So this evening, I went for my first session of spiritual direction. Or maybe that's too clinical. Perhaps I'll say, this evening I met with a spiritual director for the first time. It's something a mentor of mine suggested to me when I was so depressed a couple months ago, and that I took some time to read about, think about, talk about, and pray about. Eventually, I decided to go for it. I really do want to feel connected with God and to nurture the spirtual side of myself. Basically, Spiritual Direction, or at least the kind I'm participating in, is a conversation between two people where the focus is God. It's comparable to a counseling relationship, but it's far less clinical. Further, counseling most often has specific goals and such. Spiritual direction is all about the journey. If the goal is to feel closer to God, you don't have to know what that will look like, or how you'll know when you're there. Spiritual direction can go on for years and years. The director listens, there is prayer, and perhaps you focus on a certain spiritual discipline together. The two listen for the Holy Spirit and focus on what God is doing in the directee's life. Often it invovles talking about daily life and recoginzing where God is, being more attunded to the working of the Holy in the ordinary.
Tonight's meeting was a good experience for me. I feel comfortable with the woman I found, and comfortable with her background. She also felt comfortable working with me, and thinks that I'm in a very good place in my life for this journey together to begin.
So we'll see where things go. Generally you meet with a spiritual director about once a month or once every 6-8 weeks, however for the first couple months we'll be meeting every two weeks as we get to know each other and I get to be comfortable in her presence. Spirituality has been a part of my life for a long time, but is something I often don't articulate very well. Hopefully, I'll be able to articulate some of it here as well as other places.
4 comments:
This really sounds interesting. Good luck.
It sounds both interesting and helpful. I like the idea of it and anything that helps can only be good.
Good for you!
Spirituality has been a very big part of my life and practice.
What keeps me going is often a sense that God wants me to be doing this work. Without that I am not sure it would hold much interest.
I look foward to your future posts on this topic.
All the best,
David Markham
Hello- I'm actually an intern Spiritual Director and my Supervisor for my second year is a Social Worker/ Psychotherapist! I am also a Midwife, currently on sabbatical while I complete my Internship in Spiritual Direction. I began this journey 3 years ago, after a long period of loss/grief ( two of my children died and another was born with a serious disability; we're also blessed with three older, now nearly young adult children who are,thankfully, perfectly healthy ) and I went into Direction to get to the core of my grief which had as much to do with being out of touch with my experience of God in my life at that time as the more direct losses themselves. I hope you will find wonderful benefit from being in Spiritual Direction; it is a beautiful ministry! Blessings.
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