Spiritual Directors

What is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual direction is a ministry that helps people bring their whole selves to God, wrestle with God, and seek intimacy with God. In spiritual direction, we meet with a skilled companion who walks beside us on our spiritual journey, listening to our sacred stories, and helping us discern God’s wisdom for our lives.

 Upon first glance, spiritual direction looks a lot like some form of psychotherapy: two people sit in a room and talk for an hour. But that is where the similarities end. In therapy, we focus directly on our emotional and interpersonal lives; in spiritual direction we are focused directly on our spiritual lives. A skilled spiritual director listens carefully, asks a lot of questions, and points out things he or she notices that we might have missed, supporting our spiritual deepening and unfolding.

 Spiritual direction is always confidential. It is also non-dogmatic and non-coercive—the client is always the expert on his or her spiritual life. But often we are too close to our own path to see our own growth, or how we are tripping ourselves up, and we often don’t notice larger patterns. A spiritual director can notice these things and point them out to us, and can also confront us when we’re just fooling ourselves! (This is easier to do than most of us would like to admit.)

 For many people, it is the most important step they ever take in becoming truly serious about walking a spiritual path. For those of us who have tried it, is has become an essential part of our journeys. Why not try a couple of sessions, and see what a difference it can make in your spiritual life, too?

Local UCC Spiritual Directors

Barbara Broadbent, Aptos CA 408-393-3751 | bbbent@comcast.net

Rev. Thom Longino, San Francisco CA 415-504-5069 | phrancis.day@gmail.com

Rev. Daniel L. Hatch, Terra Linda, Marin County, CA rev.hatch@gmail.com | 415 888-2996 (h) | 808 284-3372 (c)

Rev. Nancy McKay, Oakland, CA ndmckay2@comcast.net | 510-323-5578 (c)

Rev. Joellynn Monahan, Oakland, CA theSpiralWay.org

Rev. Kevin Omi, Redwood City, CA Walking Together in the Presence.org  | 510-693-9998 (c) | revkevinomi@gmail.com

Rev. Curran Reichert, Sonoma, CA vivoudou@aol.com | 415-525-1620 (c)

Rev. Jeff Spencer, Fremont, CA 510-797-0895 | jeff@nilesdiscoverychurch.org