Spiritual Direction

August 15, 2020 - May 31, 2021
$150
223 W. Foothill Boulevard
ClaremontCA
USA

Thank you for your interest in Spiritual Direction.

Spirituality & Practice (S&P) has partnered with Stillpoint, a leading spiritual direction training organization, to help you find an equipped and well-qualified spiritual director. Click here to read more about Stillpoint.

Spirituality & Practice is devoted to providing resources for your spiritual journey. These take the form of book and film reviews, spiritual practice instructions, inspirational quotes, and many other explorations of how spirituality intersects with contemporary life.

As you navigate through the rich lode of wisdom on the website, you may find that you need another kind of resource — support, encouragement, and an opportunity to share with another person the discoveries and challenges of your spiritual journey. That’s when you might want to talk with a spiritual director. For example:

  • You try a new spiritual practice to deepen your devotional life while exploring S&P’s Practice Toolkit and want to talk about your experience.
  • While reading book reviews or book excerpts, you decide it is time to face a challenge, such as your anger or loneliness, through spiritual practices.
  • You see a movie that touches you in an unexpected way.
  • You are reading one of S&P’s topics and realize you really want to explore how your spirituality is related to such issues as democracy, aging, climate change, conversations, racism, and respect.
  • A quote, meme, or blog post reminds you of a key personal commitment, and you know that talking about it will strengthen your intention.
  • You have taken one of our short-term e-courses and want to continue to apply its teachings.
  • You have identified a “spiritual symptom” (something happening or desired in your life) and you want to find a “spiritual rx” to address it, such as those on this chart.

We know these kinds of experiences are common among visitors to Spirituality & Practice, which is why we are pleased to be able to offer Spiritual Direction through the website.

What Is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual Direction originated as spiritual mentoring in monasteries, but it is now offered by retreat centers, congregations, and individuals. It is a unique one-to-one relationship in which a trained person assists another person in the search for ever-closer connections with God (however you might call the “something more” beyond yourself), to your true self, and to those in the world around you.

​Spiritual Direction encourages you to explore a deeper relationship with the spiritual dimensions of human existence by telling your own sacred story.

Spiritual Direction today is often called “Spiritual Companioning.” It is more about “holy listening” than of providing “direction” in the sense of offering instructions, assignments, or direct advice, although that sometimes happens and can be requested. A spiritual director listens carefully to the unfolding of your life to help you discern the ways you are being led to a deeper and richer life.

Read more about spiritual direction here.

An Opportunity for You to Have a Spiritual Director

Here’s how the Spirituality & Practice/Stillpoint Spiritual Direction program works:

  • We are offering an introductory package of three one-hour sessions with a spiritual director for $150.
  • After you register (using the Subscribe button below), we will send you a receipt with a link to a “Spiritual Direction Inquiry Form” on which you can say what you are seeking in spiritual direction. If you do not immediately see the receipt, which will be coming from [email protected], please check your promotion and spam folders.
  • Stillpoint will review your questionnaire and match you with a trained spiritual director who can best meet your needs. You will receive the name and contact information of your spiritual director via email. You can then initiate contact, and the two of you can decide your first meeting time. The sessions can be done via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp, or other video-chat platforms — or by cell phone or landline.
  • This three-session program (usually meeting once a month, sometimes more often) is a short-term arrangement with a special price which will serve as an “introduction” to the benefits of spiritual direction.
  • If you want to continue beyond three sessions, please discuss this with your spiritual director. The cost of subsequent sessions will vary, depending on the director.

Spiritual direction is a unique kind of mentoring. It is not psychotherapy, because it is not so focused on your relational life, or strengthening your ego, or solving your problems, although all of those things may arise in a conversation about your spirituality. Your spiritual life is underneath all aspects of you, and as your spiritual life develops, it becomes the foundation for growth in every area of your life.

As you move forward, your spiritual director will help you notice when Kindness or Wisdom or Love or Grace in their many guises are flowing your way. It sounds like a conversation between friends, and it is, but the spiritual director has a wide-angle lens, a dual focus on both the immediate words and the larger Message. As themes emerge in the conversation and particular incidents are shared, the wider lens catches small and large surprises which open up the ways that Spirit is blessing you today and will continue to bless you this week and in the weeks to come.

We invite you to avail yourself of this unique opportunity for spiritual companionship by clicking on the Subscribe button below.