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.

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.

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.

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?