Upcoming events
2025 Supervision Skills for Spiritual Directors
Our popular training on Supervision of spiritual directors as an important and creative ministry. This is a course for experienced spiritual directors.
Safeguarding Bolt-On
Supplementary workshop on safeguarding in Spiritual Direction. Build on Level 1 training with focused, practical insights. Certification not included.
Spiritual Direction for Those in Later Life: Growing in Wisdom, Age and Grace
For Spiritual Directors, this workshop offers tools to companion people through a sacred season of transformation. Drawing from theology, psychology, mysticism, and poetry, we will consider how best to support directees facing the transitions of ageing, including loss, generativity, and the shift from doing to being.
Companions on the Journey: Friendship in Spiritual 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.
Trauma & Spiritual Direction: LCSD Network Day
A hybrid event for Spiritual Directors exploring trauma, embodiment, and sacred presence. Includes expert speakers, somatic practices, and tools for safe, trauma-informed direction.
Is a Picture Always Worth a Thousand Words?: The Challenges and Opportunities of ‘Aphantasia’ in Spiritual Direction.
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?
Holding Space Together: An Introduction to Circles of Trust
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”.
Listening for the Way: Companioning the Discernment and Embodiment of a Rule of Life
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.
Circling Around God: Working with a Directee’s Shifting Images of the Divine
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.
Ignatian Wisdom for the Journey: Practices for Desire, Discernment and Deep Encounter
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.
Spiritual Direction and the Climate Crisis: Best Friends or Uneasy Bedfellows?
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.
Exploring Dementia Together: Head to Heart
Dementia is part of every community, and as Spiritual Directors, we are increasingly likely to encounter its impact; whether walking alongside someone with advancing dementia, or accompanying family, friends, or caregivers as they navigate shifting realities. This workshop invites us to explore the changing patterns dementia brings, both in the lives of those we accompany and in our own understanding of presence and connection.
Holding the Whole Self: Anger, Grief, and Strong Emotion in Direction
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.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Members Only: Coffee with the Community Warden
A chance for community members to meet other spiritual directors, share ideas and get to know the community.
Come whenever you can, for however long!
Mental Health and Wellbeing: Talking About God in the Midst of Suffering
As spiritual directors, we are uniquely positioned to listen to the layered descriptions of a life of faith and mental health challenges. In this workshop, we'll explore the benefits of talking about God and mental health and create a safe, non-judgmental space to consider how we can maintain our own mental wellbeing while accompanying others
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Finding a Spiritual Director Seminar
Been advised to find a spiritual director? Don’t know where to start? Not even sure what it means? Come along to one of our regular “Finding a SD” seminars.
Direction and the Contemplative Tradition: Exploring Ancient Wisdom for Modern Practice
This workshop delves into the contemplative tradition, with a particular focus on ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, to form guidance for a young contemplative to get a sense of the landscape we are considering, and how that might offer suggestions for direction today. The session will also explore together some of the challenges that contemplative prayer may present and how Direction can support.
Finding a Spiritual Director Seminar
Been advised to find a spiritual director? Don’t know where to start? Not even sure what it means? Come along to one of our regular “Finding a SD” seminars.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Members Only: Coffee with the Community Warden
A chance for community members to meet other spiritual directors, share ideas and get to know the community.
Come whenever you can, for however long!
How do you solve a problem like the clergy? : Spiritual Direction for those who are ordained, training for ordination, and working in Christian Ministry.
In this workshop, we'll explore the unique challenges faced by those in Christian ministry, including managing public expectations and personal vulnerabilities. We’ll explore potential barriers to spiritual wellbeing, together with some of the particular issues that can emerge, and aim to help Spiritual Directors feel more equipped and empowered to walk alongside their directees.
Letting Go: Embracing Release in Spiritual Direction
This workshop explores how Spiritual Directors connect with the process of letting go, whether in preparing for a session, during, or afterwards. Letting go is considered a vital component of self-care and care for those they accompany. Through this practical and interactive session, participants will gain a deeper awareness of the 'letting go' process and acquire practical insights and practices, both ancient and modern, for their journey as spiritual directors.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Finding a Spiritual Director Seminar
Been advised to find a spiritual director? Don’t know where to start? Not even sure what it means? Come along to one of our regular “Finding a SD” seminars.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Come and meet members of the Community of Spiritual Directors!
A chance for community members to meet other spiritual directors, share ideas and get to know the community.
Come whenever you can, for however long!
Encounter Open Evening Spring 2025
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
Walking in Their Shoes: Accompanying the Journey of Those Who Struggle with Addiction and Recovery
This workshop focuses on the intersection of addiction recovery and Spiritual Direction, offering insights and practical guidance for accompanying individuals on this challenging journey. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of various addictions and the recovery process, with a particular emphasis on how spiritual themes relate to addiction recovery.
Sacred Pathways: Renewing Your Practice, Voice, and Vision
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.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1:1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Members Only: How to write a bio for the directory
This member’s morning is a special chance to hear some tips on how to a bio for the directory from writer Emily Miller. This will be a casual session to help you describe your charism and offering to help you connect with potential directees.
Finding a Spiritual Director Seminar
Been advised to find a spiritual director? Don’t know where to start? Not even sure what it means? Come along to one of our regular “Finding a SD” seminars.
Gratitude for Creation: Ignatian Spirituality & Ecological Conversion
This workshop explores the profound connection between Spiritual Direction and our relationship with God's creation. As Spiritual Directors, we are called to cultivate a greater awareness of God's presence not only in ourselves and our directees but also in the world around us.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Kindly Light: Lenten Reflection
This Lenten workshop invites participants to explore the theme of light, drawing inspiration from St. John Henry Newman's beloved hymn.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Members Only: Coffee with the Community Warden
A chance for community members to meet other spiritual directors, share ideas and get to know the community.
Come whenever you can, for however long!
Finding a Spiritual Director Seminar
Been advised to find a spiritual director? Don’t know where to start? Not even sure what it means? Come along to one of our regular “Finding a SD” seminars.
Working with Singleness in Spiritual Direction: Embracing a Unique Spiritual Journey
This workshop explores the unique blessings and challenges of singleness within the context of Spiritual Direction. Marriage or being partnered is often seen in our culture, and indeed in the Church, as being the ideal way of life. This can leave single people feeling that they are missing out or are in some way inadequate. Yet the biblical narrative affirms the single life and Christ promised life in abundance to all, whether we are married or single. It feels important to reflect on how we can hold the space for directees and their questions and challenges (and joys!) arising from their life as a single person.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1:1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.
Finding a Spiritual Director Referral 1-1
Personalised referral session for finding a spiritual director.
Book a half hour session with Antonia Lynn for top tips and possible referrals for finding a spiritual director.