Becoming a Spiritual Director
If you desire to journey with people well as they seek to deepen their experience of God, undertaking formational training in the art of Spiritual Direction may be for you.
There are now many good places to engage in the process of formation and training as a spiritual director.
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 here, but I will highlight the training where I have 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. I’ve had the pleasure to participate in the teaching of these Schools of Spiritual Direction in the UK over the last 7 years. Previous locations I’ve enjoyed teaching the curriculum in UK have been: Oxfordshire, South Wales, East Yorkshire, Nottingham and the East Midlands.
N.B. I am currently taking a fallow-year from teaching in schools of spiritual direction as part of a sabbatical from this work.
What is the training like? The School’s of Spiritual Direction are experiential and reflective. Each year runs over five 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.