Spiritual Direction Supervision

reFresh | Paula Gamble-Grant | Spiritual Direction

In Spiritual Direction Supervision, we take a long, loving look at one particular session for the sake of the directee. Supervision is both contemplative, and consultative, leaning into God's invitations to grow and deepen in the heart and art of Spiritual Direction.

One of the unique things Paula offers is an integration of somatic experiencing (polyvagal/nervous system regulation) and Inner Relationship Focusing—as you learn to integrate a holistic stance of direction with your people.

What is Supervision?

Spiritual directors seek supervision as they attempt to grow in their ability to notice and respond to God’s presence during their spiritual direction practice. Supervisors mentor, teach, and consult with spiritual directors as they grow in the ability to:

  • Identify what opens them to God’s presence during sessions and what distracts them.

  • Perceive and better understand instances in which they hold space for directees to encounter God and those in which they distract directees from doing so.

  • Offer spiritual direction ethically and with integrity.

  • Celebrate their strengths.

  • Increase their felt sense of engagement with all the dimensions of their own experience as they offer direction: thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and intuition.

  • Draw into the spiritual direction conversation all dimensions of their directees’ experience: thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and intuitions.

  • Perceive God’s presence and invitation in every arena of human experience: intrapersonal, interpersonal, communal/structural, and environmental—and to invite their directees to do the same.

  • Develop contemplative practices that help them

    • Ready themselves for direction.

    • Honor their own boundaries during direction.

    • Sit with themselves in grounded presence after direction.

  • Hone skills that need improvement.

  • Gain further understanding about the ways in which they relate to directees.

  • Think about questions that arise regarding the nature and practice of spiritual direction.

  • Consult with a more experienced spiritual directors as needed.

Note:  Spiritual Directors International’s Code of Ethics mandates that all spiritual directors participate in supervision.

Whether you're a student in Spiritual Direction training just starting out, or well along the way, we can offer you unhurried space to continue to hone the heart and art of your practice. Paula has been practicing Spiritual Direction for about 20 years and received her Supervision training through Together in the Mystery, in partnership with San Francisco Theological Seminary.

COST: $100-$150 for an individual 50 minute session; Peer Group Supervision $75/session (paying for three sessions at a time).

Need a Supervisor?

“I experience Paula to be so genuine and curious and invested. Through her guidance, I was invited into new ways of welcoming myself, my soul, my true essence. And I will treasure the tools I was given that will keep me good company as I continue to seek after God, and to seek after my true self.”

—Kathy Douglass