The Abundant Academy Programme for Clergy

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‘The glory of God is a human being  fully alive’, St Irenaeus    

How people experience the programme

77% of Abundant Academy participants reported feeling somewhat or very overwhelmed at the beginning of the programme, and 73% depleted or somewhat exhausted with 64% saying that they felt anxious all or some of the time. By the end of the programme, 50% said that they were either flourishing or on top of things and 60% said they were abundant or energised with 90% saying that they felt calmer. 

The programme’s creator

Revd Dr Harriet Harris, is a University Chaplain, theological writer, and a licensed Coach and Trainer. She developed the Abundant Academy out of 25-years’ experience of supporting people through and in Chaplaincy roles, and collaborating with the Scottish Government and universities internationally to bring Compassion into the structures and ethos of Higher Education. She is a Priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, Convenor of the Doctrine Committee of the Episcopal Church, and provides training for people in ministry. She is also a Trainer with Student Minds, an Associate Fellow of the Clinical Educator Programme, a trainer in Compassionate Leadership including for the NHS and Scottish Government, and a Certified Coach and Trainer with One of Many™, the UK’s largest network for women in leadership. For her innovative Chaplaincy work, she has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has received an MBE for services to Multifaith Education and Community Cohesion.

The Abundant Academy supports you to:

• Replenish, and model replenishment for others: acquiring habits that powerfully keep overwhelm and burnout at bay, and support your identity and the following of your vocation. You will find surprising amounts of time and space for yourself and for what you most value, and enter into holy rest. This opening part of the programme also grows understanding of disempowered behaviours, and equips you in ways of being that have strength and integrity for you and for your interactions with others.
• Reconnect, with yourselves and others, and with the Source of life: cultivating spiritual depth, (re)-discovering what is important to you; understanding what motivates you, and what drives you emotionally; overcoming procrastination, and recovering your creativity. Reconnecting is the route to discernment; uncovering our sense of purpose, integrity, joy, and the difference we make to the world. It opens us to a sense abundance even in difficulties, so that we can respond wisely and compassionately, rather than reactively, frenetically, or desperately, to the challenges we face.
• Realise, and empower realisation in those around you: finding the steps to take, the collaborations to make, and the support to harness, for fostering cultures and communities that you wish to inhabit and nurture, where we can be fully alive.     

The Core Programme

The Abundant Academy flagship programme is a 12 week programme comprising three core courses: ‘Replenish’, ‘Reconnect’ and ‘Realise’ (the 3Rs!). The programme can be spread across 30 weeks, with fortnightly rather than weekly meetings, and breaks for Christmas and Easter. There are benefits to the longer timescale. Across your time together, you cultivate increasingly fertile ground for growing your visions and projects. You benefit from the supportive network that you create for one another, and also begin to see your projects or mission take root.

You become part a network that you help to foster, and with whom you can continue to meet and enjoy mutual support even after their formal Abundant Academy programme. You are invited to join the Abundant Academy Community, which meets for facilitated gatherings, on-going coaching, and personal check-ins on whatever is important to us in our lives right now.

All core courses run online unless otherwise indicated.

The Replenish Course

Replenish, and model replenishment for others

5x2 hours + ¾-day workshop

• Replenishment as resistance: radical response to hustle culture
• Understanding disempowered behaviour and handling our internal ‘frenemies’
• Harnessing empowering archetypes
• Embedding the archetypes for leadership, self-care, and healthy role-modelling
• Letting go of limiting beliefs and behaviours

Timings:

3pm-5pm, Wednesdays 11 October – 6 December 2023 (online via Zoom)    

Plus a ¾-day workshop on ‘Embodied learning: using your full intelligence', 30 October in-person, or  date tbc online

The Reconnect Course

Reconnect, with ourselves and others, and with the source of life

5x2 hours + ¾-day workshop

• A primer on replenishment and empowerment
• Understanding and processing our emotions
• Discovering our values and unconscious drivers
• Responding to procrastination and what gets us stuck
• Finding wisdom for the next steps

Timings: 3pm-5pm, Wednesdays, fortnightly, 24 January – 20 March 2024 (online via Zoom)    

Plus a ¾-day workshop on ‘‘Saying “No”, so that you can say “Yes” to what is most meaningful’, 19 February in-person, or date tbc online.

The Realise Course 

Realise, and empower realisation with others

2x2 hours, plus an in-person workshop

• Tuning into our deep-rooted desires
• Exploring meaning and purpose
• Creating networks of support and collaboration

Timings:

3pm-5pm, Wednesdays, 8 May and 22 May 2024 (online via Zoom)    

Plus a ‘Day of inspired, visionary planning (outwith SMART goals)’, 28 May in-person, or date tbc online

Participants receive:

• 26 hours of small-group coaching, delivered in confidential groups that enable strong bonds to form and individual coaching to take place, delivered in I3x 2-hour sessions over nine months
• 3 ¾-day workshops, plus invitations to additional bonus days
• Welcome packs and resources
• Full notes from every session with assignments for embedding the learning
• Invitations to in-person workshops, catering included
• On-going membership of the Abundant Academy Community with regular up-dated input, resourcing and laser-coaching; a great network of support and continual learning, and for check-ins, coaching, and bonus workshops
• Access to blogs and podcasts to support what we are learning in the Abundant Academy
• Invitations to Away-days with the Abundant Academy Community

Costs

Total cost of the programme per participant is £1800 Excl VAT with scope for negotiation according to circumstances, contact Harriet at h.harris@ed.ac.uk The full value of the course is £2,500. It is offered at a reduced cost this year early-clients.

For enquiries and bookings, please contact Monica.Dearden@ei.ed.ac.uk

Optional additional workshops to embed and direct the learning

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There will be an option of additional online and in-person workshops. In-person events give the opportunity to meet off-line, and particularly focus on the embodied aspects of Abundant Academy, which are vital to the transformative effects of the resources. Online workshops continue to enable us to meet from wherever we are, without travel.

 Workshop topics include:

• ‘Embodied learning: using your full intelligence'
• ‘Handling perfectionism and imposter syndrome’
• ‘Saying “No”, so that you can say “Yes” to what is most meaningful’
• ‘Asking for what you need, for individual and group endeavours’
• ‘Headspace for writing’
•  ‘Doing more great work’
• ‘Overwhelm First Aid’                                                                     

‘If you want to awaken all of humanity, awaken all of yourself’, Lao Tzu                                

 Words and testimonials from participants in the Abundant Academy University Programme

‘AbAc is time very well spent, for it actually gives you more time, not less. It helps you focus on your values, so that you find yourself concentrating on those things that energise you and that are meaningful to you, discarding what is trivial and unimportant’.  Prof. Pauline Phemister, Professor of the History of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh. 

‘The Abundant Academy has been a real life saver for me. I feel it provided much needed solace, support and clarity of thought throughout the year, I genuinely connected with the teachings and with the cohort.…Also, I have raved about it to so many family and friends who do say they see a profound change in me, a change I attribute to this course. Thankyou!’  Project Manager

‘I would definitely recommend the course. It felt like a relatively big time commitment but I came out of each session feeling like it was worth the time. The overall progression of the course was really meaningful…culminating in what I felt to be a very fulfilled and empowered outcome.’ PhD student.

‘Being part of the wonderful group has been amazing, I have so much respect and care for all the course participants; at a time I was feeling a bit oppressed by the machinations of [stuff at work], it reminded me why I love the university ... the people in it!’  Manager of PGR programmes.

‘The AbAc course supported me greatly throughout a challenging period of my life. I had thought of myself as someone who was being pretty mindful about a balanced daily life, but the course made me aware of how much I had been pushing myself in both my professional and family life and of how emotionally exhausted I was after two years of Covid. It helped both me and my partner to make important decisions: reduce our work, take more shared parental leave, make time and space for proper replenishment.’ PhD Student

‘The course was really well set out: exercises lead to deep reflection and inspiring conversations. The sharing was often intimate even though most of the participants had never met before, I think this is because Harriet's wonderful facilitation made everyone feel safe and appreciated. I learned from the exercises as much as I learnt from what others were saying about their lives, and people were clearly becoming more optimistic as the course went on. What a wonderful experience - I am very grateful that I stumbled upon AbAc in a newsletter and would not hesitate to join again if it was continued!’ Suzy Paulus, PhD student.

‘Before taking Abundant Academy I was challenged by exhaustion and managing work/life balance. I was experiencing burnout, with work and home pressures, compounded by Covid and family illness. It was difficult finding the opportunity to switch off from work, as I had a work mobile and we were short staffed. I had no real summer break and was feeling overwhelmed.  I was signed off work for stress for a couple of weeks but this was an indicator that I seriously needed to look at my wellbeing.

Harriet, I have always admired your work, so when I saw the Abundant Academy programme it sounded a great opportunity. On the Programme, I have found everything useful and interesting.  I particularly enjoyed connecting with other people, in such an open and supportive way, the opportunity to share, reflect, and listen to others.  It made me realise that many people have challenges, and perhaps feel lonely – connecting with people is so important to wellbeing.

My partner in particular has commented that I have more energy since Abundant Academy.  It has helped my energy levels, and clarity of thought.

I feel wiser and more confident since the programme. I use the archetypes a lot. They are really useful in many different situations, such as when I have had a stressful time or busy day, when I am worried about my family and times of uncertainty, when we think about the world’s future, in giving permission to do things for the greater good without feeling guilt.  Fear, guilt and perfectionism are what can hold me back – understanding the inner critic has been really helpful. 

Taking part in the programme made me realise that many others have these challenges.  I feel this is just the beginning of a new journey, and am thankful for being part of the Abundant Academy community.  Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity.’ Student Adviser

‘Harriet is a compassionate and thoughtful facilitator, and the discussion groups felt very safe and supportive.’ NHS Consultant and Educator

‘This work [Abundant Academy] feels very precious, and brings with it all manner of abundance. I find myself passing on a version of your notes to my grown-up daughter. The wonderful thing about your record of the meeting is that it is genuinely personal and conversational, and it works its way into my relationship with my daughter. There is an internalising that precedes the passing on, and this is where the work is done…I also wanted to tell you that I feel genuine affection for and solidarity with my mighty companions. This is remarkable, given that we've only 'met' three times, and it can in large measure be attributed to the ineffable qualities you bring to the sessions. To say you are an 'effective facilitator' doesn't really come close, which is not to say that there isn't a particular 'skills set' in the background. The real mastery, it seems to me, is that you keep it in the background. This is rare, in my experience….In short, I really don't know how you do what you do. I'm just so very glad that you do it.’ Dr Annie Pirrie, Reader in Education, University of the West of Scotland.

‘Thank you for the incredible mind-boggling, life-changing support, wisdom and insights you have given us on the Replenishment course and the brilliant bonus days. You feature very heavily in my gratitude-diary. Your killer opening salvo at the last session about why are we here and honing our sense of purpose are such fundamental and necessary questions that just get drowned out in our daily to-do-lists and gave me a lot to think about and helped me make sense of some recent events.

The Replenishment course has been invaluable for my own well-being but it also enormously helped me with dealing with students, my personal tutees in particular and some struggling students on their Year Abroad. Even seemingly simple ideas like treating yourself before tackling a chore was a revolutionary concept for me (delayed gratification was a cornerstone of my upbringing!). And I don´t understand how Jung and the archetypes have passed me by for so long. They are absolutely fascinating and such a great tool for analysing and understanding behaviour.

I have been given an award nomination from one of my tutees. The course helped me so much with finding ways to support her and I wanted to feed that ripple-effect back to you.’ Dr Annette Gotzkes, Lecturer in German Studies, University of Edinburgh

‘AbAc is time very well spent, for it actually gives you more time, not less. It helps you focus on your values, so that you find yourself concentrating on those things that energise you and that are meaningful to you, discarding what is trivial and unimportant’.  Prof. Pauline Phemister, Professor of the History of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh.

Harriet Harris, h.harris@ed.ac.uk