INTRO TO SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
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PROGRAM LEADERSHIP

Rev. Dr. John Mabry
INTERFAITH SPIRITUAL DIRECTION CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
HELPING PEOPLE DISCOVER AND GROW A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF BEING HUMAN
2023 Spiritual Direction Cohort:
Applications due February 1st, 2023
One on–site Learning Retreat May 1 – 5
Six three–day meetings on Zoom
Global Spiritual Traditions 1 August 4 – 6
Global Spiritual Traditions 2 October 6 – 8
SD–only January 12 – 14, 2024
ChI Culture & Foundations February 16 – 18
SD–only April 12 – 14
This program is designed for those who feel called to a private practice in personal, one-on-one spiritual direction, and who anticipate working with clients from a variety of faith traditions. It is also well-suited for those who intend to do group spiritual direction, and for those of other helping professions who want to add a spiritual guidance perspective to their current work (such as psychotherapists, social workers, health practitioners, ministers and chaplains). Upon successful completion of the program, participants are qualified to provide spiritual direction in the context of their choosing.
This offering is designed to inspire, nurture and educate those who are called to serve as Spiritual Directors in an Interfaith capacity in our increasingly diverse world. Our innovative course features a combination of the study of world religions, an exploration of personal spirituality, and spiritual direction skills… all in a creatively infused and experiential context.
Core Curriculum
NON-DIRECTIVE APPROACH
Our Interfaith Spiritual Direction Certificate Program teaches a non-directive Interfaith approach. We do not believe in telling people how to think, what to believe, how they are supposed to feel, or what to do in any specific circumstances. We believe that the person who comes to us for direction is the expert on his or her own spiritual life, and given time and prayerful or meditative reflection, can discern what is best. Thus, we teach skills to help people discern their own deep inner wisdom and to live with a deeper sense of connection and alignment with Spirit.
ORIENTATION OF PROGRAM
The techniques and concepts taught in this program rely on there being a Divine reality or a larger Self. How each student experiences and names this sacred presence will be quite diverse. Some students will call it “God,” or “Brahman,” “Buddha Nature,” or many other names, but however it is conceived of some acknowledgement and engagement with this Divine reality is essential. Students who do not believe in any Divine reality may be able to engage if they can rest in and trust a transcendent concept of Life seeking wholeness and harmony in all things. Students who do not believe in any Divine reality whatsoever will find this a difficult and frustrating program, since much of our practice depends on a deep trust, connection, and reliance on a Divine reality. If you have concerns about this, please contact the program director to discuss whether the program is right for you.

“ChI offers you an opportunity to become more fully connected with your spiritual sense and whatever you may call your higher power, and you leave the program with tools that you can use to help you on your way. And because it is interfaith, it gives you a sense of confidence and a sense of know-how and knowledge about the direction to go, and it just connects you with a platform from where to start. It gives you a sense of home, a place to belong, because you develop new relationships with people that you can call upon that you didn’t have before, and it doesn’t matter what they may call their higher power because the language is universal. I just love everybody at ChI . It is an amazing experience.”
AREAS OF STUDY
Spiritual Direction (SD) Skills | The Spiritual Experience | World Religions | Personal Development & Integration |
---|---|---|---|
Definitions, varieties and history of SD | God’s presence in daily life | Native Traditions | Discerning one’s call |
Cultivating Holy Listening | Spiritual Life Stories | Taoism | Rules & Ethics: Boundaries, confidentiality, and self-care |
Directive and non-directive SD | Images of the Divine & their impact upon the spiritual life | Buddhism | Generational Issues in SD |
Methods of Spiritual Discernment | Faith Styles & their impact on the SD process | Hinduism | Sexual Issues in SD |
SD with the ill, Dying & Bereaved | Dark Night of the Soul | Islam | Establishing a business practice of SD |
Dreamwork for Guiding Non-Religious People | Varieties of prayer and devotional disciplines | Zoroastrianism | |
Guiding Non-Religious People | Addiction and the Longing for Transcendence | Judaism | |
Group SD and Group Supervision | The archetypal spiritual journey | Christianity | |
Relationship, Generational, and Sexual Issues |
REQUIREMENTS
Program Structure
In-Person (on Zoom) Instruction
For each module weekend, students will sign on to Zoom each day for intensive learning
modules that focus on practical skills, spiritual direction competencies and working with people of
particular faith traditions. Although each module is different, all of them contain elements of
spiritual direction, spirituality, and personal development. During each module a team of core and
guest faculty guides students in an integral learning experience, incorporating theoretical,
practical, and creative elements. Class content in the modules flows between didactic and
experiential artistic and reflective modalities.
Independent Study
In addition to intensive learning modules, students are required to participate in online classes in
the three to six weeks before the module attendance on Zoom. They also work independently on
reading, practicum, and spiritual practices. They communicate with faculty and classmates via
Moodle, email and/or social media.
Educational Approach
ChI ’s curriculum has been designed to meet the growing need for inter-religious understanding as a tool for serving the diversity of our world today. Our educational approach is one of multi-modal education, always reaching for the balance of engaging the body as well as the mind and spirit, so that our students may learn to their greatest capacity, while having useful skills and tools with which to serve others.
In addition to recognizing the varieties of faiths and culture in our student body, the curriculum is designed based on the knowledge that individuals learn and receive information in a variety of ways. Renowned educator Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, identified a variety of styles through which individuals learn.
Over our years of teaching, we have discovered what Gardner calls “multiple Intelligences,” and what we call “ways of knowing.” Some of us know the world through movement or singing; these are kinesthetic or musical learners. We may know the Divine through walking or singing—or, like the Sufi Dervishes, as we turn or dance as a form of prayer. ChI has found that the most effective education begins in the cultural comfort zone of didactic presentation and providing foundational context, as a strong framework for study and understanding. Subsequently we build on this foundation, weaving all the elements of our program together through experiential and creative learning modalities.
This educational methodology of interweaving promotes an exciting learning environment and encourages individual ways of knowing—as well as serving as a foundation for understanding differences in the ways that others come to know themselves and their relationships to family, community, and Divinity.