As a core of Wayfinding.Life we offer spiritual direction to individuals and small groups. Often we get that question of, “What is spiritual direction?”. You may be asking that exact question right now. We have tried to capture the essence of spiritual direction with some questions which we get asked most often. If you have more questions or wish to dive right in and set up an appointment you can visit our contact page.
What is spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction is a centuries-old practice of the spiritual life and the church. In spiritual direction, we come together, in pairs or as a group, to explore the landscape of your soul and God’s work within your life.
What does spiritual direction look like?
Spiritual direction takes on many forms in our practice. A session can look much like a stereotypical counseling with two people sitting with each other. We have an office in Hendersonville that we quite like for quiet sessions. In a spiritual direction session we can sit down together, sip on tea, talk, listen, pray, and more. Should the various bustling coffeehouses or lunch spots suit you, that will suit us just fine as well. Maybe moving around or the backdrop of nature helps you feel more open to the spirit, we will often go for walks through a park together. We have even gone for walk around the golf course.
What do we talk about in spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction in our practice meets you where you are. We go where you feel led to go. If you feel a need to talk about work, family, finances, vocation, identity, spiritual dryness, and/or other deep issues we feel that those all part of our soul at work. Our work is creating a space and helping you to listen to what is happening within you.
Often with a very first spiritual direction session, we do a walk through your life in both the personal and spiritual story.
How long is a spiritual direction session?
A typical spiritual direction session will flow from an hour to an hour and a half. We like to book out at least ninety minutes when first starting spiritual direction. However, a spiritual direction session can be shorter in nature. We feel strongly that in todays world we want to hold open time for listening. Some days that listenining may come quickly, other days listening to ones soul may come slowly.
Do you teach during a session?
In our practice we try to listen more to you than to teach. However, we will often teach and practice other spiritual practices of the early faith. Lectio Divina, jounaling, contemplative prayer, silence, reading scripture, and more could become part of a spiritual direction session. Sometimes we will introduce and work through other tools that help with navigating ones soul, such as; the enneagram, Strengths Finder, Kolbe, Myers-Briggs, and Archetypes. Those are usually found in coaching sessions after significant time spent in discernment.
What happens when we are done with a spiritual direction session?
The results of a direction session can vary. You may discover some truths about yourself that will need some walking with for a few days or even years. You may come away a deeper sense of who you are. You might realize what all is moving around your life and needed changes. If you were to have some significant discernment actionable that needs probing and planning we can set up a separate ‘coaching’ session to lay out plans to achieve that.
Do we have to sign up for a bunch of sessions?
No. At this time you can request appointments as you feel led. However, it is our experience that regular time spent in spiritual direction is the best practice for the soul. If you feel as if there are some big decisions and questions in your life that need attending to, then possibly a more regular meeting is in order (say every two weeks), otherwise a regular practice can be once a month or every six weeks or so.
How is spiritual direction different from coaching or counseling?
If you have a good coach and a good counselor they will likely be very good listeners. Listening is a lot of what we do as well in spiritual direction. Coaching takes a turn we start to set plans or goals, example “In the next seven days what can you do about….?” Counseling may take a turn when it starts to offer methodologies to amend a particular problem. Spiritual direction, in its purest forms, will be more mysterious as to the end results. If you felt that you needed coaching, we offer sessions in coaching, but only after some work discerning. If you needed counseling, we are happy to help you navigate finding possible counselors.
Are there any questions you have that still need attention?
Email me at gavin (at) wayfindinglife (dot) com
