Difference Between Therapy and Spiritual Direction

The Difference Between Therapy and Spiritual Direction

“Converted anxiety is hope. Anxiety is dreadful expectation; hope is expectant desire. They are like cousins to each other. Pray for the conversion of your fretful anxiety into promising hope. If you are anxious just now, you are almost already hopeful.” —Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE, from “Brother, Give Us a Word,” Society of Saint John the Evangelist.

There is sometimes confusion between the ministries of a therapist and a spiritual director. We learn early in spiritual direction training that a therapist helps people deal with life on life’s terms.

A spiritual director is a caretaker of the soul, one’s connection to God. Sometimes leading people to realize their connection to God can help them deal with life on life’s terms; and often learning to live with life can reconnect us to God in a new way. Becoming the person God created us to be—living a connected life—can sometimes make our path even more difficult, more challenging.

A spiritual director will listen to what is going on in a person’s life; but he or she will be looking for the God connection at every pause. A therapist will be looking at every pause for ways to lead the person to find a solution or to deal with pain. A spiritual director focuses on one thing: seeing God at work in that person’s life.

My favorite part of being a pediatric radiologist was caring for babies. When I meet with someone for spiritual direction, I like to imagine that person’s soul as a newborn they have offered over to me for a brief time, to be cared for and nurtured and then gently returned to them wrapped in a warm blanket—resting and smiling in peace as they leave.

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Peterson: Prayer

Peterson: Prayer

“I began to comprehend the obvious: that the central and shaping language of the church’s life has always been its prayer language. Out of that recognition a conviction grew: that my primary educational task as pastor was to teach people to pray.” —Eugene Peterson, “What Is My Educational Task?” in The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction (Eerdmans, 1993).

The well-known author of the popular modern Bible translation, The Message, reveals that his interpretation of the most important ministry of a pastor is being a spiritual director, teaching others how to pray. He is not downgrading teaching about faith or biblical writings or the history of God’s people; but he calls pastors to be spiritual directors, returning to the wisdom of ancient spiritual leaders who spent time training people to connect to God and God’s love through various forms of prayer.

Peterson introduces us to making friends with our ancient forebears, beginning with Gregory of Nyssa and Teresa of Avila. He challenges us to learn the language of intimacy, love, and relationship.

He reminds us of two great mystical traditions of prayer, the kataphatic and the apophatic, one praying with our eyes open, the second praying with our eyes shut. Kataphatic prayer turns to icons, symbols, ritual, and incense, affirming the gifts of creation as a way to the Creator. Apophatic prayer calls for emptiness—a mind that is cleared of thoughts and images until one experiences the silence and the nearness of God. The two ways of prayer can be mixed, and we will find one or the other more meaningful at different times in our lives.

This former professor of spiritual theology, however, reminds us that the Psalms were written by people of God with their eyes open.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Parker Palmer: Sanctuary and Sacred Spaces

Parker Palmer: Seeking Sanctuary in Our Own Sacred Spaces

“Sanctuary is wherever I find safe space to regain my bearings, reclaim my soul, heal my wounds, and return to the world as a wounded healer. It’s not merely about finding shelter from the storm: it’s about spiritual survival. Today, seeking sanctuary is no more optional for me than church attendance was as a child.” —Parker Palmer, “Seeking Sanctuary in Our Own Sacred Spaces” in “On Being with Krista Tippett” (9/14/2016).

Our news is full of churches, towns, cities who are providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation—dreamers, many who have been working and living and raising families in our country for years. They sought a better life for themselves and their families and now fear losing all that is sacred to them.

Many who come to spiritual directors are also seeking a sanctuary for their sacred spaces, a chance to revive a spiritual life that once had been vibrant but now may seem lost. They had decided to live boldly and follow a road less traveled; but they have come to a spiritual fork in the road, or perhaps a dead end. They fear they have lost the spiritual life they once had. They are now on a path that seems uncharted.

Our ministry as spiritual friends is to be a sanctuary for the souls of those who seek our trust and guidance, especially at times when they feel isolated from their God connection. It can be a lonely time. We must treat as sacred this precious part of all people, that presence of God within each of us that is sometimes nearly undetectable. We must never lose sight of the privilege or the awesomeness of being asked to care for the soul of another, especially at a vulnerable time in that person’s life.

This is a holy trust, a rare chance to make a difference—just as our churches in years past were and in years to come will remain places of sanctuary. I am told that the red doors of some of our churches are an ancient sign of sanctuary within. When we meet with a spiritual friend, may we imagine that we are sitting together just within the protection of red doors.

We also are called to relate to other seekers in the world who need a sanctuary at this time of their life—in prayer and in person—remembering that we all are seekers, and we too are on an undocumented, uncharted path. Our hope is that we will have the courage to stand, sit, sleep, work, eat, and pray beside all who need sanctuary within the red doors of our churches, as well as within our minds and hearts.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.