What is Spiritual Direction?
There are many metaphors that can describe spiritual direction. I picture all of us as sailors navigating our way through life. What is a spiritual director’s role on our sailboats? To be an experienced deckhand, helping guide the placement of the sails so as to head the sailboat where we want to go on our journeys. Whether we are sitting still in the doldrums or being blown about, a spiritual director can help us to set our sails and rudder to move forward toward freedom.
Seekers may choose spiritual direction for a limited time for guidance in a time of transition, to work through a time of unsettledness, distress or grief, or to discern and make a difficult decision. Or a choice to meet with a spiritual director may become a lifelong commitment.
Typically, spiritual direction sessions are scheduled monthly for an hour. It can take 2 or 3 sessions to discover whether a director is the right companion for you.
Spiritual Direction with Betsy
Being Present
To be lovingly present is . . . to listen
One of my directees said to me at the end of a retreat, “You’ve listened to me and helped me to listen to myself.” That is one thing I do. I listen. Together, we create a space to listen so the indwelling Spirit can be heard. It is “that still small voice.”
Being Connected
To honor the body/mind/spirit connection is . . . to embrace the body as teacher
Because God speaks to us through body, mind and spirit, we may hear or feel or sense the voice within. As a spiritual director, I listen as a directee shares their thoughts, feelings and physical body sensations in order to champion their inner voice as their personal spiritual guide.
Being Authentic
To be authentic is . . . to move toward freedom
Each moment provides an opportunity to be present and to be open. Our challenge is to align who we are in each moment with our true selves (or who we are called to be) as defined in the depths of our beings. As we grow in awareness, we are guided to respond in new ways. I like to say our “insides” and our “outsides” come together.
Betsy’s practice of spiritual direction welcomes seekers of any faith or no faith. She practices the contemplative evocative method and biospiritual focusing. The contemplative evocative method has its origins in Ignatian Spirituality. The director listens attentively and questions rather than instructs. This allows directees to discover what the Spirit may be revealing to them at their own pace and in their own way. Biospiritual focusing was developed by Eugene Gendlin and expanded upon by Edwin McMahon and Peter Campbell. While the contemplative evocative method is informed by body awareness, in biospiritual focusing the body is the starting point. Directees are invited to engage with their body as teacher by paying attention to physical sensations and other ways the body may be communicating to them.
Both of these methods of accompaniment honor the voice of God in each of us and allow the Spirit to lead. Betsy’s primary purpose is to help directees to pay attention to the personal communication of the divine in and through them.
Each spiritual direction session is guided by the content a directee brings. The space between director and directee is sacred. It is where the Spirit resides. Betsy is honored to companion others on their journeys and together with them create Listening Space.
Betsy is available to meet for a time frame to serve your purpose – a single session, a directed retreat, a series of sessions over weeks or months, or ongoing spiritual direction.