Interfaith Spiritual Counseling

Spiritual Counseling is the practice of spiritual companionship. It is an open and compassionate space where individuals can find support while walking their spiritual path, and in reflecting on their inner, spiritual lives. Spiritual Counseling draws on the wisdom of all the spiritual traditions, utilizing their teachings, practices, and values. As each individual’s spiritual path and beliefs are different, Spiritual Counseling is designed to honor and respect each person’s experience and support them in clarifying their spiritual beliefs and values, while at the same time deepening their experience through spiritual practice. As a spiritual counselor I strive to assist individuals in developing a personal spiritual practice that is uplifting and sustainable, and that also deepens one’s connection to oneself and the world.

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What is spiritual practice?

Spiritual practice is the way in which we embody our beliefs. It is the way that we connect to ourselves, to others, and to God. The tools that we utilize to develop our spiritual practice are prayer, meditation, reflection, study, and action. Everyone’s spiritual practice is highly individual and personal, reflecting their religion, their worldview, their culture, and their unique spirit. Developing your spiritual practice can be seen as an exploration, visiting new places and trying new things to discover what resonates with your spirit, clarifies your beliefs, brings you into greater unity with your values, and cultivates a feeling of communion with God.

How does spiritual counseling approach God?

In Spiritual Counseling the understanding of God is expansive, not restrictive. It is understood that everyone’s understanding of God is unique – even if they share the same spiritual tradition – and that God has many names. Whether you call the Creator by the name of The Holy Father, Spirit, Source, The Unknowable Essence, The Great Mother, The Universe, The Lord, Allah, or don’t call God by a name at all, there is room for your experience. All experiences of faith or doubt, belief or uncertainty, are honored in Spiritual Counseling.

6285 copyWhat is Spiritual Counseling About?

Spiritual Counseling is about seeing things clearly. Throughout our lives we often adopt constrictive or limiting beliefs about ourselves or about the nature of the world that are not our own, either because they were taught to us or because it was the only way to make sense of the world at that time. Ultimately those beliefs are a distortion of the truth and they can eventually become very painful to live with. Those beliefs can lead us to feel that something about us is wrong or that we have to make ourselves smaller than we are. They can make us feel at odds with the world, or feel that our ability to be happy is constantly out of reach. Through spiritual practice we are all given the opportunity to nurture an experience of ourselves and our world that reflects the fullness of our reality as God’s creation. We have the capacity to experience and love our own truth –from our imperfect and beautiful humanness to our capacity to commit great acts of love, service, and selflessness. And through coming to better know ourselves, we come to experience the world in new and amazing ways, because the way we see ourselves is the lens through which we see the world. Spiritual Counseling is a space to develop and strengthen your spiritual practice so that your relationship with yourself deepens to become more loving, embodied, grounded, and resilient. From that place your experience of the world can become confident, assured, compassionate and hopeful.

Is Spiritual Counseling for me?

Spiritual Counseling can be helpful in many different circumstances:

-When you wish to have support in meeting your spiritual practice goals

– When you want to explore different kinds of spiritual practice (i.e. prayer, meditation,  creative expression) that might better suit your individual needs and interests

-ŸWhen you feel confused about life

Ÿ-If you feel stuck in certain patterns that you’d like to leave behind

-If you want to explore your spiritual reality and unearth the negative beliefs that keep you from finding happiness and joy in your existence

-ŸIf you feel alienated from God/Spirit/Source and want to develop a more intimate, immediate, and loving relationship

-If you struggle with self-esteem and want to cultivate a positive experience of yourself

-If you want to connect with your Higher Self, your eternal reality, and learn to act out of that place

Ÿ-If you simply need a non-judgmental listener, who can hear your experience with compassion and hold space for confidence in God’s love for His creation and the transformational capacity of Spirit

-ŸIf life has not turned out the way you expected it to, and you are struggling with feelings of confusion, failure, and hopelessness, and want to reconnect with your purpose and sense of fulfillment.

My approach as a Spiritual Counselor:

I am most interested in nurturing the knowledge of one’s own self. I believe that true and lasting happiness depends on cultivating a loving and nurturing relationship with one’s self, as well as a knowledge of our “capital S” Self (the Authentic Self, the Higher Self, or the Eternal Self). In my experience connection to one’s Self is the very source of vitality and connection with life and I am very interested in helping you cultivate an experience with that aspect of your reality, and the certitude, understanding, and serenity that your Higher Self can impart.

Path_through_Andrews_Wood_Nature_Reserve_-_geograph.org.uk_-_243029As everyone’s life is different, everyone’s journey toward themselves will be different. My goal is not to help you to discern between the right way or the wrong way to engage with your life, but rather to help you find your way, and to lend you support and encouragement as you make your pilgrimage to whole-heartedness, authenticity, and happiness.

I am also interested in spirituality on a very practical level. If you’re simply wondering what the spirit is and what role it plays in your life, I can offer a wide range of perspectives, practices and experiences to support you in that inquiry. If you are struggling with questions such as “How can spiritual practice help to resolve personal problems?”, “How can I address the constant stress of my life?”, and “How can I deal with pain, loss, and grief?”, I can offer you knowledgeable companionship in drawing on your own spiritual capacities to find understanding, hope, and resilience.

I know that terms like self-discovery, authenticity, and whole-heartedness can seem more utopian than practical. However, I can assure you that choosing to face your own reality head on – not because you want to walk the moral high ground but because life feels empty, lonely, frightening, and like there’s no room to breathe – is one of the hardest and most courageous things you could ever do. Spiritual practice is generally not something you take on because you want to feel holy, but because you’ve hit a very painful wall and you don’t know what else to do. Spiritual counselors are trained to meet people in those painful places, and help them find strategies in order to walk the path that is asking to be walked rather than disengaging from life, and resorting to distracting, numbing, alienating, and addictive patterns.

Embracing our human reality – our beauty, our nobility, and our capacity for love – not despite our experiences and the hardships that we’ve faced but rather through them, is one of the most powerful processes I’ve ever experienced or witnessed. Regardless of where you are in your human journey, my goal is to provide you with the opportunity to ask questions, seek out new perspectives, deepen your sense of connection, and carve out the space to experience yourself in new and meaningful ways.

Areas in which I specialize or have specific experience:

Anxiety

Stress-management

Death and Dying

Adoption

Prayer

Embodiment and/or Body Issues

Children’s spirituality

Spiritual Parenting

Spirituality and Gender

Forgiveness

Self-Esteem

What Spiritual Counseling is not:

A Spiritual Counselor is not a spiritual authority – I will not tell you what to believe, or how to practice your beliefs.

A Spiritual Counselor strives not to give advice or prescriptions, but rather to guide the client to their own inner wisdom.

Spiritual Counseling is not psychotherapy – there is no diagnosis process or assignment of pathology. Spiritual counseling can work wonderfully in conjunction with psychological support, but cannot replace it. If I feel that my expertise does not fully support the immediate needs of my clients then I will refer them to a competent psychologist or other mental health practitioner.

About Me:

I have been walking my spiritual path since I was 9 years old, but the past 12 years of my life have been a crash course in personal authenticity and spiritual development. In those 12 years, acute poor health threw the doors open to new possibilities that have now led me to a degree of happiness that I had never previously experienced. I learned first-hand that our ability to experience a fulfilled and joyful life depends on the state of our inner world far more than our external circumstances. While I actively pursued the betterment of my physical, emotional, and psychological health, I discovered that the most transformative piece in developing my lasting wellbeing was the pursuit of my spiritual life, and the examination of my fundamental beliefs about myself in the world. I had to reexamine what I had been told about my Faith so that I was no longer looking through the eyes of others, but rather looking through my own eyes, and cultivating a deeper and more compassionate understanding of my religious worldview so that I had room to flourish within it, while simultaneously developing a fuller understanding of obedience to God’s Will and spiritual teachings.

From 2011-2014 I was fortunate enough to participate in the One Spirit Learning Alliance Seminary and Interspiritual Counseling programs which have grounded my desire to be of service to others who have encountered similar tests and difficulties and who want to examine the spiritual gifts and opportunities latent within their life experience.

I currently live in Vermont. I love learning about the world and expanding my horizons – challenging what I think I know to remain in a state of curiosity and possibility. I love gardening, photography, baking and travel. My hope for my life is that I learn to live in joyful connection with the world, with other beings, with myself, and with my creator.

My standards for ethical conduct:

While Spiritual Counseling is not a licensed profession, I consider myself bound to the same standards of ethical conduct as any Spiritual Director or mental health professional. I take confidentiality very seriously, and would only break confidentiality if it were a matter of legal responsibility (i.e. if I believed that someone were at risk of harming another or harming themselves). I also regularly seek supervision and peer counseling in order to maintain as safe an environment as possible for both my clients and myself.

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