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 Accompaniment & Spiritual Conversation

Through my own life history, my therapy, training, and reading, I see spirituality as a profoundly important aspect of being human. Spiritual concerns can be expressed as questions about and hunger for life's meanings and purposes, whether or not we hold formal religious beliefs. Such questions often come to the fore at times of crisis, stress, change, or loss.

I have completed modules in Spiritual Care at Glasgow University, though these are not formal qualifications in Spiritual Accompaniment. I offer accompaniment to people who neither need nor seek therapy but who want to give themselves regular space and time to reflect on what directions their lives are taking and why, and to look at what nourishes and sustains them to live more fully and meaningfully. Accompaniment as I practise it seeks - through person-centred principles - to deepen and extend a person's spiritual life and exploration. It can be an invaluable resource both for those beginning - or rediscovering - their 'spiritual journey', as well as those who have long walked a spiritual path.

​At a time of increasing secularisation, it can he hard to know where and how to explore spiritual questions and the search for meaning. Traditional Western Christian approaches, such as Ignatian and Franciscan spirituality continue to offer their centuries-old traditions in contemporary ways. I am very happy myself to accompany people who identify with Christian faith and am also happy to make referral to accompaniers with specific expertise in such traditions. Referral can also be to non-Christian spiritual resources.

For an increasing number of people however, traditional religious language and practice - Christian or otherwise - is unfamiliar and unattractive and my approach to accompaniment may be particularly helpful to them. This person-centred form of accompaniment may be of particular help to those who:
  • hunger for a greater spiritual reality in life; 
  • want the freedom to voice and explore doubts, questions, and uncertainties without fear of judgement; 
  • are recovering from painful life experiences which have left them doubting or questioning their spirituality;
  • are seeking to recover from the experience of being 'spiritually abused' in controlling and severe faith communities;
  • want to engage in thoughtful, open-minded, spiritual dialogue.

You may find this video by Stephen Wright, who has written extensively about spirituality, healthcare, and human development, interesting. He touches on various themes relevant to this kind of accompaniment.

Also, two articles below by Brian Thorne (former Professor of Counselling, and a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral) may give you a feel for how I understand and aim to offer accompaniment:
St. Benedict listening
L'Abbaye de la Pierre qui Vire, France.


​'Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.' 
Rainer Maria Rilke