Healing and resilience retreats: views from participants

Several participants in our Healing and Resilience Retreats have generously offered to share their experiences with the Lab audience. We pass those words along here as examples of the comfort and growth that can come from chaplains connecting and resting in space and time set aside for their healing:

Gathering at the retreat helped me to rest – but also to re-energize and find solidarity with others who are creating and delivering innovative expressions of spiritual care. Some of us feel physically fatigued and spiritually deflated by hospital and hospice chaplaincy that demands long hours, little flexibility, and low pay, with few opportunities for innovation. However, the retreat brought me into communion with others who are expanding spiritual care into new areas, such as urban pastoral ministry and social justice.

The retreat gave me the support and companionship I need as I move forward in delivering spiritual care to humanitarian and sustainability professionals through an independent practice. The retreat also demonstrated how we can innovate within our spiritual care profession, sharing new ideas and practices while remaining respectful and supportive of all. As we have learned from the pandemic, there is a need to care for all kinds of caregivers working in many different corners of our society. As spiritual care professionals, we can and must expand beyond hospitals, prisons, and hospices to reach caregivers who need support with identity, meaning, purpose, grief, and other spiritual issues. The retreat introduced me to others who are innovating and delivering spiritual care in new ways, which gives me motivation and courage to move forward in my own practice.

Katherine Daniels supports people on their journeys of exploration of purpose, meaning, identity, and belonging. In addition to other support work, she serves in a hospice and Level 1 trauma center.