Spiritual Direction

Julia specialises in spiritual direction training and supervision, pastoral supervision and vocational and life coaching. She is the author of Listening To Your Life: Creatively Discerning Your Calling (2016).

See Julia’s full profile

Ellen has many years of experience of working with adult learners in Further and Higher Education and in various training and formation settings.

She is rooted in the Ignatian tradition and worked for 10 years as a tutor on the London-based Ignatian Spirituality Course.

Currently she is Associate Director at the House of Prayer in East Molesey, Surrey, and a visiting retreat guide at St Beuno’s Spirituality Centre in Wales.

Ellen offers spiritual direction, supervision for spiritual directors, and she offers the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life (St Ignatius of Loyola).

The focus of the first year is on personal experience; participants are invited to hone their self -awareness and listening, as preparation for listening to others with discernment. Students work in triads throughout the course.

Days at Sarum will include input, space for personal reflection and working in smaller groups. Participants are asked to prepare for, and reflect after these sessions. There are some assignments which may include reading, writing a reflection, or sharing something which has been prepared. Although there is work to do, there is a ‘retreat-like’ quality to the time onsite and we ask course members to leave their emails and other concerns behind in order to engage fully with their experience and one another.

During the second year, participants continue to develop their practice, paying particular attention to their skills, good practice, and a growing sense of what their own vocation may be in this area.

Towards the end of the second year participants submit some written evidence of learning – reflections rather than lengthy academic essays. Tutors expect course members to engage with the learning at a depth which is appropriate to their own capacity and experience. Our expectation is that whatever your background, Sarum can offer the context and resources to discern and prepare for the next chapter.

The course is designed to model and reflect the nature and values of spiritual direction at every level throughout your time at Sarum.

• Within a framework with this intent at its heart, this course will enable you to:
  • Understand and process your own faith experience in an open and mature manner;
  • Better understand the process and dynamics of working with others;
  • Develop confidence to undertake the shared journey of life with others;
  • Have the capacity to listen empathically while observing a contemplative and respectful stance towards the experience of another;
  • Gain insight, recognise your strengths and your limitations and appreciate the importance of supervision and referral;
  • Understand the dynamics of the accompaniment relationship, and be alert to unconscious factors;
  • Maintain appropriate boundaries within the relationship;
  • Deepen your awareness of the rhythm of the spiritual life;
  • Notice factors that might facilitate or block the process;
  • Take increasing responsibility for your own learning, growth and development, in the context of a supportive community.

Some of the themes we will explore during the course include:

• • What is spiritual direction?
  • Movements in the personal spiritual journey
  • Naming and imaging God
  • Sacred space
  • Riches and rhythms of the Christian tradition
  • Stages of faith
  • Vocation
  • Discernment (including the Ignatian approach)
  • Supervision (including supervision groups in the second year)
  • Good practice
  • Skills, interventions and feedback

Email us to enquire about making an application.

The course is ecumenical and we welcome applications from all those interested in pursuing it. The course draws on the Christian tradition in particular but applications are not limited to those who follow this tradition.

You will receive a short application form which asks for a little background information. You will then be invited to a taster session and/or further conversation to explore and discern. Completing an application form does not commit you but opens a conversation and secures your place in the application process. Applications are considered in the order in which they are received and there is no deadline or competitive interviewing. Early application is therefore advised. After further conversation, if we are able to offer a place, this will be for the next available and appropriate course in the light of all relevant factors.

Request an application

At the end of the course, students who have completed the requirements will receive a Certificate of Attendance. This is not a licence to practice, qualification or accreditation. There is currently no mechanism for this in the UK. However, the Certificate of Attendance from Sarum College is readily accepted by Anglican dioceses and other church networks as evidence of proper training. Individual churches will have their own structures for good practice and safeguarding. If you exercise a ministry of spiritual direction you must follow the guidance and requirements appropriate to your own context.

The 2021 course fee is £1,660 per year for two years. This includes the residential and online components and resources, all accommodation and catering, access to wifi in college, basic support in using the SarumLearn student learning portal, and library membership. Additional B&B may be booked at a discounted educational rate, subject to availability. Participants commit to one year at a time and it is possible (though not usual) to defer the second year. Course members often access grant support from a range of sources and we can give more information about this.