🌀 What is Integral Wholeness?  

Integral Wholeness is a series of events that lead you to learn and experience the integral approach to personal growth. It is one of the most comprehensive maps of human growth that takes into account 

• the social and intellectual development as studied thoroughly in Western science

• the possibility and benefits of experiencing spiritually awakened states of consciousness as studied and practiced in many Eastern wisdom traditions 

• the importance of emotional integration, shadow work, and gradual liberation from the baggage everyone carries from the traumatic events of their life

It is like tapping into the best of the tools developed through human history around the globe. Some, like eastern meditation techniques, have existed for thousands of years, while some, like modern organizational theory, or western methods for trauma and body liberation, have been around for only a few decades. Integral theory, the life's work of Ken Wilber, gathers all this into a comprehensible model and map that can inspire and show possible steps you can take towards a more wholesome human experience.

🤩 The importance of hands-on experiences

Studying the model only from books or online videos is like reading a map of a jungle or a city without ever stepping into the territory. The map is not the territory, but it can certainly help you on the way. So can experienced guides.

The Integral Wholeness events bring you the necessary theory in an engaging and easy-to-remember format (the map) and lots of experiential practices to take actual steps in new territories and your personal growth and wholeness. Antti Virolainen is an experienced coach and guide who has studied various methods of personal development, eastern traditions and embodiment practices for over 15 years. He has organized workshops and longer courses for over 6 years and is now joining forces with trusted colleagues to bring you a combination of tools and experiences that will spark inspired movement towards greater wholeness.

In the winter of 2026-27, there are 3 weekend courses organized in the Integral Wholeness series. Each of them has unique content, which means you can attend just the ones you like. However, picking the package of all three will give you a more wholesome view of this map of human wholeness. 😉

📊 The three modules briefly explained

1️⃣ Waking Up

Each course weekend has a particular topic, focusing on a distinct dimension of growth as mapped by the integral theory. For example, on the first one, we focus on the direction labeled as Waking Up, which is the dimension of learning how to experience elevated states of consciousness. Finding a stabilized way to maintain such higher or "enlightened" states is the long-term goal of many meditative practices, but there are a lot of methods that can help you experience brief altered states. While the state won't be permanent, viewing your life and yourself, even momentarily, from a new angle can have significant, even life-altering effects. 

You could compare it to a situation where you'd be hiking up a mountain. Having a map that shows possible paths used by others is one helpful thing. Even more helpful can be if you get a temporary lift by a helicopter to see the mountain and the surrounding territory from a higher perspective. Even if the helicopter brings you down to the same location, having had a glimpse of a higher altitude view can also be a great motivator to keep ascending.

We can't promise a certain altitude, or that the weather won't be cloudy, but we can offer and safely guide you through methods that have helped many to gain glimpses of the so-called higher states of consciousness. And the tools can be surprisingly simple, using movement, music, breahting, hot, cold, sound, silence, and the power of the group.

2️⃣ Growing Up

In the next module, we focus on Growing Up. This one gives you the map of the horizontal growth. We all know how kids grow through certain stages from helpless babies to egoistic toddlers to (more or less) rule-understanding kids etc. But many people don't realize how many steps there are available for adults as well to keep on growing! Multiple researchers in psychology have mapped similar stages of human growth, and the integral theory integrates them into a holistic map that we can use to better understand not only our own growth and possible next steps, but also the growth and evolution of human societies and organizations. 💗

Antti is also a co-founder of an innovative IT startup company, Sharetribe, which has been for over 10 years studying and implementing the leading-edge stage of the organizational growth, the so-called integral or “teal” stage, as mapped by the theory. 

Antti's strong background in both entrepreneurship and spiritual and embodiment practices makes him a perfect guide to translate the concepts into a form that is easy to approach for a wide range of people, from startup enthusiasts and corporate career growth expanders to spiritual seekers and long-time meditators. It doesn't matter if you've been primarily living head-first or body-first. For almost everyone, there's more to explore and experience in order to reach greater wholeness and happiness in this human life. In these course weekends, we aim to include the analytical mind, the feeling body, the emotional heart, and the spirit that is not defined by all these together (and not by any religious dogma), but rather as something that has this experience that includes mind, body, and heart.

3️⃣ Cleaning Up

The theme of the third module is Cleaning Up. This means that we tackle the obstacles that may otherwise hinder our growth journey. Having a clear direction and a detailed map doesn’t help so much if we are afraid to take any steps on rougher terrain, because we broke our ankle in similar-looking circumstances in the past. 

Practically all of us have some challenging or traumatic experiences in our past, especially in our younger years. Those stay with us, mostly in our body and unconscious mind, and can hinder our growth and progress if left unattended. The protection mechanisms we have developed in the past have grown unconscious and keep us on autopilot. They may have helped us survive in earlier conditions, but they typically limit us greatly in the present day conditions. For example, if it wasn’t safe to speak up at home or at school, you may have learned to avoid that, which led to better acceptance back then. But this learning, which still carries the weight of those painful events in your body, may also prevent you now from taking bolder steps in your career, or from saying your honest opinions at home.

There are many ways in which the past can prevent us from reaching richer wholeness, but luckily, there are also many ways to clean up the old baggage. Individual psychotherapy is one good, and luckily these days quite well-known method, but certainly not the only one. In the third module, we dive into methods that use shadow work, body-based work, and relational practices as safe methods of discovering and gently releasing the hold of our past patterns and the tensions our body carries.

✨ The power of combining the dimensions

All three modules cover a distinct axis of growth. One important discovery of Ken Wilber was that many traditions focus on perfecting one axis of growth, but may have ignored others, thus leading to incomplete wholeness. For example, meditating monks in the East may have reached non-dual states of consciousness, and yet still treated women or foreigners badly due to their lack of growing up or cleaning up. Western therapy-practioners may clean up well, but reach a ceiling in their growth if they won’t venture to the field of waking up at all, due to their pre-judice about anything religious-sounding. 

Stepping forward in the growing up path helps us realize the difference of religion and spirituality, thus making us more open to waking up. Cleaning up the baggage of our past wounds and projections encourages us to take steps also in the other paths and clears our blind spots that could otherwise hold us back. Waking up to higher states of consciousness often speeds up our growing up path as well, by growing our circle of care and compassion.

It makes a lot of sense to practice all these paths to grow towards greater human wholeness. What could be more beneficial to your own life’s quality?

👉🏼 Join the courses by filling the application form at: https://forms.gle/uosgziJhHbLoDfJy7

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ℹ️ Practical course information

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📅  The dates of the weekend course modules

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23.-25.10.2026   Waking up (By Antti Virolainen & Tuomas Ilo Saarela)

8.-10.1.2027       Growing up (By Antti Virolainen)

2.-4.4.2027         Cleaning up (by Antti Virolainen & Aliisa Ihmemaa)

All course modules start at 17:00 on Friday and end at 17:00 on Sunday

🏡 Course venue

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All courses are held at the beautiful Villa Christine, in Raasepori, Finland.

Villa Christine is an old wooden village school transformed into a course center. It is located in the beautiful Tenhola area, under 1,5h drive away from Helsinki and Turku.

Antti has organized courses in Villa Christine for years and chose it again as a location for these courses due to its great atmosphere, friendly staff, and (perhaps most of all) terrific food. 😋

🇬🇧/(🇫🇮) Course language

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🇬🇧 The primary language of the course is English.

(🇫🇮) There are few arrangements to make the course accessible also to Finnish speakers with limited English skills:

- A big part of the course is based on experiences and exercises. You you can always ask for Finnish translation of the exercise instructions.

- You can use Finnish when doing pair/group exercises with other Finnish speakers. You can also request to be grouped with Finnish speakers for such exercises.

- Upon request, we can provide the theory/lecture parts in Finnish in video format after the weekends

We ask your language preferences in the application form, in order to prepare for the particular group. You can find the application form at: https://forms.gle/uosgziJhHbLoDfJy7

💞 The Community

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Many years of organizing the Wild Heart Transformation (WHT) course teached Antti the value of long-time span over multiple weekends, and the importance of community and connection with like-minded, growth-oriented people. The WHT course has 6 separate weekends, which allows people to come home in between to put their learnings into concrete action. The Integral Wholeness series has now 3 different modules, with a few months in between. The next year likely brings continuation events for those who are interested.

For keeping up the connection between other course participants between and after the modules, every participant gets access to an online Signal group, where the discussions can be continued and ad-hoc meetups planned etc.Many people report that finding like-minded people is one great value that they get out of this kind of courses. Attend what you feel genuinely inspired by, and you’ll sure to find fellow seekers on the path that can make the journey much more effective and fun!

💶 Pricing

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📙Normal pricing  

One course weekend 280€

Accommodation and food for one weekend 208€ (invoiced separately by the event venue)

(In total 488€ with accommodation and food)

📚 Bundle pricing

All three weekends: 670€ (in total 1294€ with accommodation and food) 

🦜 Early bird pricing 😍

🥚Super Early Bird - For the first 10 tickets or until 10.7.2026 (whichever is reached first)

One Course weekend: 160€ (in total 368€ with accommodation and food)

All three weekends bundle: 375€ (in total 999€ with accommodation and food) 

⭐️The super early bird bundle is 465€ cheaper than 3 modules bought separately and about 300€ cheaper than the normal bundle. Act fast if you like to secure this deal with the best discount! ⭐️

🙌 To attend the courses, fill in the application form at: https://forms.gle/uosgziJhHbLoDfJy7

🧙🏼Facilitators 

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Antti Virolainen

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Antti is passionate about learning and teaching the art of fulfilled living. He is a bridge builder between the formal society and the wisdom traditions, between startup enthusiasts and tantric explorers. He believes no one has it all figured out, but all schools of thought have something valuable to share, and something to learn from others. This is also a core thought in the Integral Theory, which Antti has studied with Ken Wilber, Dustin DiPerna, Lennart Hennig and Sergey Kupriyanov since 2014.

Antti has a Master’s Degree from Aalto University in Information Networks study program. He co-founded an IT startup Sharetribe in 2011, which is currently one of the leading examples of steward-ownership, co-leadership/”teal” practices and employee-owned governance in Finland.

Antti has formal coaching education with ICF (2013) and Tantric Life Coach (2020) certifications. He has been running in-person and online courses since 2021, and he’s been one of the main teachers of the long-running annual neotantra course Wild Heart Transformation for 5 years.

Antti lives in the beautiful village of Fiskars with his partner and twin boys. He works part-time as Chief Financial Officer at Sharetribe and part-time as a life coach and course organizer. This dual role puts him in a great position to share the theory and practice of a wholesome and fulfilled human life in a way that is approachable to everyone.

Ilo Saarela

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(Information about Ilo Saarela will be added soon.)

Aliisa Ihmemaa

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Aliisa Ihmemaa is a Tantric Life Coach, Zen Coach, TRE®️ provider, Innerdance facilitator, and sex counselor.

Her work centers around presence and authenticity: cultivating a deep connection to oneself and an honest acceptance of the present moment. Her approach emphasizes gentleness, openness, and a trauma-informed way of working that helps create a safe and supportive space for every participant. She has also studied sensorimotor coaching and bodywork practices.

She has been facilitating workshops since 2018. In Turku, she regularly organizes tantric workshops, women’s empowerment circles, and small groups focused on embodiment and reconnecting with the body.

In addition, she facilitates free movement dance sessions and introductory TRE courses. She works individually with clients through tremor work, coaching, tantra, and a holistic support treatment called “Kannattelu,” as well as offering dearmouring sessions.

She plays the kantele, sings, writes, and draws — and is passionate about bringing more creativity, wonder, pleasure, and playfulness into life.

She teaches practices and perspectives that have supported her own journey of recovering from burnout, developmental trauma, and people-pleasing patterns.

The intention behind her work is to offer moments where people can pause, listen deeply to themselves, and discover greater meaning and pleasure in their lives. She hopes to inspire others to live more courageously as their authentic selves while supporting them on the path toward their own inner power.

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