Spiritual tools to
soothe the soul
What is Spiritual Direction/Accompaniment?
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The term 'spiritual direction' can give the wrong impression, it is an historical term for the practice of meeting with someone to talk specifically about a persons spiritual life, their search for deeper truths, meanings, connections and relationship with themselves, with others and with God. I prefer the term 'soul-friend' or 'spiritual accompaniment'- someone who comes alongside to listen; to try to discern with you the spiritual movements stirring in you, towards authenticity and truth. In some ways, the art of it is in uncovering the obvious in our lives and realising that every day events are the means by which God tries to reach us. It offers a hospitable space to wrestle with your own becoming, to bring to birth (rather like a midwife) the deepest and truest self, which in my Christian tradition is that Self which is in union with Christ. You don't have to be a Christian to engage in this service, I am open to working with anyone who is thirsty for a spiritual path and you may even come from a very different tradition.
Psychotherapy helps to give us greater self-knowledge which is very useful. It's about relationships- with the self; with others; our connection with our past and how we may continue to connect with it and find ways of disconnecting from it. We can then make new connections from the authentic self . However it may also be very uncomfortably exposing when we see our human weaknesses. Drawing on higher spiritual truth provides an anchour to the soul, gives us hope and enables us to perservere.
Spiritual Accompaniment is about love and relationships, and primarily its about your love relationship with God, Self and others. The knowledge of God, (in Christian thought this would be what has been revealed to us by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus). This 'body of knowledge' leads us to truly experience or 'come to know' God's love, grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. Experiencing these truths grounds our lives in something far greater than our egoic selves and in that ground we can become more fully human.
To me Psychotherapy and Spiritual Direction are two sides of the same coin, and complementary. Both give us insight into our true nature and inform one another on the path to becoming integrated, whole and full of life.
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What does it involve?
At its heart it involves deep listening, (some might say 'Holy Listening'), and a growing attentiveness to the Spirits real presence and action in our lives. It affords a space to open up to the mysterious and transforming presence of the Spirit of God in each of us, to find the light and love within and to be guided by that.
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In the Christian tradition the Holy Spirit (who Jesus called ‘Counsellor’, the 'divine therapist') is central to the work of the Spiritual Direction relationship and the purpose of the spiritual direction dialogue is to discern the movement of God’s Holy Spirit within you leading you into what the apostle Paul called 'the fruit of the Spirit' (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control).
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I offer this service working as a spiritual director under the auspices of the Cumbria Ecumenical Spirituality Group. This is a network of spiritual directors in Cumbria, operating under the Retreat Association Guidelines.
​Cumbria Ecumenical Spirituality Group – Coming home to God
​Home | The Retreat Association
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Spiritual Direction Sessions
Spiritual Accompaniment is not therapy, the focus is on God, the heart, the spiritual journey and your relationship with that.
We may meet 3-6 x a year, sometimes more, and for an hour.
This is a donation based service. A suggested donation of £40 per session. Usually we meet face to face, but we can also meet online.
How do I know if it’s Spiritual Direction I need?
Thinking spiritually, can help guide your life's journey and nourish your soul? We are travellers, physically life is a journey, and mobility is our way of life. Spiritually, we are always on the way too and sometimes we can feel a long way from home, weary and homesick. Do you need a space to rest, a hospitable space, a place to sit around a metaphorical warm fire and cozy sofa and just be attended to, attuned to, focused on, and listened to before you journey on? Life is complex-modern life especially so. There are many difficult issues going on in the world that threaten our survival, make us anxious, worried and uncertain. The spiritual life and journey home can 'sit with' the unfixable, the uncertain because it is ultimately rooted in another reality. This reality St Paul called being rooted and grounded securely in love. With this stability you sustain balance, and hope in these days.
What can I expect?
At Humanwise, I have a Christ-Centered Spirituality (being an apprentice and follower of Jesus) together with Spiritual practices and traditions found in the Christian Faith as the primary sources and foundations on which Spiritual direction is informed and reflected on. Sessions may involve exploring spiritual practices- like prayer, reading scripture, practices like worship, meditation, silence and solitude, fasting, community, engaging experientially with these spiritual tools to effect inner change and transformation. If you are coming from a different tradition or spirituality, we would dialogue around what is meaningful to you in that and how it helps to inform your spiritual development.
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Above all, in the Christian understanding, it is about coming 'Home' to accept your deepest Self in relationship or union with a loving God, who is for you and with you always, whose perfect love casts out all fear and ultimately makes whole. In that respect it is about wholeness and ultimate wellbeing connected to The Source of all Love.
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Alison draws her spiritual inspiration from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers, the Celtic church, the wisdom of the monastic traditions and the Christian Mystics.
Through the ages, people have found wisdom and practices that aid human flourishing through Spiritual resources, tools and means. Modern Brain Science is only now researching and discovering what many people have practiced down the ages and attested to as transformative and 'mind renewing'. I love the fact that the field of interpersonal neurobiology embraces all disciplines and ways of knowing including the contemplative way of knowing found in religious and spiritual traditions.
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Here are a few spiritual links you may find helpful too. These are rooted in the Christian tradition.
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WCCM | The World Community for Christian Meditation​
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