COMPANION & COMMUNION
Listening + Coaching
My approach with clients to the attentive listening and wise witness-bearing that all of us need from a seasoned companion in life's more acute transitional seasons has some built-in fluidity. This allows our time spent together in conversation to dip fully into the resources of Spiritual Direction (a.k.a. Holy Listening) or Coaching (a forward-looking creative partnership), or both. We aren't bound to one form.
Read more below.
​
What is Spiritual Direction? A contemplative practice of active, intentional listening and co-discerning historically called Holy Listening, its gift and aim is to support a deeper intimacy with God through discovery of God’s current presence and movement, even (and especially) in the ordinary. Together, we listen for God’s voice and invitation in your life. And through conversation, questions, quiet moments, and reflection, a deeper awareness of God’s reality and grace can emerge. This "Holy Listening" is the spacious, unhurried work of growing in experience and confidence of God’s love for you. What can you expect? * Time with a spiritual companion committed to listening and personal soul-care * Support for your current life season * Restful space for discernment * Encouragement to develop and practice meaningful spiritual practices and ways of being * Confidentiality * Listening for the intersections of your unique life story with God’s story * Regular sessions with periodic reviews What can you not expect? * Problem solving * An agenda * Therapy
What is Coaching? A partnership in a thought-provoking, personalized, and creative process. An In the Seam coaching relationship encourages purposeful and courageous movement toward an opportunity or new way of being in your life that, ultimately, flows from you becoming more and more who you’re made to be— for you, those around you, and the world. In the Seam coaching engages your whole personhood, including the emotional, relational, and vocational components of who you are. As the client, you can invite spiritual components to our conversations, or not. Coaching is designed to meet you where you are, as you are. As you would from any coach, be prepared for invitation to focus and notice and adjust and implement! This is part of how you grow and become more grounded in your own beauty, strength, and potential. A coach will be completely honest with you, as part of building up your own ability to more clearly see the ways you show up in all the spaces. What can you expect? We’ll work together to understand where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there— and who you want to be through it. You will grow in self-awareness, clarify your core values, process grief and disappointment, uncover motivations, and make changes in your life that will help you improve your relationships, work, and overall wellbeing. How is coaching different from therapy? While therapy typically wants to dig into your past formative experiences, healing pain from dysfunction and conflict in order to improve overall psychological and emotional wellness, coaching focuses on your current reality and future hopes in order to support positive, personal, and professional growth. Both coaching and therapy are extremely valuable and can be utilized together or in succession.
