A Spiritual Direction Session

What is spiritual direction?

Spiritual direction, also known as spiritual companioning, is an ancient spiritual art practiced by many cultures throughout history, of bearing witness to the mystery present in another person's journey. In a spiritual direction session or series of sessions, that person explores meaningful connections in their life and through the spiritual direction conversation may find ways to practice those meaningful connections in their life.

For me personally? Spiritual direction is the privilege and the practice of bearing witness to the mystery unfolding in another person’s life.

The poet, David Whyte, says of friendship what mirrors very powerfully spiritual companionship:

The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

David Whyte, Readers' Circle Essay, "Friendship"

A spiritual direction session takes place once a month through a zoom call (or physically in the same room if you are local to me) that lasts for about an hour. Together we establish sacred space, and the person who comes for the session brings into that conversation something that is arising in their life that they want to explore more deeply. It could be a relationship, a situation at work, a dream (both the kind that happen when we are asleep and the kind that we are formulating for ourselves when we are awake), a set of feelings, a question or curiosity about something, and, well, you get the point. The person brings in something from their life, talks about what that is meaning for them, and I listen. I listen not only to what the person is telling me, but for places in that telling where Spirit may be showing up. I may reflect back what I've heard, what I haven't heard, and I may have a question or two.  All of this is held in this sacred space in a way that allows the person who comes to the session to perceive more deeply how Spirit is moving and what is emerging from their heart, from their core connections.