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FAQs

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Ignatian Spiritual Direction Focus on Discernment 

"Ignatian Spiritual Direction addresses what is in one’s daily life as they pray their way through life’s complex decisions and concerns,  and in the interpretations of their spiritual experiences in those everyday life circumstances, as to discover where God is leading them in their life."

Fr. Joseph Tetlow, SJ paraphrased from Handing on the Fire

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Is Spiritual Direction Therapy?

Yes and No.

Therapy for the Soul for today, the tomorrows, and for eternity.

But it is not what the healthcare system calls therapy today, which also uses the term counseling,

but there is an overlap in skills used, while the focus and ends are different.

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What are the differences?​​​

Psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy is a problem-solving, clinically grounded form of care focused on emotional health and psychological well-being within a temporal framework. The work centers on an individual’s relationship with self and others, addressing symptoms, patterns, and functioning through assessment (or diagnosis), treatment planning, and evidence-based interventions. God is not part of the therapeutic dialogue, and goals are typically defined, measurable, and oriented toward resolution or stabilization within a set time frame.

 

Pastoral Counseling

• Pastoral counseling is a faith-based, problem-solving approach to care that attends to the mind and soul in relationship with God and others. God is an explicit and active partner in the healing process. This form of care integrates psychological assessment and treatment protocols within the context of one’s faith tradition. Like psychotherapy, it involves assessment, planning, and treatment within a defined duration, but it also acknowledges both temporal goals and an eternal telos, holding emotional well-being within a broader spiritual horizon.

 

Spiritual Direction

• Spiritual direction focuses on the soul and its faculties—intellect, memory, and will—along with one’s desires and direction in life, both temporal and eternal, in relationship with God, others, and self. It is a distinct form of pastoral care in which two people come together to listen attentively to the quiet movements of the Holy Spirit, as one is seeking growth in holiness and faithful response to God’s call. While it may employ skills familiar to counseling—such as attentive listening, discernment, and intentional practices (including prayer)—its primary orientation is not problem-solving but the discernment of God’s will and His action of grace in one's life. Healing and well-being often emerge as fruits of the process,  as the ultimate horizon is eternal. Spiritual direction may also include elements of mentoring and spiritual formation as the relationship unfolds over time.

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• Mentoring: It is caring for the development of another to improve one’s external actions, where the companion acts as a coach.

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• Disciplining: It is an instruction process where the companion is the transmitter of knowledge.

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What is the Training of a Spiritual Director?

Some have formal education with advanced post-graduate credits (certificates) in spiritual direction from universities, some may have short-term or long-term study within an organization or a parish, while some may have no formal theological or pastoral education yet are called to a ministry of holy listening as companions.

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Spiritual directors can be lay, religious, or ordained and work in retreat houses, monasteries, or within parishes as part of their regular duties or in private practice. Many spiritual directors work part-time in this ministry and have degrees and training in other disciplines which may or may not be related to ministry, counseling, or religious formation.  Many now are full-time.

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Am I looking for a Spiritual Director or a Spiritual Companion?

• A Spiritual Director who is trained utilizes all the skills of counseling to help one in developing a conscious, intentional,  and active relationship with Christ, integrating it within a formation model of a solid foundation of the Church's teachings, along with an understanding of the stages of growth in the spiritual life, prayer, and human development.  

• A Spiritual Companion walks alongside and accompanies another in their spiritual journey as a spiritual friend, as does a Spiritual Director, yet does not have the formal or has limited training for the roles of instruction or guiding, or counseling.

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Are there Fees for Spiritual Direction?

Depending on the training of the director, where they work and live, fees may vary. Those in full-time ministry working in retreat centers are paid stipends that are collected by their organizations, while those directors who minister in parishes generally do not, since it is part of their services for their local church as employees. All other spiritual directors collect fees directly from the directees. Fees vary depending on the locale and the directors' level of training, and ongoing formation costs. 

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A  Response to a Question from a Directee

Dear spiritual director,

If the spiritual direction is about helping one grow in their relationship with God, how can it help me since

I am uncomfortable sharing about my prayer life? For me, such is too personal and intimate. 

 

Dear friend in Christ,

Prayer is (as one’s encounter and relationship with God), as it should always be, intimate between you and God and not anyone else. 

 

In spiritual direction, prayer as a method (as a way), is what is shared and handed down in our tradition to help one grow in their relationship with God.  A spiritual director's role is to: 

• help one notice areas in their prayer life they may have overlooked

• offer practical considerations such as helping one organize time

• share different methods of engaging from the Church’s tradition

• help one how to listen for those prompts where they are coming from (Holy Spirit or the ‘ bad spirits’), or

• teach about the discerning of spirits

• support one to notice and sort out distractions or attachments

• suggest tools to mitigate the normal wandering of the mind to increase attention and focus

• affirm how one is proceeding  

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You described a desire to grow in your prayer life -  with that as your starting point consider taking that desire to prayer to see what God has to say about it with you.  The 'questions to consider’ I sent are there to help one notice where some of the distractions ( such as normal daily issues or those that He brings up for healing) or attachments (spiritual)  so as to ask for the graces to be freed from them to continue to grow in Christ.  

 

My hope is that what I have written here will help.  I am not yet familiar with how much knowledge you have regarding the rules of discernment and your experiences in applying them. We can talk about that if you wish.   Being busy for its own sake is not a good. Yet I do my best with God’s grace to keep to a healthy schedule of activity and rest to be in this ministry as a lay person.  

 

If more comes up in between sessions, I suggest to directees, as I do for my own spiritual director, to note them down when they come up. Then, before we come together to review your thoughts and experiences, you discern and decide what to share, what seems pertinent, or what needs a bit of clarification. 

 

Till then, know you are in my prayers.

In Christ,

Karen

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