Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience: Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity with Kindred Spirits
with Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Jamie Marich, Felicia Murrell, and Aisling Richmond
Forum facilitators - Jamie Marich and Aisling Richmond
September 8 – October 4, 2025
Weekly live Zoom sessions on Mondays
3-4pm Ireland
10-11am Eastern
7-8am Pacific
What is my action?
What is at stake?
From what center does my action come?”
Program Description
In modern times, many of us are answering the call to take action in what is often called the resistance. Resistance can be the act of not apologizing for who we are and how we connect with Divine, especially during these times of uncertainty when voices telling us that there should be one right way to worship God abound. In these times of flood and fire, when many of us are feeling the need for clarity as we ask of ourselves what is my action, it can be helpful to pause and ask, “What is at stake?,” and “From what center does my action come?” To best answer these questions, it is equally important to develop our commitment to rest and to renewal. Through rest and renewal we not only nourish ourselves, we can settle into what is most important for our spiritual growth and our capacity for resilience.
In this four week program, join Abbey of the Arts Wisdom Council Members Aisling Richmond, Felicia Murrell, Jamie Marich, and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan as we guide you through contemplative and action-based practices. In good company for courage, our facilitated discussions are designed to nurture you and other kindred spirits through these times of great uncertainty and great opportunity.
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
Weekly Themes
Week 1: Resistance
Resistance means noticing and responding. Like a field of sunflowers growing both underground and into the sky, together we share our lives with influence. In our first week together, we’ll explore the natural ways we claim goodness in a complicated world.
Week 2: Renewal
Tapping into the sense of rest, nourishment, and all of those things that make us feel more alive and less afraid is the heart of renewal. Just like a seed needs resources to grow into what that seed is meant to be–water, sunlight, soil, tender care, so do we as human beings. Through spiritual care and connection with others, may we receive what we most need in this moment.
Week 3: Resilience
Rooted in community engagement, cosmological connection, and creative possibility, our collective resilience—our ability to adapt to changing conditions in a constant onslaught of disturbances—is an anchor amid chaos. Like the deep root systems nourished by loamy biodiverse terrain within the earth’s mycelial network, may our interconnectedness foster a similar web of connection and resource sharing.
Week 4: Integration
In our last week, we’ll harvest all the gifts that have come our way, savouring and digesting our experience. What new roots and new growth have emerged? What shimmers and shines, as a beacon of hope in these turbulent times? What support might you need, so that these roots and shoots may continue to sustain you? This session will be a chance to both integrate your experience, but also prepare you for moving forwards in life, nourished by this time of resistance, renewal and resilience.
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Monday: Live Zoom session
- Week 1 – Lament psalms as a model of resistance with Richard
- Week 2 – Sustainable practices for rest and renewal with Jamie
- Week 3 – Interconnectedness for resilience with Felicia
- Week 4 – Integration with Aisling
Wednesday: Exploratory Practice
- Week 1 – Somatic resourcing with Aisling
- Week 2 – Movement, mindfulness, and meaningful connection with Felicia
- Week 3 – St. Francis inspired practice with Richard
- Week 4 – Expressive arts practice with Jamie
Friday: Guest Interview
- Week 1 – Dr. Kellie Kirksey
- Week 2 – To be announced
- Week 3 – To be announced
- Week 4 – Drew Jackson
Saturday: Sabbath Focused Practice
- Week 1 – 5 senses grounding meditation with Felicia
- Week 2 – Somatic yielding with Aisling
- Week 3 – Mini yoga nidra and meditation with Jamie
- Week 4 – Meditation on Psalm 104 with Richard
Like a field of sunflowers growing both underground and into the sky, together we share our lives with influence.
What's Included
- Four days each week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The materials are in written, video, and/or audio format which you can view and listen to at any time.
- A lovingly facilitated forum is also included in this live version of the retreat. Feel free to share what you are discovering with a community of kindred souls.
- We will turn on closed captioning during the live Zoom sessions (which you are able to turn off in your settings if you find distracting) as well as provide a video recording with closed captioning available and a text transcript of the session.
- The program will be recorded for those who pre-register but are unable to attend at the scheduled time or who want to view again. You will be sent a notification when this is ready to view.
- You have lifetime access to all online programs.
Your Guides for the Journey
Aisling Richmond
Aisling Richmond is a Somatic Therapist and transformative guide who is deeply inspired by nature and the wisdom of the soul. Aisling is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology and Transformative Leadership to work with cultural change. She shares a home with her partner in the rugged wildness of Donegal, North West Ireland. Aisling works as a therapist, supporting people to resolve trauma and life challenges through body-psyche-soul wisdom. She also mentors people in finding their deep soul purpose, and teaches a rich range of transformative programs online. Aisling is passionate about soul centred living, where nature and the feminine are deeply valued. Having worked collaboratively with many organisations including Amnesty International, Aisling has also been a guest lecturer with both Galway and Limerick Universities. Visit Aisling’s website here>>
Felicia Murrell
Felicia Murrell is a spiritual director and the author of AND: The Restorative Power of Love In An Either/Or World. With over 20 years of church leadership experience, her writing has been featured multiple times in the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Daily Meditations and their biannual journal ONEING. As a contemplative thought leader, Felicia has spoken at the Black Contemplative Prayer Summit and other widely recognized organizations. She believes Love is the source of our authentic power and that a love ethos can be embodied as a way of being in the world. For Felicia, the Way of Love (agape) is to consciously participate with the Divine in how we live, move and have our being. Mom to 4 adult children, she makes her home in Woodbury, Minnesota (USA) with her husband, Doug. Felicia is available for spiritual direction and can be contacted through her website FeliciaMurrell.com
Jamie Marich
Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, REAT, RMT travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, LGBTQ issues, spirituality, yoga, and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Northeast Ohio. Jamie is also the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness expressive arts practice. Jamie is the author of several books including Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015, with foreword by Christine Valters Paintner) and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery released in 2019, heavily influenced by the growth she has experienced through her study with Abbey of the Arts! Now primarily a North Atlantic Book author, she has recently released Trauma and the 12 Steps: An Inclusive Guide to Recovery (2020), Transforming Trauma with Jiu-Jitsu (2022), and Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life (2023). Their newest book is You Lied to Me About God: A Memoir (2024). Jamie is currently a seminarian in the Chaplaincy Institute’s Interfaith Ordination program. Visit Jamie’s website here.
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Dr. Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a spiritual director, musician, and lover of laughter. To this retreat, he brings his passion for lifelong spiritual formation and the arts, along with enthralled curiosity for the Great Mystery we are in together. His ongoing project is composing congregational songs at PsalmImmersion.com. His book, Dangerous Songs: The Psalms and a Gloriously Disrupted Life, will be published in April 2026 by Broadleaf Books. Richard serves as Director of Spiritual Formation at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Rochester, MN and lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa USA with his wife Trish and dogs Winifred and Jack. Visit Richard online at Worldmaking.net and Patreon.com/RichardBC
Guest Teacher Conversations
Dr. Kellie Kirksey is a holistic psychotherapist and founder of Creative Wellness Solutions, LLC. She is dedicated to learning healing ways from other cultures and bringing those wise ways to the masses.
Drew Jackson is a poet, speaker, and public theologian. He is the author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming, which was a finalist for the Christian Book Award, and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way.
Like the deep root systems nourished by loamy biodiverse terrain within the earth’s mycelial network, may our interconnectedness foster a similar web of connection and resource sharing.
Registration
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$130
Standard fee
- The standard fee for the program
- Keeps our programs sustainable
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$100
reduced fee
- Includes partial scholarship
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