This year Spiritual Directors International hosted another wonderful conference (first year hybrid!) with the theme of Engage.  One of the workshops I really appreciated was Cindy Lee’s "Decolonizing the Spiritual Direction Space" where Dr. Lee explored hospitality and the power dynamic within a spiritual guidance relationship with BIPOC and facilitated practices she calls movements of spaciousness for BIPOC seekers. 
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Dr. Lee referenced Margaret Gunther’s text Holy Listening and Gunther’s theme of hospitality on the part of the spiritual director. Yet, Lee turned the question around and asked what if it’s the seeker who is the hospitable one, generously opening up to spiritual directors with their stories? With this posture, and especially as we meet with seekers with different identities than our own, we consider ways to be responsible with our power. We actively seek understanding about the impact of our roles, education, race, gender, ethnicity, class, ability, sexual orientation/affection, etc. This stance invites us to receive whatever stories are shared and be open to being changed by the stories.

Dr. Lee discussed ways to facilitate spaciousness in order for our companions to “access their sacredness”: 

1. “We decenter our story and recenter theirs. They decenter whiteness and recenter their own story.”
2. “We need a witness to help us trust our intuition.” Here, we are intentional about trusting the details of their story and we use discernment when asking questions. When we hear about an injustice, we don’t hesitate to call it out and name it for what it is.
3.  “We have a collective spirit [that we need to take care of]”. When we notice that the emotions our seekers are expressing are collective, we acknowledge that our seekers “are not their problems” and we name the emotions and feel the feelings together.
4. “We need imagination because the justice we all long for has never existed.” In the workshop, we considered how white spiritual directors tend to move to a hopeful stance about the future too quickly with the questions that are asked. Yet, as spiritual guides, it is not we who instill hope in our seekers, rather we create the conditions for spaciousness for them to express their truth, rest, and restore.

In her plenary talk, Yavilah McCoy also invited us to deepen our anti-racism work; she described the white supremacy cultural habit of urgency of time that emerges from domination and control. She remarked, “Yet, the universe has its own time.” 

I am left with questions like where do I need to slow down in my life? What inner work am I in need of doing so I can continue to do what is mine to do? I am grateful for SDI’s vision for the conference and speakers including Cindy Lee and Yavilah McCoy, among so many others, who have opened up new pathways for deepened connection with self, seekers, the natural world, and the Divine.
 

As a follow up to our previous post, Jeanette Banashak has just had an article published by Spiritual Directors International for their blog. Her article guides you through a complete practice of inviting a tree to be your spiritual director: "Trees as Spiritual Directors/Companions."

https://www.sdicompanions.org/trees-as-spiritual-directors-companions/

This spring, SGTI, SGTI students and alumni, as well as 1600 others, participated in Spiritual Directors International’s first virtual conference.  We asked the SGTI community the following questions as a way to serve as a debrief of the conference, learn from each other, and share with our readers: What insights did you gain from this year's SDI conference? How might those insights inform your current or future practice of spiritual companionship/spiritual direction?
 
One alumna offered this response (used by permission): 
 
I need sustained belonging within a contemplative learning community. Yet, strong communities of deep-diving seekers actively engaged in the world are truly hard to find. For me, SGTI is such a community. Yet, since this January, after graduating from the 18-month training in inter-spiritual guidance, I’ve feared that my experience of belonging within my cohort would weaken and fade over time, until I was once again without the community nourishment I relished as a SGTI student and need now, more than ever. As winter shifted toward spring, I lived inside this fear, confused and unsettled as I continued discerning how to fit my new growth as spiritual director into my already full life as art therapist and teacher of graduate art therapy students. 
     
In this unsettled place, I considered cancelling my registration for the Spiritual Directors International virtual conference. I doubted I would feel nourished, or connected to other attendees, by spending yet more hours in front of a computer screen. But this would be my first time attending an SDI conference, and I hoped it might offer ways to see more clearly where I am and where I am headed. And so, I showed up, living my questions, hoping to be touched in some way. 
      
I now am at a loss for words to describe how much I was touched by during the conference. Simply put, I no longer feel afraid. Instead, I feel like the little boat of belonging within which I sailed as part of our intimate SGTI cohort has been taken on board the much larger vessel of SDI, within which I can continue to grow, learn, and find connections to fellow seekers who are as engaged as I am.  Deeply inspired by Father Adam Bucko’s workshop and keynote presentation, I am now reading his book on new monasticism and I feel affirmed that I have been a modern-day monastic literally my whole life. Through SGTI and SDI, I have found my fellow monks.
       
On the first day of the SDI conference, I woke to find a wet, heavy snow coating April’s greening new life with strange winter garb. This snow continued off and on all day.  As I sat in my home in Indianapolis attending the day’s virtual offerings, I grieved for the spring-growth I was sure would be frozen and ruined. Instead, when the snow melted, to my surprise, most everything survived and kept blooming. 
     
​As I returned to my normal routine after the conference, my delight at spring recovering from winter’s last blast has been co-mingled with my delight at having found connection to SDI’s abundant community of contemplative learners. A grouping of yellow, purple and white pansies is how nature conveys for me these overlapping delights. As I look into the faces of these flowers, I see brightly dressed monks with wide-eyed singing expressions.  And I feel like one of them, not alone. This is how I felt throughout the entire 4-day SDI conference and how I continue to feel after it. Like pansies surviving frosts and snows, we contemplatives live amidst the suffering caused by humanity’s frozen-heartedness, and willingly serve it, again and again, helping hearts thaw and spirits bloom. And we find each other. Somehow in this non-contemplative, struggling world, we keep seeking until we find each other. Thanks to SGTI, and in new ongoing ways through SDI, I have truly found belonging within a vibrant community of beautiful, flowering, hardy, courageous spirits who are committed to strengthening each other so that we can live authentically in this suffering world and serve with love.”
 
Another alumna shared this in response (used by permission):
 
"A sense of belonging was a big take home for me, too.  The strongest sense for me was what felt like a palpable urge for the SDI community to respond to the blights that have plagued our larger social landscape more than ever, especially since COVID struck.  This sense of purpose came across much stronger to me than it had when I went to the previous two SDI conferences.  I felt that within this culture of SD (spiritual direction) and Interspirituality, there’s a unique contribution we can make and all want to make together.  

I also felt a sense that we’re learning as we go.  One participant shared that SDs have up till now mostly concerned themselves with the inner life of their companions and their immediate social circles.  But there has not been sufficient concern for the collective in SD practice.  And it’s that concern that I felt many of the keynote speakers and much of our community express.  I was really impressed and heartened that it’s possible to align my love of contemplative practice and Interspirituality with a crying urgency to do our parts to hold up the values of democracy, empirical truth and decent regard for all people walking our streets.”
      
We heard other comments and reflections that all spoke to the richness and depth of this year’s conference. We echo these reflections and continue to be grateful to SDI for the many ways it supports us and our communities. We are forever changed."

It's not unusual for any of us here at SGTI to be asked by someone, "What is spiritual guidance anyway?" Wonderful question!

In one of our early learning modules in the 18-month training program, students are asked a similar question: What is spiritual guidance? Here are some of their answers:

• Spiritual guidance is a form of helping relationship in which together, one is guided in the discernment and development of intimacy with the Divine. Through deep listening and in creating and holding sacred space, the spiritual guide listens into being the Divine Story of the seeker. (M.W.)

• Spiritual direction is a dedicated container for exploration of the inner life through the lens of the sacred or the deeply meaningful. A spiritual companion’s role is to hold safe, nonjudgmental space for your questioning, healing, and deepening in your spiritual life and your relationship with the Divine as you understand it, with the understanding that you are the authority on those topics. (C.O)
 
• "Seeker and guide create an interconnected orb in sacred space and time – an orb in which the Divine is invited to join.  In this sacred human/Divine triad intimacy between seeker and Divine grows.  Often the guide strengthens her own intimacy with the Divine." (C.R.)

​In a publication offered by Spiritual Directors International, "Portrait of a Spiritual Director," one gets a more complete picture of who spiritual companions are and the purpose they serve, their "call" and skillset, along with their hopes for the people they companion. It says:
 
"Spiritual directors or companions support the unique spiritual journey of every individual. They are welcoming and present with those they companion, listening and responding without being judgmental. They are contemplative and honor silence as a spiritual practice. They are intuitive spiritual friends—accountable and compassionate, hospitable and open, loving yet independent."

To read the essay in its entirety, visit this page.
Locate the link which says, "Click here for a printable pdf version of the "Portrait"

If you feel the call to explore spiritual companionship/guidance training yourself, we'd love to chat with you. We are already accepting applications for the 2020-2022 training program which begins in August. You can contact us here. 

Friends, we are pleased to announce the release of a new SDI (Spiritual Directors International) podcast featuring SGTI cofounders, Jan and Jeanette, on "Spiritual Fluidity." Please take a listen as they are interviewed by SDI's Matt Whitney. This conversation may speak to your heart, especially if you are a spiritually independent person, or someone who companions people who are inclined this way. 

Here is how Matt introduced us in the podcast: 

Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashak are longtime members of SDI, they are spiritual directors, and founders of a unique training program called the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute – which educates and equips people to be spiritual directors and companions.

This episode is Part 1, with a focus on what it looks like to be a “spiritual independent” or “spiritually fluid”. It doesn’t mean you have no faith tradition (though it might), but in your life’s journey to commune with mystery and the ground of all being, you may find that no one particular tradition has all the answers you seek. What is perhaps most true is that each person’s spiritual journey is unique, and not easily identified by a way of thinking or an ideology. Jan and Jeanette both have been on this journey personally and vocationally.

Part 2 will premier next week. 

You can listen to (and download) the podcast on these channels: 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dt3O436sjqzfbPwPvJ9dO

Podbean:sdiencounters.podbean.com/?fbclid=IwAR2HV2b0rqlcg13FTwZU8M3OXyjXDUvu4yk-8aQITyJLExcd_EOF4HgF9LQ

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sdi-encounters/id1451231142?mt=2&fbclid=IwAR23dNyG5b-uGelb0qHJbJ3wwCwz1wiCs1iU3r23QR2OR0CJZJUMFB4LIC4

SGTI is pleased to announce a wonderful opportunity for you to learn about what it means to be "interspiritually" present as you companion others. 

an interactive, day retreat will be offered by Drs. Jeanette Banashak and Janice Lundy on Saturday, Sept. 15 at Dominican Center in Grand Rapids, MI. 
We hope you will join in. 
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This is the same presentation made by Jeanette and Jan in an all-day institute at the recent Spiritual Directors International Conference in St. Louis in April. 
​Details below. 

As spiritual companions, how do we sit with others who have different practices and beliefs, yet similar longings for connectedness?

In this full-day seminar on spiritual companionship, we will:

• Begin with recognition and understanding of the Perennial Tradition and what our place is within it
• Learn who the spiritually independent is
• Learn tools for contingent communication
• Practice with others using Pure Presence® - an interspiritual model of non-judgmental, compassionate listening and presence
• Explore the relationship and interconnectedness between our identity within our particular tradition and other religious/spiritual/ethical traditions

As we discuss the major shifts in this interspiritual age, we will consider how our religious/spiritual identity intersects with our companions.

This program is open to spiritual companions, spiritual directors, chaplains and ministers in healthcare settings, ministry leaders, and related spiritual companionship roles.

Cost: $85; $65 for spiritual directors actively practicing at Dominican Center
(use code "Present" for this price)
Price includes continental breakfast, lunch, and materials.
Participants encouraged to bring a comfortable cushion.

Date: Saturday 09/15/2018
Time: 8:45am - 3:00pm
Register: dominicancenter.com/checkout/

Dr. Jeanette Banashak, co-founder and co-director of SGTI, has recently had an essay published by Spiritual Director's International for their website/blog. "Spiritual Companionship and Emotions" lays out a noteworthy method of working with personal emotions which can be of benefit to spiritual guides.

"No matter how, where, when, or by whom we were raised, scholars agree that there are 5 emotions that we all have in common: enjoyment, sadness, disgust, fear, and anger. 

As a spiritual guide, I am constantly looking and listening for clues that help me understand what a seeker is feeling. At the same time, I am listening for clues in myself that let me know what I am feeling.
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This self-listening and self-awareness grows as I learn which emotions and conscious feelings I am experiencing in any given moment." (cont'd)
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Read the post in its entirety here: 

​http://www.sdiworld.org/blog/spiritual-companionship-emotions