Group Spiritual Direction can be such a great experience. How wonderful to gather with a group of like-minded people, from all sorts of walks of life, to experience the movement of God together. 

There are different reasons why one might choose group spiritual direction over individual spiritual direction. 

Here are four reasons:

1. One might feel community is lacking in one’s life, and group spiritual direction will offer spiritual direction and community simultaneously.

2. You might be someone who is no longer connected to a church community and you miss being in that familiar group setting that church offered you.

3. One might already have a great group of friends, and you would like to create a space where you grow in intimacy with one another and explore God together. 

4. Group Spiritual Direction is often great on the wallet since the group carries the fee for the spiritual director together.

5. You want to explore your listening skills, and you carry desire to learn to ask invitational questions. This world knows how to give advice; this world is in fix-it mode. This is a reason why Group Spiritual Direction is an important component to my practice as I think our world needs more welcoming listeners.

• Imagine safety being nursed and nurtured. 

• Imagine a judgment-free zone. 

• Imagine being received by others as you are. 

• Imagine feeling seen through the listening of others. 

• Imagine being allowed to wrestle with things, to go slow, and be yourself.

• Imagine being a safe haven for someone else’s story.

• Imagine feeling the Spirit move through you.

In a group spiritual direction session, we will not only focus on spiritual direction, we will also focus on accompanying others well and on the art of asking invitational questions.

What a session looks like There are two roles in a session. The person who will share and process, the directee, and those who listen, I refer to them as hosts. 

In this setting, you will experience spiritual direction with and from peers. The other participants will be listeners and observers. 

Whether you are the directee or have the listening role during a session, everyone will get something out of the session. Not only will the guided spiritual practice at the beginning of a session give everyone space to linger in God’s Presence, each person is guided to focus on interior movements.

We have strong tendencies and group spiritual direction helps you become aware of those. You will learn to hold your tendencies, and practice noticing. Group Spiritual Direction is very transformative, no matter what role you have in a particular session. As a directee you will learn what true hospitality feels like as you share your story vulnerably. You will experience community as others celebrate with you what you have to celebrate. As a listener, you will grow in intentional question asking and offering hospitality to others and what they bring. 

As a directee You will know ahead of time when it is your turn to be a directee. You might show up to a session with something heavy on your heart and share that. You might come empty and use the practice at the beginning of the session to share what came to the surface. After you share, we will allow for some silence and simply hold space for what you have shared. Perhaps you want to share more, maybe you are ready for engagement with the group. The other group members will be allowed to pose open questions. And you may decide to answer those questions and you can also choose to hold them and take them with you. Likely, some back and forth might happen and you might notice a deepening of a process and growth of awareness of God’s presence with you. We will close your time with some silence and leave room for you to notice any invitations from God. 

As a host A host is like a person with a glass bowl. You host the directee in a safe space, holding up this bowl, and you allow the directee to place anything in that bowl he/she needs. You commit to abstaining from fixing, changing, sharing opinions, giving advice and taking care of the directee. You are simply saying Welcome! Welcome as you are, with what you bring. 

While the directee is sharing you pay attention to what is happening inside of you: What strikes you about what the directee is sharing? What are you curious about? How are you being moved? What are you feeling in your body? How is the directee’s story touching your own story? What tendencies are you noticing? 

In our time of silence, you let the Spirit move and guide you. You park your tendencies, and you wonder about the directee. What question might you ask? What question might host the directee’s story well? It is okay when the directee chooses not to answer your question, it says nothing about whether you asked the right question or not. We hold space. 

What does a group look like Groups can be formed around i.e. gender, age, profession while there is value in being in a diverse group. A group will be up to 4 people (though adjustments can be made).

What happens once a group is formed We will start our group with a half day retreat. This day is a combination of retreat, teaching, and community building. There will be several teaching blocks. Some topics are: “How to practice silence”,  “How to listen well” and “The Art of Question Asking”. We will also write our “Group Covenant” together. And there is space for retreat and “settling into relationship” with one another. Your group can choose to skip the retreat in which case the first 3 or so sessions will focus on these important steps.

What a session looks like Typically, we meet once a month, but this can be adjusted according to group desires. Group Spiritual Direction is held in my home office (Media, PA) and can also be facilitated online. To support group safety and growth, it is asked that you commit be present each time, of course, at times we have emergencies.

One question to ask is, how often would you like to receive spiritual direction? For example: when a group of 4 meets once a month (leaving out a Christmas and Summer break), and each session is 2 hours, every person will receive spiritual direction every other month.

Cost A group sessions costs $ 45 per session, per person..

Feel free to reach out with any questions you have. You can also sign up for a free inquiry session on the contact page. I would love to explore with you if group spiritual direction might be a good fit for you.