I received my training with Sustainable Faith‘s School of Spiritual Direction. Sustainable Faith have many schools around the world. I spent a wonderful two years with a cohort of fellow trainees in Amsterdam. I was then involved for seven years in the training of others within the schools.
How to be trained as a spiritual director in the UK
If you are interested on training as spiritual director, it is assumed you will have already a level of engagement with spiritual formation and have travel long enough in your spiritual journey to have grown in your emotional health. It can be beneficial to have already had the experience with meeting with a spiritual director yourself. I recommend this as a first step.
As the Retreat Association advocates — the emphasis is really on formation over training: “In a world where there can often be an over-emphasis on doing rather than being; on the task we are engaged upon rather than the person in front of us; and on training in functionality rather than personal transformation… We advocate the terminology of formation rather than training because this seems to best encompass a wholistic sense of the development of the person, including their inner qualities and disposition that will be manifest in their practice of spiritual direction.”
We live in a time where there has been a resurgence of this art and charism being taught and passed on in many places. The breadth and diversity of these across denominations and networks is a delight to see, and seems expresses the generative and generous character of God. I won’t list them all, you could check out courses listed by LCSD, Sarum College, and Launde Abbey, but I will highlight the curriculum by Sustainable Faith as this is where I have been connected to this work.
Sustainable Faith’s School of Spiritual Direction is an excellent 2-year certificate program preparing you to serve as a spiritual director. The training is a deeply formative, immersive and integrated. The curriculum is run in cohorts in a number of locations and online. The schools are experiential and reflective. The two year syllabus runs over bi-monthly modules with reading, reflection and practice making up the time in-between the cohort gatherings. The intention is for the study to be compatible with your existing rhythms of work and life. Cohorts are marked by a deep level of friendship and community formed over the months through vulnerable sharing. Along the way there are many opportunities to practice offering spiritual direction and receive supervision.
Further details on this training search out the Sustainable Faith website.