Spiritual Direction

WORK WITH rB

I thank you.

 

You are looking towards doing spiritual direction with me. And, I’m honored. 

People often feel vulnerable (and excited) at the prospect of talking with me about their spiritual life.

I thank you for reading this far.

Four steps to our working together

 

  • Introductions

    Hello! We have a get-to-know-each-other conversation. (A phone-call.)

  • Customization Talk(s)

    We have an in person or live via technology meeting about about what how I might be able to do spiritual direction with you. (Often, this takes more than one session – and usally less than three.)

  • Proposal

    I summarize our conversation and provide you with options in a written proposal. (After you get the options, we discuss, tweak, and work out the details to our plan.)

  • Spiritual Direction

    We meet for a “customized to you” spiritual direction.

DETAILS

Potential positives of spiritual direction

 

Unblock the barriers within yourself that you have built against love

Unburden yourself from past discomfort with religion (if necessary)

Feel greater connection to yourself, to others, to God/Source/Truth**–whatever word you think goes here

Have (greater) peace with unanswered questions and be better able to accept reality as it is

 

Potential negatives of spiritual direction

 

Religious growth (like all growth) can feel uncomfortable

Being seen by (or even considering being seen by) by a safe religious figure can bring up both anxiety and excitement – often quickly and jumbled together

You might wish you had explored your spiritual-religious life sooner

What I do

I help adults come to an adult relationship with (the) God (of their understanding). My job is not to tell anyone what to believe. Instead, I help:

• unpack consciously and unconsciously held beliefs

• discard notions of the divine that no longer fit

• see what new ideas come to mind

I can give you tools to explore thoughts about the divine and your relationship with (the) God (of your understanding) that you might not have entertained. Your job is is to be open and honest. The work flows from there.I do not discriminate based religion, lack of religion, perceived piety, past history of religion, etc.(Of course, I’m equally tolerant of other perceived differences too.) I welcome all who feel they would like help navigating their intimacy with God, the world, or their sense of a higher self.

 

Questions?

I love questions. It means you are paying attention. And, interested. I too am interested. Please let me know your questions.

 

Ethics

I abide by the guide of ethics of Spiritual Directors International. I maintain confidentiality except when prevented by legal exception as a mandated reporter (i.e. abuse, self harm).

 

Warnings!

I thank you for reading this page. I know from having been in spiritual direction (and therapy) how scary this can be. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Your theology might expand – spiritual direction is dynamic process.

2. Both anxiety and excitement will come up. Often at the same time. Some people feel totally excited about the idea of booking an intake. And, at the same time, these same people might feel totally scared and like they want to run screaming. To help you normalize this feeling, I can tell you that there is even a phrase for it – mysterium tremendum et fascinans. The mysteries (of life) are both exhilarating and fascinating, both terrific and terrifying, both something we want to explore and something we want to run from at the same time.

3. My job is to be with you to keep it more terrific and less terrifying. To be with you as you learn to better give and receive love.

4. Spiritual direction is not a substitute for psychotherapy, medication, counseling, a good accountant, a nice massage, or whatever else it might be that you know you ought to be doing to care for yourself.

Four steps to our working together

 

  • Introductions

    Hello! We have a get-to-know-each-other conversation. (A phone-call.)

  • Customization Talk(s)

    We have an in person or live via technology meeting about about what how I might be able to do spiritual direction with you. (Often, this takes more than one session – and usally less than three.)

  • Proposal

    I summarize our conversation and provide you with options in a written proposal. (After you get the options, we discuss, tweak, and work out the details to our plan.)

  • Spiritual Direction

    We meet for a “customized to you” spiritual direction.

Scheduling

Options:

There is no one way to do this.

Many people are happy with the “let’s meet once a month” schedule. I’m fine with that. If that works.

But, maybe after we talk we figure out that you want a call at lunch every day for a week, just for a 10-minute chat. And, then maybe we have a bit talk on Saturday. If so, we do that. Some people like the idea of a 4-session spiritual tune-up. The point is, we customize this to work for you.

Structure

1. Introduction

This is our initial half-hour phone call.

2. Customization Talk(s) 

This is one to three sessions in which we figure out what it is you are looking for, how I can help, and how we can measure our results that we have accomplished what we set out to do.

3. Proposal

I write out a proposal, based on the above, how I foresee our working together. I send it to you – and usually it includes some options. We talk about the proposal and fine tune it. For many people, 6-8 sessions weekly seems to be a good fit. 

4. Spiritual Direction

We set out to do that which we set out to do. Usually, after 6 sessions, if appropriate, we have a “meta” discussion to evaluate our progress and see how things are going – if we want to make changes, etc.

1.

Introductions


email to set up phone call

2.

Customization
talk(s)

3.

Proposal

4.

Spiritual Direction