SDI Educational Events

Spiritual Directors International provides educational programs, publications, and contemplative practices to support spiritual companionship and compassionate listening. The three-hour Saturday workshops held during Cultivating Compassion Educational Events will feature international presenters who add wisdom to SDI’s global learning community. Take the time to immerse yourself in a topic that will capture your interest and engage your learning.

Saturday, April 21
Workshops: 3 hours
(Choose one and one alternative)

The percent (%) figures following workshop descriptions indicate the relative percentage of presentation, discussion, and experiential activity.

S1. Being Contemplative in a Digital World (Sr. Kathleen Bryant, RSC) How does technology enhance our connections with each other and the world? Compassion can inform our use of technology. Look at how the use of technology can both enhance and distract from our spiritual awareness and growth. 50% 25% 25%

S2. Healing through Broken Dreams (Rev. Brenda Buckwell, DMin) When life is shattered and dreams feel lost, what is left? Step toward cultivating compassion beyond the verbiage of peace into a deeply felt solace of divine healing. “Hands on” creative arts opportunities will provide a fertile foundation for divine healing to burst forth from the shards of brokenness. There are no mobility requirements, no previous art experience necessary, simply desire to experience techniques expanding spiritual direction and healing into divine creative possibility. 33% 33% 33%

S3. Tools to Help Map Relationships for Spiritual Director and Spiritual Directee (Rev. Michael H. Crosby, OFMCap) Discover how all relationships constellate around power dynamics (often unrecognized) that will be ultimately grounded in care or control. When based in unconditioned care, trust develops in a way that facilitates the possibility of compassion. Learn about the dynamics of trust that are necessary to grow relationships in which compassion will be inevitable. 40% 40% 20%

S4. Spiritual Care for Spiritual Care Givers: The Blessing of Group Spiritual Direction (Roslyn G. Weiner, PhD and Ann Kline) Our spiritual vocations begin with fiery commitment, yet may devolve into spiritual barrenness. Group spiritual direction (GSD) can help keep the spark of our vocational passion alive. Drawing on years of experience facilitating groups of spiritual guides, participants will experience the process of GSD and gain understanding they can use in forming groups in their home communities. 33% 33% 33%

S5.  Peace Before Passing: Compassionate Care and Spiritual Healing During Illness and at the End of Life  (Michele C. Tamaren, M.A.).  Serious illness or an end of-life journey may herald the blessings of wholeness, peace, and deep healing. Explore compassionate care, holy listening, and keen awareness of fears, needs, and longings in people who are ill and dying. Learn how to gently support their spiritual quest on the path to peace with God, self, and others: opening to the arms of spirit. 50% 25% 25%

S6. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Cultivating Compassion for Men (Noel Giblett) Learn, through a process of reflection, the predicaments that many men face in the Western world, the possibilities for working with and relating to men, and the preparation required of a spiritual director in order to work effectively with men. General principles will be offered and specific applications developed along with songs, poems, and readings to resource the journey. 33% 33% 33%

S7. Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction (Dr. Carrie La Jeunesse, DVM, CT, CCFE) We do good, valuable, and joyful work. But those same efforts that can bring such satisfaction can also exact a toll on our overall wellbeing, diminish our effectiveness, and contribute to ethical lapses. In this combined didactic and experiential workshop, participants will learn about compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction and develop both understanding and tools for minimizing the former and maximizing the latter. Be prepared to come away encouraged and renewed. 50% 20% 30%

S8. Four Movements of Grace; Four Faces of Compassion (Sandra L. Lommasson, MA) Compassionate presence looks, sounds, and feels different for each of the primary movements of Spirit in life. Necessary tasks include welcoming betrayer as friend; holding impasse, dilemma, and the excruciating; lingering in joy and being unmade by Love; and willing engagement of public learning through action in the world. Discerning the movements is crucial to effective companionship. We will explore the four faces of compassionate presence evoked by different phases of the journey. 45% 30% 25%

S9. Sowing Seeds of Love, Reaping Blossoms of Compassion (Rev. Dr. Ruqaiyah Nabe, RN, DMin) Discuss, explore, and share ways of cultivating compassion for self, others, animals, and the Earth that can and will assist us as practitioners serving in roles of minister, spiritual director, caretaker, and fellow human being. There will be references to holy scriptures, sacred texts, and quotes from spiritual teachers and group exercises.

S10. Spiritual Direction and Narrative (Dr. Janet K. Ruffing, RSM, PhD) Stories are the connective tissue between culture and nature, self and other, life and death, that sew the worlds together, and in telling, the soul quickens and comes alive. Explore a narrative approach to spiritual direction and of cultivating compassion. Discuss the intrinsically storied process of spiritual direction, its significance in both cross -cultural and contemporary contexts, metaphors of the self, the benefits of telling our sacred stories and recent understandings related to the autobiographical self who tells a sacred story in spiritual direction. 66% 16% 17%

S11. Out of Words: A Creative Journey (Andrew Rudd and Wendy Rudd) A creative and practical workshop in two parts, starting with simple mark-making as a form of contemplative play—a journey out of words. We will explore how this can be an opportunity to express what comes from the non-verbal side of the brain. Then we will allow new insights to emerge in responsive writing—a journey back into words. “Words must be purified in a redemptive silence if they are to bear the message of peace.”—Pierre Lacout 30% 20% 50%

S12. Opening to Receptivity and Spiritual Experience: Using the Enneagram as Grace-filled Guide (Sandra Smith, MDiv) “What is your greatest obstacle to your deepest prayer?” Witness and experience the richness of the Enneagram through dyads, type groups, and panels of people sharing their life experiences as a particular Enneagram type. The Narrative Traditionof the Enneagram brings our humanity alive as we bear sacred witness to the life stories of panelists. Featured types will represent each of the three centers of intelligence: mental faculties, emotional intelligence, and body wisdom. 40% 30% 30%

S13. Cultivating Compassion While Embracing the Mystery of Multiculturalism in Spiritual Direction (Carol Ann Fournier, MS, NCC and Fr. Kevin Hunt, OCSO) Compassion is deeply immersed in the spiritual teachings of all faiths. Engaging in authentic and honest interfaith dialog and spiritual direction while embracing Mystery is an art cultivated by conscious reflection and intentional awareness. The presenters share their wisdom gained by participation in interreligious monastic dialogue as well as interfaith spiritual direction formation. You are presented with a paradigm for harmony and mindful approaches to cultivating the heart of compassion in a multicultural world. 33% 33% 33%