Minister Spotlight: Annie Blampied on Quietude Training

I have been an interfaith minister since 2004, and busy with lots of related roles since then, including a variety of roles as a chaplain, in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices. I have accompanied many people on their journey across the threshold of death and supported their families in the process.

In 2020 I launched the first Quietude training course, for people wishing to offer spiritual and emotional support in end-of-life care. The third training begins in October 2022.

The feedback from graduates, now qualified Quietude Practitioners is very positive. It’s an ideal next step for any OneSpirit minister wishing to deepen or focus their direction of service.

I quote from a recent graduate, Jane Pantony, Head of Counselling at Hospice in the Weald:~

Working alongside others on the course and exploring with them, has helped me to see things from someone else’s perspective and experience. The course has helped me to be more focused, and to also trust in the process and the universe!

The opportunity to be able to share thoughts around subjects that rarely get spoken about is wonderful, to explore more deeply within a safe, supportive environment is priceless. The space to think about past wrongs, and, ‘to let go’, so redeeming. And to feel validated and understood is invaluable. To experience this and then put that into practice, to help the people we support and will be supporting in the future is incredibly special.

When I was counselling the quality of the (therapeutic) relationship was the most important aspect of the work, and I believe that most people when provided with a safe space to express themselves authentically will be able to work through many of the issues that they are trying to deal with. To be able to say out loud, to a trusted person, someone can then start to process and hopefully reduce that constant noise in their heads, to break into it and free themselves from that cycle, to help heal themselves.

Thank you Annie for creating this course and I hope to be able to take all I have learned forward and dearly hope to create something as special within the Hospice.

To find out more please visit https://emerson.org.uk/course/quietude/.

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