The Honest Room — Intensive
One day. Ten people. Vienna. June 6, 2026.
Application deadline: May 30, 2026 · 2 reduced-rate spots available
There's a zone nobody has a name for.
You're not sick enough to stay in bed. Not well enough to go back to who you were before. Not in crisis, so no one is alarmed. Not coping well, so you've stopped being honest about it. Everyone keeps asking how you are and you keep saying fine because the long answer takes a Tuesday afternoon you don't have.
This is for that.
What This Is
One day. Ten people. Vienna.
No slides. No agenda. No breakout exercises. You will not leave with a framework or a certificate.
What happens instead: a room where the rules of polite professional performance don't apply for seven hours. Where I — Roi — go first into the thing nobody is supposed to say. And where the room follows, not because anyone told it to, but because once one person stops pretending, pretending becomes harder for everyone else.
I've held this room in 27 countries. For healthcare teams, leadership groups, patient organizations, pharma companies. I've never opened it to individuals before.
The first date is June 6, 2026.
What Happens
You arrive. Nine strangers and one person who has been in your kind of room before. You probably feel slightly wrong. Bring it.
I go first. Not the polished version. The version that still makes my hands cold. I don't tell you because I want you to be moved. I tell you because I need you to know that saying the real thing out loud is survivable.
The room changes. People say things they came in not planning to say. Not because I asked them to. Because the room is different now, and you are too.
“I left with the feeling that I had grown on a human level. Your workshop was a powerful reminder of how essential empathy, active listening, and perspective-taking truly are.”
— Alexandra A., healthcare professional
Who This Is For
The inbetweeners.
Too functional to qualify for help. Too broken to pretend you're fine. A year past the thing that ended your old life, still without a name for the new one. In burnout. Disappearing into a caring role. Navigating invisible illness or disability. Exhausted by performing wellness.
If you've read this far, you probably already know whether this is for you.
Who This Is Not For
If you're in acute crisis:
find a crisis line, a therapist, a friend first. Come to this when you're stabilized but stuck.
If you want tools, frameworks, or a five-step system to apply on Monday:
this isn't that room. There are excellent programs for that.
If you want to be inspired, motivated, or fixed:
you will leave more yourself, not more upgraded.
The Practical
About the Practitioner
Seven years in bed. Thirty-three doctors. A body that stopped working and a medical system that told him it wasn't.
Roi Sternin is the creator of Testimony-Based Presence and The Honest Room. He has delivered this work in 27 countries for healthcare teams, pharmaceutical companies, leadership groups, and patient organizations. He is Patient in Residence at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, lecturer at IMC Krems, and Dell Pro Max Ambassador. He has authored seven books.
He lives in Vienna.
Read more about the methodology →“I could immediately put the spirit into practice — the same evening.”
— Stefan, healthcare professional, Krems
Apply
You don't book. You apply.
Three questions. Roi reads every one. You'll hear back within 48 hours.
If this room isn't right for you — if you'd be better served by therapy, or something else — he'll tell you that, and tell you what he thinks you actually need. No charge for that honesty.
Application deadline: May 30, 2026.
Next dates
Applications for future intensives open after June 6. Add your email to hear first.