What to Expect in Our Sessions
Why Do People Seek Spiritual Direction?
People seek spiritual direction for many reasons. Sometimes people begin because a significant life event has led them to ask questions about God, faith, and spirituality. Others enter direction because they want to deepen and enliven their spiritual life and find direction a helpful way of continuing their lifelong growth.
Some reasons for entering direction include:
-
Exploring Spiritual Questions
-
Finding New Ways To Pray
-
Recovering from Religion
-
Finding God During Times of Grief
-
Letting Go of Harmful Beliefs
-
Integrating Body and Soul
-
Growing Your Capacity to Love Yourself and Others
-
Learning Spiritual Practices for Self-Care
-
Finding Deeper Energy for Creativity and Well-Being
-
Setting Aside Intentional Time for Personal Growth
How Long Do People Need / Stay in Direction?
Is This Therapy or Pastoral Counseling?
Frequent Questions about the Work We Can Do Together
I focus on work with people:
-
Who have experienced harm in religious communities
-
Who Identify as LGBTIQA
-
In creative and artistic fields
-
Who do work in social justice and helping professions
-
Dealing with grief and loss
-
Changing religious traditions or leaving the church or faith community they grew up in
-
Seeking to grow sustainable life patterns and self-care
-
Searching for deeper rhythms of prayer
I enjoy working with people from all religious and non-religious backgrounds. My work to listen and accompany you on your own exploration of faith and spirituality, without judgment or coercion.
I do not believe a Spiritual Director is capable of being unbiased. I'm doing this work with you because I want to see you grow. But you're the one who determines what is healthy for your own soul. Click below to learn about my background and approach to our work.
Who Do You Work With in Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual Growth is a lifelong process. It's something you'll keep doing as long as you breathe.
Most People will meet with me once a month. Sometimes more frequently during difficult seasons of life.
Our Companionship is meant to foster deep growth, which requires developing trust and doing sustainable work together to support your lifelong journey. Many people continue participating in Spiritual Direction relationships over the course of many years.
Ultimately, you get to decide if our work together is helpful to your own personal growth
What an excellent question.
Mental Health Counselors are specifically trained and supervised to work with clients dealing with mental health and addictions. As a Spiritual Director, I have been trained to recognize when clients might benefit from working with a therapist to address mental health and certain difficult life situations.
I work closely with licenced mental health counselors to make referrals to professionals who are sensitive to spirituality and respectful of all people. There are many times when clients can benefit from both therapy and spiritual direction. I will work with you to determine if our work is appropriate for this season of your life, and I am happy to discuss this more when we meet.
Similarly, Pastors and Pastoral Counselors work from within their particular church or faith tradition. There's much value in this rootedness and spiritual care within a worshipping community, and I'm happy to help people who are looking for a faith community to join.
However, many people leave or change faith communities. Others are seeking to explore new avenues of faith. And far too many people have experienced harm, condemnation, and little room for questions and doubt in their houses of worship. For these people and many others, Spiritual Direction can be an excellent way of deepening their own spiritual journey.
A Space for Spiritual Work and Play
During each session, we'll enter the sacred work of your own life. Our time together is set aside for you to press pause and pay close attention to your own life. Within this space, we'll examine what's giving you life and what's holding you back. Depending on where you want to go in our sessions, we can explore your past and present experiences with prayer, religion, spiritual encounters with the divine, doubt, grief, desire for connections with God and others, and practices of prayer, meditation, and spiritual integration.
In order to do this work and play together, we'll develop ways of beginning and ending together which may include silence, prayer, music, or reflection. The purpose of these rituals are to help both of us honor the sacred space of our time in session together, and create room that is set aside for the sole purpose of tending to your soul.