University Chaplain supports students and employees in life’s many questions
The “Working at the Uniarts Helsinki” series introduces employees who work in various roles, enabling students to grow into high-quality, broad-minded artists and changemakers.
Lisa Enckell, University Chaplain at Uniarts Helsinki, returned to the position of a chaplain two years ago after more than twenty years of working as a journalist. As a cultural editor of Yleisradio, Enckell got to know artists and their lives as well as the twists of turns of a career in culture through hundreds of interviews. Now she focuses on the process of growth and development as a person and artist when meeting people. Meeting different people is the heart and soul of her work.
Who are you and what do you do at Uniarts Helsinki?
I am Lisa Enckell, University Chaplain at Uniarts Helsinki, and I am there for absolutely anyone who needs to chat about something confidentially: students, researchers and staff alike. I help them ponder all kinds of questions and choices in life.
Anyone can contact me, regardless of world-view or religion. Discussions respect the person’s personal beliefs. As a Chaplain, I have a duty of professional secrecy. My work also includes church services, such as baptisms and marriages.
I work in close cooperation with various operators in the well-being sector, the study psychologist and other support service personnel, building and promoting the well-being and coping of people at Uniarts Helsinki. Various training and guidance activities related to mental and spiritual well-being are also part of my work.
I am graduating as a supervisor (a member of STORY), and I also provide work guidance to both individuals and groups. Work guidance provides an opportunity to examine the work you’re doing and your interactive relationships with the supervisor. It also gives you the chance to reflect on and look for different perspectives as well as to learn and find new and more meaningful working methods that work for you.
Tell me about your typical day at work
A University Chaplain does not have a typical or a repetitive working day or working hours. Of course, I try to keep up some kind of weekly and daily routine for my own and others’ well-being. Mondays are usually for meetings and paperwork. On the basis of cooperation agreements between different higher education institutions and universities, Helsinki has a team of 7 University chaplains, and we usually meet on Mondays. Tuesday and Thursday are reserved for the Sörnäinen and Töölö campuses, and I try to arrange the scheduled discussion times and other meetings on the campuses. This spring, we are trying out two different spaces. Wednesdays and Fridays are reserved for work guidance and individual discussions, either live or online.
My calendar fills up surprisingly often with all kinds of meetings and trainings through collaborations which gives me the opportunity to meet nice people. I need to remember to put time aside to prepare for these things.
I try to have a moment of quiet every day to keep my head in one piece and my heart warm. Meeting with people won’t work if I can’t be present.
What’s the best part of your job?
People and deep encounters with them. Especially when the discussion can help people open up about the pain points in their life, when it helps you to make new observations about life, and to find sparks of hope even in a difficult situation.
What would you like more time to do?
I’d like time to learn to read again slowly and in a way that I could enjoy it. As I got used to speed-reading both novels and non-fiction when I was preparing for interviews as a cultural editor, it would be nice to slow down now. I would like to re-discover a reading style that is laid-back, that gets me excited about language, plot twists and tones. Now that keeping up to date with culture is not part of my work anymore, it would be nice to find new kinds of cultural activities.
Tell us your most memorable art experience
During the pandemic, I haven’t had many live encounters with art. Having said that, the Finnish National Opera’s version of Verdi’s opera just before Christmas on a flat-screen TV was great. I’ve been mostly interested in visual art in recent years, and the Tampere Art Museum surprised me with their live experience.
For me, what matters at art exhibitions are not just the art pieces but how they have been hanged and paced. The best recent experience I had was at the exhibition series created by the retired museum manager Tapio Pennanen from the Tampere Art Museum on the works of the artist Magnus Enckell.
Get in touch
You can contact Lisa by e-mail at lisa.enckell@evl.fi. You can also find Lisa on Instagram under uniarts_pappi_Lisa.
About Uniarts Helsinki
Uniarts Helsinki is an open meeting place for the arts – an ambitious university community for bold reformers and experts in tradition. We cultivate a unique environment that helps artists grow and strengthens the power of art as a driver of change. Uniarts Helsinki is among the leading performing arts universities in the world, and it is comprised of the Academy of Fine Arts, Sibelius Academy and Theatre Academy. We have about 2,000 students and about 700 full-time equivalent employees.
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