Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is a ministry of holy listening that offers you a safe place to talk about and process your values, beliefs, emotions, reactions, and thoughts concerning all the situations of your life and relationships including your relationship with God, self and others.  All topics and all relationships have a spiritual element and can lead to spiritual growth, freedom, self awareness, and a more conscious living out of your values and beliefs.  

Spiritual direction is not a spiritual director telling you what to believe or pushing their beliefs on you. 

The reasons people seek spiritual direction are varied and possibly infinite but here are a few reasons: 

• Because you have deep questions about your faith that you don’t feel comfortable sharing with those close to you or in your church.
• Because you have heard it’s a good idea for people with your Enneagram number and/or people doing Enneagram work.
• You feel abandoned by God because of a traumatic experience.
• You are frustrated with the direction of Christianity and or your church. 
• You want spiritual growth.
• You find yourself stuck in how you react to others and feel it is important for your growth to look deeper at beliefs and thoughts that may contribute to this.
• You feel God has moved away from you.
• You want to integrate your beliefs more into your behavior, actions and life in general.
• You want to learn contemplative prayer practices and other spiritual tools.
• You want someone to check in with spiritually once a month.
• You want to learn to accept and love yourself more.
• You want to experience God’s personal love for you instead of just knowing about God’s love.
• You want assistance and tools for how to discern God’s direction or call.
• You feel like certain aspects of your faith are superstitious and not healthy.
• You want more freedom in your faith practices.
• You feel God is calling you to seek spiritual direction.
• You are grieving and want someone to talk out your grief and your questions about God related to loss. 
• You want to become aware of “shoulds” that contribute to your lack of freedom in religion and relationships.  

There are many flavors of spiritual direction and I as a spiritual director am open to adapting spiritual direction in any ways that are helpful to my directees including the use of art, walking, spiritual direction through writing, book studies, etc.

Typically a session will start with some sort of prayer - usually some sort of contemplative prayer practice - which can have the effect of helping you to slow down and turn your attention inwards. After the prayer is over we may discuss anything that came up for you during the prayer. I may ask questions that call your attention to ways in which you reacted to words that were said and what those reaction may reveal. 

We will then talk about anything you brought to talk about during this session. Since all relationships and situations are spiritual we can start anywhere.  An issue with a loved one may lead us to emotions, needs, thought, beliefs, images, and ultimately where you see God in this situation. 

I may use tools that I have learned including the Enneagram, non-violent communication, theological reflection, Ignatian discernment, story thickening and shadow work to assist you in getting some understand and freedom around places of stuckness. 

Usually once a month but It can vary if you want to meet more or less frequently.

Because it is a ministry often spiritual directors have a range in their pay scale and will often have reduced prices for students. My current pay scale range is $30 to $70. Students are $25. 

I am happy to do a free consultation either on the phone or in person to help you discern whether spiritual direction may be helpful for you.