How can Soul Care, also known as Spiritual Direction, benefit you?

  • As a Christian spiritual director I am a trained listener who walks with you as you share your spiritual journey.

  • My job is to help you notice God’s presence and activity in your life and to help you grow in prayer.

  • I am your travel companion on the journey of your soul, someone with an outside perspective who will stay awake with you when you are feeling spiritually weary.

  • I continue to remind you of the basics of God’s love and care through all of life’s circumstances.

  • I lift you up before God in prayer with struggles that aren’t quickly or easily solved.

  • I encourage and celebrate God’s transforming work in and around you.

  • Most of all, I am someone who values and loves you in Christ and am committed to your growth.

What a spiritual director does:

  • Provides a sacred space

  • Purpose: To help you find God’s activity within life circumstances of all kinds.

  • Prays

  • Listens

  • Asks questions

  • End Goal: To encourage you in growing to be more like Christ.

What is a spiritual director is not:

  • A licensed counselor or psychologist

  • Crisis manager

  • Problem solver

“The whole purpose of [soul care] is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man’s life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul.”

—Thomas Merton

“[Soul Care] is not psychotherapy nor is it an inexpensive substitute, although the disciplines are compatible and frequently share raw material. [Soul Care] is not pastoral counseling, nor is it to be confused with the mutuality of deep friendships, for it is unashamedly hierarchical. Not because the spiritual director is somehow ‘better’ or ‘holier’ than the directee, but because, in this covenanted relationship the director has agreed to put himself aside so that his total attention can be focused on the person sitting in the other chair. What a gift to bring to another, the gift of disinterested, loving attention!” (Guenther, Holy Listening, p. 3)