Workshops

Facilitator: dr. Lily Barry, Chaplain & Lecturer at the Marino Institute of Education, University of Dublin (Ireland)

Chaplains in higher education play a pivotal role in providing compassionate support, offering pastoral care, and cultivating a sense of belonging within the academic community. However, the emotional demands of this role can be challenging, highlighting the need to prioritise professional wellbeing. This interactive workshop will explore comprehensive strategies to sustain chaplains’ wellbeing, building on Neff’s (2003) Self-Compassion Framework as a foundational approach, while also integrating contemporary research, including Gilbert’s (2020) Three-System Model of Compassion and the principles of Compassionate Pedagogy (Gibbs, 2017). Collectively, these models provide a nuanced, evidence-based framework for professional self-care, particularly in the context of the emotionally demanding nature of chaplaincy work.
Workshop Focus:
1. Self-Compassion as a Foundational Practice – Drawing on Neff’s (2003) concepts of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness to foster emotional resilience.
2. Expanding the Model with Emotional Regulation – Applying Gilbert’s (2020) Three-System Model to navigate the dynamics between self-criticism, drive overwork, and self-care in chaplaincy practice.
3. Compassionate Pedagogy in Chaplaincy – Exploring Gibbs’ (2017) approach to humanising pastoral care, creating psychologically safe spaces, and modelling wellbeing for students and staff.
4. Practical Strategies for Institutional Wellbeing – Engaging in reflective exercises and peer discussions to develop compassionate institutional cultures that support both chaplains and the broader university community.

Building on Neff’s foundational model and extending it through more recent research, this workshop offers a thorough, evidence-based approach to chaplains’ professional wellbeing. Participants will leave with practical skills to enhance self-compassion, set sustainable boundaries, and cultivate environments of care within higher education. By aligning with the conference theme, this workshop underscores the importance of holistic wellbeing, acknowledging that chaplains are best equipped to support others when they themselves are nurtured, supported, and empowered.

Facilitator: Jeremy Clines, Coordinating Chaplain at the University of Sheffield (UK)

In this interactive workshop the concept of chaplains as third-space practitioners is explored. The workshop considers the transformative role chaplains have not only to provide a service, but also to transform both the approach to what they offer, and as agents for change. By understanding the natural ‘action research’ that is built into a chaplain’s role we will find out more about what is significant about not being just in the ‘service-delivery’ space or in the ‘teaching and research’ space, but in the transformational inbetween.

This deeper understanding on a chaplain’s role and the analysis of our purpose will assist chaplains in building resilience for ourselves and those we work with and support. It will also explain the structure (perhaps it is scaffolding, or underpinning) that allows us to work in a liberated way that is less interested in ‘people pleasing’, instead it is drawing on the well of our knowledge, skills and experiences to empower, equip and facilitate the transformation of those we work with.

The workshop will conclude by affirming chaplains in enhancing the strategies and practices that will help create a holistic agenda for practice as religious professionals that:
– benefits our own wellbeing;
– is motivated by a desire for our own and the human flourishing of many in higher education;
– is a sustainable way of being a chaplaincy practitioner for many years.

Included in the presentation and workshop elements of the session will be:
– research findings from a project at Sheffield;
– reference to 20 years of higher education policy and practice research on third space practitioners;
– an approach to conflict transformation that resists unsustainable people pleasing but allows for a more sustainable and integrated approach.

Facilitators: Tomas Folens, Head of the University Parish KU Leuven – KULAK & Sofie Verbeke, Student Chaplain at the University Parish of KU Leuven – KULAK (Belgium)

This interactive workshop equips university chaplains with simple, practical tools to integrate elements of the PERMA model and the Positive Health framework into their pastoral conversations.

Workshop Objectives:
1. Introduce the PERMA model (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment).
2. Present the Positive Health model, emphasizing a broad and practical approach to wellbeing.
3. Demonstrate how both models can be seamlessly integrated into pastoral conversations.
4. Provide immediately applicable tools and techniques through interactive exercises.

Workshop Structure: The workshop will provide an introduction to the PERMA model and the Positive Health framework. Next, participants will engage in a guided exercise focused on self-awareness and embodiment. Tomas and Sofie will introduce a series of breathwork and grounding techniques to help participants become present in their bodies. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on how these techniques can enhance their ability to hold space for students in a pastoral setting.

Throughout the session, Tomas and Sofie will introduce and train participants in specific holistic wellbeing techniques, including a selection of:
• Embodied Presence: Using breathwork and grounding techniques.
• Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Techniques: Applying language patterns and reframing strategies to guide students towards positive mental shifts.
• Emotional Processing and Regulation: Teaching participants how to guide students through their emotions using breathwork, somatic awareness, and self-regulation strategies.
• Integrative Questioning: Moving beyond problem-focused dialogue to encourage meaning, growth, and positive transformation.
• Narrative Reconstruction: Helping students reframe their experiences through storytelling techniques that foster resilience and self-efficacy.

Facilitator: Linda Michaels, Hospice/Hospital Chaplain at Beacon Hospice and Graduate Student at Framingham State University (USA)

Chaplains in higher education have unique roles as pastoral guides, role models, teachers, mediators and counselors in Institutional Settings. Maintaining effective consistent daily practices connected to Breath, Nature and Play is vital for building moral resilience and for demonstrating always-accessible resources for students. Linda brings experience as a former wellness coach and current hospital/hospice chaplain who is currently researching “Symptoms, Causes and Healing From Burnout and Compassion Fatigue” for a masters’ thesis in Counseling Psychology.

This workshop will assist attendees in identifying key factors that contribute to and can prevent burnout, secondary traumatic stress and fatigue. Because psychological services aren’t meeting the high demands for support, this workshop will demonstrate how Nature can be an always-accessible “counselor” and resource for building moral resilience. Nature-related imagery, poetry and processes will be introduced for personal and group settings. Tools will be shared.

The workshop will be interactive with Breath awareness, dyad reflections using Nature-related poetry and art images, and group Nature Mandala activities.

Facilitators: Karin Borg & Nathalie Saller, University Chaplains at Uppsala University (Sweden)

In this workshop, you’ll get an insight into how an existential health discussion group works. The group “Vad är meningen, egentligen?“ (translated as approximately “What is the point/meaning, really?”) offers students an opportunity to openly discuss questions about meaning, belonging, and life’s direction – questions that many may feel alone in contemplating. The aim is to create a space where participants can share thoughts without the pressure of finding right or wrong answers.

The discussions in the group are based on the card deck Öppna kort / Open Cards, developed by a philosophical psychologist and a priest. The deck explores various aspects of existential health, an area that the WHO and the UN have urged their member states to include in public health efforts alongside physical, mental, and social health since 1984. Each meeting focuses on a theme, such as Meaning & Emptiness or Trust & Doubt.

The workshop provides an opportunity to try out the format and to reflect on whether it could be relevant for your own work.

Facilitator: Jasja Nottelman, University Chaplain at the University of Groningen and Hanze University College (The Netherlands)

In church and society today, it is important to inform people about the struggles students are facing, whether it’s about wellbeing in general, or dealing with grief and loss in particular. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that students are creative, interesting and lovely creatures full of life. As a university chaplain, Jasja feels a strong need to write about these topics.

In this workshop, Jasja will elaborate on what sort of articles she writes and their target group. Furtermore, she will present the interviews she makes, inviting others to talk about their (struggles in) life.

After this introduction and an exchange of experiences, participants are invited to write a short article or column. The workshop aims to practice writing and to inspire participants to incorporate writing in their professional life. Writing can provide an opportunity to reflect on the work one’s doing. Participants can write in their mother language or in English.

Facilitator: Margit van Tuijl, Student Chaplain at TINT Eindhoven (The Netherlands)

How do you work with students on their resilience? And where do you find the resilience yourself to keep on doing your work in an inspiring and healthy way?

In this workshop you will explore your own sources of inspiration and resilience. We do this by means of the exercise ‘The Tree of Your Life’, in which you search for your sources of inspiration from the past (roots), present (trunk) and future (branches). From there you’ll further explore your dreams for the future to find new ideas and energy. There’s also room to exchange experiences and inspire each other. This ‘Tree of Your Life Exercise’ is very suitable to also offer to students, so after this workshop you might be inspired to implement this exercise in your own work with students.

Facilitator: Andrew Willson, Chaplain at Imperial College London (UK)

The workshop aims to show how a varied use of poetry helps chaplaincy offer a distinct and holistic form of care that stays close to its core religious identity while working in secular institutions.

Content of the workshop:
• discuss the emerging science of wellbeing and how this relates to poetry
• explore how to include poetry in a range of university chaplaincy work, like memorials, Equality Diversity and Inclusion, events and discussions, as well as deepening liturgy and spirituality
• read some poems together to help us begin or deepen our own relationship with poetry for our work
• map the current use of poetry used by participants to share across CEUC
• offer links to the resources and poems that have inspired my work

This workshop is a personal response to CEUC 2018 in Dublin where all the speakers seamlessly included poetry in their presentations, including the statistical sociologist of religion. Inspired by the speakers I have looked for ways to use poetry in my chaplaincy work in a university of science and engineering – in Equalities work, secular funerals, pastoral work, preaching and spirituality.
The work of psychologist Prof. John Teasdale (founder of Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy) links scientific understandings of meditation to the ancient religious traditions. He demonstrates the ancient wisdom that poetry ‘lands in the body’.
The work of psychiatrist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist on perception, and the priest-poet Malcolm Guite both show how the imagination engaging with poetry could inspire chaplaincy work in wellbeing. These are contemporary versions of old insights that can shape our ways of knowing and which work across both religious and secular world views.