What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction (as the name implies) is primarily about going deeper in your spiritual life. It is aimed toward helping you grow in holiness and in your relationship with God. A spiritual director is trained in understanding the spiritual life and can help you discern the movements of the Holy Spirit. A good spiritual director can help identify obstacles to growth in holiness and suggest ways to improve your spiritual journey and relationship with God.
Although emotional feelings do play a role in the spiritual life, spiritual direction is not a substitute for therapy if you are struggling with emotional or psychological distress.
If you are looking to grow in your relationship with God and to discern the movements of the Holy Spirit in your life, then a spiritual director is the person you'll need.
What is Spiritual Coaching?
Spiritual Coaching deals with the present to help a person maximize their God-given gifts and potential and to set and achieve realistic goals. Coaching is also a great way to hone communication, problem-solving, organization and time management skills.
Coaching helps you to align your life with who you are and to figure out how to get to where you want to be in life. Although, coaching will sometimes help you deal with problems along the way, the focus of coaching is on finding new insights, observations and functional plans that will help you reach your goals and maximize your potential.
Having the Catholic faith as a guide, our coaches offer a significant advantage by calling on the truths of our faith, the light and grace of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Sacraments to help you become the person God created and is calling you to be.
What Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Coaching is not.
Spiritual direction/coaching focuses on a relationship with God. It is not about solving problems or overcoming a psychological malady, as professional psychotherapy would address. Instead, spiritual direction focuses on the relationship one has with God and how the person sees or struggles with God in their everyday life. It is not therapy. It is not career counseling or rehabilitation services. It is, however, a mentoring relationship where the director/coach accompanies an individual through a process of developing a prayer life.
In that process, one might find answers to problems or dilemmas in their life, but the focus is not on those issues. The focus is on developing a relationship with God so that one feels God's presence in their life - developing a life of prayer (or better stated, communicating with God) and in being guided in learning to pray and on engaging in a spiritual journey to discover more about the divine is the prime focus.
Why should I be interested in Spiritual Direction/Coaching?
Everyone needs a coach or a guide. Many of us try to pray, but simply don't know how to do it and don't know where to start. In looking at your own spiritual life, you might have questions about what any of this means! You might have never explored your own spiritual side. Or you might be going through a tough time and have begun to have doubts in your own faith life. A good spiritual director or coach can accompany you through all of these instances and more.
How often would I meet with a Spiritual Director/Coach?
It depends. Some folks have a regular monthly meeting with their director/coach. Others are in a different stage and might meet more often. Some might meet a director/coach once and then not meet again for some time. You can meet once a week, once a month, once a quarter, or whatever works for you and your director/coach. Typically, an hour session, each month, at a mutually convenient location (or in online settings) where privacy can be assured is the norm. It is customary to offer a small stipend or donation for each meeting in appreciation for your companion's time (Standard rates vary. Some might wave their fee as part of their job requirements and others depend on their stipend as it is a major source of income for them or their religious community).
