SDI Encounters: Recent Episodes
SDI - The Home of Spiritual Companionship
What are the big questions in your life? Where are you on the spiritual journey? Do you have people in your life who listen to your deepest questions, with contemplative presence and compassion?
SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney hosts conversations on spiritual direction, guidance, contemplation, and community. This podcast offers a wide range of perspectives, stories, and conversations about the contemplative, healing modality of spiritual companionship, across a wide range of religious traditions and vocations. Discover the benefits of spiritual companionship and deep listening.
On this brief episode we talk about SDI's upcoming webinar series, The Tao and the Art of Spiritual Companionship.
The Tao and the Art of Spiritual Companionship: Insights for Deep Listening and Spiritual Presence$79.99
Many spiritual companions are meeting people who feel exhausted, anxious, polarized, spiritually dry, or overwhelmed by uncertainty. In moments like these, techniques often matter less than the quality of our presence.
The Tao Te Ching points us towards flourishing and fulfilling life, without explanation. This ancient Chinese wisdom tradition invites us into a way of living and listening that flows with life. It points us toward something that spiritual directors sense: that the deepest accompaniment happens not when we do more, but when we release into a vital presence.
This three-part series draws from seven essential Taoist themes into conversation with the practice of spiritual direction. Together we’ll explore a fresh framework for deep listening that helps you accompany people with less striving and more trust. We’ll explore not only how we accompany others, but how we inhabit our own inner life.
Each session weaves together reflection, dialogue, and practical application. Rather than simply adding another technique, this series helps cultivate the inner posture from which meaningful spiritual companionship naturally flows.
Anyone can participate in an SDI webinar! If you’re not a member, just contact us at office@sdiworld.org for your pricing.
https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/the-tao-and-the-art-of-spiritual-companionship/
Scott McRae has been offering spiritual direction and training for over 25 years and continues to provide ongoing educational resources through the Spiritual Direction Learning Lab. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, he holds an M.Div. from Yale University. Scott’s professional journey has spanned church and campus ministries, hospital chaplaincy, and leadership roles, all of which have shaped his approach to spiritual guidance. With three decades of experience training chaplains and spiritual directors, he brings deep wisdom and practical insight to his work. Based in Minneapolis, MN, Scott enjoys life with his wife, Melanie, their adult daughter, and their wonderfully quirky rescue dogs. He finds great joy in long walks, meaningful conversations, and fostering spiritual growth in others.
Dear Community,
During these deeply disturbing, harrowing and convulsive times, what are spiritual directors and companions to do? How can we respond? Please listen to this episode for a special message I wanted to share with all of you. We need to stand together as a community, faithful to our calling and practice, because spiritual direction and companionship heal, and are needed now more than ever.
Warmly,
Rev SeiFu, and the SDI Team
Cinema Divina is the creative, contemplative practice of media artist and writer M Freeman. M re-imagines the ancient ritual of sacred reading or lectio divina in today’s audiovisual vernacular as Cinema Divina—a contemplative screening process designed to increase access to one’s deeper wisdom, healing, and peace.
SDI is hosting a 2-part webinar with M Freeman, where we will practice Cinema Divina together in an online spiritual companionship setting, offering an inspiring blend of relaxation and spiritual imagination.
In this podcast chat, we have a really wonderful conversation with M on the origins of Cinema Divina, what folks can expect in doing the practice with them, and other fun things that arise when two spiritual companions sit down together and open up about creative life.
You can also visit M's website to learn more about their work in the world.
In this episode hear from Christina Roberts, author of My Spiritual Journey, a new children’s activity book designed to help kids explore wonder, stillness, and the gentle presence of Divine Love. Christina shares the inspiration behind the book, why children are naturally attuned to the sacred, and how simple practices like drawing, gratitude, and quiet reflection can nurture a child’s inner life.
Whether you work with children, care for children, or simply want to reconnect with your own sense of wonder, we hope this new activity book from SDI invites you into a deeper appreciation of the spiritual wisdom children carry and the gentle ways we can help it bloom.
In this episode of SDI Encounters, we’re excited to introduce a powerful new course offering from SDI — an 8-part online series called Somatic Spiritual Companionship: Inner Awareness for Deeper Listening.You’ll hear a bit here on this offering from course facilitator, Cynthia Winton-Henry.
This course invites spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers into a deeper exploration of the body-soul connection, offering a variety of practices that can enrich and expand your approach to spiritual direction and companionship. By engaging with somatic awareness — through movement, meditation, art, and embodied presence — we open new pathways to support others and ourselves with greater depth and authenticity.
Facilitated by Cynthia Winton-Henry, cofounder of InterPlay and author of The Art of Ensoulment, the series features a diverse lineup of spiritual companions who will guide us in experiential practices and share stories from their own embodied journeys.
Join us for eight live, 90-minute sessions starting Tuesday, September 30, 2025, and learn how to cultivate deeper listening, resilience, and presence — from the inside out.
Learn more and register at: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/somatic-spiritual-companionship/
What is spiritual direction or companionship really like? In these episodes, Christina Roberts and Matt Whitney offer each other 30 minutes of real-life spiritual direction—something like a “Fishbowl” experience—so you can listen in on the process as it unfolds.
The first episode will have Matt offering spiritual companionship to Christina. The second episode will have Christina offering spiritual companionship to Matt. In the third episode, we reflect together on what one might expect in entering a spiritual direction/companionship session, what we’ve learned in our years of doing this work, and what this practice makes possible.
Whether you're curious about becoming a spiritual director, seeking one yourself, or simply drawn to deep listening and presence, this episode offers a rare, honest glimpse into the heart of spiritual companionship.
Learn more about the work of spiritual direction and companionship on our website, or find a spiritual companion that you can work with today, at www.sdicompanions.org.
Christina's website is thecontemplativelife.net
What is spiritual direction or companionship really like? In these episodes, Christina Roberts and Matt Whitney offer each other 30 minutes of real-life spiritual direction—something like a “Fishbowl” experience—so you can listen in on the process as it unfolds.
The first episode will have Matt offering spiritual companionship to Christina. The second episode will have Christina offering spiritual companionship to Matt. In the third episode, we reflect together on what one might expect in entering a spiritual direction/companionship session, what we’ve learned in our years of doing this work, and what this practice makes possible.
Whether you're curious about becoming a spiritual director, seeking one yourself, or simply drawn to deep listening and presence, this episode offers a rare, honest glimpse into the heart of spiritual companionship.
Learn more about the work of spiritual direction and companionship on our website, or find a spiritual companion that you can work with today, at www.sdicompanions.org.
Christina's website is thecontemplativelife.net
What is spiritual direction or companionship really like? In these episodes, Christina Roberts and Matt Whitney offer each other 30 minutes of real-life spiritual direction—something like a “Fishbowl” experience—so you can listen in on the process as it unfolds.
The first episode will have Matt offering spiritual companionship to Christina. The second episode will have Christina offering spiritual companionship to Matt. In the third episode, we reflect together on what one might expect in entering a spiritual direction/companionship session, what we’ve learned in our years of doing this work, and what this practice makes possible.
Whether you're curious about becoming a spiritual director, seeking one yourself, or simply drawn to deep listening and presence, this episode offers a rare, honest glimpse into the heart of spiritual companionship.
Learn more about the work of spiritual direction and companionship on our website, or find a spiritual companion that you can work with today, at www.sdicompanions.org.
Christina's website is thecontemplativelife.net
“If SDI has done nothing else, and it has done much…but help us to gather together in support of one another, that might have been enough.”
So says SDI Co-Founder Lucy Abbott Tucker, perennial teacher, leader and contributor to the SDI community, and keynote speaker at SDI’s 35th Anniversary Conference to be held in Niagara Falls, May 29th-31st, 2025, and online.
I published a short video of Lucy last week on our YouTube channel, with this being the full conversation we had.
SDI has much to be proud of over its 35-year history, and we look forward to celebrating all those achievements with you, even as we continue to explore areas where we need to keep striving and learning together. And that’s the key, as Lucy tells us: all of us who practice, are dedicated to, or interested in, spiritual direction and companionship can rely on one another for support, discernment, and encouragement
So, please join us for our annual gathering, whether in person, or online. And if cost is a concern, you can apply for a scholarship.
In this 20 minute conversation, SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and Creative Director Matt Whitney discuss how in challenging times, we can learn how to use these challenges as gateways to deeper awareness, understanding, and spiritual growth. Our work as spiritual directors and companions involves helping others through their own challenges, as well as tending to our own. We believe we can do more than just survive difficult times, we can thrive.
Rev. SeiFu's full written reflection is available in Listen - Reflections on Spiritual Direction and Companionship. It is freely available to all and can be accessed on the SDI website: https://www.sdicompanions.org/media/listen/listen-19-1-january-2025/
Listen is a free outreach publication from SDI that assists spiritual travelers in the search for everyday encounters with the Sacred. It is published in January, May, and September. This simple and inviting publication includes short articles, poetry, and global resource announcements. It is read around the world by more than fifteen-thousand seekers, subscribers, and members of SDI. Become a supporting member of SDI today. Learn more at https://www.sdicompanions.org/become-a-member/
The latest book from SDI Press is now available for pre-order, shipping in November 2024!
Ordinary Heaven | Exploring Spiritual Direction and the Journey of Human Life, by Philip Carter, is a quite extraordinary work that lovingly renders a lifetime of spiritual experience and reflection, honoring this very life and the sacred ministry of spiritual direction.
In this episode, we interview Philip about the inspiration and themes of the book, and what readers can expect.
Purchase your copy today at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/ordinary-heaven/
Reading Ordinary Heaven is akin to receiving spiritual direction from a wise and compassionate companion. Philip Carter offers readers of all backgrounds the space to embrace the divine woven into the fabric of our ordinary lives. For anyone seeking to deepen their calling and connection to the world and each other, discover this profound and healing experience, one that speaks universally to the sacredness of our shared humanity.
Philip Carter is a retired Anglican priest. Ordained in 1973, he served in several parishes and in 1988 was appointed by the Archbishop of Adelaide as Diocesan Advisor in Spirituality, based at the Retreat House, Belair. In 1997, he established the ecumenical and independent spirituality ministry, the Julian Centre in Mile End, near the CBD of Adelaide. Through the centre, he offered spiritual direction, retreats and quiet days of reflection, as well as programs for the formation of spiritual directors. In 1989, he was a founding member and an early President of the Australian Network for Spiritual Direction (ANSD) and from 2007-2009 he served as the inaugural President of the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction (AECSD). He is married to Helen, with whom he has three adult daughters.
Purchase your copy today at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/ordinary-heaven/
There are many attempts at categorizing those walking a path of spiritual freedom. We see, and use, broad terms such as ‘Spiritual Independents’, ‘Spiritual but not religious’, or ‘The Nones’. These categories, as any, are ultimately limited. As spiritual directors and companions, we know each person’s spiritual story is unique, regardless of spiritual tradition and orientation.
So all that said, how do we companion the spiritual explorer – the wayfarer who has left the religion of their upbringing, practices more than one religion, or does not see themselves as rooted in a particular religious tradition or spiritual orientation? How do we nurture the increased spiritual curiosity and playfulness our companions bring to their sessions with us? How do we help others navigate the rejection of an upbringing, or subjection to a religion and spirituality they found stunted or even harmful? What if that tradition they’ve left behind is one we cherish?
These questions are the underpinnings of our new online series from SDI – Seeking Spiritual Freedom – about companioning those who have entered the spiritual wilderness, and earnestly tread a “wayless path” that is beyond what they know, and possibly what others have known. However one’s unique journey manifests, the diversity of the paths walked by those we companion will only continue to grow.
In this podcast I talked with all our presenters for this series, about their work and service to others, how they understand the path of spiritual freedom, and what to expect from our upcoming series – which you can register for now on our website, sdicompanions.org. I’ll introduce each of them as we go.
SDI has launched registration for a new webinar for all spiritual directors and companions, it’s called Disease and Dis-Ease on the Spiritual Path, a series on being a wise companion to yourself and others when the fragility of human life is most evident: in times of illness.
Our guide for this series is Kō Sam Tullman, founder of DiabetesSangha and Head of Behavioral Science at Quilt Technologies. With deep roots in Rinzai Zen Buddhism and a broad background in religious traditions, neuroscience, and modern Western psychology, Sam brings a unique perspective to this journey. His work blends brain, behavior, and technology to empower people to make healthy, life-affirming choices. Sam’s expertise in understanding the body’s physiological and psychological states will offer profound insights into how we can transform dis-ease into a path of healing and self-discovery.
In this episode Kō Sam shares a bit on what to expect during this webinar series.
Each session of this series will offer grounding practices, insightful discussions, and contemplative exercises, helping you deepen your understanding of the body-mind-spirit connection. We will cover the spiritual and neurobiological process of tending to those things which ail us, that they may teach us. Whether for personal growth or supporting others, this series provides valuable tools to navigate the spiritual journey through dis-ease. Transform challenges into opportunities for learning and compassion.
Learn more and register here - all are welcome: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/dis-ease-on-the-spiritual-path/
In this episode, recorded Thursday August 1st 2024, I spoke with Amrutham Babu, where we discussed the "Journey to India" from SDI, a 14-day and 15-night experience taking place from January 10 to 24, 2025. This trip is specifically designed for spiritual directors and companions, offering an in-depth look at India's spiritual heritage.
The journey includes:
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Internal Airfare: Travel between locations within India.
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Airport Shuttle: Pick-up and drop-off from the airport.
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Accommodation: Single and twin/double rooms available.
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Meals: Daily breakfast at the hotel.
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Arrival/Departure Assistance: Transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle.
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Sightseeing Transportation: Private, air-conditioned coach.
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Guides: A local English-speaking guide, an experienced spiritual companion, and an SDI staff member.
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Entrance Fees: Access to all monuments.
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Toll Taxes and 5% GST.
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Activities: Rickshaw ride in Delhi, village tour in Amritsar, battery van ride in Agra, daily yoga sessions in Rishikesh, and a boat ride on the Ganges River in Varanasi.
This journey is an opportunity for spiritual growth and connection through experiencing India's spiritual heritage. Amrutham and I explore the details of this transformative trip and how you can be part of it.
Come join us. Learn more and register here: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/india-journey-january-2025/
We're experimenting with a video version of our podcast on spiritual direction and companionship! In this first video conversation, we chat with Larry J Morris III about the broader themes of our upcoming webinar series, Beyond Binaries: Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses.
To watch the video of this conversation, head over to YouTube: https://youtu.be/vfoR4UXW5wU
To learn more about our series, and sign up to join us, click here: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/beyond-binaries-spiritual-companionship-through-queer-lenses/
In this series we will experience stories of spiritual companionship, presented by a diverse group of queer Mystics, who approach their work as spiritual companions through diverse and open-hearted containers. All spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers are encouraged to participate, walking any straight, queer, or otherwise crooked path to Wholeness.
This engaging new SDI series, open to all people and all identities, invites us to explore our lives, our work as spiritual companions, and our very souls, through the prism of queer perspectives. Indeed we can understand Queerness as a wisdom path – one which, along with our other spiritual traditions and orientations, offers deep wisdom, profound insight, and spiritual liberation. And in true openness and interspiritual dialogue, all of us, queer or straight, can glean insight from the spiritual jewels of the mystical path of queerness.
If that statement invites excitement and possibility, this webinar is for you. If it invites discomfort, this webinar is also for you.
Learn more and register – everyone is welcome – at sdicompanions.org. https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/beyond-binaries-spiritual-companionship-through-queer-lenses/
In this week’s episode, SDI’s Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with Sean Murphy on his upcoming webinar series on Meditation and Mindfulness. To learn more and register, please visit https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/zen-meditation-and-mindfulness-for-spiritual-directors-and-companions/
Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei, is a fully authorized Zen teacher in the American White Plum lineage, as well an award-winning author and recipient of a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. He served six years as a member of the SDI board, and has taught on a number of occasions for SDI programs. He is highly experienced in sharing traditional meditative techniques in interfaith and secular settings for practitioners of all backgrounds. The author of One Bird, One Stone:108 Contemporary Zen Stories as well as three novels with Bantam Dell books, he is founder and director of The Sage Institute of Taos, NM, which hosts an innovative ecumenical Meditation and Mindfulness Leader Training Program. He also teaches meditation, creative writing, and literature for the University of New Mexico-Taos and many other venues. His websites are www.sagetaos.org and www.murphyzen.com
This week, through June 24, we are running our Solstice Celebration, which offers 20 percent savings on most everything SDI offers, including memberships. In this conversation with Executive Director Rev. SeiFu, we discuss why we do these celebrations, and how we hope folks benefit.
An SDI membership is a particularly valuable and critical way to develop, connect, and expand the practice of spiritual companionship and the vibrant and deeply meaningful community we share. Whether a seasoned veteran or a newly budding spiritual director, we all benefit greatly from the exchange and conversation that occurs on a community-wide level. If you haven’t already, consider taking advantage of 20% off a new or renewed SDI membership through Monday June 24th!
Discounts this extensive are only available twice per year and include new webinars, journeys and pilgrimages, retreats, special bundled packages, books and publications, advertising, and, as we mentioned, even memberships!
This is Part Three of our preview for our next 10-session course, New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Troubled Times, featuring Chelsea Forbrook and Rev. Nhien Vuong.
Those familiar with the Enneagram know what a powerful tool for self-discovery and insight it can be. With that in mind we are pleased to announce our latest 10 session course offering from SDI – New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Spiritual Directors and Companions. This unique online course offering from SDI offers spiritual directors and companions the opportunity to connect with peers who are on the leading edge of the Enneagram field. This course will give seasoned Enneagram explorers the opportunity to take a deep dive and develop new perspectives about the use of this medium in spiritual direction and companionship, while honing new skills and approaches to their practice and calling.
We recently hosted a preview of this series, inviting many of our Presenters for this course to share their perspectives – what’s new, what’s stirring for them, how does exploration of the Enneagram take them beyond archetpyes and personality types – and into deeper reality and identity?
To learn more about the presenters, the course, and to register, go to sdicompanions.org. You do not need to be a spiritual director, or an SDI Member to attend (though members receive large discounts on the registration price).
Chelsea Forbrook is the author of “Blessing My Demons: How to Name, Tame & Transform Your Inner Critic,” available in stores and on Amazon October 2023.
Chelsea was awarded a scholarship from Spiritual Directors International (SDI) to be a part of the New Contemplatives cohort in 2018 (a selected group of outstanding spiritual directors under age 40), and is a current member of SDI.
Chelsea Forbrook is the President of Enneagram Minnesota, and is a Spiritual Director and Enneagram educator based in Minneapolis, MN. She takes great delight in making spiritual principles and practices easy and accessible for all. Chelsea is certified through Full Circle Enneagram, The Enneagram Institute, Russ Hudson’s year long Depth Certification in Conscious Living, The Somatic Enneagram, and is an accredited professional through the International Enneagram Association (IEA). She teaches a five month experiential Enneagram course for personal transformation, is the creator of the Enneaplaque (a meditation tool for awakening), and hosts a podcast called “The Enneagram of Essence.”
Before Chelsea discovered the Enneagram, she was immersed in anti-racism facilitation work through ASDIC (Anti Racism Study Dialogue Circles), the YWCA, and People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Chelsea holds a degree in religious studies with an emphasis on Liberation Theology, and a certificate in Leadership Toward Racial Justice from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
Learn more about Chelsea at www.chelseaforbrook.com
Reverend Nhien Vuong, J.D., M.Div., (she/her/hers) is an international Enneagram thought leader, keynote presenter, and retreat facilitator who spiritually companions individuals around the globe using a compassion-based, contemplative approach to the Enneagram. A former Stanford-trained attorney, Nhien left the law to support the evolution of consciousness. An ordained Unity minister, Nhien has been studying the Enneagram since 2002 and teaching it since 2006. She is a Certified Enneagram Teacher, Accredited Enneagram Professional, and the Founder of Evolving Enneagram, a community-based business whose interdisciplinary team of Enneagram professionals offers interspiritual programming to seed and sustain our collective awakening. A Vietnamese refugee living in the United States, Nhien is passionate about a world in which everyone belongs. She regularly offers scholarships for her programs and volunteers to teach the Enneagram to recovery groups, non-profits, and the incarcerated. Nhien is the upcoming author of Enneagram of Soul, a 40-day contemplative Enneagram companion guide to living a more authentic, inspired, and soulful life, scheduled to be published by Hampton Roads in 2025.
This is Part Two of our preview for our next 10-session course, New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Troubled Times, featuring Allen Proctor, Erlina Edwards, and Ben Campbell.
Those familiar with the Enneagram know what a powerful tool for self-discovery and insight it can be. With that in mind we are pleased to announce our latest 10 session course offering from SDI – New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Spiritual Directors and Companions. This unique online course offering from SDI offers spiritual directors and companions the opportunity to connect with peers who are on the leading edge of the Enneagram field. This course will give seasoned Enneagram explorers the opportunity to take a deep dive and develop new perspectives about the use of this medium in spiritual direction and companionship, while honing new skills and approaches to their practice and calling.
We recently hosted a preview of this series, inviting many of our Presenters for this course to share their perspectives – what’s new, what’s stirring for them, how does exploration of the Enneagram take them beyond archetpyes and personality types – and into deeper reality and identity?
To learn more about the presenters, the course, and to register, go to sdicompanions.org. You do not need to be a spiritual director, or an SDI Member to attend (though members receive large discounts on the registration price).
Allen Proctor is Director of the Haden Institute, spiritual director and Presbyterian Minister. Allen works with others to explore questions of identity, relationships, vocation and meaning, using Dream Work, the Enneagram, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, meditation practices and creation spirituality.
Erlina Edwards, passioned by her business interests and spiritual pursuits, is known to many as an Organizational Builder and Enneagram Practitioner. Driven by her commitment to Human Potential Development, she successfully built sustainable organizations to advance emotional intelligence and overall psychological wellness. Erlina Edwards initially earned her Enneagram certification through The Enneagram School of Narrative Tradition and is professionally certified through the IEA. Erlina is an International Interfaith Seminary graduate, an accredited Spiritual Director, and a certified IDEA Consultant (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racist). Erlina also holds accredited academic certifications that have advanced and broadened her business and spiritual studies. She is the Co-Executive Director of The Narrative Enneagram School and runs a private spiritual consulting practice; she lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, Gene.
Ben Campbell is a Riso-Hudson Certified Enneagram teacher living in Bath, Maine. In addition to his own programs and coaching, he was selected as a Coach/Facilitator for the Shift Network’s Enneagram Certification Program in Conscious Living (2021-2022) with Russ Hudson and Jessica Dibb. He also presented two talks at the 2023 Global Enneagram Conference in San Francisco: “An Introduction to the Enneagram & Inner Work,” and “Rewilding the Enneagram.” He has appeared on the podcasts “No Small Thing”, “The Enneagram of Essence,” “The Lonely Edges,” and “The Blindspot,” and he taught the Minnesota IEA’s March 2021 Workshop “Passions and Purposes.” He holds a degree in East Asian Studies from Bates College. He is an apprentice at the Maine Primitive Skills School and a long-time student of the Animas Valley Institute. Ben is also President and founder of Enneagram Northeast USA, an official chapter of the International Enneagram Association.
Those familiar with the Enneagram know what a powerful tool for self-discovery and insight it can be. With that in mind we are pleased to announce our latest 10 session course offering from SDI – New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Spiritual Directors and Companions. This unique online course offering from SDI offers spiritual directors and companions the opportunity to connect with peers who are on the leading edge of the Enneagram field. This course will give seasoned Enneagram explorers the opportunity to take a deep dive and develop new perspectives about the use of this medium in spiritual direction and companionship, while honing new skills and approaches to their practice and calling.
We recently hosted a preview of this series, inviting many of our Presenters for this course to share their perspectives – what’s new, what’s stirring for them, how does exploration of the Enneagram take them beyond archetpyes and personality types – and into deeper reality and identity?
In this episode, we are sharing the first two presenters from this free session, who also will be part of our upcoming course, Sandra Smith and Dina ElBadry.
To learn more about the presenters, the course, and to register, go to sdicompanions.org. You do not need to be a spiritual director, or an SDI Member to attend (though members receive large discounts on the registration price).
In the next episode of this podcast we’ll have Part Two of this session, featuring Allen Proctor, Erlina Edwards, and Ben Campbell, then we’ll release Part Three with Chelsea Forbrook, Rev. Nhien Vuong, and a brief Q&A.
With over 23 years of teaching experience, author Sandra Smith weaves her background in business and non-profits with her theological education to offer a practical and compassionate exploration of the Enneagram’s nine types. An accredited International Enneagram Association Professional and certified in the Narrative Enneagram Tradition, Sandra teaches internationally, inviting curiosity and compassion to guide the inward turn in exploring the foundational question, “Who Am I?” Sandra has presented at numerous International Enneagram Association Conferences in the USA as well as Canada, and been a speaker at several SDI (Spiritual Directors International) conferences, speaking to the role of the Enneagram in Spiritual Companioning. Her forthcoming book The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type will be released by Hampton Roads Publishing in September 1, 2024.
Dina ElBadry is an IEA accredited professional and Founder & Head Teacher at The Enneagram Academy, Egypt. She works with Chestnut Pães Academy As Head Mentor Worldwide & Staff member in Africa and Europe. Dina studied the Gurdjieff work and she teaches the CP levels of awareness model that’s based on both Gurdjieff & Sufi Work.
In this week's episode, Rev. SeiFu speaks with Matt Whitney on SDI's 2024 online conference.
Our conference theme this year is “Navigating the Global Dark Night of the Soul of Spiritual Directors and Companions.” We will create an opening and a field for spiritual directors and companions to listen, and speak, into the hardships, struggles, and opportunities we have encountered over the last few difficult years. Unfortunately, the world’s circumstances don’t seem to be improving, but rather, progressively worsening in many ways. So we will need particularly effective tools to address empathy fatigue, burnout, and the very same afflictions that can ail all of us at any time: isolation, loneliness, despair, and loss of meaning and purpose.
JOIN US MAY 8-10, 2024!
Let us come together to listen and share insights, fostering a supportive community to navigate these complex times.
Register now at sdicompanions.org
In this chat with Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares, we explore some nuts-and-bolts questions about spiritual companionship. What is spiritual companionship? How does it work? Who is it for? Why would someone need spiritual companionship? How does it differ from working with a mental health professional? What is considered "on the table" or "off the table" in a spiritual companionship conversation? Should we pay money for spiritual companionship? This conversation is for anyone who is curious about working with a spiritual companion, and how it can help you on your spiritual journey.
SDI Communities are SDI-sponsored, often locally-run groups of spiritual companions. These people gather either regionally, or based on a shared commonality, on a regular basis to connect, support one another, network, share contemplative time and practice new skills in spiritual care. An SDI Community can operate anywhere in the world.
Let us know if you’d be interested in joining an SDI Community and we will connect you. You can email us at communities@sdiworld.org
Ravi Verma, previously on the SDI Board as a Member and as Chair, now is helping us host several Special Interest or “Affinity” Groups. In this conversation with our Executive Director Reverend SeiFu, Ravi talks about how these groups are going, where they are going in the future, and how they relate and integrate into the larger vision for the SDI Community in general.
We are pleased to offer this recent conversation with Jennifer "Jinks" Hoffmann, author of The Light of God's Shadow - Musings, Stories, and Poems on Waking Up, from SDI Press Books. We discuss poetry and creativity, death, finding God in all things - in other words, just an "ordinary" conversation from the Home of Spiritual Companionship :)
In The Light of God's Shadow, Jinks reminds us through earthy, vulnerable and humorous musings, stories, and poetry that waking up is a lifetime endeavor. Psychotherapist and spiritual director Jinks Hoffmann encourages us to listen for the divine daily call to wholeness—in our relationships and work, our joys and dreams, our messes and triumphs, our losses and grief. We accompany Jinks on her journey through radiant and dark shadow, and we learn with her from the wisdom of her teachers. We grow in understanding— and in our bodies, hearts and souls—that when we welcome our vulnerability and strength, we heighten our humanity and heal our souls. By becoming kinder and more compassionate with ourselves and with one another we keep waking up and we bring healing to the world.
Click here to order your copy today. On sale, along with our webinars, courses, and other books, through December 18th 2023.
In March 2023 during our Forest Bathing Retreat in North Carolina, I (Matt Whitney) made some recordings of our time together - sounds of the forest, some testimonials and poetry by participants, and a bit of audio from our facilitators Jeanette Banashak and Simon De Voil. With our next retreat upcoming in March 2024, I finally got around to organizing some of this audio in a reflection, which begins around the 10 minute marker. Prior to that, I explain a bit about what to expect on the Retreat.
https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/forest-bathing-2024/
Come join us! SDI returns to the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina from March 3 - 9, 2024. We invite you to spend a week forest bathing, immersing in nature, breathing the clean forest air, finding silence and stillness, and experience deep listening on new levels.
If you missed our first Retreat, here is your opportunity to join us for this truly restful and transformative experience. If you previously attended, we are excited to again bring this offering to you. All are welcome!
https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/forest-bathing-2024/
In this week’s episode, Matt Whitney speaks with Paul Burgmayer on a History of Spiritual Direction and Supervision that he has been working on. Paul is working on a comprehensive history of spiritual direction and supervision in North America, and is seeking assistance with anything that can help him fill in the gaps in his research. If you can help him by providing missing details, or know of someone who might be able to help, please send him an email at historyofsd@gmail.com.
Paul Burgmayer has been accompanying others in spiritual direction for fourteen years now. A former industrial researcher and retired high school teacher, he has a master’s degree in Holistic Spirituality and a certificate in spiritual direction from Chestnut Hill College, certificates in the supervision of spiritual direction from Together in the Mystery and Mercy Center, Burlingame, and trained at Chestnut Hill College and the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Canada to accompany others in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. A member of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church for many years, he has developed and taught a number of adult education classes. Paul lives in Wayne, PA with his wife, Sharon, a piano-playing chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr College. In his spare time, Paul enjoys gardening with Sharon, woodworking, learning jazz improvisation on his trumpet, singing, and writing.
To preview their upcoming 4-part webinar for SDI on Desert Spirituality, we invite you to enjoy this quick session with Tessa Bielecki and Fr. David Denny. And, we hope you will consider joining us for a full four part series on Desert Spirituality beginning November 1st (all sessions recorded). https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/desert-wisdom-for-spiritual-directors-and-companions/
Attracted by beauty and responding to sorrow, Tessa Bielecki and Fr. David Denny offer insights about inner work and earth care, peacemaking and social justice, living and dying, and share the nourishing desert wisdom that blooms today. Learn more about their work at https://sandandsky.org/.
We extend a heartfelt invitation to all spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers to join us in exploring the rich and profound tradition of desert spirituality and the wisdom of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. In this enlightening learning opportunity, we will delve into the depths of this ancient path, discovering invaluable insights and practices that can deeply enhance our spiritual guidance practices.
In this episode I have a lovely conversation with Elaine Fourie, from Durban, South Africa. Elaine is an SDI Member, a regular Media Reviewer of spiritual and contemplative books for Presence Journal. She is a trained trauma-informed psychologist before retiring from that role. We talk about working with trauma as spiritual companions and seeing trauma as a spiritual wound. We also discuss mystical encounter as Elaine experiences it, and hear a bit about her journey caring for her husband as he battles cancer. My deep thanks to Elaine for reaching out and being open and vulnerable in this interview.
If you're not an SDI Member, please consider joining our contemplative community! The SDI global learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to peace and justice. All spiritual wayfarers and those curious about the spiritual journey are welcome to become a member of SDI.
Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store.
Hi Friends. Matt Whitney here. I thought for the podcast I would do a reading of a reflection I wrote for our SDI Listen publication, which comes out quarterly. It's about something Henri Nouwen wrote in his book The Inner Voice of Love. I hope you enjoy the reading, and the written reflection is below.
SDI has thousands of spiritual directors, companions, guides, and teachers who are available to work with you, listen to you, and accompany you on your spiritual journey. Find one to work with today at sdicompanions.org.
I recently took a short backpacking trip in the North Cascades of Washington State. I like to have an author accompany me while sipping my instant coffee in the morning or curling up in my sleeping bag at night. This trip, I brought with me Henri Nouwen’s The Inner Voice of Love, described on the back cover as his “secret journal” – written during a period of intense doubt, low self-esteem, anguish, and despair. Nouwen writes with great clarity and purpose, and I was moved reading his intimate sharing.
In one entry, he writes of our need to share our struggles, pain, and anguish with others, so that need may be affirmed and acknowledged. Indeed, Nouwen continues, our suffering can be of service to others, when shared judiciously, and with caution.
Nouwen says, “You will always need people who do not need you but who can receive you and give you back to yourself.” I was struck – what a beautiful description of spiritual companionship, encapsulating the essence, calling, and profound gifts of spiritual companionship!
I’m in my sixth year working for SDI. During this time, I’ve had countless conversations with folks about our work as spiritual directors and companions. Sometimes these discussions are easy, but more often context is necessary for those unfamiliar with our modalities. So, I describe our practices of deep listening, contemplation, and compassionate service, in service to helping others on their own unique spiritual journeys. These approaches help us all to recall and behold our deep, and innate, connection with God, The Divine, The Universe, or however we might each name The Ground of All Being.
Let’s contemplate this together – how are each of us received by someone “who does not need us,” and who “gives us back to ourselves?”
What does it mean that someone needs nothing from us? Let’s start with the fact that we have many relationships in life, with varying degrees of responsibilities and obligations. As a partner and a parent, I have a responsibility to be loving and caring to my spouse, and my son. If we are friends, it’s important that we find fun things to do together, as well as help each other out in our struggles, or even with more mundane tasks such as moving or working on a house project. Professional colleagues pool their efforts in common causes and purposes. And so on. All of these relationships can blossom as we get to know one another, and become more intimate over time. Perhaps eventually to the point of finding safety and comfort in sharing our spirituality with each other. After all, mutuality and reciprocity are the most precious gifts of our relationships. We give as much as we get.
One question I often hear in response to my own descriptions of a spiritual companion is: “why can’t that person just be an intimate partner, or a good friend?” To which I respond, “On occasion, they can be!” But what I have found, and I imagine you may have as well, is that our sufferings and longings are too intimate, too delicate, and too easily misunderstood by even our partners and closest friends. Within us may be truths so hidden that we don’t know how to properly speak of them. This can become problematic if we are tempted to overshare, as it may confuse or even become a burden to those whom we live and work with. As it turns out, our colleagues, friends, and partners actually need quite a bit from us – as does every good relationship. This includes the inevitable need to be selective, and even guarded, in sharing our most intimate spiritual selves.
Conversely, though a partner or friend might mean well, they are likely not attuned to the deep listening that would be most helpful to us. They may want to correct us, solve our problems, and make us feel better. The intentions are good, but these responses can be awkward, even harmful, to understanding our unique journeys.
You will always need people who do not need you but who can receive you and give you back to yourself.
- Henri Nouwen
Illustrated by Matt WhitneyThis is what Nouwen means by “need.” Our partners need us to be loving, contributing partners. Our colleagues need us to be productive and helpful. Our friends need us to be…friends. They also need us to be complete and caring people in their lives.
On the other hand, a spiritual companion doesn’t need us at all in these ways. They don’t require our service or assistance. When I meet with mine, I don’t need to dress nicely, or pretend that I’m in a good mood. I arrive just as I am, with all my “baggage.” This is a great gift and a huge relief!
Nouwen adds that a spiritual companion “gives us back to ourselves.” As we all notice the tangles of our busy lives, and the anxieties and fears we carry, we eventually realize there are things deep within us that yearn and long in ways we may not be able to properly name. A spiritual companion can give us uninhibited safe space to untangle and declutter the surface of our lives, such that the depths within us can be excavated. Much like clearing weeds from a garden, these depths are given air to breathe and light to reveal.
A spiritual companion can give us uninhibited safe space to untangle and declutter the surface of our lives, such that the depths within us can be excavated. Much like clearing weeds from a garden, these depths are given air to breathe and light to reveal. Many of the world’s spiritual traditions speak of the True Self. This True Self is our Spiritual Essence, the Child of God, Transcendent Awareness, the Eternal Self, The Ground of Our Being. This depth is you – the real You that spiritual companionship gives back to us!
There is much work we must all do to discover our True Nature: learning to integrate our pain, understanding our suffering, and alchemizing these into the living wisdom that weaves itself through all of us eternally.
Though my descriptions of spiritual companionship change depending on the conversation, I always say: “Everyone should work with a spiritual companion.” This includes you! If spiritual companionship is not part of your routine of care, I encourage you to check out our Find a Spiritual Companion Directory. Spend some time researching potential Spiritual Directors, Companions, and Guides to work with, and connect with a few. They are the kindest folks I know and typically offer free introductory sessions if you ask.
And may you find a person who needs nothing from you, but can receive you, and give you back to yourself.
Support for SDI Encounters comes from THE CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, WHICH INVITES YOU TO AN ONLINE BIOSPIRITUAL FOCUSING BOOK STUDY. THE GROUP WILL MEET 7 WEDNESDAY EVENINGS, 6:30-8 PM PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME, STARTING SEPTEMBER 13. GO TO WWW.THECSD.ORG FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER. THE CSD LOOKS FORWARD TO MEETING YOU ON ZOOM!
Chelsea Forbrook is the President of Enneagram Minnesota and is a Spiritual Director and Enneagram Educator based in Minneapolis, MN. She teaches a 10 month experiential Enneagram Course and hosts a podcast called “The Enneagram of Essence.” Chelsea is author of the book, “Blessing My Demons: How to Name, Tame & Transform Your Inner Critic,” which will be released this October. She was part of the SDI New Contemplatives cohort for the year 2018 and continues to be an active member in our community of spiritual directors and companions. She will be hosting a 5-part webinar series at the end of October called “Using the Enneagram to Name, Tame and Transform Your Inner Critic: Creative Practices, Tools and Rituals for Spiritual Directors“. You can learn more about Chelsea on her website www.chelseaforbrook.com.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.
In this week's episode, SDI's Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney continue their conversation on what it means to belong to the SDI community, particularly when things get challenging. In our ongoing SDI community dialogue around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging, we’d like to focus more intensively on the Belonging part. SDI has envisioned our community as a Public Square of Spiritual Companionship, in which we gather as spiritual directors and companions from an array of faith traditions and spiritual orientations. Though sometimes this process can be messy and uncomfortable, SDI will always be a place for anyone who shares our passion and commitment to our common calling. The conversation continues from last week's Part 1.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.
In this week's episode, SDI's Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney discuss what it means to belong to the SDI community, particularly when things get challenging. In our ongoing SDI community dialogue around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging, we’d like to focus more intensively on the Belonging part. SDI has envisioned our community as a Public Square of Spiritual Companionship, in which we gather as spiritual directors and companions from an array of faith traditions and spiritual orientations. Though sometimes this process can be messy and uncomfortable, SDI will always be a place for anyone who shares our passion and commitment to our common calling. The conversation continues next week in Part 2.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.
“I already feel more awake`-thank you.”
“I cannot wait for the class!!!”
“brilliant and blissful,” “Tingly,” “Being present to my own joy,” “Calm and energized,” “Peacefulness,” “Wonder and awe,” “Reconnecting with my true self.”
“This was life-changing.”
“I feel like I’ve transformed as a spiritual director” (OK, that one is from me, but it’s true).
These are a few of the comments received just from the one-hour preview session we had with Harry Pickens! The recording is posted below and is available for you to watch whenever you like. SDI Members can also find it in the Free Sessions Course within their ‘My Courses and Webinars‘ section, or can access directly by clicking here: “Awakening Joy”
Huge thanks to Harry Pickens for facilitating this wonderful session!
If you want to experience more healing, more integration, more joy, and cultivate a fuller spiritual presence for yourself and those you companion, then we encourage you to sign up for our five-session webinar with Harry beginning on July 5th. All sessions are recorded for you to watch whenever you like. Click here to learn more and register.
Harry Pickens is an award-winning musician, educator, and life transformation coach. He holds practitioner and trainer certifications in EFT and Spiritual Technology and a Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from the Flourishing Center. He is the developer of the From StageFright To Standing Ovation™, From Burnout To Bliss™ and Rewire Your Brain For Inner Peace™ Workshops, and creator of Emotional Empowerment For Personal Mastery™, a step-by-step protocol that is designed to help his clients quickly and easily release the pain of the past, fully embrace the miracle of the present moment, and consciously create their best possible future. Harry was a recent presenter in the SDI Trauma and Wellness Course for Spiritual Directors and Companions.
Hear directly from our Guides for the newest iteration of our Forest Bathing Journey, coming in March 2024.
We are pleased to welcome all to join us as SDI returns to the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. For spiritual directors, companions, wayfarers and explorers, we invite you to spend a week immersing in nature, breathing the clean forest air, finding silence and stillness, and experience deep listening on new levels.
If you missed our first Retreat, here is your opportunity to join us for this truly restful and transformative experience. If you previously attended, we are excited to again bring this offering to you. All are welcome! March 3 - 9, 2024.
Special pricing of 20 percent off in place through July 5, 2023! Call or e-mail our Office at 425-455-1565 or office@sdiworld.org to start a payment plan, or register now at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/2024-the-forest-as-companion-nature-immersion-and-deep-listening/
In this recent April 2023, SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney had a wide-ranging conversation about spiritual direction and companionship, and in particular, reconsidering some of the elements we might consider to be “universal.” Are there common elements to the work of spiritual companionship that we can identify? For example, we often cite “deep listening” as a common practice. But what do we mean when we say that? We also consider, and reconsider, the generation of “spiritual heat,” how spiritual companionship has elements of contemplative practice, opening to new depths of awareness, and how to befriend the overwhelm that can come when we gain insight into the depths of our existence. We have this conversation posted as a five-part video series on our YouTube channel, but here you can listen to the conversation in its entirety. We hope you enjoy it and reconsider for yourself some of the building blocks of your own practice as a spiritual companion.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.
Recently we at SDI hosted a free preview webinar session with Fr. Adam Bucko, who will be facilitating an upcoming webinar series called Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – Spiritual Direction and Companionship for a World That Has Lots Its Way. This episode we share the audio of that free preview webinar conversation. Join our community of spiritual companions and wayfarers for this 3-part webinar exploring Heartbreak for Spiritual Directors and how to turn it to our advantage. Through readings, deep conversations, dialogue and discernment with one of SDI’s most compelling teachers, Fr. Adam Bucko, your heart will open and be renewed. We will be reading portions of Fr. Adam’s newest book, Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – designed for every person trying to live at the intersection of contemplation and justice, but will be specially resonant for spiritual directors and companions.
Recently, SDI hosted a free webinar with Carmen Acevedo Butcher, an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. Carmen specializes in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English mystic writers. You can watch the webinar on Vimeo.
SDI is starting a four-part series on two mystics: Brother Lawrence and The Cloud of Unknowing. The series will be hosted by Carmen Acevedo Butcher and begins on April 5th, 2023. You can join anytime and watch the recorded sessions at your convenience. Learn more and register on our website.
Join us for a deep dive into the writings and teachings of these great mystics. Carmen Acevedo Butcher will facilitate the series and guide us in exploring the meaning beyond the words. We will engage in practices like singing and contemplating to experience the deep love underlying their writings.
These writers lived through plagues, wars, and trials similar to what we face today. They are relatable spiritual companions who have walked these paths before us. How did they grapple with the crises of their times? Join us to nourish our souls with hope.
Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. She is an award-winning translator of works in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English by writers including Brother Lawrence.
Have you ever noticed on the sdicompanions.org website, a small purple chat bubble that follows you in the lower-right hand corner of the screen? It looks like this:
The ‘SDI Chat’ feature is there to assist you with questions you might have about most things related to our website, how to do things like renew your Membership, access a Webinar. And, lest you think it’s a virtual assistant AI robot, oh no, there is a live, breathing human being on the other end of that chat. And his name is Ryan! Ryan Hinson is our Technical Support Assistant, and I thought it would be fun to talk with him and give the opportunity for you to get to know him a little bit. Ryan is interesting and thoughtful and has the perfect calm, unflappable demeanor for dealing with our Members’ technical issues and helping them find and do what they need. I personally promise you will learn something new and interesting in this conversation.
Ryan Hinson (he/him) brings his skill and patience as a technology literacy professional to the Technology Support Position. He has two decades of experience in online teaching, educational writing, tutoring, and tech support, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Outside of this professional role, Ryan enjoys growing hot peppers and native fruits, foraging, cooking, and playing video games.
In this interview we talk to Eric Massanari, Chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Eric invites all SDI Members to join her and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
Eric Massanari (he/him) is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite tradition, living in northern Washington state where he serves as the Executive Conference Minister for the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. He also maintains a private practice in spiritual direction. Eric has served on the SDI Board of Directors since 2018 and brings a passion for inter-faith and inter-spiritual connections, community formation, peace and justice building, and companioning people who are at diverse places on the spiritual journey. An avid poet and essayist, Eric is a contributing author of An Open Place: The Ministry of Group Spiritual Direction.
In his own words: “I celebrate how spiritual companioning takes so many vital forms across time, place, traditions and cultures. In its myriad expressions it’s a practice that our world needs now more than ever, as together we seek the paths that make for enduring peace.”
In this interview we talk to Rabbi Miriam Klotz, vice-chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Rabbi Myriam invites all SDI Members to join her and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
Rabbi Myriam Klotz is a spiritual director and supervisor in Jewish seminaries and in private practice since 1999. Myriam consulted with several rabbinical schools to introduce spiritual direction to their students and faculty. She coordinated the spiritual direction program at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 2010-2020, and has been the director of the Bekhol Levavkha Spiritual Director Training program since 2014. Myriam is also a Senior Program Director with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality where she teaches somatics and embodied practices from a perspective of deep listening and honoring of our bodies’ sacred wisdom. Myriam lives in Philadelphia, PA with her spouse Rabbi Margot Stein. She is the proud mom and step mom of two sons.
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
If you’re interested in applying or nominating a qualified individual to serve on the board, please go to our website sdicompanions.org, and on the homepage you’ll find the graphic which will take you to the appropriate forms.
Busshō Lahn is a Zen student and teacher, and the guiding teacher of Flying Cloud Zen Spiritual Practice Community. He’s also a popular speaker, retreat leader, spiritual director, author, and a Senior Priest at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.
Busshō has just published his first Zen book, Singing and Dancing are the Voice of the Law, by Monkfish Publications.
In this episode we discuss this book and its exploration of the Zen poem, The Song of Zazen, and other things such as how we first connected at SDI, persevering with ideas we feel called to create and make, paradoxes such as giving up safety in order to find Safety, the Nature of the Universe – you know, the things we commonly talk about here on this podcast. Bussho is a friend and a lively conversationalist and deeply contemplative - I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law introduces us to one of the great works of Zen literature, “The Song of Zazen.” Zen teacher Busshō Lahn illuminates Hakuin’s enigmatic poem in plain language, unpacking it and applying it to contemporary life. His book offers a wealth of information on the context and content of this eighteenth-century work, clearly evoking its themes of abiding wisdom, meditation, compassionate self-regard, and our own everyday life’s potential to express deep spiritual truth.
Learn more about the book, and purchase links, here: Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law - Monkfish (monkfishpublishing.com)
Busshō first came to Soto Zen Buddhism in 1993, was ordained as a novice in 2009, and received Dharma Transmission (authorization to carry the lineage and teach independently) in 2015. Busshō remains rooted in his Zen tradition but cultivates an openness to the beauty and wisdom of other faiths. Through appreciatively understanding other paths, he feels that he becomes a better Buddhist.
In this week's episode, Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil and Rev. David Wallace swap poetry and song ahead of their upcoming 4-part webinar series entitled "Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice", which begins on January 30.
This Interspiritually-minded and experiential webinar highlights works from The Book of Psalms, a revered sacred text across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which is cherished for its deep wisdom, beautiful poetry, and broad exploration of the joys, sorrows, despairs, and longings at the heart of the human condition. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their souls.
Learn more and register for this webinar series at sdicompanions.org.
Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil, is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, poetry, storytelling, and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon provides music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.
Simon is also an experienced workshop and retreat leader, drawing on 15 years of study, training, and practice that grew from his time living and working in Iona Abbey. Although influenced by many traditions, Simon’s spiritual path and teaching is deeply rooted in Celtic Christianity, the wisdom of the earth, and in the Scottish land where he’s spent most of his life.
Learn more about Simon on his website: simondevoil.com
Rev. David Wallace recently retired as a dean and senior teacher for One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and is a faculty member of the spiritual direction program at the Rowe Center and an active officiant and spiritual director. He is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and has continued those studies as a lifelong student of the “great books” of philosophy and archetypal psychology. Rev. Wallace offers teaching and retreats at spiritual venues worldwide, and specializes in poetics, contemplative practice, and the wisdom texts of both the Eastern and Western traditions.
SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and Lerita Coleman Brown discuss the work of Howard Thurman, anticipating the upcoming webinar series from SDI - Listening for the Sound of the Genuine.
This 4-part series will provide an overview of Howard Thurman’s contributions to spirituality, mysticism, and sacred activism. During this webinar, we will walk through the life and writings of Howard Thurman and listen for the genuine; the words and ideas that Spirit holds uniquely for each of us and our ministries of spiritual direction/companioning. With this clarion call for the authentic, what do we hear about living as a contemplative, a holy child of God, an everyday mystic, a prophetic leader, and with inner authority as we answer our sacred call? In what ways does it help us to companion ourselves and those we journey with? Join us as we uncover the depths of inner freedom that emerge when we listen for the genuine, to what makes us come alive.
Sign up for this four part webinar today at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/listening-for-the-sound-of-the-genuine/
Hi! Matt Whitney here – Creative Director, and one of the Guides for the Nature Immersion and Deep Listening Journey we have put together for all spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers.
In this episode, I have a conversation with Aimee Bostwick, who is Coordinator of Community and Spiritual Life at Kanuga Conference Center (our hosts for this retreat) in North Carolina about what it's like to live and work there, being in the landscape, and what retreat participants can expect.
We still have spots for YOU! As I write this, we are a little more than three months away. Our retreat dates are March 19-25, 2023. This is the perfect time to register. Right now, SDI is having its Solstice Sale, with 15 percent savings across all our offerings. A single room reservation saves $375!
This is my dream retreat. I designed it the way I would want a retreat to be. What would I need to find deep rest and reconnection? Where would I want to be? What would the flow of a day look like? Who would I want to share this with? All are welcome. 🌲🌳
Recently, Cynthia Bailey Manns came off of the SDI Coordinating Council, now called the SDI Board of Directors, and also wrote a reflection for Presence – our journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Cynthia and I discuss her written reflection, her time serving on the Coordinating Council, and her work as a soul companion.
Cynthia Bailey Manns, D.Min., is an experienced soul companion, supervisor, workshop and retreat leader, Movement Chaplain, spiritual direction training program leader, Lilly Grant program leader and author. Her passion for soul care and sacred activism is foundational to her current service as the Adult Learning Director at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis, Adjunct Faculty in the Theology department at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, and accompanying lay and ordained spiritual leaders. She is the US Catholic representative and author for the 2023 World Council of Churches Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and served as the past Chair of SDI's Coordinating Council.
SDI is offering a very unique Forest Bathing Journey – a travel experience hosted by us – to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a Nature Immersion and Deep Listening retreat, for seven days in March 2023. In this conversation, the retreat facilitators, Dr Jeanette Banashak and myself, discuss our themes and hopes for this time together, to give you a better sense of what is being offered.
For all spiritual directors, companions, and seekers, we invite you to spend a week immersing in nature, breathing the clean forest air, finding silence and stillness, and experience deep listening on new levels.
With this SDI Journey we are able to offer reasonable pricing, with a significant Early Bird discount if you register before October 8th. We are offering standard single and double rooms in both a contemporary inn setting, as well as multi-room cabins and cottages. Bring a friend (or a few friends!) And let us know with whom you’d like to share lodgings. If four or more of you would like to reserve a cabin or cottage together, call us and we’ll work something out.
Designed by spiritual directors and companions, for spiritual directors and companions, this Journey retreat is sure to nourish, restore, and intimately connect you to Nature, Contemplative Community, and the Essence of your very Being.
Learn more at SDI Journey - The Forest as Companion - Nature Immersion and Deep Listening - March 19-25, 2023 - SDI Companions
Dr. Jeanette Banashak is a queer and bilingual interspiritual and interreligious companion. She has a diploma in shinrin yoku (forest bathing) and guides people of all ages in nature urban immersion experiences as an act of justice, as well as is working on a piece that explores interspirituality and trees. She is the co-founder/director of The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, an organization providing training in spiritual direction/companionship with an interfaith, interspiritual, inter-contemplative focus. Jeanette is the author of The Mindful Pilgrimage: A 40-Day Pocket Devotional for Pilgrims of Any Faith or None and a 30-Day ezine of haiga from the Camino. In 2018, she became a “dual pilgrim” after walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Kumano Kodo in Japan. Jeanette also teaches social and emotional learning and development at Erikson Institute and spiritual direction at the Graduate Theological Foundation.
SDI is offering a very unique Forest Bathing Journey – a travel experience hosted by us – to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a Nature Immersion and Deep Listening retreat, for seven days in March 2023. In this conversation, the retreat facilitators, Dr Jeanette Banashak and myself, discuss our themes and hopes for this time together, to give you a better sense of what is being offered.
For all spiritual directors, companions, and seekers, we invite you to spend a week immersing in nature, breathing the clean forest air, finding silence and stillness, and experience deep listening on new levels.
With this SDI Journey we are able to offer reasonable pricing, with a significant Early Bird discount if you register before October 8th. We are offering standard single and double rooms in both a contemporary inn setting, as well as multi-room cabins and cottages. Bring a friend (or a few friends!) And let us know with whom you’d like to share lodgings. If four or more of you would like to reserve a cabin or cottage together, call us and we’ll work something out.
Designed by spiritual directors and companions, for spiritual directors and companions, this Journey retreat is sure to nourish, restore, and intimately connect you to Nature, Contemplative Community, and the Essence of your very Being.
Learn more at SDI Journey - The Forest as Companion - Nature Immersion and Deep Listening - March 19-25, 2023 - SDI Companions
Dr. Jeanette Banashak is a queer and bilingual interspiritual and interreligious companion. She has a diploma in shinrin yoku (forest bathing) and guides people of all ages in nature urban immersion experiences as an act of justice, as well as is working on a piece that explores interspirituality and trees. She is the co-founder/director of The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, an organization providing training in spiritual direction/companionship with an interfaith, interspiritual, inter-contemplative focus. Jeanette is the author of The Mindful Pilgrimage: A 40-Day Pocket Devotional for Pilgrims of Any Faith or None and a 30-Day ezine of haiga from the Camino. In 2018, she became a “dual pilgrim” after walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Kumano Kodo in Japan. Jeanette also teaches social and emotional learning and development at Erikson Institute and spiritual direction at the Graduate Theological Foundation.
Since 2002 Dr. Bruce Tallman has been a full-time spiritual director and marriage coach in private practice. He is passionate about his mission, which is to help people grow in wisdom and love. Bruce wrote the manual on how to make a living as a spiritual director – a seminal text for most working spiritual directors and companions called Finding Seekers: How to Develop a Spiritual Direction Practice from Beginning to Full-Time Employment. He also participated in our recent Making a Living 3 Webinar series, which is available as a recorded purchase on the SDI website. Bruce has a new book out, an exploration of the 17th century saint Francis de Sales and his 1616 Treatise on the Love of God. This book is called God’s Ecstatic Love and is available for purchase on Amazon, and on Bruce’s website – brucetallman.com. Bruce and I recently spoke about this recent book and caught up on all kinds of topics around spiritual direction.
In spiritual direction, he has worked with laity and clergy from every Christian denomination. He has published two books for spiritual directors (one of them, Finding Seekers: How to Develop a Spiritual Direction Practice from Beginning to Full-Time Employment, is a bestseller in the field). He has also published two books on spirituality for clergy and lay people (see the "Books" page). He has had hundreds of articles on spirituality published in the London Free Press and other newspapers and is an adjunct faculty for the Haden Institute for Spiritual Directors Training. From 1988 to 2002 Dr. Tallman was the director of two adult religious education centers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ontario. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Spiritual Direction/Counselling from the Graduate Theological Foundation, which is affiliated with the Gregorian Institute in Rome and Oxford University in England.
Francis de Sales, bishop, doctor, saint, and mystic, published Treatise on the Love of God in 1616. Scholars consider it to be one of the classics of Christian literature, on the level of The Cloud of Unknowing, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, and The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Yet, most people have never heard of it.
Dr. Bruce Tallman’s new book God’s Ecstatic Love takes de Sales’ spiritual masterpiece and updates it in a way that makes sense to 21st century minds.
Learn more about Bruce's book at BruceTallman.com
Since 2002 Dr. Bruce Tallman has been a full-time spiritual director and marriage coach in private practice. He is passionate about his mission, which is to help people grow in wisdom and love. Bruce wrote the manual on how to make a living as a spiritual director – a seminal text for most working spiritual directors and companions called Finding Seekers: How to Develop a Spiritual Direction Practice from Beginning to Full-Time Employment. He also participated in our recent Making a Living 3 Webinar series, which is available as a recorded purchase on the SDI website. Bruce has a new book out, an exploration of the 17th century saint Francis de Sales and his 1616 Treatise on the Love of God. This book is called God’s Ecstatic Love and is available for purchase on Amazon, and on Bruce’s website – brucetallman.com. Bruce and I recently spoke about this recent book and caught up on all kinds of topics around spiritual direction.
In spiritual direction, he has worked with laity and clergy from every Christian denomination. He has published two books for spiritual directors (one of them, Finding Seekers: How to Develop a Spiritual Direction Practice from Beginning to Full-Time Employment, is a bestseller in the field). He has also published two books on spirituality for clergy and lay people (see the "Books" page). He has had hundreds of articles on spirituality published in the London Free Press and other newspapers and is an adjunct faculty for the Haden Institute for Spiritual Directors Training. From 1988 to 2002 Dr. Tallman was the director of two adult religious education centers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ontario. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Spiritual Direction/Counselling from the Graduate Theological Foundation, which is affiliated with the Gregorian Institute in Rome and Oxford University in England.
Francis de Sales, bishop, doctor, saint, and mystic, published Treatise on the Love of God in 1616. Scholars consider it to be one of the classics of Christian literature, on the level of The Cloud of Unknowing, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, and The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Yet, most people have never heard of it.
Dr. Bruce Tallman’s new book God’s Ecstatic Love takes de Sales’ spiritual masterpiece and updates it in a way that makes sense to 21st century minds.
Learn more about Bruce's book at BruceTallman.com
In the June 2022 issue of Presence Journal, Dr Westina Matthews writes,
“We will not attempt to convince another to adopt any view but rather offer a safe and sacred space to share knowledge and to engage in open and honest dialogue about what is usually considered to be a taboo topic. In spiritual direction, often resisted is the topic of sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation. We have found that both spiritual director and spiritual directee tend to avoid these “taboos,”
So why the silence? (We) are convinced it is due to the shame.”
How does one begin to overcome this shame?”
In this interview, we talk with Dr Matthews about how spiritual directors and companions can begin to create a safe, holy space in their sessions to allow for safe, brave conversations about sexuality. Approaches, icebreakers questions, acknowledging sexual confusion and harm, and understanding sexuality from a contemplative grounding are discussed.
Dr. Westina Matthews, PhD, is an author, public speaker, retreat leader, and theologian. She is an adjunct professor at General Theological Seminary in the Center for Christian Spirituality in New York, New York, USA, where she teaches contemplative spiritual direction.
Further reading and resources can be found at https://www.spiritualityandsexuality.org/
Dr. Westina’s website: Westina – Author (westinamatthews.com)
Presence is the flagship publication of SDI. It comes out four times a year, and is an international journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Presence Journal is available in print and on the web to SDI Members.
Read the current issue on the web, with exclusive video interviews, here: Presence - 28.2 - June 2022 - SDI Companions
Become a Member of SDI and support our work to bring spiritual direction and companionship to the world by clicking here: SDI Membership - Join the Community of Spiritual Companions (sdicompanions.org)
Recently I had the amazing opportunity to chat with author and teacher Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who has written an article for Presence Journal – the SDI quarterly publication on spiritual direction and companionship. It was meant to just be a quick 15 minute conversation that I could use to create a short video to go with the article in the Online Edition of Presence. Because Rabbi Rami was so generous with his time, and our conversation so fascinating, it ended up going for almost an hour. We talked about spiritual companionship, when our own beliefs and worldviews get in the way of doing this work, Mysticism, embracing the shadow and evil within ourselves, and the necessity of our spiritual work in a rapidly changing world. So in this podcast episode we are releasing the entirety of our conversation. Rabbi Rami is delightful to listen to and I hope you enjoy it.
Presence is the flagship publication of SDI. It comes out four times a year, and is an international journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Presence Journal is available in print and on the web to SDI Members.
Read the current issue on the web, with exclusive video interviews, here: Presence - 28.2 - June 2022 - SDI Companions
Become a Member of SDI by clicking here: SDI Membership - Join the Community of Spiritual Companions (sdicompanions.org)
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning teacher and author of over thirty-six books on religion and spirituality. A rabbinic chaplain with the U.S. Air Force for three years, a congregational rabbi for twenty years, and a professor of religious studies for ten years, Rabbi Rami currently codirects the One River Foundation, a 501(c)3 educational institution devoted to perennial wisdom (www.oneriverfoundation.org). Rami is also a Contributing Editor at Spirituality and Health magazine where he writes the Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler column for the print magazine, the Spirituality & column for the digital magazine, and hosts the magazine’s bi-weekly podcast, Spirituality & Health with Rabbi Rami (www.spiritualityhealth.com). Rami's personal website is www.rabbirami.com
Executive Director Rev SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares and Matt Whitney have a conversation in which they debrief the 2022 Engage Conference, which took place May 11-15 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What were the takeaways? What were the lessons learned? How do we continue to engage with the theme 'Engage' as we go about our spiritual direction and spiritual companionship work in the world?
If you missed the conference, you can still catch up by purchasing access to all the conference recordings - 10 dynamic speakers and 32 diverse workshops totaling over 55 hours of content on contemplative action and spiritual direction and companionship. Available Now - SDI Conference Recordings (sdicompanions.org)
Michelle Scheidt, Senior Program Officer at the Fetzer Institute, is leading an effort focused on field building and network development among spiritual innovators. She and her advisors are asking: How will we hold onto the rich teachings of our historic faith and wisdom traditions while applying them creatively in today’s time? How will we reimagine roles and institutions as the spiritual and religious landscape dramatically shifts? Michelle will be presenting on their work at the SDI Engage 2022 Conference, and gives us a preview in this conversation with Executive Director, Reverend SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares. It's not too late to sign up! Join us at the SDI Engage 2022 Conference, in-person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or virtually. May 11-15, 2022. Learn more at sdicompanions.org
Learn more about Fetzer's work at fetzer.org Sharing Spiritual Heritage | The Fetzer Institute
We are delighted to announce the latest book release from SDI Press, written by SDI Poetry Editor, former Coordinating Council member, and dear friend Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann. It’s called, “The Light of God’s Shadow – Musings, Stories, and Poems on Waking Up.”
Jinks is a longtime spiritual director and psychotherapist who, through her writing, encourages us to listen for the divine daily call to wholeness-in our relationships and work, our joys and dreams, our messes and triumphs, our losses and grief. She reminds us that through earthy, vulnerable, and humorous musings, stories and poetry, that waking up is a lifetime endeavor. In this book, we accompany Jinks on her journey through radiant and dark shadow, and we learn with her from the wisdom of her teachers. We grow in understanding – and in our bodies, hearts and souls – that when we welcome our vulnerability and strength, we heighten our humanity and heal our souls. By becoming kinder and more compassionate with ourselves and with one another we keep waking up and we bring healing to the world.
In this podcast episode we play an interview between Jinks and her friend and spiritual companion, Diane Millis (author of Re-Creating A Life). To learn more about Jinks' new book please visit our website, The Light of God's Shadow - Musings, Stories, and Poems on Waking Up (sdicompanions.org)
To view the video of this interview, click here: https://youtu.be/sWbZx2ZFvt8
In this week’s episode, SDI’s Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with Larry J. Morris III, Production Assistant at SDI. Larry describes himself as “an apostle, digital marketer, scholar, and spiritual director based in Henderson, NV.” They have been helping with various creative tasks, including generating media for web and print, crafting social media, and helping administer our new Public Square online platform. Larry will co-lead a workshop on “Spiritual Companionship and Social Action” at the 2022 Engage Conference. Matt and Larry discuss ways spiritual companions can support justice and liberation. You can learn more about Larry and their work at www.larryjmorris3.com.
The calendar has turned over to March, and this week we are rolling out our peer-reviewed flagship publication, Presence Journal. We are so excited to share this issue with you – as we get to reveal a brand new look!
Presence, which has been published by Spiritual Directors International since 1995, last received a redesign in 2003. Since I began working at SDI in 2018, we have been dreaming about giving Presence Journal a look and feel that reflects the vibrant dialog and intimate stories of spiritual direction and companionship that we bring to each issue. Over the past year, I have been working with some amazing creative people to make this a reality. In this episode, I have a conversation about this process with graphic designers Cristina Mejia and Martha María Tobón, who worked extensively under SDI’s guidance to help create the new look and feel of Presence. Cristina is the director of True Indigo, an editorial design firm with over 25 years of international experience in publishing. She is also a spiritual director and a member of SDI.
In his foreword to this first issue incorporating our redesign, SDI Executive Director Reverend SeiFu Singh-Molares writes, “One of the keys to change and transformation, particularly in a community as committed to both as SDI, is to stay true to our essence even as we continuously realign. So, we listen deeply as an act of spiritual presence, and we do so reverentially and lovingly, allowing the multitude of manifestations of the eternal to flow with us, through us and into us, from all of those that we companion, and who companion us. And by doing so, we learn to rest in the change, and to refresh even as we remain faithful to our calling and its essence.”
I also want to thank Toby Becker, who has been a longtime designer with SDI, and helped me wrangle our design templates into a working issue, and to the Creative Team at SDI – Ann Lancaster and Larry J Morris III, for producing and integrating the redesign into the web edition of Presence. And of course to our Executive Director Rev. SeiFu, for his encouragement, leadership, and stewarding of this undertaking.
Check out the new look in our current issue for March 2022, Volume 28, Issue 1.
Presence Journal is published four times a year, in print and on the web. Presence is produced and shared with SDI Members. You can learn more at sdicompanions.org/presence/
Supported by the Fetzer Institute: helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Fetzer’s Sharing Spiritual Heritage report asks How will we hold onto ancient wisdom traditions while applying them creatively in today’s time? Learn more at fetzer.org.
Cristina Mejia has 30+ years of experience in the graphic design industry, primarily in international editorial design for commercial organizations such as ELLE, Impremedia and General Mills, to social organizations such as the National Immigration Forum and Catholic Relief Services. Cristina is a certified Spiritual Director from the Hesychia School 2019, a member of Spiritual Directors International (SDI), and focuses on the evocative method in her practice.
Martha María Tobón is a Colombian graphic designer and art director with more than 25 years of experience in Graphic Design and Art Direction, who has worked for many years in Advertising Agencies and Graphic Design studios in Bogotá and London.
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In this week's episode, SDI's Creative Services Coordinator Ann Lancaster speaks with Reverend Simon de Voil, who will be leading SDI's journey to Iona, Scotland in March 2022. Simon is a singer-songwriter and interspiritual minister, born and raised in Scotland but now living in rural Vermont. Simon has gained a reputation as a talented musical performer and storyteller. He pairs thoughtful and inspiring lyrics with cracking good tunes, and is known for his rich, tender vocal style. His music explores themes of the inner landscape of the soul, the enchantment of the natural world, and a personal journey to follow an unexpected calling. You can find out more about Simon and hear his music at www.simondevoil.com
Join us for a 8-night / 9-day transformational journey, March 18-26, 2022, deepening our connection to the sacred through our relationship with the natural world and through mindful spiritual practices. Ritual, community worship, poetry, body prayer, meditation, journaling, music and movement will be our tools to deeply listen to the voice of The Great Mystery. We will walk the landscape of Iona together as pilgrims, wandering to special places on the island to embrace the wilderness and to pray with nature.
You will be in excellent hands on this journey. Retreat leader Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil was born and raised in Scotland and knows the island well. He first came to Iona as a baby in his mother’s womb, and he spent much of his childhood roaming her rocky hills and beaches. Simon returned to live and work at the Abbey at Iona from 2006 to 2008. Simon says of Iona, “She is ‘my island’ because in some inexplicable way I belong to her, and I am in her service.”
Ann Lancaster will be journeying alongside Simon as SDI’s representative. She delights in international travel and music and spending time in nature enjoying the mysteries of life amongst fellow seekers. On her last journey to Scotland, she insisted on visiting Loch Ness on her way to Skye “just to see for herself.”
To register and learn more, visit: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/journey-to-iona-2022/
In this episode, Christine Vogel discusses her recent article for Presence Journal. Presence is the flagship publication of SDI, which comes out four times a year, and is an international journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Presence Journal is available in print and on the web to SDI Members.
Read the current issue on the web, with exclusive video interviews, here: Presence - 27.4 - December 2021 - SDI Companions
Become a Member of SDI by clicking here: SDI Membership - Join the Community of Spiritual Companions (sdicompanions.org)
Rev. Dr. Christine B. Vogel is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA); she earned her M.Div. at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and her D.Min. at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, USA. She has served churches in the Chicago area, Alma, Michigan, USA; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Contact her at cvogel.vogel@gmail.com.
In this episode, Sierra Neiman Westbrook discusses her recent article for Presence Journal. Presence is the flagship publication of SDI, which comes out four times a year, and is an international journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Presence Journal is available in print and on the web to SDI Members.
Read the current issue on the web, with exclusive video interviews, here: Presence - 27.4 - December 2021 - SDI Companions
Become a Member of SDI by clicking here: SDI Membership - Join the Community of Spiritual Companions (sdicompanions.org)
Sierra Neiman Westbrook, MDiv, is director of Eden Spiritual Care (www.edenspiritualcare.org), a nonprofit organization that seeks to make Christ-centered spiritual growth opportunities widely accessible. Sierra is also an adjunct professor of spiritual formation at George Fox University’s Portland Seminary in Oregon, USA. E-mail her at sierra@edenspiritualcare.org.
In this episode, Lacy Finn Borgo discusses her recent article for Presence Journal. Presence is the flagship publication of SDI, which comes out four times a year, and is an international journal on spiritual direction and companionship. Presence Journal is available in print and on the web to SDI Members.
Read the current issue on the web, with exclusive video interviews, here: Presence - 27.4 - December 2021 - SDI Companions
Become a Member of SDI by clicking here: SDI Membership - Join the Community of Spiritual Companions (sdicompanions.org)
Lacy Finn Borgo teaches and provides spiritual direction at the Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation in Denver, at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and at the Companioning Center. Her most recent book is Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together.
For years now, SDI members have longed for an easy way to connect.
Now, with our SDI Public Square, this longing has become a reality. We've been working for months to create an online platform on our website exclusively for SDI Members. Matt Whitney, Ann Lancaster, and Larry J Morris III have a quick chat to share about the process of building the platform, and what we're most excited about as we invite all of you to come join the community.
Here are just some of features of our new online community:
- Free to our members and easy to use - Your SDI account profile is your ticket to explore and engage with our community. Members from all spiritual traditions and orientations are welcome to be part of the community as they are - with the clear expectation that everyone must respect the right of others to show up with their spirituality intact and that we must do no harm to each other. Read our community guidelines here.
- Join discussion groups you like - We have pre-set an array of groups to get things started. But if you have an idea for a new discussion group, you can suggest one here.
- Connect with old friends and meet new friends - You can connect and message with anyone who is on our Public Square. Of course, all conversations and connections must be mutually welcomed.
- Choose how you want to use it - Explore what's on offer and see what resonates. There is no commitment, just opportunity. If nothing calls to you, you are free to use the website as you normally would.
- All interactions in our online community happen in the secure area of our website - And we will have administrators available to offer help and to moderate discussions.
- Members are co-creators of this experience - Our community is designed to grow with the imagination, intention and curiosity of our members.
- Community not commerce - Our Find a Spiritual Director/Companion Guide is already a great place for members to offer their services, so we have decided to make our online community free from solicitations. May our "Public Square" encourage everyone present to listen deeply and always respond with respect.
The Public Square Online Platform is live and waiting for you to join the conversation!
This is a new benefit for SDI Members. Become an SDI Member today, and join in the conversation, along with several other great SDI benefits, as well as supporting our work of advocacy, education, and cultivation of deep listening and spiritual practices across all faith traditions and spiritual orientations.
Since writing Spiritual Direction Supervision: Principles, Practices, & Storytelling over 18 months ago, Lucy in her subsequent teachings has gained new insights and wisdom in the practice of Supervision, which include self-care, hints to giving and receiving feedback, secondary trauma and a new model of supervision.
Lucy Abbott Tucker, SDI co-founder and worldwide expert on spiritual direction supervision, has agreed to offer a 12-week online course on supervision.
For the first time ever, experience and receive Lucy’s Supervision Training in an online setting.
SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney spoke to Lucy recently about the course, and what participants can expect. Lucy offers a broad invitation for us, and an expanding understanding of the supervision process and its necessity for spiritual directors and companions.
What to Expect in the SDI Online Supervision Course:
- An Online Training for Spiritual Directors who wish to become Supervisors, or for those seeking to improve and build on their Supervision skills.
- 12 Weekly Zoom sessions with Lucy Abbott Tucker - Master Supervision Instructor and Mentor
- Access to our Online Learning Platform, with videos, print resources, and other content
- New tools to cultivate online community with your peers
- Participate Live or at your own pace - all sessions recorded
Lucy Abbott Tucker has been a member of SDI since its inception. She began her ministry of spiritual direction at the Institute for Spiritual Leadership, Chicago. She worked there preparing women and men for the ministry for 32 years. Since 2015 she has been doing freelance work in spiritual direction and supervision. She believes spiritual direction has the power to help heal our world and values the opportunity to support spiritual directors in this work.
With over 18 years of experience facilitating groups in spiritual direction, Dr. Roslyn Weiner brings a creative and practical approach to one of the key aspects of our contemplative calling. She is the author of SDI’s newest book and resource for spiritual directors and spiritual companions, titled – Seeking in the Company of Others – The Wisdom of Group Spiritual Direction. She explains her process of group spiritual direction and her motivations for writing the book in this interview with SDI Chief Operating Officer Rory Briski. Learn more about the book, as well as the companion 3-part webinar on Group Spiritual Direction starting soon, at sdicompanions.org.
Dr. Roslyn G. Weiner is a seasoned spiritual director and psychologist, rooted in listening for the sacred whispering within her soul and the souls of those who invite her to witness their seeking. She earned a PhD in psychology from Yale University and an STM degree from the School of Theology at Boston University.
Engage 2022 is SDI’s first “hybrid” annual conference. That means it will be experienced in-person in Santa Fe as well as digitally, through live apps and recordings. Engage 2022 is about deep listening and the lasting change it can create, it is about engaging with our shadow to find light, and it is about bridge building in the service of love– fostering engagement. Keynote Presenters include Dr. Cornel West, Valarie Kaur, Father Greg Boyle, and more. Register now for SDI’s 2022 Annual Conference, at sdicompanions.org.
MaryEllen Weber is an SDI Member and a spiritual director, and she has written a children’s book which was recently published by Growing Awake Books. It’s called “Finding God in All I See, Finding God in You and Me". MaryEllen and I had a conversation about the inspiration for this book, and what it was like to write and publish it.
For us grownups, MaryEllen asks us this - When you were a child, what did you think about God? Where did you think God lived? What did you think God was like? Where did you think you could find God? Chances are, you experienced God in many ways without realizing it, because the places you were taught to look for God were limited. What if someone in your life had taught you to find God everywhere and in everyone, including yourself?
MaryEllen Weber has an MA in Transforming Spirituality from Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry. As a spiritual director, she accompanies people with their inner work of transformation through spiritual growth groups, labyrinth and SoulCollage® workshops, retreats and individual spiritual direction. MaryEllen lives near Seattle with her husband, Jim, and Grandmother Willow.
Engage 2022 is SDI’s first “hybrid” annual conference. That means it will be experienced in-person in Santa Fe as well as digitally, through live apps and recordings. Engage 2022 is about deep listening and the lasting change it can create, it is about engaging with our shadow to find light, and it is about bridge building in the service of love– fostering engagement. Keynote Presenters include Dr. Cornel West, Valarie Kaur, Father Greg Boyle, and more. Register now for SDI’s 2022 Annual Conference, at sdicompanions.org.
In this week's episode, SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu about our 2022 conference theme, Engage: Companionship to Heal our Fractured World.
From now until October 5th, those who register for Engage 2022 can save $200 with our Super Early Bird special. This offer is valid for both in-person and online conference experiences, and anyone who signs up now will be amongst the first in line to secure their spots in our most popular workshop offerings.
To learn more and register for Engage 2022, visit our website sdicompanions.org.
Till the darkness Like life-giving earth. Engage with your own dark nights of the soul, And those of your brothers and sisters.
Community is seeded and flourishes with patient, present, active companionship.
This is the way we heal. This is the way to wholeness. This is the way love stands strong.
No matter what we face, Fear not. Listen. Join us -
Engage 2022
In this episode, Matt Whitney and Karen Erlichman discuss the supervision process for spiritual directors and companions.
Karen writes, "Supervision is a client-centered, covenanted relationship that empowers the supervisee’s spiritual and vocational life by exploring the interior movements that arise while companioning others. Different faith traditions use their own terminology to describe the personal (internal) experience of God. In Judaism, the word Shechinah refers to the in-dwelling of God, as well as the Divine Feminine. At its best, supervision provides the freedom and trust to listen to the felt sense of knowing, what Quaker educator and mentor Parker Palmer calls the “inner teacher” (Palmer, 25–26). Spiritual directors (and other practitioners) need the freedom and safety in supervision to discuss their vulnerabilities and successes, mistakes and gifts, and to grow personally and professionally from open disclosure. Supervision serves the spiritual formation of the spiritual director, directee and supervisor."
The video for this conversation is available to SDI Members on our website, which you can access here.
Our current issue of Presence Journal is available online at https://www.sdicompanions.org/media/presence/
Presence Journal is a resource for SDI Members. If you're not a member, why not become one? SDI Membership supports our work and advocacy for spiritual direction and spiritual companionship, includes deep discounts on all our educational offerings, and offers a public profile on our Find a Spiritual Director or Companion Guide. Learn more about SDI Membership here.
Karen Erlichman DMin, LCSW, provides psychotherapy, spiritual direction, supervision, and So(U)L coaching in San Francisco, California, USA. She is a consultant to The Dinner Party, and she also serves on the Professional Advisory Group for the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center Spiritual Care Services Department. www.karenerlichman.com
In this week's episode, SDI's Director of Content & Communities, Steven Crandell, chats with contemplative author and mystic Carl McColman about their upcoming webinar series Christian Mystics and Spiritual Companionship – Wisdom Teaching for Those Who Hold Space. This 4-part series begins on September 9 and runs through September 30, 2021. For all the details and to sign up, visit our website at sdicompanions.org.
Carl McColman is the author of books like The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, Answering the Contemplative Call and An Invitation to Celtic Wisdom. He also writes a blog on contemplation and mysticism at anamchara.com. In addition to his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, Carl leads retreats and maintains a busy spiritual direction practice.
ON SEPTEMBER 30TH YOU’RE INVITED TO JOIN THE UPPER ROOM IN REFLCETING ON THE PAST 18 MONTHS OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMA. THE THREE-DAY ONLINE EVENT, RESILIENCE | HEALING PRACTICES FOR MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT, WILL INCLUDE STORYTELLING, TIME FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION AND CONVERSATION, GUIDED SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, AND WORSHIP. TO REGISTER, VISIT UPPERROOM.ORG/RESILIENCE. DON’T MISS EARLY REGISTRATION, WHICH ENDS ON AUGUST 30TH.
In this week's episode, SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with spiritual director Teresa Blythe, on her extraordinary journey following her calling from radio news anchor to full time spiritual director. SDI members can read about her experience in the article "Feeling the Call of Deep Listening - 3 Stories" in the August 2021 issue of Connections.
Teresa Blythe is a spiritual director, educator and author. She founded the Phoenix Center for Spiritual Direction, housed at First UCC church in downtown Phoenix. For 14 years she was the Director of the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction. She’s now training spiritual directors online at Apprentice Spiritual Direction Training.
ON SEPTEMBER 30TH YOU’RE INVITED TO JOIN THE UPPER ROOM IN REFLCETING ON THE PAST 18 MONTHS OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMA. THE THREE-DAY ONLINE EVENT, RESILIENCE | HEALING PRACTICES FOR MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT, WILL INCLUDE STORYTELLING, TIME FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION AND CONVERSATION, GUIDED SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, AND WORSHIP. TO REGISTER, VISIT UPPERROOM.ORG/RESILIENCE. DON’T MISS EARLY REGISTRATION, WHICH ENDS ON AUGUST 30TH.
In this week's episode, SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with Evan J. Miller, on the topic of Leadership and Spirituality. His article entitled Leaning into Letting Go: Leadership as a Path on the Spiritual Journey can be found in the June 2021 issue of Presence Journal. A video version of this podcast is included as a bonus on the enhanced web version, which is available to all SDI members.
For further reading: Coaching or Companionship – What’s the Difference?
Evan Miller is a spiritual director and retired business leader. Evan is especially interested in the intersections of spirituality, leadership, and organizational governance. His mission is to help leaders grow spiritually and bring their whole, maturing selves to their leadership role.
ON SEPTEMBER 30TH YOU’RE INVITED TO JOIN THE UPPER ROOM IN REFLCETING ON THE PAST 18 MONTHS OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMA. THE THREE-DAY ONLINE EVENT, RESILIENCE | HEALING PRACTICES FOR MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT, WILL INCLUDE STORYTELLING, TIME FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION AND CONVERSATION, GUIDED SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, AND WORSHIP. TO REGISTER, VISIT UPPERROOM.ORG/RESILIENCE. DON’T MISS EARLY REGISTRATION, WHICH ENDS ON AUGUST 30TH.
In today's episode, Creative Director Matt Whitney continues his podcast series entitled "My Boss is a Zen Priest". Matt speaks with SDI Executive Director Reverend SeiFu about the Zen Buddhist practice of Zazen.
Zazen, or seated meditation, is a contemplative practice used to still our mind, ground ourselves, and allow ourselves to connect deeply and mindfully with everything surrounding us.
Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares is the Executive Director of SDI and an ordained Zen Buddhist priest, as well as a practicing spiritual director/companion and motivational speaker. He is a veteran of numerous interfaith and interspiritual efforts over the years, including Seeds of Compassion in Seattle in 2008, where he was one of the chairs, and as founder and executive director of the Compassionate Action Network. He has a Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
Rev. Seifu is an accomplished speaker and university lecturer and is a key contributor for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. In a previous life, he was also an executive at Microsoft, where he successfully grew international groups and divisions and provided leadership to multi-cultural teams around the world.
In this week’s episode, Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with Imam Jamal Rahman, about their July 2021 webinar series “The Fragrance of the Beloved”, built upon new revealings and discoveries in the poetry of Rumi, through the lens of spiritual companionship.
In the truest tradition of spiritual directors and spiritual companions, Rumi asks open-ended questions that lead us to ask penetrating questions of ourselves. He accepts us as we are and opens the way for us to explore what our lives can be in contemplative union with the Beloved.
Jamal has been studying Rumi most of his life. Sitting in Jamal’s circle of love as you contemplative Rumi’s mystic brilliance is a chance to broaden and deepen your concept of spiritual companioning.
Learn more about this offering on our website at: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/the-fragrance-of-the-beloved/
Imam Jamal Rahman is a popular speaker on Islam, Sufi spirituality, and interfaith relations. Along with his Interfaith Amigos, he has been featured in the New York Times, CBS News, BBC, and various NPR programs. Jamal is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary and adjunct faculty at Seattle University. He is a former co-host of Interfaith Talk Radio and travels nationally and internationally, presenting at retreats and workshops.
Jamal’s passion lies in interfaith community building. He remains rooted in his Islamic tradition and cultivates a “spaciousness” by being open to the beauty and wisdom of other faiths. By authentically and appreciatively understanding other paths, Jamal feels that he becomes a better Muslim. This spaciousness is not about conversion but about completion.
In this week’s episode, SDI’s Creative Director Matt Whitney poses a variety of questions to SDI’s Coordinating Council in a special “State of SDI” gathering, which was recorded during our Renaissance 2021 Conference from April of this year.
The Coordinating Council (Board of Directors) is the governing body of Spiritual Directors International. With the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and personnel oversight responsibilities. Council members serve three-year terms, and new members are appointed as members of the council complete their terms of office. The year following each coordinating council member’s name indicates the year they complete their term of service on the council.
If you missed SDI Renaissance, it's not too late - we are offering for sale recordings of all our keynote presentations and our 40 workshops - over 90 hours of video content on spiritual direction and spiritual companionship - available from our website, sdicompanions.org. Recordings are accessible for 120 days after purchase.
In this week's episode, we hear from our New Contemplatives.
The New Contemplatives Initiative is a container of vocational support and development opportunities for emerging spiritual companions in their first half of life. New Contemplatives enrich the SDI community with new forms and paradigms of spiritual care, bringing their voices to the center of the organization and the broader field of spiritual companionship. Together, we work to weave a web of intergenerational wisdom and practice, and to seek answers to: what is spiritual companionship for our times?
This session was recorded during our Renaissance 2021 Conference from this April and features the voices of our program leader Lizzie Salsich and her group of New Contemplatives: Ufra Mir, Sunyata Kopriva, Nathan Bettger, Meissan Chan, and Sarah Zaltash.
This episode is a continuation from last week's episode, so please have a listen to part one to put things in context.
Join SDI for a 8-night / 9-day transformational journey to one of the most mystical places in the world - Iona, Scotland. Ritual, community worship, poetry, body prayer, meditation, journaling, music and movement will be our tools to deeply listen to the voice of The Great Mystery. Led by retreat leader and Iona native Reverend Simon de Voil, we will walk the landscape of Iona together as pilgrims, wandering to special places on the island to embrace the wilderness and to pray with nature. Learn more at sdicompanions.org.
In this week's episode, we hear from our New Contemplatives.
The New Contemplatives Initiative is a container of vocational support and development opportunities for emerging spiritual companions in their first half of life. New Contemplatives enrich the SDI community with new forms and paradigms of spiritual care, bringing their voices to the center of the organization and the broader field of spiritual companionship. Together, we work to weave a web of intergenerational wisdom and practice, and to seek answers to: what is spiritual companionship for our times?
This session was recorded during our Renaissance 2021 Conference from this April and features the voices of our program leader Lizzie Salsich and her group of New Contemplatives: Ufra Mir, Sunyata Kopriva, Nathan Bettger, Meissan Chan, and Sarah Zaltash.
This is part one of a two part series - please tune in again next week for the second half of their presentation.
Join SDI for a 8-night / 9-day transformational journey to one of the most mystical places in the world - Iona, Scotland. Ritual, community worship, poetry, body prayer, meditation, journaling, music and movement will be our tools to deeply listen to the voice of The Great Mystery. Led by retreat leader and Iona native Reverend Simon de Voil, we will walk the landscape of Iona together as pilgrims, wandering to special places on the island to embrace the wilderness and to pray with nature. Learn more at sdicompanions.org.
We are very excited about the new "feast" of experiences and resources SDI has on offer for spiritual directors and spiritual companions. And we wanted to invite our community to partake of this feast.
Thus, "The Invitation Sale" was born.
10 percent off everything in the SDI Store. For 5 days.
Please consider this your invitation to join us at our feast.
Iona. Rumi. A new enhanced issue of Presence. Christian Mystics. Books. SDI Courses, SDI membership. Renaissance 2021 video recordings. Yes, everything we have in our SDI Store. All 10 percent off. From now, until 12 noon Seattle time on Wednesday June 2. If you have been considering one of our offerings, now is an ideal time to sign up.
Here are some of the possible ways to save:
- Rumi - A New 4-part webinar series on the great contemplative poet led by Sufi spiritual director Jamal Rahman. Register here.
- Iona - An SDI Journey - March 18- 26, 2022. Led by spiritual companion and mystic musician Simon de Voil. Watch video | Learn more.
- New Enhanced Issue of "Presence" - Our creative staff says the June issue is "amazing." As a special bonus for those in our community who aren't members yet, the online issue is free to everyone for this weekend only. Start exploring the issue now.
- Find your Niche as a Spiritual Director or Spiritual Companion - New Webinar taught by spiritual director and digital marketing professional Rev. Larry J. Morris III. Register now.
- Christian Mystics & Spiritual Companionship - 4-part SDI webinar series led by author Carl McColman. Learn more.
- Recordings of the 2021 Conference - Access for 120 days - Learn more.
- SDI Courses - In-depth, 12-session on-line courses. Learn at your own pace. Companionship Across Traditions and Feminist Perspectives.
- SDI Press - 10 percent off all our best-sellers. Explore now.
In this week's episode, SDI's creative director Matt Whitney chats with Marian Sorensen, an English spiritual companion based out of Ibiza, Spain. Marian uses a holistic approach to her integrative practice, which includes the modalities of spiritual direction, holistic health coaching, and life coaching. You can find out more about Marian at her website Growing Edges: http://growing-edges.com.
SDI Encounters is supported by:
EXPERIENCE AN INTERFAITH LEARNING CENTER, A SACRED COMMUNITY, AND A SPIRITUAL HOME AT ONE SPIRIT, TO BE OF SERVICE IN TODAY’S RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES IN SEMINARY, AND INTERSPIRITUAL COMPANIONING AND COUNSELING CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS, AND EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. VISIT 1SPIRIT.ORG/ENCOUNTER TO DISCOVER WHAT’S POSSIBLE.
Traditionally, on the last day of an SDI Annual Conference, our Executive Director Reverend SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares will deliver something of an Annual Report, going over the finances and operations of our non-profit organization. Afterwards there is a Question and Answer session in which he dialogs with members in the audience. On the last day of our 2021 Renaissance Virtual Conference, this presentation was delivered over Zoom, and thanks to its robust Q&A and Chat technology, this session became supercharged, with lots of great questions about a variety of topics. In this episode, we’re replaying that Q&A Session. As a bonus, Rev. SeiFu and I (Matt Whitney) recorded an additional Q&A conversation where I ask a few more questions that we didn’t have time to get to during the Conference session. We really enjoy being in dialog with SDI Members, and we’re grateful for your curiosity, participation, and engagement with the organization.
SDI ENCOUNTERS IS SUPPORTED BY:
The Spiritual Habits Group course is for people who have an interest in spiritual things but struggle to actually apply them to their lives or people who find it hard to be consistent with their spiritual practices.
Highlights include:
- Connecting with a community of like-minded others who are seeking to actually practice mindfulness, acceptance, and kindness to themselves and others as a way of daily life.
- Applying behavior science to spiritual principles
- Teaching you how to build and sustain a meditation practice that works for you—in your unique life for your unique preferences.
You can learn all about it at: spiritualhabits.net
EXPERIENCE AN INTERFAITH LEARNING CENTER, A SACRED COMMUNITY, AND A SPIRITUAL HOME AT ONE SPIRIT, TO BE OF SERVICE IN TODAY’S RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES IN SEMINARY, AND INTERSPIRITUAL COMPANIONING AND COUNSELING CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS, AND EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. VISIT 1SPIRIT.ORG/ENCOUNTER TO DISCOVER WHAT’S POSSIBLE.
If you regularly listen to this podcast, you have heard the advertisements for our SDI Renaissance virtual conference. We hosted this virtual gathering a couple of weeks ago now, and we as a staff are still processing, debriefing, discerning. We do know that overall, we feel like it was really successful – we’ve heard from a lot of participants that they were really glad for the time together, surprised that it could work virtually – and I will say for myself, even though we were on our devices and meeting over zoom, that it FELT like a conference. This is my third SDI conference, having been in St Louis in 2018, and Bellevue in 2019 – and this one had the same energy, and the same tiredness frankly! But it was a really rich time, with a broad diverse representation of the public square of spiritual direction and spiritual companionship. I wanted to offer you a few highlights from our time together, and also inform you that we are offering for sale the recordings of our conference keynote presentations and all our workshops -which is over 90 hours of video content on spiritual direction – via our website, sdicompanions.org. But here we’re offering a couple of minutes from each keynote presentation as something of a recap.
If you missed SDI Renaissance, it's not too late - we are offering for sale recordings of all our keynote presentations and our 40 workshops - over 90 hours of video content on spiritual direction and spiritual companionship - available from our website, sdicompanions.org. Recordings are only accessible until July 25, 2021, so act soon!
SDI Encounters is supported by:
EXPERIENCE AN INTERFAITH LEARNING CENTER, A SACRED COMMUNITY, AND A SPIRITUAL HOME AT ONE SPIRIT, TO BE OF SERVICE IN TODAY’S RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES IN SEMINARY, AND INTERSPIRITUAL COMPANIONING AND COUNSELING CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS, AND EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. VISIT 1SPIRIT.ORG/ENCOUNTER TO DISCOVER WHAT’S POSSIBLE.
Our latest book release from SDI Press is now available – Reflections on Awakening and Maturity for Spiritual Companions, by Genjo Marinello. Genjo’s fascinating book chronicles his lifelong and ongoing commitment to spiritual growth, through thick and thin, as well as a courageous embrace of many difficulties, shortcomings and flaws.
Genjo composts all of these into assets, establishing them as the building blocks for his own ongoing spiritual growth and evolution. And by extension, for ours.
In the process, he engages with numerous spiritual companions and models, most notably the Buddha, St Teresa of Avila, and the Zen Oxherding pictures. They reveal insights and challenges both easy and joyful, along with some quite difficult and painful.
In this conversation, Genjo and Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares discuss the new book.
SDI Encounters is supported by:
EXPERIENCE AN INTERFAITH LEARNING CENTER, A SACRED COMMUNITY, AND A SPIRITUAL HOME AT ONE SPIRIT, TO BE OF SERVICE IN TODAY’S RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES IN SEMINARY, AND INTERSPIRITUAL COMPANIONING AND COUNSELING CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS, AND EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. VISIT 1SPIRIT.ORG/ENCOUNTER TO DISCOVER WHAT’S POSSIBLE.
Genjo Marinello Roshi began his Zen training in 1975. He moved to Seattle in 1976 to serve as a VISTA community organizer in the central district of the city. In 1980 Genjo was ordained as a Zen monk, and in 1981-82 trained in Japan at the Zen temple Ryutaku-Ji. In 1999 Genjo succeeded Genki Takabayashi Roshi as the second abbot of the Seattle Zen temple, Chobo-Ji, and became a Dharma Heir in his lineage of Rinzai Zen in 2008. Genjo has been a member of the University Friends Meeting (Quakers) since 1983. In 1989, Genjo completed a certificate program in Spiritual Direction (The Pacific Jubilee Program). For several years Genjo was the volunteer Buddhist pastor of the Twin Rivers Correction Center in Monroe Washington and has served as adjunct faculty at the Seattle campus of Antioch University.
In this week's episode, SDI's Executive Director Reverend Seifu speaks with Roshi Joan Halifax about confronting mortality and The Landscape of Compassion as a lead up to her keynote address at our SDI Renaissance 2021 virtual conference, which kicks off at the end of April.
Roshi Joan explains that the questions that arise in people who are at the terminus of their lives are also fundamental questions for every stage of living. What is my life about? Have I met - and taken care of - important relationships? Have I mattered in this world? In her plenary address at the SDI Conference, Roshi Joan will explore why spiritual directors and spiritual companions fulfill one of their most important roles by holding space so people can respond to questions like these.
Roshi Joan Halifax is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
In this week's episode, SDI's Executive Director Reverend Seifu speaks with Father Richard Rohr, a keynote speaker for our SDI Renaissance 2021 virtual conference, which kicks off at the end of April.
Father Richard talks about how spiritual direction helps us to find firmer ground to stand upon, particularly in these difficult and unpredictable times. He is keen to be in conversation with us all about the issues at the heart of spiritual companionship. We are planning a highly interactive session with him at Renaissance 2021.
Father Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also serves as Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Fr. Richard’s teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy–practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
In this episode, Matt Whitney talks with Rev. Andre van Zijl about art and spiritual companionship. Andre is a cofounder and codirector of All Paths Divinity School, an online interfaith seminary promoting and nurturing sacred community through the arts. He is a spiritually inspired, award-winning artist, poet, published author, and non-dual philosophy teacher. Andre is also the founder and director of Van Zijl Art and Design Studios.
Andre's art, poetry, and prose is highlighted in his article entitled "Sacred Companioning by Making Art" in the March 2021 issue of Presence Journal.
SDI's creative team has been hard at work bringing a new version of Presence to the web. Our new enhanced edition features audio and video recordings by artists, authors, and poets, as well as bonus media reviews, all packaged in an easy-to-read format which can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device.
To celebrate the launch of this new initiative, SDI is offering the March 2021 issue of Presence to everyone for FREE! Just go to sdicompanions.org/presence to check it out!
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
In this episode, Ann Lancaster and Matt Whitney (SDI's creative team) discuss all the new enhancements and features of the online version of Presence and the labor of love that goes into producing our flagship publication in a new format.
SDI members tell us that Presence is one of the best things about membership. They say it offers them a way to stay current on our calling and learn from the leading voices of our contemplative community. Now, Presence is evolving to become the enhanced Presence Online. The printed quarterly will still be mailed to Jupiter and Cosmos members. But starting this month, all members, including students, will be able to access Presence Online with bonus and enhanced features:
- Audio & video recordings by artists, authors, and poets
- Bonus media reviews
- Reduce footprint on the environment
- Access to the content sooner than the print version
- Easy-to-read content
To mark the occasion, we are making the new March 2021 issue FREE for everyone!
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
Here at SDI we have an initiative that brings emerging spiritual companions in the first half of life to our community, helping us weave a web of intergenerational wisdom and practice, which we call the New Contemplatives initiative. These New Contemplatives enrich the SDI community with new forms and paradigms of spiritual care, bringing their voices to the center of the organization and the broader field of spiritual companionship.
In this episode, our New Contemplatives Coordinator, Lizzie Salsich, talks with one of the 2021 New Contemplatives, Sunyata Kopriva. Sunyata talks about their spiritual journey and practice of spiritual companionship.
Sunyata is a global integrative trauma psychotherapist, and founder of Healers Hive, LLC, which specializes in providing culturally congruent trauma care to individuals, communities, and families. They are a gender varied, queer, Buddhist, yoga teacher, meditation teacher, and clinical social worker with Irish/Dutch/Czech ancestry. You can learn more about Sunyata’s work at www.sunyatakopriva.com and www.healershive.com
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
Here at SDI we have an initiative that brings emerging spiritual companions in the first half of life to our community, helping us weave a web of intergenerational wisdom and practice, which we call the New Contemplatives initiative. These New Contemplatives enrich the SDI community with new forms and paradigms of spiritual care, bringing their voices to the center of the organization and the broader field of spiritual companionship.
In this episode, our New Contemplatives Coordinator, Lizzie Salsich, talks with one of the 2021 New Contemplatives, Nathan Bettger. Nathan talks about the importance of having elders, and how people in the first half of life need to be in community with those in second half of life – and allowing wisdom to flow.
Nathan Bettger is a board-certified hospital chaplain and spiritual director from Oshkosh, WI, where he lives with his wife (Kat), his two sons (Brendan Arthur and Owen Raine) and his Welsh Terrier (Wendell). Nathan is committed to nurturing connection and community, through our relationships, our bodies, our sense of self, the land that we live on, and our experience of the Divine. Deeply grounded in contemplative and mystic Christianity and nature-based spirituality, Nathan seeks to consistently invite others into more unitive and loving life, whether it be through spiritual companioning, caring for those in the hospital, advocating for more natural earth keeping, caring for his honey bees and his garden, or writing. Nathan has led community groups for many years focused on spiritual integration, conversations on death and dying, grief support, and men’s spirituality. He received his Masters in Divinity from Bethel Seminary in St Paul, MN and Certificates of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction from George Fox Seminary in Portland, OR. Nathan served on the founding board for the men’s spirituality non-profit, Illuman and is a graduate scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, led by teacher, story teller and author, Stephen Jenkinson.
Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
In this episode, I continue my conversation with John Mabry, longtime friend of SDI and former Presence editor. This week we get into the modality of spiritual companionship at its essence, which is helping people to grow spiritually. For John, who wrote a very practical book about this called Starting Spiritual Direction, its about creating safe space for others to explore mystical experience (which is more common than we realize), and awaken to the Love Story that is their spiritual life.
John is graciously making this e-book available as a download to all spiritual companions in our community. He asks that you please do not share this widely, but if you are a part of the SDI community and have an e-reader, please free download of STARTING SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: https://BookHip.com/XFRMWF
John Mabry is a United Church of Christ pastor, currently serving Grace North Church in Berkeley and Our Redeemer Lutheran in Oakland. He teaches world religions and spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. He sings for two progressive rock bands, Mind Furniture and Metaphor, and also writes songs for liturgy and worship. He is based out of Oakland, California, and you can learn more about him at johnrmabry.com.
In this special episode of SDI Encounters, Director of Programs and Events Frederica Helmiere talks with Beth Bartlett about their upcoming course offering from SDI Education – Feminist Perspectives on Spiritual Companionship. This 12 week course is for anyone who offers spiritual companionship to women, and anyone who receives spiritual companionship from women. The course begins live on January 27 2021, and is also offered on-demand, learn more now by going to our website, sdicompanions.org.
Beth Bartlett, Ph.D., is an educator, author, activist, and spiritual companion. She is Professor Emerita of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where she helped to co-found the Women’s Studies program in the early 80s, and taught political and feminist thought, including courses on women, religion, and spirituality, for forty years. She also served for many years as the co-facilitator of the Spirituality Task Force of the National Women’s Studies Association. She is the author of numerous books and articles, including Journey of the Heart: Spiritual Insights on the Road to a Transplant, Rebellious Feminism: Camus’s Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought, and Making Waves: Grassroots Feminism in Duluth and Superior. She is trained in both Somatic Experiencing® and Indigenous Focusing-Oriented trauma therapy, and offers these healing modalities through her spiritual direction practice, and recently, through racial healing workshops. She has been active in feminist, peace and justice, indigenous rights, and climate justice movements and has been a committed advocate for the water protectors.
John Mabry is beloved in the SDI Community. He’s been with SDI for over 20 years in a number of ways. He is the former editor and a longtime contributor to Presence Journal – our quarterly magazine on spiritual direction and companionship. He does…so many things. He’s a spiritual director, he’s a prolific author, having written dozens of books on spirituality and mysticism, (I counted 23 books just on spirituality on his website!), but he also writes fantasy and science fiction novels. He is a UCC pastor – at two different churches, AND he makes music with two bands, and is working on a solo album. How in the world does he find time for all of this? In this podcast episode, Part 1 of our conversation, we catch up on all the things John is up to, his teaching practice at the Chaplaincy Institute, why Interfaith exploration and openness is an important part of the spiritual journey, and how the heck he finds time for all his creative endeavors.
John Mabry is a United Church of Christ pastor, currently serving Grace North Church in Berkeley and Our Redeemer Lutheran in Oakland. He teaches world religions and spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. He sings for two progressive rock bands, Mind Furniture and Metaphor, and also writes songs for liturgy and worship. He is based out of Oakland, California, and you can learn more about him at johnrmabry.com.
Support for this episode comes from SDI Renaissance 2021 Virtual Conference, offering an unparalleled lineup of workshops, institutes and premium workshops and keynotes. Sister Joan, Father Richard, Roshi Joan and our other speakers and workshop presenters will all focus on spiritual companionship. Such an amazing array of wisdom teachers - all addressing our beloved calling - may never be available in one conference again.
And now, because our conference is 100-percent online, you can enjoy the entire experience without the risk of COVID-19 infection and with considerable savings. That's means significantly lower tuition and no travel or hotel costs.
In addition, every participant will have access to recordings of all plenary sessions - and the vast majority of 40 workshops - as educational resources for 3 months after the end of the conference. (Imagine being able to relax as you enjoy the conference, knowing that if you miss a session you can always catch up later. Imagine having all these wisdom teachers accessible on video for multiple weeks so you can review what you've learned, discern and go deeper.)
Click here to learn more and register today.
Spiritual companionship is for everyone. The gifts of spiritual companionship are meant to be given to others, and to be received by ourselves. There are opportunities everywhere, all the time, to cultivate a contemplative heart, to be a better listener, and to help others realize they have dignity and are beloved.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the Book of Joy, calls us to be in the world as “an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that ripples out to all those around us.”
As we transition to a new year, to a new season, I invite you to contemplate the small and potent ways you can practice spiritual companionship in your life, whether you are a longtime spiritual director, or simply a friend to others. Let us be, in our lives, an oasis of peace, for ourselves and in service to others.
Here are some simple intentions, inspired by Reverend Seifu’s Dimensions of a Spiritual Companion, to which I offer here as a meditation, and I also invite you to create your own intentions as spiritual companions. Let’s work together to heal our broken world.
Thank you to everybody who has supported the SDI Encounters Podcast, by listening, sharing with a friend, writing a review, or by being a guest. At SDI, we see the podcast as a vital part of our outreach to the public on the merits, value, and necessity of spiritual companionship in the wider culture. Much of our work at SDI is to provide educational media and resources that are for the broader public, to share the healing work we do as spiritual directors and companions to as many people as possible. I view all my work this way – I firmly believe that spiritual companionship should be widely understood and practiced in our culture, and that everyone should have a spiritual companion.
In honor of our 100th Episode, I’ve compiled something of a “Best of the Podcast” list. I don’t really think there are “best” episodes – because they’re all amazing for their own reasons! Of course, I believe each episode contains deep wisdom and lived experiences of spiritual companionship. And the ones that might be perceived as lower quality are relative. For example, the first few episodes reveal a bit of age in their technical quality – I was still learning how to put together a podcast and didn’t understand all the timing nuances and audio tricks like volume leveling and noise reduction. But they still are formative for being the first ones we put out there, and I still love them as much for their technical warts as for the universality of spiritual companionship that we are speaking about.
With that said, it can be overwhelming if you are new to the podcast to know where to begin. I would really say “Begin with the first one and listen to them all!” but realistically you may not have time for all of that. So, as the host of SDI Encounters, here’s an attempt to present a few categorized “curated” lists.
Top Five Episodes based on overall downloads, as of October 22, 2020
EP034 and EP035 – Richard Rohr giving his Keynote on the Universal Christ at the 2018 SDI Conference in St. Louis. Richard Rohr is a superstar, so no surprise here. Let’s just count this as one episode.
EP040 – Spiritual Journey – Iona with Frederica Helmiere and Dave Brown. Receive a taste of what could have been with the 2020 Iona Journey, had the pandemic not shut everything down and cancelled all our plans.
EP036 – Rewilding and Companioning the Earth – Mary DeJong. I was really moved by the deep heart Mary has for the natural environment, in particular the way she holds grief for environmental degradation with dignity, hope, and purpose.
EP033 – Cultivating the Spirituality of Children – Kristen Hobby. This could be a “fish bowl” episode as Frederica and myself offer our own children as guinea pigs to Kristen’s safe and gentle guidance. People must be pretty curious about whether spiritual companionship is something that can be offered to our little ones (hint – it can!).
EP063 – Walking as Spiritual Companionship (Pilgrimage in Place). This is one of my favorites as well as one of yours. Jeanette went for a walk through Chicago, with me on the phone, as we companion and pilgrimage together in real-time. If it hadn’t been here, I’d have added it to the “Personal Favorites” for its experimental quality.
“Nuts and Bolts” of Spiritual Direction:
EP087 – Non-Theistic Companionship with Joe Sehee. What is spiritual companionship, if “spirit” is not necessarily the ground by which the companioning relationship takes place? The practice is – being fully present and holding space for someone, and respecting aheir agency er to understand and find meaning in their journey, with compassion and non-judgement - Joe approaches his work with deep integrity and purpose.
EP071 – Supervision with Lucy Abbott Tucker. Rev. Seifu talks with Lucy about the supervision process, the need to practice accountability as spiritual directors, and how Lucy’s teachings are distilled in her book.
EP093 – Bernadette Miles – a refreshing conversation in which Bernie tells her own story of getting into spiritual companionship. Bernie describes her earlier relationship to religion as an “insurance policy for getting into heaven” until one day when a pastor sees her at an icon (a Crucified Christ on the Cross), ponders it for a moment, and says “that wasn’t a very happy ending, was it?” This small encounter opened the floodgates of the reality of Spirit and that relationship with the Divine is truly available to all of us.
Any of the Rev. Seifu 1/1 conversations. “My Boss is a Zen Priest” or “Hallmarks/Dimension of a Spiritual Companion” series. In these episodes Rev. Seifu and I explore the modality of spiritual companionship and how this relationship is necessary for anyone on the spiritual journey (which is everyone!).
Examples of real-life companionship (I call these “fish bowl” episodes, because you get to hear actual examples of companionship, rather than talking about it)
EP013 – Dani Forbess on Embodied Spirituality – I opened up about my own wrestling with how I relate to my Christianity in a way that sounded somewhat heretical. Dani held the space for me to do so gently and without judgement.
EP075 – sharing poetry with Dave Brown. This one was really fun – Dave starts by sharing about how a poem itself can be a spiritual companion to us. Then he and I go back and forth sharing some of our favorite poems in a “Poetry Battle” (or if that’s too militaristic, how about a “Poetry Dance”?)
EP070 – Dreamwork Session with Amy Curran – In the previous EP069 episode, Amy and I do the interview format about her spiritual companionship practice as a Dreamworker. But in this episode I offered one of my own dreams and we do real-time dreamwork together. If you have ever been interested in dreams or dream interpretation, this episode is a must-listen!
EP081 – Nonviolent Communication with Pam Winthrop Lauer: I brought my inner critic for an open and vulnerable conversation with Pam, who adeptly held the sacred space for me to do so, while practicing the tenets of Nonviolent Communication to help hold the safe space and to disarm my inner critic.
Personal “Favorites” – I don’t really have favorites, but there are some where the podcast interview format gets interrupted in creative ways.
EP065 – SDI Staff reading the April 2020 Issue of Listen - We tried to do something creative with the podcast format and I really love how it turned out!
EP042 – if you want to hear Frederica and myself cracking up multiple times in a very unprofessional way, here you go.
Hidden Gems – a couple of episodes in which a deeper Truth or bit of wisdom is revealed, that you might have missed if you just read the Title and moved on!
EP089 – Accountability – This is a Hallmarks of Spiritual Companionship conversation I had recently with Reverend Seifu about the need for spiritual directors to seek supervision and to hold their practice as professionally as possible. What the process of accountability does is it puts our very identity as spiritual companions under the microscope. Ultimately we learn to let go of the need to direct, we trust the person we are companioning, the seeker, to find their own direction, to trust their hearts, to find and walk the path that is put before them.
EP077 – Sexuality and Spiritual Companionship with Karen Erlichman: I just appreciate the real groundedness that Karen has as a spiritual companion. She talks frankly and plainly about sexuality as it pertains to spirituality – the beauty and the traumas and the potential pitfalls. And the dissolution of any sort of boundary or taboo around what is considered “spiritual” and what is not.
Bernadette Miles is co-director at the Kardia Formation and Training Program in Victoria, Australia. She trained in spiritual direction and theology after twenty years of computer consulting and business management and has a special interest in formation of apostolic leadership and applying the concepts of Ignatian Spirituality to organizational development.
Bernie, as we know her, is a member of SDI’s Coordinating Council. I spoke with her about doing the Ignatian spiritual exercises, doing the work of spiritual companionship virtually, about the story of how she came into spiritual companionship, and how this work helps us as a society and as a planet.
Announcing the SDI Renaissance 2021 Virtual Conference, offering an unparalleled lineup of workshops, institutes and premium workshops and keynotes. Sister Joan, Father Richard, Roshi Joan and our other speakers and workshop presenters will all focus on spiritual companionship. Such an amazing array of wisdom teachers - all addressing our beloved calling - may never be available in one conference again.
And now, because our conference is 100-percent online, you can enjoy the entire experience without the risk of COVID-19 infection and with considerable savings. That's means significantly lower tuition and no travel or hotel costs.
In addition, every participant will have access to recordings of all plenary sessions - and the vast majority of 40 workshops - as educational resources for 3 months after the end of the conference. (Imagine being able to relax as you enjoy the conference, knowing that if you miss a session you can always catch up later. Imagine having all these wisdom teachers accessible on video for multiple weeks so you can review what you've learned, discern and go deeper.)
Click here to learn more and register today.
Who is a spiritual companion? A spiritual director is a spiritual companion, as is a life coach, a chaplain, a hospice nurse, really anybody in a caring vocation. But it can also be a type of person who lives and listens in ways that embody this type of caring. That is, a spiritual companion need not do it as a job. Some of us are spiritual companions in the way we honor our relationships to family, friends, neighbors, the land, our ancestors, and the cosmos.
So there are lots of ways the role of spiritual companionship manifests, and SDI celebrates the diversity of practices and people who identify as one. But, how does one identify or see themselves and others as a spiritual companion?
In April 2020’s Listen publication, Executive Director Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares wrote a reflection on the Dimensions of Spiritual Companionship - a series of characteristics and skills that a companion lives into.
What are the characteristics of a spiritual companion? Rev. Seifu’s various Dimensions invite us to consider this. And I think it’s important to note that one need not embody ALL of these dimensions at once - but each one should give us some pause, in which I might consider - how do I practice this? How do I embody this dimension?
In an ongoing series of episodes, Rev. Seifu and I will have conversations around each of these dimensions, as a way to unpack and get to know each of them in depth. And as you listen, I invite you to consider each for yourself. The way you understand each dimension need not reflect how we understand it, but I hope these conversations spark either a deep knowing within you, or a good curiosity.
Good Discernment: "We are intuitives and quiet guides, we provide reasoned feedback only when asked, and we also try to advance balance and equanimity at all times."
I hope this conversation has awakened or stirred something in you. Take a moment to reflect - how do you identify with this dimension of spiritual companionship? Does it feel natural? Does it feel elusive? How does this dimension manifest for you? Is it something you desire to increase for yourself? I invite you to take a few breaths, and tend to that stirring.
Do you want to be part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all creation? Your membership supports networking opportunities, publications, educational programming, outreach, and more.
Together we are changing the world through the contemplative action of spiritual companionship. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI.
The SDI global learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to peace and justice. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store.
Membership benefits include:
- Being part of a worldwide contemplative movement
- Global and local networking
- Listing in the Find a Spiritual Companion Guide: A Worldwide Resource of Available Spiritual Companions
- Access to Group Spiritual Direction sessions and exclusive online Town Halls and Gatherings
- Subscription to Presence, Listen, and Connections Discover newsletter
- Discounted liability insurance
- Discounts on all educational events and gatherings
- Discounts on SDI brochures and resources
Please enjoy this short (10 minute) guided meditation, which I (Matt Whitney) wrote and recorded this week as an offering to spiritual companions. It offers a few specific gratitude prompts, each related to key aspects of our service as spiritual companions. Each prompt is followed by 30 seconds of silence, with a chime sounded to move between each phase.
Gratitude is a universal practice of orienting ourselves towards the fact that everything is a gift. Gratitude is, essentially, a posture or a lens through which we see the arrangements and circumstances of our very existence. Do we view the world with a sense of scarcity, and lack, and pessimism? Or do we view it as a place of abundance, and beauty, and hopefulness?
We practice gratitude for the good things in our lives, but also for the challenges. Because by being challenged, we are stretched, we soften, and we grow in our capacity to be more compassionate, and we grow in the wisdom of what it is to be human.
Thank you for supporting the work of spiritual companionship around the world. Learn more at www.sdicompanions.org
We at SDI are so excited to announce an unprecedented virtual conference for April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow.
This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history.
Here’s a quick conversation for the podcast with Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, our Executive Director, about the intentions and hopes for this conference. We've also produced a shorter video on YouTube that you can watch.
Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
Who is a spiritual companion? A spiritual director is a spiritual companion, as is a life coach, a chaplain, a hospice nurse, really anybody in a caring vocation. But it can also be a type of person who lives and listens in ways that embody this type of caring. That is, a spiritual companion need not do it as a job. Some of us are spiritual companions in the way we honor our relationships to family, friends, neighbors, the land, our ancestors, and the cosmos.
So there are lots of ways the role of spiritual companionship manifests, and SDI celebrates the diversity of practices and people who identify as one. But, how does one identify or see themselves and others as a spiritual companion?
In April 2020’s Listen publication, Executive Director Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares wrote a reflection on the Dimensions of Spiritual Companionship - a series of characteristics and skills that a companion lives into.
What are the characteristics of a spiritual companion? Rev. Seifu’s various Dimensions invite us to consider this. And I think it’s important to note that one need not embody ALL of these dimensions at once - but each one should give us some pause, in which I might consider - how do I practice this? How do I embody this dimension?
In an ongoing series of episodes, Rev. Seifu and I will have conversations around each of these dimensions, as a way to unpack and get to know each of them in depth. And as you listen, I invite you to consider each for yourself. The way you understand each dimension need not reflect how we understand it, but I hope these conversations spark either a deep knowing within you, or a good curiosity.
I hope this conversation has awakened or stirred something in you. Take a moment to reflect - how do you identify with this dimension of spiritual companionship? Does it feel natural? Does it feel elusive? How does this dimension manifest for you? Is it something you desire to increase for yourself? I invite you to take a few breaths, and tend to that stirring.
Do you want to be part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all creation? Your membership supports networking opportunities, publications, educational programming, outreach, and more.
Together we are changing the world through the contemplative action of spiritual companionship. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI.
The SDI global learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to peace and justice. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store.
Membership benefits include:
- Being part of a worldwide contemplative movement
- Global and local networking
- Listing in the Find a Spiritual Companion Guide: A Worldwide Resource of Available Spiritual Companions
- Access to Group Spiritual Direction sessions and exclusive online Town Halls and Gatherings
- Subscription to Presence, Listen, and Connections Discover newsletter
- Discounted liability insurance
- Discounts on all educational events and gatherings
- Discounts on SDI brochures and resources
Who is a spiritual companion? A spiritual director is a spiritual companion, as is a life coach, a chaplain, a hospice nurse, really anybody in a caring vocation. But it can also be a type of person who lives and listens in ways that embody this type of caring. That is, a spiritual companion need not do it as a job. Some of us are spiritual companions in the way we honor our relationships to family, friends, neighbors, the land, our ancestors, and the cosmos.
So there are lots of ways the role of spiritual companionship manifests, and SDI celebrates the diversity of practices and people who identify as one. But, how does one identify or see themselves and others as a spiritual companion?
In April 2020’s Listen publication, Executive Director Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares wrote a reflection on the Dimensions of Spiritual Companionship - a series of characteristics and skills that a companion lives into.
What are the characteristics of a spiritual companion? Rev. Seifu’s various Dimensions invite us to consider this. And I think it’s important to note that one need not embody ALL of these dimensions at once - but each one should give us some pause, in which I might consider - how do I practice this? How do I embody this dimension?
In an ongoing series of episodes, Rev. Seifu and I will have conversations around each of these dimensions, as a way to unpack and get to know each of them in depth. And as you listen, I invite you to consider each for yourself. The way you understand each dimension need not reflect how we understand it, but I hope these conversations spark either a deep knowing within you, or a good curiosity.
I hope this conversation has awakened or stirred something in you. Take a moment to reflect - how do you identify with this dimension of spiritual companionship? Does it feel natural? Does it feel elusive? How does this dimension manifest for you? Is it something you desire to increase for yourself? I invite you to take a few breaths, and tend to that stirring.
Do you want to be part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all creation? Your membership supports networking opportunities, publications, educational programming, outreach, and more.
Together we are changing the world through the contemplative action of spiritual companionship. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI.
The SDI global learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to peace and justice. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store.
Membership benefits include:
- Being part of a worldwide contemplative movement
- Global and local networking
- Listing in the Find a Spiritual Companion Guide: A Worldwide Resource of Available Spiritual Companions
- Access to Group Spiritual Direction sessions and exclusive online Town Halls and Gatherings
- Subscription to Presence, Listen, and Connections Discover newsletter
- Discounted liability insurance
- Discounts on all educational events and gatherings
- Discounts on SDI brochures and resources
This week’s episode is a conversation I had about companionship with Joe Sehee. I very intentionally refer to ‘companionship’ here, as Joe approaches this work from a non-theistic, non-religious perspective. We discuss topics around finding meaning and universality in suffering, human connection, using silence to be in conversation, compassion fatigue, and remembering to have a sense of humor.
Talking with Joe, I thought of the famous line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. At SDI, we talk about the healing modality of spiritual companionship. You can call it companionship, or spiritual direction, guidance, friendship. Call it what you like – it’s about the relationship, the listening work, and the meaningful story of the others we companion.
Joe Sehee is the Executive Officer of Social Health Australia based in Melbourne. Social Health Australia brings forward innovative approaches to companioning people in crisis and combating the growing problems of social isolation and loneliness. Their mission is to make times of transition, uncertainty and loss not only less debilitating, but also opportunities for building resilience and creating community.
Joe has a wide range of experience as a non-theistic spiritual director and pastoral caregiver including serving four years as Associate Director of Campus Ministry at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco. A Peabody Award-winning journalist, Joe is founder of the Green Burial Council, director of EarthFunerals, chairman of the Bendoc Cemetery Trust and a senior fellow at the Environmental Leadership Program.
Support for this podcast comes from the Siena Retreat Center. Are you passionate about the spiritual growth and transformation that comes from the practice of spiritual guidance? Siena Retreat Center, located on Lake Michigan between Chicago and Milwaukee, is seeking an experienced leader in the area of spiritual companioning. The full-time position of Spiritual Guidance Coordinator involves the collaborative leadership of the Center’s Two-Year Spiritual Guidance Training Program. We invite you to explore the job description at www.sienaretreatcenter.org.
This week, Frederica spoke with Dr. Kenneth Porter, author of the book Apollo's Lyre: The Art of Spiritual Psychotherapy. Dr. Porter is a spiritual psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He has taught Buddhist Insight Meditation at the New York Insight Meditation Center, was a long-term student of the Kundalini Master Chandrasekharanand Saraswati, was President of the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, and is an ordained Teacher/Minister of the Diamond Approach, the work of A.H. Almaas. He currently practices and lives with his wife in New York City.
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About Apollo's Lyre:
"Where does spirituality belong in psychotherapy, and in our lives? Drawing upon thirty years of experience with meditation, spiritual practice, and the art and science of psychotherapy, Dr. Kenneth Porter demonstrates how spiritual practices and psychotherapy inform and enhance one another in helping therapists, clients, and all of us in simply living our lives to find our fullest, most authentic, and loving selves. Utilizing a balance of personal experiences and established psychological theory, this book is an essential resource for psychotherapists and patients, presenting a compelling case for spirituality’s place in therapy, and explaining in detail how practitioners may incorporate spirituality into their practice. But Apollo’s Lyre is also a crucial resource for all of us, establishing how we are all spiritual beings at our core, and revealing how spirituality reveals incredible possibilities for loving self-discovery and transformation in our lives."
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Support for this podcast comes from the Siena Retreat Center. Are you passionate about the spiritual growth and transformation that comes from the practice of spiritual guidance? Siena Retreat Center, located on Lake Michigan between Chicago and Milwaukee, is seeking an experienced leader in the area of spiritual companioning. The full-time position of Spiritual Guidance Coordinator involves the collaborative leadership of the Center’s Two-Year Spiritual Guidance Training Program. We invite you to explore the job description at www.sienaretreatcenter.org.
This week, I spoke with Angie Fadel - a spiritual director who engages in somatic methods of healing by teaching archery to her companions. Among other things, we discuss the necessity of opening up to being vulnerable in our spiritual journeys, feeling anger and even rage, privilege and identity, and the work of deconstruction in spiritual companionship, and how that can open us to excavating our traumas and to engage the work of healing our souls.
Angie Fadel is a certified spiritual director with an MA in spiritual formation, but don’t let that scare you. She spends most of her time specializing in somatic methods of healing archery, hiking, meditation, and mindfulness. She is always looking for ways to empower and connect the mind, body, soul, and spirit. She is the founder and creator of Soul Care and Meditative Archery and co-founder of collaborative arts troupe. Agents Of Future.
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Support for this podcast comes from the Siena Retreat Center. Are you passionate about the spiritual growth and transformation that comes from the practice of spiritual guidance? Siena Retreat Center, located on Lake Michigan between Chicago and Milwaukee, is seeking an experienced leader in the area of spiritual companioning. The full-time position of Spiritual Guidance Coordinator involves the collaborative leadership of the Center’s Two-Year Spiritual Guidance Training Program. We invite you to explore the job description at www.sienaretreatcenter.org.
Enjoy this lovely conversation between Frederica Helmiere and Simon de Voil. Simon is an interfaith/interspiritual minister, sacred musician, youth worker and wooden boat builder. In all these vocations, he uses music and carpentry as a means to help individuals and groups connect sacred presence with everyday life. He is also a very accomplished musician; Simon has toured internationally as a singer-songwriter and storyteller and released four solo albums over the past decade. His music explores themes of the inner landscape of the soul, the enchantment of the natural world and a personal journey to follow an unexpected calling. Simon lived as a resident of the Iona community in Scotland for many years, and now lives in Vermont. His unusual life and music are the focus of the award-winning documentary film ‘Funny Kinda Guy.’
SDI Members are the lifeblood of our organization, which exists to advocate for and equip spiritual companions across traditions, orientations, and around the world. This work begins with you: whether you are a fellow spiritual traveler (as we all are), or work as a spiritual director, life coach, chaplain, or religious leader. We all have a sacred story to tell. The world needs compassionate listeners to bear witness to and to honor these stories.
Whomever you are, and wherever you are in your spiritual journey, there's never been a better time to join our global family of spiritual companions.
We've put together a video featuring a few friends from the SDI Community as they share about the benefits of membership. And we have more on the way! If you haven't done so, please consider joining our Public Square of Spiritual Companionship: https://www.sdicompanions.org/shop/membership-features/
Who is a spiritual companion? A spiritual director is a spiritual companion, as is a life coach, a chaplain, a hospice nurse, really anybody in a caring vocation. But it can also be a type of person who lives and listens in ways that embody this type of caring. That is, a spiritual companion need not do it as a job. Some of us are spiritual companions in the way we honor our relationships to family, friends, neighbors, the land, our ancestors, and the cosmos.
So there are lots of ways the role of spiritual companionship manifests, and SDI celebrates the diversity of practices and people who identify as one. But, how does one identify or see themselves and others as a spiritual companion?
In April 2020’s Listen publication, Executive Director Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares wrote a reflection on the Dimensions of Spiritual Companionship - a series of characteristics and skills that a companion lives into.
What are the characteristics of a spiritual companion? Rev. Seifu’s various Dimensions invite us to consider this. And I think it’s important to note that one need not embody ALL of these dimensions at once - but each one should give us some pause, in which I might consider - how do I practice this? How do I embody this dimension?
In an ongoing series of episodes, Rev. Seifu and I will have conversations around each of these dimensions, as a way to unpack and get to know each of them in depth. And as you listen, I invite you to consider each for yourself. The way you understand each dimension need not reflect how we understand it, but I hope these conversations spark either a deep knowing within you, or a good curiosity.
I hope this conversation has awakened or stirred something in you. Take a moment to reflect - how do you identify with this dimension of spiritual companionship? Does it feel natural? Does it feel elusive? How does this dimension manifest for you? Is it something you desire to increase for yourself? I invite you to take a few breaths, and tend to that stirring.
Do you want to be part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all creation? Your membership supports networking opportunities, publications, educational programming, outreach, and more.
Together we are changing the world through the contemplative action of spiritual companionship. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI.
The SDI global learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to peace and justice. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store.
Membership benefits include:
- Being part of a worldwide contemplative movement
- Global and local networking
- Listing in the Find a Spiritual Companion Guide: A Worldwide Resource of Available Spiritual Companions
- Access to Group Spiritual Direction sessions and exclusive online Town Halls and Gatherings
- Subscription to Presence, Listen, and Connections Discover newsletter
- Discounted liability insurance
- Discounts on all educational events and gatherings
- Discounts on SDI brochures and resources
Who is a spiritual companion? A spiritual director is a spiritual companion, as is a life coach, a chaplain, a hospice nurse, really anybody in a caring vocation. But it can also be a type of person who lives and listens in ways that embody this type of caring. That is, a spiritual companion need not do it as a job. Some of us are spiritual companions in the way we honor our relationships to family, friends, neighbors, the land, our ancestors, and the cosmos.
So there are lots of ways the role of spiritual companionship manifests, and SDI celebrates the diversity of practices and people who identify as one. But, how does one identify or see themselves and others as a spiritual companion?
In April 2020’s Listen publication, Executive Director Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares wrote a reflection on the Dimensions of Spiritual Companionship - a series of characteristics and skills that a companion lives into.
What are the characteristics of a spiritual companion? Rev. Seifu’s various Dimensions invite us to consider this. And I think it’s important to note that one need not embody ALL of these dimensions at once - but each one should give us some pause, in which I might consider - how do I practice this? How do I embody this dimension?
In an ongoing series of episodes, Rev. Seifu and I will have conversations around each of these dimensions, as a way to unpack and get to know each of them in depth. And as you listen, I invite you to consider each for yourself. The way you understand each dimension need not reflect how we understand it, but I hope these conversations spark either a deep knowing within you, or a good curiosity.
I hope this conversation has awakened or stirred something in you. Take a moment to reflect - how do you identify with this dimension of spiritual companionship? Does it feel natural? Does it feel elusive? How does this dimension manifest for you? Is it something you desire to increase for yourself? I invite you to take a few breaths, and tend to that stirring.
I want to tell you about SDI’s very first online course, called Exploring Spiritual Companionship Across Traditions. Join SDI for a twelve week survey course of spiritual companionship’s expression in various authentic forms: Judaism, Buddhism, Indigenous traditions, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, contemporary Shamanism, eco-spiritualities, and more — guided by the very best in the field offering their expertise and personal experiences.
This course is for anyone who desires to broaden their understanding and practice of spiritual companionship beyond a single tradition or approach. It is for anyone who is considering becoming a spiritual companion and seeks an inclusive pluralistic introduction to the craft. And it is for anyone who is curious about what spiritual companionship is in our pluralistic modern world.
The live course begins September 9th, but you can register anytime to watch the recordings, and learn at your own pace. Register now at our website, sdicompanions.org.
In this episode, I (Matt Whitney) go into the fishbowl of spiritual companionship with Pam Winthrop Lauer, a spiritual director and a practitioner and teacher of Nonviolent Communication, or (NVC). Also known as Connecting Communication, Non Violent Communication is a revolutionary communication model that provides concrete ways to transform judgment, anger, and fear into compassion for ourselves and others. NVC offers strong, effective tools to connect open-heartedly with anyone, so that when we are called outward into the public square, we have the skills to work for change nonviolently – i.e. in a way that honors the sacredness of all humanity.
Pam introduces NVC to us, offers a meditation, which then moves into our process – in which I offer a conflict I am having, with myself. Rather, my Inner Critic, that voice in my head that tells me that the things I make, as an artist and as a creative practitioner, are not good.
Pam Winthrop Lauer grew her spiritual direction and Nonviolent Communication practices gradually over 15 years while raising her children and caring for her husband who was ill. In 2015, with her children grown and husband recovering, Pam launched a full-time practice of spiritual direction and NVC coaching and teaching. She also volunteers as an interfaith leader. Pam's teaching style is dynamic, effective, and gentle. She is a candidate to become a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication (cnvc.org). Her spiritual direction certification is through the Lev Shomea Jewish Spiritual Direction Training Program of 2001-2003.
This week we continue with our four part series on the exploration of sexuality in spiritual companionship. Facilitated by Frederica Helmiere, we present to you a series of perspectives from several spiritual directors, pastors, and guides on how they approach sexuality in their roles as spiritual companions. These episodes are offered in conjunction with our upcoming webinar series Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality, which you can learn more about at sdicompanions.org.
This week features a conversation with Frederica and Langston Kahn, a New York City based shamanic practitioner specializing in emotional clearing and radical transformation. He stands firmly at the crossroads, his practice informed by the western modality of Inner Relationship Focusing, initiations into traditions of the African Diaspora, the contemporary shamanic tradition of The Last Mask Center and the guidance of his helping spirits and ancestors weaving it all together.
Langston has studied and facilitated Inner Relationship Focusing, developed by Ann Weiser Cornell for the last 8 years. He has completed 5 years of training with Christina Pratt in the Cycle of Transformation and also serves on the leadership council for the Last Mask Community, a community of contemporary people striving to live in alignment with ancient shamanic beliefs and principles in a way that answers the unique challenges of our time.
A new thing we’re introducing this week is a Podcast Forum – a place where SDI Members can be in conversation about topics related to the podcast. We’re very excited about this new benefit, which is for SDI Members. You can become a member and join in the conversation by going to our website – sdicompanions.org
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming webinar, Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality In this two part webinar, we will explore embodied spirituality, sexuality and the divine erotic as they relate to the practice of spiritual companionship. Join us for this practice-based training designed for spiritual companions, guides and directors. Learn more at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/sdi-webinar-series-spiritual-companionship-and-the-divine-erotic-ethics-and-sexuality/
This week we continue with our four part series on the exploration of sexuality in spiritual companionship. Facilitated by Frederica Helmiere, we present to you a series of perspectives from several spiritual directors, pastors, and guides on how they approach sexuality in their roles as spiritual companions. These episodes are offered in conjunction with our upcoming webinar series Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality, which you can learn more about at sdicompanions.org.
This week features a conversation with Frederica and the Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale. RevBEV is the Chair and Founder of the Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith, and she is a workshop presenter for our upcoming SDI Conference in Santa Fe.
A new thing we’re introducing this week is a Podcast Forum – a place where SDI Members can be in conversation about topics related to the podcast. We’re very excited about this new benefit, which is for SDI Members. You can become a member and join in the conversation by going to our website – sdicompanions.org
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Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale is the Chair and Founder of the non-profit, Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith where she trains professional leadership an inclusive, science-friendly, and sex-positive Christianity. An artist and musician she has written, produced and performed in her one-woman show, An Irreverent Journey From Eggbeaters to Vibrators. She is the co-author of Advancing Sexual Health for The Christian Client recently published in 2019 by Routledge Publications. This unique resource provides tools for theological and sexual health professionals as it combines the insights of science and a sex-positive Christian theology. Her ministry has included ecumenical campus ministry at the University of Pennsylvania for 21 years and as a local pastor. She is currently serving as clergy-in-residence at United Christian Church in Levittown, PA and is a professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania teaching courses on sexuality and religion.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming webinar, Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality In this two part webinar, we will explore embodied spirituality, sexuality and the divine erotic as they relate to the practice of spiritual companionship. Join us for this practice-based training designed for spiritual companions, guides and directors. Learn more at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/sdi-webinar-series-spiritual-companionship-and-the-divine-erotic-ethics-and-sexuality/
This week we continue with our four part series on the exploration of sexuality in spiritual companionship. Facilitated by Frederica Helmiere, we present to you a series of perspectives from several spiritual directors, pastors, and guides on how they approach sexuality in their roles as spiritual companions. These episodes are offered in conjunction with our upcoming webinar series Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality, which you can learn more about at sdicompanions.org.
This week features a conversation with Frederica, professor and spiritual director Westina Matthews, and Episcopal Priest Father Tommie Watkins, who will be presenters at our upcoming Santa Fe conference.
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Westina Matthews is an adjunct professor for the Center for Christian Spirituality at The General Theological Seminary, where she teaches contemplative spiritual direction. A graduate of the Spiritual Guidance program at the Shalem Institute, she is an author, public speaker, spiritual director and retreat leader whose practice reflects contemplative living through “holy listening.” Westina has contributed to several Forward Movement anthologies and was a frequent contributor to Sacred Journey: The Journal of Fellowship in Faith. Her newest book is Dancing from the Inside Out: Grace-filled Reflections on Growing Older (Church Publishing Inc., 2019).
Father Tommie Watkins, the first openly gay ordained black priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, is the Rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama. A certified Spiritual Director and licensed master social worker (LMSW), he completed his joint Doctorate in Philosophy degree from the Universities of Alabama, Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama, Birmingham, School of Public Health. Father Tommie earned his Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from The General Theological Seminary. In his book Living Out Loud, he shares his struggle of self-acceptance. Father Tommie’s favorite quote is Dr. King’s: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” As such, Father Tommie is compelled to continue to Live Out Loud.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming webinar, Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality In this two part webinar, we will explore embodied spirituality, sexuality and the divine erotic as they relate to the practice of spiritual companionship. Join us for this practice-based training designed for spiritual companions, guides and directors. Learn more at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/sdi-webinar-series-spiritual-companionship-and-the-divine-erotic-ethics-and-sexuality/
Today we start a four part series on the exploration of sexuality in spiritual companionship. Facilitated by Frederica Helmiere, we present to you a series of perspectives from several spiritual directors, pastors, and guides on how they approach sexuality in their roles as spiritual companions.
Karen Erlichman, DMin, LCSW provides psychotherapy, spiritual direction, supervision and So(U)L coaching in San Francisco, with a mind-body-spirit approach to healing. Karen’s writing has been published in numerous journals, blogs and anthologies, including Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, Tikkun, Feminist Studies in Religion and in the interfaith anthology Spiritual Guidance Across Religions. She is passionate about creating diverse and welcoming spaces for liberation, embodied spirituality and community. Her website is karenerlichman.com.
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Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming webinar, Spiritual Companionship and the Divine Erotic – Ethics and Sexuality In this two part webinar, we will explore embodied spirituality, sexuality and the divine erotic as they relate to the practice of spiritual companionship. Join us for this practice-based training designed for spiritual companions, guides and directors. Learn more at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/sdi-webinar-series-spiritual-companionship-and-the-divine-erotic-ethics-and-sexuality/
Hey everybody; SDI has a brand new website! After months of work, we are so excited to present to our community sdicompanions.org. Built from the ground-up, sdicompanions.org integrates everything that we do, from offering clear information on the work of spiritual companionship across orientations, to our popular searchable database of spiritual companions, as well as new spaces where our members can be in conversation with one another, access resources, including a brand-new digital platform for Presence, our quarterly flagship publication. Ann Lancaster and I talked about the process of getting this website up and running, our vision for this website, and some of the new features that people will find. I invite everybody to come explore spiritual companionship, at sdicompanions.org.
A few of the items we discussed:
- Our vision for the new website
- Seek and Find Guide is now Find a Spiritual Companion – back end improvements, new real-time search results
- Unified login
- Member Forums
- Events Calendar
- Digital Presence
This week, I and Pastor Dave Brown explore poetry as spiritual companionship. Dave shares a bit about how he began using poetry in his services as a pastor, to the ways he incorporates poems as one of the Pacific NW Interfaith Amigos, and through his Blues Vespers concerts, where he intersperses poetry reading with performances by musicians. In our conversation, the poem serves as the sacred text through which our companionship finds common ground, and shared presence.
Pastor Dave Brown retired from Immanuel Presbyterian Church, a growing progressive community where he had served since 2005, in 2018. He is the innovator of award-winning Blues Vespers, a Blues concert with poetry and reflection. While at Immanuel, he led four spiritual pilgrimages to the Island of Iona, Scotland, as well as organizing four Habitat builds in Guatemala. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Pastor Dave has served congregations in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Federal Way, Washington. He also worked as staff for the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy, and the Comprehensive Health Education Foundations‘ Partnership Project.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI Press – announcing its newly published book, Spiritual Direction Supervision: Principles, Practices, & Storytelling by Lucy Abbott Tucker. An innovative, full-color workbook designed to support the care and growth of your spiritual companionship practice, representing the best thinking of master teacher Lucy Abbott Tucker. We invite you to explore her principles, practices, and stories as you deepen your own approach to spiritual direction, companionship, and the supervision process. Learn more at sdicompanions.org
I (Matt Whitney) had a really fun conversation with one of our SDI members, Heather Makowicz, who is the founder of an organization called Peak Encounter Ministries.
As founder and president of Peak Encounter Ministries, Heather Makowicz organizes and leads hiking excursions and other outdoor experiences that integrate prayer, contemplation, and reflection with her enthusiasm while encouraging people to encounter God in his creation.
She is a certified Spiritual Director, retreat director, speaker, and outdoor adventure leader.
Heather has found a calling in speaking with young adults and women, particularly on prayer, healing, discernment, and spiritual accompaniment.
Heather holds a Masters Certificate in Spiritual Direction from Neumann University in Aston, PA, and a Masters in Clinical Social Work from Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Peak Encounter Website: https://peakencounter.org/
Video for Peak Encounter: https://youtu.be/lbWT2QnQzeU
This is Part 2 of my deep dive conversation on meditation practice with Sean Murphy, Zen Master, Author, and SDI Coordinating Council Member. Here we learn something of the long-term benefits of mindfulness, as it plays out in our work, our creativity, and our relationships. What does it look like to stick with a meditation practice for the long haul, especially when it seems like nothing is happening or nothing is changing? The fact is we are changing, and we are growing. How often have you noticed that, in the early springtime, there are buds on a tree, and then later suddenly the whole of nature is awash in color, and then just as suddenly, the trees are bare again? I think its like meditation - the process seems slow, but the results can be dramatic.
Sean Murphy teaches meditation, creative writing and literature for UNM-Taos and has taught and presented on Zen practice and meditation for over 20 years. Sean is the recipient of a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, and is a fully sanctioned Zen teacher in the American White Plum lineage. He is the founder of the Sage Institute for Creativity, Consciousness & Environment, and also serves on SDI’s Coordinating Council. You can learn more about Sean’s work at his personal website, murphyzen.com, and at sagetaos.com.
I (Matt Whitney) had a wonderful deep dive conversation with Sean Murphy, Zen Master, Author, and SDI Coordinating Council Member. His story is fascinating, and there’s a lot of wisdom gleaned from his 30+ years of meditation practice. My biggest question to him is, what are the results of that practice? We have this understanding that meditation is about mindfulness – being aware of ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions, and the present moment. But listening to Sean, it’s clear that there is so much more than that. Mindfulness, as I learned from Sean, is just the first fruits of meditation.
Sean Murphy teaches meditation, creative writing and literature for UNM-Taos and has taught and presented on Zen practice and meditation for over 20 years. Sean is the recipient of a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, and is a fully sanctioned Zen teacher in the American White Plum lineage. He is the founder of the Sage Institute for Creativity, Consciousness & Environment, and also serves on SDI’s Coordinating Council. You can learn more about Sean’s work at his personal website, murphyzen.com, and at sagetaos.com.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI Press – announcing its newly published book, Spiritual Direction Supervision: Principles, Practices, & Storytelling by Lucy Abbott Tucker. An innovative, full-color workbook designed to support the care and growth of your spiritual companionship practice, representing the best thinking of master teacher Lucy Abbott Tucker. We invite you to explore her principles, practices, and stories as you deepen your own approach to spiritual direction, companionship, and the supervision process. Learn more at sdistore.org.
In this episode, we share a conversation between Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and Lucy Abbott Tucker. This conversation was a livestreamed event from SDI, which we are calling Digital Tonw Halls, and you can find the recordings of these videos by visiting the website – sdicompanions.online, or by searching for sdiworld on Youtube. In thier conversation over Zoom, Lucy shares some stories from her life that led her into her calling as a spiritual director and supervisor to spiritual directors, beginning with a mystical experience growing up in New York, and how that experience has motivated Lucy’s lifelong work.
Lucy Abbott Tucker is one of the founders of Spiritual Directors International and she led the task force to write and establish SDI’s official Guidelines for Ethical Conduct for all spiritual directors, regardless of culture or tradition. She has worked in adult formation and the preparation of people for the ministry of spiritual direction for 35 years. Lucy has led in retreats and workshops throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Canada.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI Press – announcing its newly published book, Spiritual Direction Supervision: Principles, Practices, & Storytelling by Lucy Abbott Tucker. An innovative, full-color workbook designed to support the care and growth of your spiritual companionship practice, representing the best thinking of master teacher Lucy Abbott Tucker. We invite you to explore her principles, practices, and stories as you deepen your own approach to spiritual direction, companionship, and the supervision process. Learn more at sdistore.org.
As part of our release for Lucy’s workbook, SDI is offering an online supervision workshop with Lucy Abbott Tucker this June. This 4-part introduction to spiritual direction supervision will touch on all the key themes that make supervision an essential part of the training and on-going professional development of any spiritual companion. And at $79 for SDI members, it’s a remarkable bargain that will introduce participants to key concepts and then give them the chance to put these principles and practices into action in small groups. We call it “A Taste of Spiritual Direction Supervision” and we hope you will consider joining us.
In last week’s episode of SDI Encounters, we talked with Amy Curran, a Dreamworker, about our dreams and the work of dreamwork and spiritual companionship. As part of my (Matt Whitney) exploration into dreamwork, I went through the typical dreamwork process with Amy, using one of my own dreams for this process. In this case, my dream was about working in a grocery store. So here’s how it went – I had the dream, and Amy invited me to write it out, in the present tense. I sent that to Amy, who then responded a couple of days later with some clarifying questions, such as “you mention so-and-so in your dream, or such-and-such place – describe this person, or this place, in three words.” I responded with my answers and descriptions, and Amy then creates her dream interpretation.
What follows here is our conversation about Amy’s interpretation of my dream. For someone who was admittedly ignorant about dreamwork before these conversations, I found the exercise fascinating, and really revealing. It’s a bit long for our podcasts, and it certainly feels vulnerable to put my own dream out there – especially since it includes a LOT about my work with SDI, but I hope my doing so invites you to more freely explore your own dreams, and get a sense of how dreamwork functions as a form of spiritual companionship.
Amy Curran is a certified dreamwork facilitator, who received her two-year certification from the Haden Institute in 2019. She also has a BA in Marketing from Western Washington University. A lifelong resident of Bainbridge Island, WA. Amy’s interest in the inner realm of the dream has lead her to seek out groups to help process her own dreams. She has also worked with psychotherapists in the Jungian tradition, both of which have provided her with rich insights. Amy’s desire as a dream worker is to guide those with curiosity and interest in their dreams, through explorations of what the unconscious brings forth. She offers a safe container for deepening relationships to dreams, in her home studio on Bainbridge Island. Learn more about Amy and her work at www.innerdreamwork.com
Support for this podcast comes from SDI Press – announcing its newly published book, Spiritual Direction Supervision: Principles, Practices, & Storytelling by Lucy Abbott Tucker. An innovative, full-color workbook designed to support the care and growth of your spiritual companionship practice, representing the best thinking of master teacher Lucy Abbott Tucker. We invite you to explore her principles, practices, and stories as you deepen your own approach to spiritual direction, companionship, and the supervision process. Learn more at sdistore.org.
Maybe it goes without saying, but all of us dream, multiple times a night. Some of us are more attuned to our dreams than others, with myself being one who historically has not been attuned to my dreams.
Anecdotally I (Matt Whitney) have heard about people having more recollection of their dreams, and much more vivid dreams, during this time of pandemic. And my anecdotal recalling is backed up by recent news articles on the increased reporting of vivid dreams and their unusual content from people during this time of CoronaVirus. I have included links to a few of these articles below.
So it’s with a good deal of relevance and personal curiosity that I spoke with Amy Curran, a certified dreamwork facilitator. You can learn about her work at her website www.innerdreamwork.com
Have you been dreaming more vividly and extensively during this time, and would like to explore a deeper, more purposeful meaning to your dreams? Or are you a spiritual companion looking for some ways to explore dreams with the people you work with or meet with? This episode has a lot of practical advice and tools for you to begin to work with.
And in the next episode, I go through the dreamwork process with Amy, so stay tuned for a session of "Fishbowl Spiritual Companionship" - looking into the real-life process of spiritual companionship!
Amy Curran is a certified dreamwork facilitator, who received her two-year certification from the Haden Institute in 2019. She also has a BA in Marketing from Western Washington University. A lifelong resident of Bainbridge Island, WA. Amy’s interest in the inner realm of the dream has lead her to seek out groups to help process her own dreams. She has also worked with psychotherapists in the Jungian tradition, both of which have provided her with rich insights. Amy’s desire as a dream worker is to guide those with curiosity and interest in their dreams, through explorations of what the unconscious brings forth. She offers a safe container for deepening relationships to dreams, in her home studio on Bainbridge Island. Learn more about Amy and her work at www.innerdreamwork.com
From the Los Angeles Times: You’re not imagining it: We’re all having intense coronavirus dreams https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-04-07/coronavirus-quarantine-dreams
From the New York Times: Why Am I Having Weird Dreams Lately? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/style/why-weird-dreams-coronavirus.html
From National Geographic: The Pandemic is Giving People Weird, Unusual Dreams. Here's Why: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-is-giving-people-vivid-unusual-dreams-here-is-why/
We’re using the podcast here to occasionally introduce you to new faces and voices in the SDI Family – we heard from Desiree Casil a couple of weeks ago who is taking over for Membership Services. This week, we get to meet Ann Lancaster, who has come on as SDI’s Production Assistant, helping us with graphic and layout design, helping me in the SDI Laboratories where we are cooking up many new and exciting offerings for spiritual companions.
Ann tells us about her previous work at Microsoft, her experience so far working with SDI, her own spiritual awakening, being a Reiki practitioner, being a mega-fan of a Danish band called Mew, and how she unwinds by playing odd video games.
Learn more about the amazing Ann Lancaster through her various projects:
http://www.annlancaster.com/
https://www.whitelodgeawakening.com/
http://www.mewx.info/
SDI is announcing a new series of group spiritual direction sessions, facilitated by Diane Millis and Matt Whitney, beginning May 12th 2020. Learn more and register on our store site, sdistore.org. In this Encounters episode, Diane and I (Matt Whitney) talk about how she developed her methods for group spiritual direction, and what you can expect in the group zoom sessions we have upcoming for May 2020.
SDI's Group Spiritual Direction package will include 4 90-minute sessions over zoom, Tuesdays at 9am Pacific. Our time together will include Centering in shared silence, group spiritual companioning in groups of 4, and Collective Reflection and Meditation.
- You can expect to gain familiarity and experience practicing a specific approach to Group Spiritual Companioning;
- Co-create an occasion for community building in this period of social distancing;
- Increase our sense of solidarity and service as spiritual caregivers in these uncertain times.
Diane M. Millis, PhD, is an inspirational speaker, spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and consultant. She is the author of Conversation—The Sacred Art, and Re-Creating A Life: Learning How to Tell Our Most Life-Giving Story, which was named one of the "Best Spiritual Books of 2019" by Spirituality and Practice. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
SDI is a member based organization, with over 6000 members worldwide. We have a Membership Services Team that is there to assist our members with anything from renewing a membership to taking a payment to registering for a conference or workshop, or anything else related to your SDI Membership. Desiree Casil is taking over as our new Membership Services Coordinator, and so in this episode of Encounters I had a chat with her about how her training over zoom is going, we do a riveting roleplay in which I pretend to call in as a member with some seriously hardball questions to see how Desiree handles them. In Part 2 we chat about her weekend, some big spiritual questions Desiree is chewing on, and learn a bit about her dog Ava, whose picture is posted in these notes.
You can become a member too, by calling our Office, at 1-425-455-1565, or by going to our online store, sdistore.org.
I just want to update you on a couple of webinar offerings we have in the next month. First of all, the Remote Spiritual Comapnionship webinar I mentioned in the roleplay is really happening. In fact it is Thursday April 22nd, with Kristen Hobby and Ravi Verma and will offer practical advice and wisdom on how to do spiritual companionship over web conference, phone, email, how to handle scheduling and payment, and some approaches to the kinds of things people are wrestling with during the global pandemic.
The 2nd Webinar I want to mention, this is really exciting, is a four part series with Mirabai Starr, titled Mystic Wisdom in an Uncertain Time, which begins May 8th. Mirabai will be sharing on insights on spiritual companionship through the contexts of St. Teresa of Avila, Ram Dass, Grief and Loss, and The Divine Feminine.
All our webinar offerings can be watched live, and are also recorded so you can watch them at your convenience. You can register for either or both of these webinars by calling our Office at 1-425-455-1565, or by going to our online store, sdistore.org.
At SDI we just released our quarterly digital publication of Listen – it includes a written reflection on spiritual companionship by Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, poetry by well-known members of our SDI community, and original artwork by me. You can find it, download it, and read it from our website, sdiworld.org, under the Media navigation.
In this episode, please enjoy an audio version of the April issue of Listen, read by us at SDI.
Brian Plachta is a spiritual director based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brian joined me for this conversation about spiritual direction and companionship, and he offers very practical advice for on being present to the companion, while not getting in the way or over-directing the companion’s spiritual journey. We begin with talking about the notion of failing someone we’ve been companioning, which relates to an article Brian wrote for Presence Journal, which appeared in the December 2019 issue.
What is at the essence of being a spiritual companion? Perhaps it's simply to walk alongside someone on their spiritual journey as they discern the Divine in their lives. How do we handle it when someone we’ve been walking with goes away, and takes a path that for whatever reason, we can't follow?
You can learn more about Brian's work on his website, http://brianplachta.net/
Support for this podcast comes from SDI Digital Refuge - a new service from SDI, designed to support you through our enhanced digital offerings. As we face this time of pandemic, we hope that these offerings will offer solace and strength. Learn more at http://sdicompanions.online
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for awhile, or have viewed some of the SDI short videos for our Santa Fe conference, you’ve heard the guitar music in the background. You may not know that the classically trained person playing guitar is our very own Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and one day at the SDI Offices he brought in his guitar and we recorded him playing so I could carve it up for our various media offerings. Well, I dug up the original recording of that session, which also has a cameo from Frederica Helmiere who had just joined SDI. So I thought it would be cool, as a bonus podcast, to release the unedited take of Reverend Seifu playing some amazingly beautiful guitar, with a few mistakes which I’m only pointing out because he needs you to know that he knows they’re mistakes. Anyway, enjoy!
Pilgrimage-in-place, or, Walking as Spiritual Companionship.
For this week’s podcast, I (Matt Whitney) went for a walk with a spiritual companion. That is, my friend Jeanette Banashak went for a walk around her neighborhood in Chicago, and we recorded the conversation we had while Jeanette was walking. Jeanette is a co-founder of the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, and is pretty knowledgeable on the topic of Pilgrimage, having undertaken multiple pilgrimage journeys around the world to many different holy sites. She is the author of The Mindful Pilgrimage: A 40-Day Pocket Devotional for Pilgrims of Any Faith or None.
We recorded this conversation last month, and now as I record this today, there’s not a whole lot of travel going on. Our conversation feels prescient now, because we spend some time getting to what the essence of a pilgrimage is. What is supposed to happen on a pilgrimage, and what makes for a successful pilgrimage? Knowing or understanding these things, can a pilgrimage happen on a walk from your home to the grocery store? Or the post office? Or just meandering around your neighborhood?
We used the Five Excellent Practices of Pilgrimage as a framework to address this question, from a book called The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau. I hope our conversation inspires you to try this out for yourself.
Go for a walk. Go a different direction. Go somewhere you don’t normally go. Go for the sake of going. Take your phone and call a friend, and chat while you walk. Describe what you are seeing to one-another.
Did you catch our March 2020 e-mail newsletter? It's called Discover, and it brings with it all the updates and goings-on at SDI. If perhaps it got buried in your inbox, or perhaps you haven't subscribed yet, never fear because I (Matt Whitney) read aloud our newsletter in this podcast episode - so you can simply listen to our updates! This is a bit of an experiment for those who might want to listen to our monthly updates while walking, cooking, cleaning, or playing in the background of whatever else you have going on. But make sure to listen, or read, because there's a lot going on at SDI as we work hard to provide ways for you to do the urgent work of spiritual companionship, and find nourishment within the SDI community!
Subscribe to Discover - The Monthly Newsletter from SDI
Become a Member of SDI - join our Tree of Life, and support the work of spiritual companionship around the world.
Check out our Livestream portal for Companionship and Town Halls.
Hello to our SDI community. It is March 19th, 2020, and the world is very much in flux right now, with the global coronavirus pandemic, markets crashing, jobs disappearing, and civic life grinding to a halt.
People have been referring to our current situation as “uncertain times” which they most certainly are. But, were times so certain before coronavirus?
Last week, when we heard the Governor of New Mexico declare a state of emergency and make the recommendation to cancel all social gatherings, we at SDI went to work to postpone our Santa Fe Conference, which we are happy to say we’ve completed, and we are going to be offering pretty much the same conference, but now rescheduled for April 22-25, 2021.
So although we will not be gathering in person for the foreseeable future, we’ve been hard at work to bulk up our digital offerings, so that we can offer conversation, community, and resources for spiritual companions.
it is these times today that make the work of companionship more urgent than ever. But as we take steps to isolate and self-quarantine, we’ve got to reimagine the ways we do this work. At the same time, we are presented with something of an opportunity – to be faced with a very uncertain world, and to have our daily rhythms of life utterly dispruted – we have a unique opportunity to go deeper in our spiritual practices. Darkness and unknowing – for who knows what comes next with this pandemic – are forced upon us. It is our contemplative practices that will provide us light and ways of being, and perhaps even living joyfully.
To that end, we’ve launched a new web portal called sdicompanions.online which will be the hub for a series of upcoming Town Halls, livestreams, online gatherings, and facilitated contemplative practices. Our first one is being offered this Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 9am Pacific Time. It will be livestreamed over Youtube, or you can join the Zoom call.
Our Conference is called Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, and this will be the theme of this Town Hall. Our Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and myself, will facilitate a panel discussion with a group of spiritual companions, and we invite you to join us. There will be opportunity to submit your questions and comments during this 90 minute online discussion, and we hope this will be a springboard by which we can offer community, contemplative practice, and companionship during these indeed, very uncertain times.
Rev. Seifu and I chatted about these offerings, and the things SDI is working on, to continue to provide spiritual companions and contemplatives with tools, resources, and platforms. SDI’s Community is strong and flourishing and we invite you to continue to help us discern and grow the urgent work of spiritual companionship.
Here's the latest in a series we are calling My Boss is a Zen Priest. I (Matt Whitney, Creative Director) talk with SDI’s Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares. He’s my manager, he makes the decisions, and he’s also an ordained priest in the Zen Buddhist tradition. We have weekly one-on-one check in meetings, where I tell him about the things I’m working on, and he provides feedback and insight. That feedback and insight often delves into deep dives around spirituality.
This week we talk about our experiences with meditation, and the encounters one has with Silence.
In the episode, I mention our partnership with Spiritual Paths and Interspiritual Meditation, which you can learn more about here.
Taqwa Surapati is a Cancer Care Chaplain for Stanford Hospital in Palo, Alto, California. She completed her chaplain residency at Stanford Health Care, before going to Hartford Seminary in Connecticut for a Graduate Certification in Islamic Chaplaincy in 2014. Prior to that, Taqwa served for a decade as a Spiritual Care volunteer at Stanford and other local hospitals in the San Jose area. Currently finishing her Master of Art in Islamic Studies from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Taqwa’s interests include oncology chaplaincy, how people of faith think of end-of-life situations and advance health care planning. Taqwa came to the US in 1998 from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Taqwa was very gracious in offering her time and sharing a bit about her work with us. She describes what is it like to be a “first responder” to people presented with a sense of their own mortality – which often manifests as a spiritual question. Why death? Why suffering? Why me?
Taqwa shares how her Muslim faith helps to sustain her in this work, along with being a mother, and having a simple joy and sense of humor that interrupts her when she’s feeling down, and we hear how all these help to fill the infinite well of compassion she needs for the work she does.
Pat McCabe, whose Navajo name is (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She will be the Ceremonialist for SDI’s upcoming Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In this podcast we introduce you to Pat, and learn a bit more about her.
In our conversation, Pat describes what she refers to as "The Crisis of Relationship" – to ourselves, to each other, to the larger community of life, which lies at the root of so much that is disordered about the world right now. The work of healing begins with attuning to the spiritual laws of life that govern our being, our places, and our inter-being. Pat says indigenous cultures call these “Original Instructions” - and how those need to make themselves manifest across cultures. The thing about these Original Instructions is that they’re not written down. They’re meant to be known through lived experience, which requires listening, presence, and practice.
Support for this week’s podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming contemplative writing retreat, called: Writing at the Edge of the World, June 15th through June 19th, 2020, on beautiful Orcas Island in Washington State, USA. Led by award-winning writer Tania Casselle, and NEA Fellow and Zen Teacher Sean Murphy, this retreat is designed to meet you wherever you are on your creative journey. You’ll leave with a notebook full of writing, and a fresh set of tools to invigorate your creative voice. Learn more on our homepage, sdiworld.org – and you’ll find the Writers Workshop in the homepage slider.
Eric Massanari, M.Div., is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite Church USA, living in Newton, Kansas where he serves as a spiritual director and the chaplain of a continuing care community for older adults. He serves on the SDI Coordinating Council, where he brings a passion for inter-faith learning, community building, and companioning people who are exploring the fertile ground of elderhood and those who are nearing the end of life. An avid poet and essayist, and a personal good friend.
Part 2 of my conversation with Eric Massanari focuses on the topic of death and companioning people at end of life. Last week we learned about what it means to be curious. Inquisitive. Leaning into the unknown and dwelling there in a state of openness and hospitality. As a chaplain Eric encounters and companions a lot of people who are at the end of their life, and who pass on. This also awakens in him a sense of curiosity and humility about his own life, which opens him up to a deep sense of gratitude, and compassion for others.
I (Matt Whitney) am so grateful to Eric for his openness and vulnerability in the questions I ask him around his companioning work. What I heard from him was not specific worded answers to these questions, but rather reflection on how he’s living out these questions every day, and by doing so means leaning further and further into a place of not-knowing.
Support for this week’s podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming contemplative writing retreat, called: Writing at the Edge of the World, June 15th through June 19th, 2020, on beautiful Orcas Island in Washington State, USA. Led by award-winning writer Tania Casselle, and NEA Fellow and Zen Teacher Sean Murphy, this retreat is designed to meet you wherever you are on your creative journey. You’ll leave with a notebook full of writing, and a fresh set of tools to invigorate your creative voice. Learn more on our homepage, sdiworld.org – and you’ll find the Writers Workshop in the homepage slider.
Eric Massanari, M.Div., is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite Church USA, living in Newton, Kansas where he serves as a spiritual director and the chaplain of a continuing care community for older adults. He serves on the SDI Coordinating Council, where he brings a passion for inter-faith learning, community building, and companioning people who are exploring the fertile ground of elderhood and those who are nearing the end of life. An avid poet and essayist, and a personal good friend.
Eric joined me for a conversation about his work as a spiritual companion, which we’ve turned into two episodes. The first one, here, touches on curiosity – which here I would define as a posture of listening that is genuinely inquisitive and engaged with someone they are listening to. And not just curious about what that person is saying or thinking or feeling, but curious also about the ways the listener finds themselves responding to what they are receiving.
Part 2 of this conversation will come out in our next episode, where we focus on the topic of death and companioning people at end of life.
Support for this week’s podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming contemplative writing retreat, called: Writing at the Edge of the World, June 15th through June 19th, 2020, on beautiful Orcas Island in Washington State, USA. Led by award-winning writer Tania Casselle, and NEA Fellow and Zen Teacher Sean Murphy, this retreat is designed to meet you wherever you are on your creative journey. You’ll leave with a notebook full of writing, and a fresh set of tools to invigorate your creative voice. Learn more on our homepage, sdiworld.org – and you’ll find the Writers Workshop in the homepage slider.
Nancy Shadlock, MA, is the CEO and founder of Centered Life Coaching (www.centered.ca). Nancy has a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation from Carey Theological in Vancouver. After completing spiritual direction training through SoulStream and serving many years as a spiritual director, she expanded into the coaching field to help people hear the divine in not just their spiritual life, but also the pain points that show up in their business, relationships and health.
We hear from Nancy in this conversation with Frederica Helmiere about a few of the differences between spiritual life coaching and spiritual direction, and also receive some beautiful insight into the use of artistic clay and pottery as spiritual practice.
Nancy is offering a workshop at our upcoming Santa Fe conference, called ‘Examen the Play Dough’. She describes it as a hands-on, kinesthetic workshop, leading into creativity and insight, in which the play dough is molded into an image of current limitations or struggles, and then to form another totem of what is the fullness of life you are being called to. This workshop is perfect for those who are ready to hear from Source in a fresh way or those who regularly companion others and are looking to add a form of artistic expression to their practice.
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
Lately on the podcast we've been talking with various workshop presenters for our upcoming Santa Fe Conference. This week, Our Events and Journeys Director Frederica Helmiere talks with Rabbi Carla Howard, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Jewish Healing Center of Los Angeles. Rabbi Howard combines rabbinic ordination with a unique background of pre-medical studies, clinical work in women’s medicine and midwifery. Rabbi Howard is on the faculty of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, the Academy for Jewish Religion, and sits on the Bio-Ethics Committee of Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center. She has published numerous articles, and lecture on spiritual care and end-of-life issues to both lay and medical organizations, in the U.S. and internationally.
The website for Jewish Healing Center of Los Angeles is https://jhcla.org/
Rabbi Howard’s workshop is titled Counseling Communities Through Mass Tragedy. The description from the workshop states:
"What can leaders of faith communities do when tragedy strikes their community? How can we prepare for the spontaneous eruption of disaster which by its very definition, strikes us unaware? This workshop will cover disaster Impact and Recovery Models, what makes us effective as community leaders, understanding our roles and its limitations, and how we take care of ourselves in order to be there for others.
This workshop is experiential, interactive and didactic. Its goals begin from the moment the participants enter the workshop by modeling for them, when they will be working with individuals who have experienced trauma, how to ensure privacy in a group setting, create safe space, and create compassionate, contemplative space to contain grief and mourning in its myriad forms."
Learn more at our Conference Website - www.sdievents.org
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
Do you or the people you companion long for relationships that are based not only on mutual respect, but also mutual reverence?
Do you or those you companion ever find it difficult to navigate issues of gender and sexuality within your religious or spiritual traditions?
Are you, or those those you companion, uncertain of how to be in relationship with women and/or men since #MeToo?
If you answer YES, to any of these questions, you will appreciate the dialog we have in this podcast with Will Keepin and Cynthia Brix, as they discuss the workshops they lead on Gender Equity and Reconciliation, which they will be offering in a one-day intensive format on April 22nd in Santa Fe New Mexico, the day before our Conference, on Spiritual Companionship for our Times. Frederica Helmiere and I had an amazing conversation over web conferencing software with Cynthia and Will, two leaders in the interspiritual movement and in spiritual healing.
Rev. Cynthia Brix, PhD (Hon) is an ordained contemplative interfaith minister and was formerly a campus minister at the University of Colorado, and an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies in Spirituality and Social Justice. Cynthia is co-author of Women Healing Women, and contributing author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation between Women and Men.
Will Keepin, PhD is a mathematical physicist and scholar-practitioner of interfaith spirituality. Will co-authored Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation between Women and Men and Women Healing Women. His new book is Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science, and a Universal Path of Divine Love, which presents a universal, nondual path of divine love, bridging science and mysticism.
Cynthia and Will are co-founders of the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, which has conducted 120 trainings in nine countries. Here’s how they describe their one-day intensive workshop for our upcoming Conference:
Spiritual companions of all ages and faiths routinely encounter gender injustice –– and in particular, significant challenges between women and men –– in their practices. The #MeToo movement has increased awareness of gender conflicts, sexual harassment and exploitation, and patriarchal oppression—but how can these knotty challenges be addressed in practical terms?
This workshop introduces Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), which has developed an innovative methodology for healing and reconciliation between women and men. Inspiring examples of remarkable healing and reconciliation between the sexes will be presented from GERI’s application in Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu communities. Experiential exercises are included to give participants a first-hand taste of this transformative process.
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
Azra Rahim has a BSc in Molecular Biology and holds an MD. She describes herself this way: “Muslim Sufi. Spiritual Quester. Truth seeker. Globe trotter. Lover of food, flowers and all things green. Indiscriminate dispenser of hugs. Kisser of all things beautiful."
Azra came in to the SDI Studios to share about her experiences growing up in Iraq, India, and Montana, how she came to Sufism, a form of mystic Islam, and a little bit about the workshop she is offering during our 2020 Conference in Santa Fe in April, which is called Seeking Feminine Wisdom from our Muslim mothers: poetry, writing and whirling as spiritual practice.
Azra’s workshop description states: “Islam offers a system of guidance that brings into balance and integration the masculine and feminine energies. Never has such integration been more important, given the stark disharmony in which the feminine and the masculine exist in the world today. When energies are balanced, there is healing that takes place not just at an individual level but a societal level. This healing extends to the earth, who is Mother - the ultimate manifestation of the nurturing generosity of the Divine Feminine. When integrated and healed - our soul being at peace, we become beings that reflect the Divine Unity. We can offer others only what we are, in every relationship including that of spiritual companion.
In this workshop, we begin this work of integration. We will start by attuning ourselves with a seated Zikr (chanting remembrance of Allah). Then, one by one, we will welcome these mothers into the circle by singing their name. Aarda (Earth). Hajar (Hagar). Maryam (Mary). Khadija (Wife of Prophet Mohammed). Fatima (Daughter of Prophet Mohammed). Peace and Blessings upon them all. We will share their stories. Some interfaith, some uniquely Muslim. We will share some poetry by Rabia Al- Adhawiya. We will engage in a short writing exercise. We will conclude with a standing Zikr with Sufi whirling and turning. (Please bring thick socks to turn in, in case we are on a hard surface)”
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
Interspiritual pioneer Brother Wayne Teasdale wrote in his seminal book The Mystic Heart, “Daily spiritual practice is the technology of inner change.”
Jeff Genung and Kate Sheehan Roach work at the intersections of digital media and technology, contemplative practice, and Interspirituality. We talk about these intersections in this episode, and give a taste to what they’ll be sharing as workshop presenters at our upcoming Santa Fe Conference in April – which you can learn about at sdievents.org.
Jeff is co-founder and president of contemplativelife.org, a non-profit digital hub that connects people and communities with transformative practices. Kate serves as Director of Content for Contemplative Life, and they are both facilitators of Transformation365.org, an online experiential practice network.
Towards the end of this episode, Jeff shares a recorded contemplative practice by the late Brother Wayne Teasdale. I invite you as you listen, to participate in this practice, and share the sacred space that Brother Teasdale offers us. Note that there is a four minute period of silence during this space, from approximately minute 44 to minute 48.
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
Intro: We kick off the New Year of SDI Encounters episodes with an interview with your host, Matt Whitney! This was the idea of SDI's Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, to flip the script and have him interview me. So here’s our conversation, in which I (Matt) share my own personal story as a visual artist, how I came to work at SDI, and how I’ve come to understand the role that spiritual companionship plays in all our lives.
Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
It's the end of the year and it's time for a clips show! I (Matt Whitney) have pulled several highlights from the 50 episodes that we've now published under SDI Encounters and placed them here as we take a tour of the last 11 months since we launched this podcast. Thank you to all who have been listening, thank you for sharing and following this podcast, and thank you especially to all our guests who have shared of themselves. I hope this podcast has been and will continue to be enriching and inspiring for all of us, as we share the important and diverse work of spiritual companionship around the world.
SDI is the Home of Spiritual Companionship - an inclusive, global learning community of people from many backgrounds who share a common passion and commitment to the art and contemplative practice of spiritual companionship.
For thirty years, SDI has served this community through educational events, publications, and outreach programs, helping people connect with one another and with the Divine in their own lives. Through this work, SDI seeks to help cultivate a more interconnected, more peaceful, and more just society.
Matt Whitney, Creative Director of SDI, invites all of us to support the work of SDI through a number of ways, to help us all advocate for the healing work of spiritual companionship. Below are suggestions and links to various offerings:
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Thank you for supporting SDI and the work of spiritual companionship!
In this episode Frederica Helmiere talks with Straja Linder King and Madeline Rugh over web conference software, on therapeutic connection with the living world, via art experiences, and in relationship with animals. Straja and Madeline are facilitating a workshop at our 2020 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their workshop description states:
"Through contemplative speaking, walking, making, and sharing we will practice multi-sensory and ancestral art forms that facilitate presence and connection with the living world which is our archetypal template for companioning. We will follow the guidance of award-winning Shiloh Shepherd therapy dogs Twillow Roses and Tala Rain of Alberta, Canada. Taking our cues from the spirit of the dogs, participants will take a contemplative walk (amble) on a scent, sound and shape journey of embodied presence “finding”, in the manner of our ancestral hunter/gatherers, something that calls attention to itself whether human made or natural. Returning to our room, our forms will be “arranged” (another ancestral art practice) within a hoop in the center of the room forming a contemplative community Mandala. During this practice of arranging, and sharing participants will listen to the narrative of their found forms listening with both the “ear of the heart” and to the heart of the world as the human animal bond is embedded in the soul of humanity."
Straja Linder King is a Registered Art Psychotherapist and Board Certified counsellor working with verbal and non-verbal treatment modalities. She is the first to merge these two non verbal interventions both in her practice, research, and teachings. A printmaker, published poet, writer and Animal-Assisted specialist (both canine and equine). Linder King’s innovative work (medical research in stroke recovery) specializes in working non-verbally and she has extensive focus in bereavement including complicated and disenfranchised grief. Linder King pioneered art in healing from a spiritual/nature-based perspective in Alberta and developed the Strawberry Tree Studio for Spiritual Directions, the only open art studio in Western Canada working with award winning International Therapy Dogs for over a decade. Madeline Rugh is a consultant and educator specializing in the role of art, nature and spirituality in health and wellness. She holds a doctorate in adult and community education and is currently an associate adjunct professor for Pratt Art Institute in New York City and for the University of Oklahoma Master’s in Counseling program.
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Support for this week's podcast comes from SDI Journeys. SDI has been leading passionate travelers on spiritual journeys around the world for over 25 years - not just vacations, but truly exceptional trips filled with inspiring and enriching experiences. We have upcoming journeys planned for 2020- in Iona Scotland, and an Ignatian Journey through Spain. Explore our site to find out more – sdijourneys.org.
On this podcast we share a diverse range of stories and practices that involve spiritual companionship, and where I really get excited is when people are inventive and creative with the ways in which spiritual companionship is expressed and practiced. So it is with deep joy that I present this episode to you – the intersections of spiritual companionship and roleplaying games!
Frederica Helmiere talks with Rabbi Menachen Cohen, whose work and research involves the use of role playing games (of which the best known is Dungeons and Dragons) can be utilized as a medium for spiritual companionship. Rather than playing a mythical character, the player is actually able to put something of themselves into the character, or even test out some characteristics of one’s True nature that perhaps have been repressed or hidden in one’s everyday life. The roleplaying game becomes a safe space for trying out the traits and ethics that one might desire to live out in their actual lives.
Rabbi Menachem is presenting a workshop on this topic at our 2020 Conference in Santa Fe, which you can check out by registering for our conference at sdievents.org.
Rabbi Menachem’s own website is whatmakesyoucomealive.net.
This week I’m running the lastest episode of a series I’m calling “My Boss is a Zen Priest” – so my boss is SDI’s Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares. He’s my manager and he provides oversight on the things I’m working on, and he’s also an ordained priest in the Zen Buddhist tradition. We have weekly one-on-one check in meetings, where I tell him about the things I’m working on, and he provides feedback and insight. And because we work at SDI and my boss is a zen priest, that feedback and insight often delves into deep dives around spirituality.
In this conversation we talk about our most recent publication of Listen – a digital publication that you can read on our website, sdiworld.org – and the inspiration for Rev. Seifu’s article, and my illustrations, on the concept of metamorphosis.
As you listen to this conversation, and all the metaphors we contemplate as descriptors for the spiritual journey, I invite you to reflect on this point in your own journey, and how you might define it.
As you reflect on your own sacred story, and yes your own story is indeed sacred, what are some metaphors you would use to tell this story? What’s in that cocoon of yours right now, being combusted? I invite you to journal on these questions, and share with a spiritual companion.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
The next two podcasts revolve around a conversation between SDI staff and two curators of The Emergence Network -learn more about their work at emergencenetwork.org. Bayo Akomolafe will be familiar to some of you – he was a keynote speaker at our Annual Conference in March 2019, and recently facilitated an SDI Webinar. He was joined by co-curator Jiordi Rosales, our executive director Rev Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and Director of Events and Programs Frederica Helmiere.
This conversation came out of a retreat space, and they’re driving in the car, so there’s automobile noise. I also debriefed their conversation with Frederica, which we hope will frame the conversation they are having around seeing, openness, and brokenness. It’s an invitation to explore how we interact with one-another, some of the sacred assumptions we operate out of, and what it means to companion during these troubled times.
Last week’s episode was about grief – accepting that things die – not just people but systems, institutions, and ecologies. Grief is real and we learn to experience it well, but we also, in finding that death is a normal and natural part of everything, learn how to work with it, be in relationship with it, and to practice hope and resilience.
This episode contains Part 2 of our dialog. Please check out Part 1 of this episode here.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
The next two podcasts revolve around a conversation between SDI staff and two curators of The Emergence Network -learn more about their work at emergencenetwork.org. Bayo Akomolafe will be familiar to some of you – he was a keynote speaker at our Annual Conference in March 2019, and recently facilitated an SDI Webinar. He was joined by co-curator Jiordi Rosales, our executive director Rev Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and Director of Events and Programs Frederica Helmiere.
This conversation came out of a retreat space, and they’re driving in the car, so there’s automobile noise. I also debriefed their conversation with Frederica, which we hope will frame the conversation they are having around seeing, openness, and brokenness. It’s an invitation to explore how we interact with one-another, some of the sacred assumptions we operate out of, and what it means to companion during these troubled times. Having listened to these conversations I contemplate an exploration of the boundaries of spiritual companionship, and finding new avenues for being in the world – how to live, how to die, and allow for things to die well.
This episode contains Part 1 of our dialog. In next week's episode, we'll publish Part 2.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
It’s a special Friday afternoon house episode with Matt Whitney and Frederica Helmiere, updating you on two amazing upcoming events for spiritual companions. We give updates on our SDI Annual Conference happening in April 2020, having just returned from a site visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and shared a bit about the increased workshop options and the second one-day Journey we added. We also talk about the one-night event with Mirabai Starr and Reverend Ann Holmes Redding happening in Bellevue, Washington on November 12, 2019. We recorded on a Friday afternoon and we had some fun with our conversation, doing an improvised deep dive into the differences between “adobe” and “adobo” – listen to the whole episode to learn about the important distinctions between these very different things!
Spiritual Companionship for our Times – Our Annual Conference – is happening April 23-26, 2020 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Learn more at www.sdievents.org.
Information on our one-night event, A Fierce and Tender Wisdom – An Evening with Mirabai Starr and Reverend Ann Holmes Redding, can be found here: https://www.sdiworld.org/educational-event/fierce-and-tender-wisdom-reclaiming-feminine-across-spiritual-traditions-evening
Ann Holmes Redding is an author, university lecturer and former Episcopal priest who honors Islam alongside her Christian belief. She will be co-presenting with Mirabai Starr at a one-night event and gathering, hosted by SDI, on November 12th at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue Washington. The event is called A Fierce and Tender Wisdom: Reclaiming the Feminine Across Spiritual Traditions. Learn more on our website, sdiworld.org
What is the Sacred Feminine? In this conversation with Frederica Helmiere, Reverend Ann talks about spiritual practices of birthing, midwifing, and even hospice care – as a way of exploring and holding space for our urgent and troubling times. Through the metaphors of labor in childbirth, we hear of the Sacred Feminine as practicing the “lived experience of unimaginable pain for new life”
This week we talk about Iona and Pilgrimage. Our Director of Events and Programs, Frederica Helmiere, chats with Pastor Dave Brown, one of the Pacific Northwest Interfaith Amigos, and one of the guides for our next Iona Journey, happening in May 2020 – we’ve just released all the details for this trip and you can check it out at sdijourneys.org/iona-scotland-2020
Some of our previous episodes by Frederica Helmiere are dedicated to spiritual travel and our Journeys offerings and I encourage you to check those out.
You can read all about our SDI Journeys, and consider taking your own pilgrimage journey with us, at sdijourneys.org.
Book recommended during the podcast is called The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau
Dr. Diane Millis is an inspirational speaker, teacher, writer and spiritual director. She's one of the most deeply respected and most popular workshop presenters at SDI's annual conferences. SDI Press has published her book, titled Re-Creating A Life: Learning How to Tell Our Most Life-Giving Story, which you can purchase via this link.
In these next two episodes we share a really beautiful and intimate conversation we recently recorded between Diane and Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares around the writing of Diane’s book, and how she brought her own stories and experiences into this important work on storytelling. This conversation was the basis for the Presence journal article that appears in the September 2019 issue of Presence – our quarterly journal on spiritual companionship, which is mailed out to members of SDI.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Early Bird pricing through January 31. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
Dr. Diane Millis is an inspirational speaker, teacher, writer and spiritual director. She's one of the most deeply respected and most popular workshop presenters at SDI's annual conferences. SDI Press has published her book, titled Re-Creating A Life: Learning How to Tell Our Most Life-Giving Story, which you can purchase via this link.
In these next two episodes we share a really beautiful and intimate conversation we recently recorded between Diane and Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares around the writing of Diane’s book, and how she brought her own stories and experiences into this important work on storytelling. This conversation was the basis for the Presence journal article that appears in the September 2019 issue of Presence – our quarterly journal on spiritual companionship, which is mailed out to members of SDI.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming one night event with Mirabai Starr and Ann Holmes Redding – A Fierce and Tender Wisdom: Reclaiming the Feminine Across Spiritual Traditions, happening November 12 2019 at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. In this extraordinary SDI event, we will gather and explore and model cooperative feminine leadership in these turbulent times. Join us for an interactive sacred celebration that reclaims and centers women’s voices in spiritual spaces. Together we will step up to the call for prophetic feminine wisdom and take refuge in the sanctuary of community. Learn more at our website. Register via this link.
Mary DeJong is a deep ecologist, ecotheologian, urban naturalist, and practitioner and guide of place-based pilgrimage. She specializes in the spiritual companionship of "rewilding." Mary facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland that strengthen the unique and mystical interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world.
How do we facilitate space for the Holy to speak through nature, and more specifically, the bioregion in which we live? How do we meet the growing anxiety that is undeniably present related to the ecocidal destruction of their homescapes and the Earth as a whole?
Mary discusses this with Frederica Helmiere and myself, and offers a preview of what to expect at the Rewilding Institute that she will facilitate as part of our ‘day-before’ offerings at our 2020 Conference in Santa Fe in April 2020.
Mary is offering a Rewilding Institute at our SDI Conference in Santa Fe in April 2020. Learn more at www.sdievents.org You can learn more about Mary’s work at her website, www.waymarkers.net
This is Part 2 of our conversation with Mary. You can check out Part 1 in the previous episode.
Support for this podcast comes from:
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE TRAINING INSTITUTE
BEGINNING JANUARY 2020, “INTERFAITH AND INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM TRAINING, ”A UNIQUE, ONLINE PROGRAM WITH AN OPTIONAL URBAN PILGRIMAGE IN CHICAGO. IF YOU’RE DRAWN TO COMPANION PEOPLE OF OTHER TRADITIONS, INCLUDING THE EVER-GROWING TIDE OF SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENTS, THIS PROGRAM IS FOR YOU! IDEAL FOR SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR COMMUNITY LEADERS, EDUCATORS, SOCIAL WORKERS, LIFE COACHES, THERAPISTS, CHAPLAINS AND MORE. VISIT WWW.SPIRITUALGUIDANCETRAINING.COM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS INNOVATIVE OFFERING.
Mary DeJong is a deep ecologist, ecotheologian, urban naturalist, and practitioner and guide of place-based pilgrimage. She specializes in the spiritual companionship of "rewilding." Mary facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland that strengthen the unique and mystical interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world.
How do we facilitate space for the Holy to speak through nature, and more specifically, the bioregion in which we live? How do we meet the growing anxiety that is undeniably present related to the ecocidal destruction of their homescapes and the Earth as a whole?
Mary discusses this with Frederica Helmiere and myself, and offers a preview of what to expect at the Rewilding Institute that she will facilitate as part of our ‘day-before’ offerings at our 2020 Conference in Santa Fe in April 2020.
Mary is offering a Rewilding Institute at our SDI Conference in Santa Fe in April 2020. Learn more at www.sdievents.org
The things Mary was sharing were so good, we asked her to just keep going. So we’ll release that part of our conversation in next week’s episode. You can learn more about Mary’s work at her website, www.waymarkers.net
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming one night event with Mirabai Starr and Ann Holmes Redding – A Fierce and Tender Wisdom: Reclaiming the Feminine Across Spiritual Traditions. The event is happening in Bellevue, Washington, USA on November 12, 2019 at 7pm. In this extraordinary SDI event, we will gather and explore and model cooperative feminine leadership in these turbulent times. Join us for an interactive sacred celebration that reclaims and centers women’s voices in spiritual spaces. Together we will step up to the call for prophetic feminine wisdom and take refuge in the sanctuary of community. Register now at our website.
Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also serves as Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy--practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
This recording comes from the keynote talk that Fr. Richard gave at SDI’s Seeking Connection conference in April of 2018, where he shared on the concepts presented in his recently released book, The Universal Christ. This is part 1 of Fr. Richard’s keynote, with part 2 coming out in our next episode.
Fr. Richard will be presenting at our 2020 conference, coming up in Santa Fe, New Mexico in April 2020. We hope to see you there - Learn more at sdievents.org.
Also you may note that Fr. Richard mentions Rev. angel Kyodo Williams and Mirabai Starr, who also gave keynote presentations at our 2018 Conference. We offer these as a complete keynote DVD, which can be purchased on our website.
Support for this podcast comes from:
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE TRAINING INSTITUTE
BEGINNING JANUARY 2020, “INTERFAITH AND INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM TRAINING, ”A UNIQUE, ONLINE PROGRAM WITH AN OPTIONAL URBAN PILGRIMAGE IN CHICAGO. IF YOU’RE DRAWN TO COMPANION PEOPLE OF OTHER TRADITIONS, INCLUDING THE EVER-GROWING TIDE OF SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENTS, THIS PROGRAM IS FOR YOU! IDEAL FOR SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR COMMUNITY LEADERS, EDUCATORS, SOCIAL WORKERS, LIFE COACHES, THERAPISTS, CHAPLAINS AND MORE. VISIT WWW.SPIRITUALGUIDANCETRAINING.COM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS INNOVATIVE OFFERING.
Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also serves as Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy--practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
This recording comes from the keynote talk that Fr. Richard gave at SDI’s Seeking Connection conference in April of 2018, where he shared on the concepts presented in his recently released book, The Universal Christ. This is part 1 of Fr. Richard’s keynote, with part 2 coming out in our next episode.
Fr. Richard will be presenting at our 2020 conference, coming up in Santa Fe, New Mexico in April 2020. We hope to see you there - Learn more at sdievents.org.
Support for this podcast comes from SDI’s upcoming one night event with Mirabai Starr and Ann Holmes Redding – A Fierce and Tender Wisdom: Reclaiming the Feminine Across Spiritual Traditions. The event is happening in Bellevue, Washington, USA on November 12, 2019 at 7pm. In this extraordinary SDI event, we will gather and explore and model cooperative feminine leadership in these turbulent times. Join us for an interactive sacred celebration that reclaims and centers women’s voices in spiritual spaces. Together we will step up to the call for prophetic feminine wisdom and take refuge in the sanctuary of community. Register now at our website.
We thought that spiritual companionship for children, and finding ways to cultivate children’s spirituality, would make an excellent podcast conversation.
Kristen Hobby is SDI’s Australia and SE Asia Coordinator, and just completed her PhD work on the topic of young children’s spirituality. We listen to her wisdom on how to companion and create safe and open space for children to explore their own spiritual journeys.
But the conversation wouldn’t be complete without trying out some companionship with actual children. So this week's episode features conversations with a few of our own kids - Grey Whitney, Juniper Helmiere, and Charis Helmiere.
If you're interested, Kristen recommends the set of questions posted on this website:
https://campfire.org/blog/article/reflection-thriving-questions-you-can-ask-kids-teens/
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
Mirabai Starr writes creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. She has received critical acclaim for her translations of the mystics, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Julian of Norwich. Her latest book is called Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics. I’ve read it myself, and it is a rich tapestry of Mirabai’s personal spiritual journey, woven with perennial wisdom from across spiritual traditions, and practical methods for invoking the sacred feminine into our lives – and this is wisdom for all of us to practice and to share, whether you identify as male, female, non-gendered or fluid.
We are having an event on November 12th 2019 in Bellevue Washington with Mirabai Starr and Reverend Ann Holmes Redding, celebrating feminine wisdom in community practice, at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellvue, Washington. You can register for it now on our website, sdiworld.org under Events.
SDI also hosted Mirabai at our Bellevue offices for a one-day workshop in March, and she sat down with Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares for this podcast discussion.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
With this episode we’re starting a new running series called “My Boss is a Zen Priest” – my boss is SDI’s Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares. He’s my manager and he provides oversight on the things I’m working on, and he’s an ordained priest in the Zen Buddhist tradition. We have weekly one-on-one check in meetings, where I tell him about the things I’m working on, and he provides feedback and insight. And because we work at SDI and my boss is a zen priest, that feedback and insight often delves into deep dives around spirituality. I take my notes into his office, he’s often wearing his robes, and our discussion can go from a P&L spreadsheet to being given a koan to meditate on for awhile. Oftentimes I come out of these one-on-one meetings wishing I’d had a recorder because we often have really profound discussions, so I’m going to start doing that, and we’ll see where the conversation goes.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
We really do believe that spiritual companionship is world-changing. We listen into being the stories of one another, discerning together the ways that Spirit manifests in each of our lives, and cultivating a sense that we all belong, we are all participating in the deep mystery of Divine Life. One of the clearest voices within SDI, speaking of the transformational nature of this work, is Ravi Verma.
In this episode I talk with Ravi, who is a spiritual director based in Los Angeles, and served on SDI’s Coordinating Council for six years, with the past two years serving as the Chair. He’s been a leader and steady presence at SDI for a long time. Ravi has dedicated his life to the work of spiritual companionship and has given much to this organization, living out his belief that this life-changing modality can transform us, and can change the world.
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.
Bruce Calvin is a spiritual director who trained at Mercy Center in Burlingame California. He is currently working on building supportive communities and opportunities for networking between spiritual companions at the local level, including starting a new gathering in his own community in Northern Virginia. He served on the SDI Coordinating Council from 2013-2019, which included a transition period between Executive Directors. Matt Whitney talked to Bruce at our post-SDI Conference retreat back in March about how he came to SDI and his experiences within the organization. Bruce gives us an intimate look into how the Council, and SDI, has transitioned and is continuing to transition, to being a broadly diverse community of spiritual companionship.
The Leadership and Local Community Intensive that Bruce is facilitating at our 2020 Conference can be found here: https://www.sdievents.org/communities
Support for this podcast comes from Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, SDI’s annual gathering of spiritual companions happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 23 – 26 2020. Registrations are now open, with Super Early Bird pricing through September 15th. We’ll be celebrating SDI’s 30th Anniversary, and charting the road ahead as we seek to welcome more and more people to the transformational gifts of spiritual companionship, and to make this healing modality available to every person on the planet.
Learn more now about our annual conference at www.sdievents.org.