felt safe to experiment with this powerful tool. I enjoyed the hands-on style and valuable feedback for my facilitation. With their experience they where able to show me paths I did not see myself. I recommend their Chairwork Training to anyone who wants to deepen their facilitation practice and have more impact in their work in a safe way.” – Sebastian (Switzerland)

“Pete & Tuulia are incredibly skilled at chairwork and it was amazing to get this opportunity to learn from them. I loved that the course was so practical and hands-on. I have a lot of experience with facilitation, but I have been hesitant to step fully into doing chairwork with my clients. Coming back from this training, I feel secure in knowing the basics of the process and I trust that I have the basic skillset to get started.” – Ernest (Denmark)

Goal of the training
The goal of this training to give you tools and experience of doing chairwork and its different possibilities and applications. We aim for you to become (even more) excited and more confident in leading clients in chairwork while recognizing your areas for further work and how to avoid and manage challenging situations.

When
21-24 August 2025

Where
Our retreat center Syvilla
Our lovely retreat center Syvilla is located beside Lake Kovesjärvi in a lovely location surrounded by a forest and vast grounds for roaming (and our own small island in the lake). It has many buildings including fully renovated yet historically important hundred-year-old farmhouse, an old barn turned into lodging spaces and a kitchen & big space for gatherings and parties, a yurt, a gazebo, 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 & fire places by the shore and a lot more.

Leisure activities include walking on the ice, enjoying the many fire places including one on the island, games such as board games, golf frisbee, and basketball hoop.

The property is about 16 km from the Parkano town center and has 170 meters of shoreline and is about 1.7 hectares in size.

Syvilla is about 80 km north of Tampere and about 260 km north of Helsinki.
The railway 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 will be limited to 9 participants.

Leisure time
We will also have free time for connecting, relaxing, trying out our multiple questions card games, enjoying sauna and jacuzzi, walking in the forest and and appreciating nature in the Finnish summer.

Schedule
The training will begin on Thursday 21 August at 17:00 and will conclude on Sunday 24 August by 16:15.

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 directly to Tampere airport.) From Tampere, we will direct you the rest of the way to the lake (probably via a local bus). We recommend travelling by land and if that is not possible, compensate for your CO2 emissions.

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 train tickets via: https://www.vr.fi/en/
When you buy early you will get the ticket cheaper.

Arriving early or staying later – holiday by the lake!
You can arrive early or stay later for €80 per night (the price includes simple dinner and breakfast and sauna &jacuzzi).
Get in touch 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 four 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.

Pete is also a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Tuulia has completed four-year integrated therapy studies and one year Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy training.
Both have additional experience doing shorter trainings including NARM introduction, Transformational Chairwork with Scott Kellogg, and Wheel of Consent with Betty Martin. Tuulia has joined three-day Sensomotoric Therapy training. Pete has joined Voice Dialogue training with Robert Stamboliev.

Who is this training not for?
This training is not for you if:

• You mainly want to work on your personal topics and do personal work.
• You have major personal triggers which you have a hard time holding.
• You are currently struggling with any mental health challenges.

If you are unsure whether or not this training is suitable for you, please get in touch to have a discussion with us about your situation.

How do I apply?
Message us at Info@honestyeurope and share with us your motivation to join and your experience in coaching / group work / personal development / therapy work.
We will review your answers and when your application is accepted you can confirm your spot by paying the fee.

Cost
The Early Bird price is €870 (including VAT 21%) until 31 May .
The regular price is €910 (including VAT 21%) .
Payment in instalments is possible.

The fee covers the workshop, healthy vegetarian / vegan meals and snacks available at all times, teaching, daily saunas, shared room accommodation in 2 person rooms.

The price does not include travel to the location, however we can organize a taxi van from the Parkano 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 an additional fee of €70. Email us in case you want to book it.

You are also welcome to bring your own camper and sleep in it.
We have one discounted spot for low-income earners / students in exchange for some helping.

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 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.

We hope to see you in Syvilla in August!

Hugs,
Pete & Tuulia

www.HonestyEurope.com
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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. 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.)