For Inner Island Online, we created a six-week holistic program for our global community at a time when travel was limited during the pandemic. This transformative experience provided a structured and supportive environment for participants to engage in deep personal and professional development from wherever they were in the world.
The program was designed to establish continuity in personal growth by combining facilitated online sessions, peer coaching, guided exercises, and optional daily meditation. Participants worked consistently on their projects over six weeks, experiencing the power of mind training, a supportive community, and the courage to move toward a meaningful future.
Program Structure
Each live session started with a meditation to help participants ground themselves. The sessions then progressed through a reflective check-in, followed by topic-specific exercises conducted both individually and in breakout groups. The workshops concluded with homework instructions and a Q&A to ensure participants had all necessary materials for the week ahead.
Between sessions, participants engaged in peer coaching groups, fostering a sense of accountability and support. These structured check-ins allowed them to share insights, challenges, and breakthroughs as they progressed through the program.
Methodology
Inner Island Online was designed as an investment in personal growth, allowing participants to identify and overcome the key challenges that were limiting them.
The program combined transformation design, proactive planning, appreciative inquiry, strategy development, peer coaching, and guided mindfulness meditation—bringing together tools from contemporary business contexts with ancient wisdom practices.
By integrating these diverse methodologies, we aimed to disrupt conventional thinking patterns, inspire fresh insights, and create breakthrough moments. The holistic Future Design Process provided a structured yet flexible path, helping participants clarify their vision, values, and concrete next steps.
Facilitators
The program was guided by experienced facilitators, each bringing a unique perspective to the process:
Henrik Johansson – Facilitator
Henrik’s role focused on creating optimal conditions for deep learning and transformation, providing structure, methods, and a creative environment for participants to unlock their potential.
Gayathri Rathinavelu – Facilitator
Gayathri is a social entrepreneur and leadership facilitator dedicated to creating safe spaces for personal growth, trust-building, and impactful change.
Risto Kuulasmaa – Guest Expert (How to Get Unstuck / Communicating Your Vision)
Risto is an entrepreneur, coach, and creative leader with a background in media, startups, and guiding individuals through transformation.
Åsa Norell – Guest Expert (Working with Guiding Values in Turbulent Times)
Åsa is a strategic consultant and learning designer, helping organizations and leaders shift mindsets and behaviors for sustainable impact.
Key Features
• Six live 90-minute online sessions with facilitators and guest experts
• Matched peer coaching groups for accountability and support
• Home tasks with work templates and curated content
• Daily optional 15-minute meditation sessions
• Three additional 45-minute Q&A sessions for deeper engagement
Impact & Reach
Inner Island Online successfully brought together participants from across the world, creating a global learning community where individuals could grow, reflect, and take action on their goals despite external limitations. The virtual format enabled a diverse and international group to connect deeply, forming long-lasting support networks and collaborations.
This program demonstrated that transformative experiences are not limited to physical retreats—when designed with intention, an online space can be just as powerful for personal breakthroughs and collective learning.
For Inner Island Raja Ampat, we created a bespoke 10-day holistic program at Raja Ampat, which is located off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia’s West Papua province.
The daily workshop was integrated with yoga practice, Inner Guidance sessions and peer-coaching. At Inner Island, we put a lot of emphasis on preparing a holistic and systemic approach where all elements of the day complement each other and are aligned with the workshop theme of the day:
The concept comes with experienced and dedicated facilitators but does not involve charismatic teachers or coaches giving Lectures from a stage. Instead, the co-creative peer-to-peer approach and the holistic setup creates a very unique learning environment. It is the collective power of the group that will make the difference. Every participant is dedicating their valuable time and has made an effort to reach this remote destination. This joint effort, the stunning nature, and the shared motivation set the power field where transformative magic will happen.
During this retreat, we had participants from 10 different nationalities hailing from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, UK, Switzerland, France, Chile, Romania and the U.S.
Henrik Johansson, Process Designer and Facilitator
Henrik’s role as facilitator revolves around developing an optimal framework and conditions for the participants to reach their full potential by providing a route, methods and establish a culture of creativity and flow so development can take place.
Iituli Aalto, Facilitator
Iituli is passionate about how facilitation brings intelligence in people and groups alive. At Inner Island, she is guiding the subtle journey accessing the participant’s inner wisdom.
Risto Kuulasmaa, Co-Facilitator
Executive in media and events. He doesn’t do New Year resolutions, instead, he is interested in long term personal development. At Inner Island, he is the coach-in-demand supporting participants’ personal or business-related dreams coming true.
Amir Jaan, Yoga TeacherAmir’s nearly two-decades-long dedication to his yogic practice has taken him from London to a touring teacher across the world. At Inner Island Raja Ampat, Amir guided the morning yoga sessions, connected to the daily workshop theme.
Raja Ampat archipelago comprises over 1,500 small islands, bays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau. Raja Ampat contains the largest marine national park in Indonesia.
If the world’s biodiversity was a dartboard, Raja Ampat would be Bull’s Eye: the much sought after and hard-hit point in the centre of the board. Researchers have found individual reefs here with greater species richness than the whole of the Mediterranean. Everything from blue whales to pygmy seahorses and pedestrian eagles is found in Raja Ampat – plus 76 percent of all known coral species. The area is as dramatic above the surface as below, and kayaking is an exciting way to enjoy the incredibly varied and rich marine environment.
Doberai Eco Resort is the one and only resort in Raja Ampat that occupies an exclusive island privately, named Urai, only 20 minutes from Waisai, the Capital City of Raja Ampat district. Exclusivity and privacy are guaranteed.
Inner Island Andaman was a 10-day long transformative retreat combining personal growth processes and facilitated co-creative and holistic practices on a remote tropical castaway island located in the Andaman Islands. The ten-day-long program was held on Dec 27th 2014 – Jan 5th 2015 and gathered 20 participants from six countries.
The theme of Inner Island Andaman was Creating Space for Meaningful Futures. We explored the causes and conditions of space-creation as well as it’s relation to letting go.
The campers were guided and facilitated through learning experiences utilizing co-creation methods, teachings sessions and collective reflection. Each participant brought and shared one personal challenge, which was solved collectively. An important part of the program was to build the physical campsite-infrastructure together.
Yoga sessions were designed and led by Iituli Aalto, certificated teacher in Astanga, Rocket and Flow Yoga.
The meditation module was conducted by London-based Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher Lama Chödrak.
He also offered Shiatsu and Seiki Soho.
The Andaman Islands form an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Myanmar, to the north and east. The archipelago consists of over 350 islands of exceptional beauty and conservation importance, governed as part of the Indian Subcontinent.
Biologists have identified about 250 species of birds, 85 of reptiles, 60 of mammals and thousands of invertebrates and plants, of which more than a quarter are still found nowhere else in the World. The islands are also home to five ancient indigenous tribes. The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is fringed by spectacular coral reefs which support many species of fish, marine mammals, coelenterates, molluscs, crustaceans, sea snakes and sea turtles.
"A magic place, process and people to explore and launch your dreams for a better you and a better world.
Your Inner island tribe will be one you have for life."
