A Five-Session Webinar
Seizing the Moment
It’s time to break open the boxes around our calling and extend our hearts to a hurting world.
Ask yourself these questions about your spiritual companionship practice:
- Are you turning away more clients than you can serve due to demand? Or is there space in your practice to serve more people?
- When you talk about spiritual direction or companionship at a family gathering, do people know what you're talking about? Are people curious and/or excited about your work? Or are they uninterested or even suspicious of what you do?
- If you tell someone you just met that you are a spiritual director, what is their response? Do they know immediately what that is, and how it's of benefit?
- Consider the average age of the clients you serve - is it over 40? 50? 60? Are younger people regularly inquiring about working with you?
- Where are people going to nurture their spiritual lives? Evidence shows that religious affiliation and church/temple/synagogue attendance are declining, but the need for spiritual community is increasing.
- All of us, and younger generations in particular, are experiencing multiple crises (racism, climate change, COVID and future pandemics, political upheaval, economic disparity, to name a few). Do you believe people are generally equipped to handle these challenges from a spiritual perspective?
- In our time there is increasing loneliness, depression, and despair. Is there a concurrent increasing desire and demand for more spiritual direction and companionship? And in this spirit...
- Are we doing all we can, as spiritual directors and companions, to be available and of service to people across generations, intergenerationally, in this historically ripe moment for the awakening and flourishing of all living beings?
If you notice any curiosity around these questions, this webinar might be for you...
This webinar is a gateway for you to explore more inclusive approaches to spiritual companionship, to offer welcome to folks from all walks of life, and to expand our own definitions of spirituality. Let’s explore together the changing landscape of spirituality, transcend boundaries, and imagine together new ways of offering the profound healing of our calling.
Dates
September 27, October 4, 11, 18, 25, 2023
11AM – 12:30PM PSTÂ
2PM – 3:30PM ESTÂ
Duration
7 hours (total)
Webinar will be recorded.
Diane Millis
Tara Owens
Rev. Dr. Felicia Black
Martin Jiminez
Laurie Wevers
Gabriela De Golia
with Matt Whitney
+ YOU!
Committed to Inclusivity
SDI is committed to keeping its educational offerings affordable and accessible, and we strive for inclusivity and to remove any barriers to participation. SDI Members receive increased discounts, and we encourage anyone needing financial assistance to apply.
As spiritual directors and companions, we’ve dedicated our lives and service to the awakening of all beings everywhere, including ourselves.
However, the truth is there are still barriers when it comes to helping others understand the benefits of spiritual companionship.
Those who come to us as clients already have some sense and confidence talking about their spiritual journeys. What about all those for whom the notion of spirituality can evoke images of rigidity, exclusivity, or even skepticism? For those unacquainted with our calling, our practice may be considered unserious, or inadvertently associated with a spiritual or religious institutional paradigm that they mistrust, and our narratives may fall flat.
Meanwhile, generations of people are moving through the world craving solace in an uncertain world, seeking connection and community where traditional spaces for this have dissolved.
We know the need for spiritual accompaniment, but we often default to prescribing our own medicine, without fully recognizing the ailments. Indeed, what we perceive as ailments may in fact be opportunities for us to listen, and if need be, change how we offer support. The role of spiritual directors and companions has never been more crucial, and yet our self-created boundaries often inhibit our ability to break through and be part of the transformational help we so desire to offer.
It’s time to break open the boxes around our calling and extend our hearts to a hurting world.
This webinar is a gateway for you to explore more inclusive approaches to spiritual companionship, to offer welcome to folks from all walks of life, and to expand our own definitions of spirituality. Let’s explore together the changing landscape of spirituality, transcend boundaries, and imagine together new ways of offering the profound healing of our calling.
We will learn from a diverse group of presenters how we might offer ourselves in service such that we invite, and accompany, the vast spectrum of human experience, better acknowledging the spiritual fluidity amongst us.
We will create new narratives for our work in the world. We will seek to unshackle our practices from labels and language, that we might better align with the contemporary heart’s yearning for meaning and connection.
As life-long learners, we should be continually asking the question - how do we invite more people into awakening and transformation? How do we help many others see that their lives - the joys and sufferings and everything in between - have deep meaning and are part of a greater story? Come join us for a five-part webinar in which we gather – in safety and curiosity – to ask this question for today, now, in this moment.
We are bringing presenters in our community with hearts for emerging generations and the dawning spiritual paradigms to facilitate a five part webinar series, in which we invite YOU, the SDI Community, to participate and play a role in continuing to explore new possibilities and new frontiers for our calling.
In This Webinar Series, You Will:
- Broaden your understanding of spiritual direction to include diverse perspectives and new possibilities beyond the 1/1 client format.
- Rethink how we understand the spiritual needs of all kinds of people, and those who claim no spirituality.
- Imagine new possibilities, new frontiers, and new containers for offering our service to others.
- Discover how we can offer spiritual accompaniment in ways that are accessible and relevant to individuals from all backgrounds.
- Explore new techniques to provide compassionate support in many kinds of situations – from the stranger at the bus stop to your in-laws at holiday meals.
- Forge connections with other like-hearted spiritual companions, cultivating a network of support and growth.
Sessions
Session I (September 27): Diane M. Millis PhD: Accompanying Young Adults Through Their Spiritual Terrain
Session II (October 4): Rev. Dr. Felicia Black and Gabriela De Golia: New Contemplatives and the Wisdom of Emerging Generations
Session III (October 11): Tara Owens: Supporting the Role of the Spiritual Director When the Walls Come Down
Session IV (October 18): Martin Jiminez: Mentoring and the Spirituality of Young People
Session V (October 25): Laurie Wevers: Spiritual Direction as Community
- Participants from all spiritual traditions and orientations are welcome in this webinar series as are those with all levels of spiritual experience.
- Each session runs 75 to 90 minutes.
- All sessions will be recorded and be viewable for at least 12 months after the last session goes live.
When
The webinar series will run 4 consecutive Wednesdays: September 27, October 4, 11, 18, and 25th 2023Â – Â 11 AM Seattle/Los Angeles, 1 PM Chicago, 2 PM New York, 11 PM London; Thursdays September 28, October 5, 12, 19, and 26th: 6 AM Hong Kong, 9 AM Sydney, Australia.
Find your own local time here.
But if that timing doesn’t work, you can enjoy the webinar any time you like.
Each session is recorded so you can watch at your convenience.
Presenters
Diane M. Millis PhD
Diane Millis serves as a teacher, author, spiritual director, and retreat facilitator. Her most recent book, Re-Creating a Life, published by SDI Press and named one of the best spiritual books of 2019, introduces approaches to deep listening and story tending. Diane aspires to cultivate spaces for belonging, inclusion, and equity through story. For more information, visit dianemillis.com and on Instagram @dianemmillis.
Tara Owens
Tara Owens is the executive director of Anam Cara Ministries and co-director of Together in the Mystery, leads the Anam Cara Apprenticeship, a relationally-delimited spiritual direction training, and teaches rabbinic-style Scripture study groups. The author of Embracing the Body and At Play in God’s Creation, you can connect with her around supervision or anything else.
Martin Jiminez
Martin Jimenez, MDiv is the Program Director for Pivot Northwest, a nonprofit that empowers young adults in faith communities around the Pacific Northwest.Â
Rev. Felicia Black
Rev. Dr. Felicia Black is an ordained Interfaith/Interspiritual minister and professor of education. Her work focuses on the identity development of women from BIPOC communities. She most recently facilitated the 2023 New Contemplatives Cohort.
Gabriela De Golia
works at the intersection of spirituality and collective liberation, supporting people in honoring the divinity within and beyond to help usher a new world into being. Gabriela provides spiritual care at thebetwixtandbetween.com.
Laurie Wevers
Laurie Wevers is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and spiritual director living outside Washington, DC and works with clients at the intersection of religion and trauma. Laurie provides care and counseling at Willow Tree Wisdom and Therapy Services.
Matt Whitney
Matt Whitney is the Creative Director for SDI and will be the Zoom MC for this webinar.
Additional Information
- Participants from all spiritual traditions and orientations are welcome in this webinar series, as are those with all levels of spiritual experience.
- We need your voice! This is a fully participatory series, where we will invite lots of dialog and sharing.
- Each session will run 75-90 minutes. We understand that the timing of the seminar will not be convenient in every time zone on the planet. For those who have trouble making this time, a recorded copy of each session will be made available to all those who sign up.
- CEU credits are available for all those who participate. SDI will provide a certificate of completion for self-reporting to agencies. More information can be found here: continuing education units (CEUs).
- Scholarships are available to anyone facing financial hardship. Please apply here.
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