Reconnect who you are with what you do & how you be

The Courage To Belong

Restoring Identity and Integrity for Self & System

 21—23 February 2025

Virtual | Zoom 

£597   £197 —

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This is a four-session immersive online event, where you are invited to experience the integration of the values, principles, and practices of the Courage & Renewal® and cutting edge, evidence based belonging interventions to foster and develop identity and integrity for self and system. Collectively, these elements contribute to trustworthy environments where individuals can explore questions of meaning, purpose, and how to live authentically with integrity and courage.

Dr Saiyyidah says 'as you develop your relationship with your inner teacher you start to belong in your own skin more and when you understand what belonging is for you then you can help others to feel like they have a sense of belonging. I think that just makes the world feel better and is expansive for humanity.'

Join Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi, seasoned leadership advisor, adventurer, and expert in belonging, culture, and identity; and Brian Braganza, Courage & Renewal® Facilitator, and leadership trainer and social change facilitator, and writer. In this retreat as we explore and experience ideas and concepts on how to expand, restore, and develop identity and integrity using the work of Parker J Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal®. 

Using this retreat to restore identity and integrity for:

Self — The work starts with you and your relationship with yourself so you have increased self-awareness of your own sense of belonging.

&

System — Understanding your place in the systems you are in—be that your family, community, or society, and any other system you feel is important for your sense of belonging.  

We are living in complex times where people are desperate to find a sense of home, belonging, settling in the unknown… there is so much tragedy, trauma, and tension all around us and it is hard to find hope, joy, and smiles that bring us back in connection. Many people live in a broad space with challenge, desire, clarity, and seek increased courage to be more of themselves. It is hard. There is much talk about belonging, culture, and identity and very little that will tangibly create these things for you in your daily lived experience.

Often your role is to support others and facilitate change and growth for them – who is doing this for you? 

In the Courage To Belong experience you will find a trustworthy space where you can discover and explore your inner teacher and guide who provides the place of welcome for more of you to show up. We all need spaces to lean in before we can lean out.

By utilizing the work of courage and renewal you will connect with yourself at a deeper level unlocking the welcome and hospitality that awaits within you.

Each day, your facilitators will lead educational, informative, and contemplative sessions inspired by contemporary and ancient wisdom, structured through Center for Courage & Renewal process of Circle of Trust®, academic and practitioner research into reflective practice belonging, identity and culture, and other expert voices in self-examination.

Throughout the retreat, we will explore, individually and collectively, the thoughts, stories, habits, and conditioning that affect our sense of belonging and keep us living away from our deep desire and need for belonging. Our time together will help you cultivate tools, techniques, and practices that serve you in your desire of living a more authentic and integrated life.

The retreat sessions are interactive, fun, and insightful. You’ll work hard, be challenged, and leave feeling empowered to meet life skillfully, kindly and mindfully with an increased sense of belonging and a knowing of how to create space for others to do the same.

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"The idea behind our work is to help leaders to show up more fully in the workplace —and in every dimension of their lives —with their identity and integrity hand in hand."

What will we do?

Retreat Dates: 21—23 February 2025

Feedback from previous retreat attendees

 

Academic leader & lecturer

"This retreat has deep compassion and opportunity for self insight and understanding. It was carefully planned and flexible."

Retired Religious Leader

"You have a wonderful sense of humor Saiyyidah.  Your eyes twinkle as you lead.  You offer us your own experiences and insights about your attempts to understand your own inner life in an amazing and charming self-deprecating way.  You are undeniably who you are and you model for us a gentle and humorous way of loving yourself."

Leadership Facilitator

"You have beautiful pacing and a gentle tone and expression. I never felt rushed. A lovely way of moving from one thing to the next."

C-Suite Leader FTSE 150 Company

"Ahhhh. I really do breathe a little lighter. Really good session. I want more!"

Meet Your Facilitators

 

Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi

Apprentice Courage and Renewal Facilitator

Saiyyidah has three strands to her practice: she is a Founding Partner with Altair and works with CEOs, senior leaders and their teams, as an advisor, mirror and sounding board; she trains senior leaders to become coaches with Meyler Campbell; and she is a Research Associate with the University of Oxford's Center for Culture and Religion. Saiyyidah has been described as a pioneer by academic Journal editors. Stemming from her research and lived experience Saiyyidah has a particular interest in helping individuals and organisations to enhance their leadership impact and influence through identity, culture, and belonging.

Saiyyidah is a qualified Architect, has two Masters degrees in Construction Economics and Management and Applied Positive Psychology, and a PhD in Practical Theology/Critical Studies She is a European Mentoring and Coaching Council Master Coach and Embodied Supervisor.

Outside work and home, Saiyyidah enjoys cinema, travel, and experiencing/learning new things.

Brian Braganza

Courage and Renewal Mentor

Brian Braganza is a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator prepared by Parker J Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal in 2014. He was on the leadership teams for the Canadian and US Facilitator Preparation Programs.

Brian is an experiential educator specializing in Leadership, Community Youth Development, and Masculinities. He is a trainer with the ASPIRE Education and Leadership Model. Brian co-founded the T.O.N.E. Project, Therapy Outside Normal Environments, a unique men’s therapeutic project that uses land-based, adventure, and soulful connections for healing and growth. Brian co-wrote a report on the links between traditional masculinity, violence, and mental health for the Commission investigating the 2020 Mass Casualty in Nova Scotia.

Brian and his wife, Tara, co-founded Tandem Truths Consulting. Based in Canada, he has worked internationally in the U.S.A., Malawi, and Australia. 

Brian is a wilderness guide, musician, and is re-story-ing his 150 year old barn. He is writing a book on place, belonging, and social transformation.

There is no house like the house of belonging 

— David Whyte

Your Questions Answered...

 

Belonging isn't a given. It takes work, risk taking & courage.

— Saiyyidah Zaidi

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— Courage to Belong Retreat — 

 21—23 February 2025

Virtual | Zoom 

£597   £197 —

register now

 

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

— Mother Theresa

What this is, and isn't...

 

The work of Courage & Renewal can be difficult to articulate in a way that our intellect can understand. This lack of 'words to explain' can lead people to compare it to something that they are already familiar with, defining it through the lens of various 'methods' of personal or professional development.

Defining something by what it’s not is ultimately unhelpful. However, it can be useful to articulate some of the similarities and differences between this approach and others that might seem familiar but do not fully capture the essence of the Courage & Renewal approach. Marcy Jackson, one of the co-founders of the Center for Courage & Renewal, previously shared some thoughts which we believe are very helpful here:

It is:
  • not team building, though with time and trust a strong sense of community naturally emerges;
  • not therapy, though this approach results in greater self-awareness and self-acceptance, sometimes accompanied by a sense of deep inner “healing”
  • not diversity work, though greater understanding of “otherness” in all its manifestations, and a deeper appreciation of the richness of differences, is a hallmark of most retreat groups
  • not a vision quest, though the journey of the inner life often leads to greater clarityof vision and purpose
  • not a meditation practice, though the practice of being together in silence fosters mindfulness and contemplation
  • not a spiritual smorgasbord—offering a chance to dabble in a range of spiritual/psychological practices—yet words of wisdom and inspiration from diverse wisdom and spiritual traditions enrich our communal dialogue on some of life’s most challenging questions
  • not creativity training, though the creative spirit is released when individuals begin to claim their gifts and act on what brings them joy
  • not leadership training program per se, yet by offering multiple invitations and experiences for people to “author” their own lives individuals begin to take greater responsibility and leadership in their lives and work.
  • neither “sage on the stage” nor “guide on the side”, but rather something altogether different—a kind of “being” and “leading” that emerges from the inside out, that demands clear attention to boundaries and creating safe space within which people can take risks and be vulnerable, but also expect that no harm will be done to them in the process.
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I long, as does every human being, to be at home [to belong*] wherever I find myself. 

— Maya Angelou  [*added by Saiyyidah]