GROUP SUPERVISION FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS (SP-8275)

The process of supervision leads us to grow in our awareness of ourselves, our ability to be present with our directees, and our capacity to offer our directees the space to encounter themselves, others, God, and the world. Supervision, therefore, is key to the continuing growth of spiritual directors not only in their initial training program but also after the program. In this course, students (spiritual directors) will increase their own self-awareness and freedom, which will allow them to create a safer space and to be more fully present with their directees. Through presenting their spiritual direction cases in a peer group, they will notice their initial reactions after a spiritual session, explore and uncover their deeper feelings, and embrace the reasons underneath those feelings with other group members. Students will also learn how to read classic Christian books with an inner attentiveness to the movement of God's Spirit in their outer and inner lives and as spiritual directors. As Henri Nouwen writes about spiritual reading, "With that attentiveness we will allow God to read us and to explain what we are truly about." This spiritual reading for understanding the writings of mystics in the Christian history of spirituality will shape students' dispositions and contemplative inner space as they let themselves be read by the Holy Spirit. Auditors with Faculty Permission. This course is available for 1.5-3 units. [20 max enrollment; Auditors with faculty permission]