This workshop invites us to explore a different way of thinking about visibility. We will consider how making ourselves visible is not about drawing attention to ourselves. Rather, it is about making ourselves available to those whom God may be inviting us to accompany. Through teaching, personal reflection, and group discussion, participants will be encouraged to discern practical and faithful ways of increasing the visibility of both their own ministry and the wider ministry of spiritual direction within their communities. This workshop is for spiritual directors who long to serve well, trust deeply, and make themselves available for the work God is already doing.

Are you curious about spiritual direction but not sure where to begin?
This one-hour introductory session offers a gentle and practical overview of the ministry of spiritual companionship. Together we’ll explore what spiritual direction is, why people seek it, and what to consider when looking for a spiritual companion.

Whether you've recently joined the LCSD or would simply like to get to know us better, we'd love to welcome you to this online orientation session. This relaxed gathering is an opportunity to meet members of the LCSD team, connect with other new members, and discover how to make the most of your membership.

Are you curious about spiritual direction but not sure where to begin?
This one-hour introductory session offers a gentle and practical overview of the ministry of spiritual companionship. Together we’ll explore what spiritual direction is, why people seek it, and what to consider when looking for a spiritual companion.

As Spiritual Directors, we are often invited to sit alongside strong emotions - grief, shame, anger, joy - and the deep experiences that evoke them. This session explores how we relate to such emotions: which ones we’re most comfortable with, which ones we avoid, and what personal or theological influences may have shaped those responses. What images of God might our directees (or we ourselves) hold that repress the expression of emotion, and where might those images come from? We’ll consider the events in life’s journey - loss, injustice, love, celebration - that stir such feelings, and reflect on how to offer a safe, compassionate, and accepting space where these emotions can be named, held, and even welcomed.

Supplementary workshop on safeguarding in Spiritual Direction. Build on Level 1 training with focused, practical insights.

In this LCSD Member session, spiritual companion and author Catherine Cowell will join Fiona Koefoed-Jespersen for a conversation on discovering the beautiful, but often overlooked feminine imagery for God in the Bible and an exploration of why our view of God has been so masculine, why that imbalance might be a problem and what we might want to do about it.

Are you curious about spiritual direction but not sure where to begin?
This one-hour introductory session offers a gentle and practical overview of the ministry of spiritual companionship. Together we’ll explore what spiritual direction is, why people seek it, and what to consider when looking for a spiritual companion.

If you’’re interested in training as a spiritual director, come to our open evening for Encounter, our 3 year Formation Programme in the Art and Ministry of Spiritual Direction

Together, we’ll explore how our Christian traditions can help us navigate the despair, urgency, and deep longing stirred by this crisis. We’ll reflect on how to support directees wrestling with eco-anxiety, guilt, and spiritual paralysis, and how to deepen our own spiritual response. Through honest conversation, theological reflection, and practical tools, this session aims to build confidence in holding space for those reckoning with the state of the world - and discerning their own faithful path forward. Whether you feel anxious, inspired, overwhelmed, or uncertain, you are welcome here.

In this workshop we will explore how coming to the Creator through our creating can be part of our own journey of being re-created. We’ll have time to consider how creativity can be instrumental in our formation and discipleship, space to engage in guided creative practices, and opportunities to reflect together on our experience of encountering the Maker in our making. 

A series of three interactive and reflective sessions, aimed particularly at graduates of Encounter, but open to all community members, that seeks to:

1. reground new (or weary!) spiritual companions in their practice,

2. empower you to develop your unique charisma,

3. reconnect you with a vision for spiritual direction in the church and wider community.

This session explores how Ignatian spirituality, rooted in desire, discernment, and deep encounter, can enrich the practice of Spiritual Direction. We’ll draw on insights from neuro-theology and the science of identity formation to reflect on how God works through our minds, emotions, and embodied experiences.  Drawing from the wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola and the Exercises, we’ll consider how practices like the Examen, discernment of spirits, and imaginative prayer can foster authentic encounters with God in daily life. We will also explore how desire can be more than a personal feeling, it is a spiritual compass that leads us into God’s transforming love.

A Lenten retreat for members. This is a sacred pause during Lent to reflect on the invitation of Wisdom in your life and your ministry. 

LCDSD offers a flexible program for spiritual directors to review basics such as active listening, good practice, and learn new skills like creative responses. Refresh your practice with practice group to help grow and increase your confidence.

Those we accompany in spiritual direction come with myriad images of God—images gifted to them, images imposed upon them, images that bring deep comfort, and images that create tension or struggle. God is rock, shepherd, father, mother, spirit, source-of-all-being—and sometimes God is “I don’t know.” In direction, we are invited to hold these shifting divine imaginings with reverence, compassion, and curiosity.

LCDSD offers a flexible program for spiritual directors to review basics such as active listening, good practice, and learn new skills like creative responses. Refresh your practice with practice group to help grow and increase your confidence.

 In this session, we’ll explore how to help directees discern and live into a personal Way of Life that aligns with their values, vocation, and season of life.

We’ll reflect on ancient monastic wisdom as well as contemporary applications of this practice. You’ll learn how to hold space for discernment, structure, and sustainability in Spiritual Direction. This workshop is ideal for Directors who want to support others in crafting a life-giving rhythm that holds both structure and grace.

If you’’re interested in training as a spiritual director, come to our open evening for Encounter, our 3 year Formation Programme in the Art and Ministry of Spiritual Direction

Are you curious about spiritual direction but not sure where to begin?
This one-hour introductory session offers a gentle and practical overview of the ministry of spiritual companionship. Together we’ll explore what spiritual direction is, why people seek it, and what to consider when looking for a spiritual companion.

Supplementary workshop on safeguarding in Spiritual Direction. Build on Level 1 training with focused, practical insights.

This experiential workshop introduces participants to the Circles of Trust framework, a model developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. Grounded in Quaker principles and contemplative wisdom, Circles of Trust provides a structure for creating safe, confidential, and sacred space where individuals can listen deeply to their inner teacher, hold space for one another without fixing or advising, and encounter “solitude in community”.

Many spiritual practices - particularly imaginative ones - assume an ability to visualise. But what about those who cannot form mental images (aphantasia), or those whose imaginations are vividly overwhelming (hyperphantasia)? This workshop explores how neurological diversity impacts prayer, reflection, and the experience of God's presence. As Spiritual Directors, how can we support directees with different imaginative capacities?

Members only event: Advent Retreat

Are you curious about spiritual direction but not sure where to begin?
This one-hour introductory session offers a gentle and practical overview of the ministry of spiritual companionship. Together we’ll explore what spiritual direction is, why people seek it, and what to consider when looking for a spiritual companion.

A hybrid event for Spiritual Directors exploring trauma, embodiment, and sacred presence. Includes expert speakers, somatic practices, and tools for safe, trauma-informed direction.

This workshop explores the intersection of friendship and Christian Spiritual Direction. Drawing on contemporary and historical prayer styles from differing charisms within the world of Christian Spiritual Direction, we’ll delve into how authentic friendships - rooted in prayer and virtue - can both challenge and enrich the practice of Spiritual Direction. From Teresa of Avila’s call for friendships that foster communal love to John of the Cross’s reflections on how relationships draw us closer to God, this session offers profound insights into how friendship shapes our journey toward union with the divine.

If you’’re interested in training as a spiritual director, come to our open evening for Encounter, our 3 year Formation Programme in the Art and Ministry of Spiritual Direction