WASHINGTON Institute turns people into spiritual directors

Directors help others be aware of God's presence in their life.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- Something unusual began happening to Ann Dean about 10 years ago. With increasing frequency, people were approaching the Baptist deacon to help them in deepening their spiritual lives.
Sometimes, after worship services, "complete strangers would come over," Dean recalled. "It's very mysterious, and you have to take that seriously."
Dean did take it seriously and in 1992 began meeting individually with people to hear their concerns and pray with them. The next year, she enrolled in a training course for spiritual directors at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in suburban Bethesda, Md.
"It was an amazing blend of both theological education and experiential learning," recalled Dean, who now offers spiritual direction at Church of the Savior in Washington. "To find a community that had all these similar experiences of God and a similar calling was wonderful."
When the institute began offering its training course in 1978, it was one of the first such programs in the country. Today, about 35 facilities provide similar training. Increasingly, trainees are laypeople rather than clergy, according to Liz Budd Ellmann, executive director of Spiritual Directors International, which has more than 4,200 U.S. members.
Rose Mary Dougherty, a Roman Catholic nun who has been at Shalem for 25 years, describes a spiritual director as someone who helps another person "be aware of God's presence in their life." Typically, during monthly, hour-long sessions, the director listens to the person describe spiritual needs and feelings, and the two often pray together.
Starting to grow
Although spiritual direction is an ancient practice in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it has only recently started to grow as more people have decided they aren't getting enough spiritual nourishment from their houses of worship, said Shalem's founder, the Rev. Tilden Edwards. An Episcopal priest, Edwards founded Shalem 30 years ago.
"When you can have someone listen with you to how that spirit inside is moving you, and what it is calling for in your life, that's just an invaluable assistance," said Edwards, 67, who has written seven books on spiritual life.
Dougherty noted that not everyone needs a mentor to grow spiritually. "My own mother never had spiritual direction, but I swear she had a direct pipeline to God," she said. "But in today's complex world and with all the cultural influences, we need someone ... who keeps on calling us back home to ourselves."
Psychological therapy and pastoral counseling are usually temporary and focused on a troublesome issue, while spiritual direction is "an ongoing process and not problem-centered," Dougherty said.
Shalem's two-year training program for spiritual directors involves two 11-day workshops at the institute and a long-distance course that trainees take at home. About 900 people have been through the program.
Group sessions
The institute also has pioneered group spiritual direction. Groups of three or four people meet monthly with a facilitator for 2 1/2 hours, meditating and sharing what is happening on person's spiritual journey.
"We are intentionally Christian, but we welcome all faith traditions," said Monica Maxon, Shalem's director of internal communications.
Ann Kline, a spiritual director on Shalem's staff, first came to Shalem when both her parents had just died, and participated in group sessions. The sessions "led me back to my Judaism," Kline said, and she joined a Conservative synagogue, celebrating her bat mitzvah two years ago.
Shalem no longer offers individual spiritual direction but encourages people to join its group sessions or refers them to Spiritual Directors International.
Most spiritual directors see their activity as a calling rather than a profession. Spiritual directors realize that the heavy lifting in their sessions is being done by someone else, Dougherty said. "We're so aware," she said, "that the Holy Spirit is the real director."