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What Makes a Spiritual Companion?

For millennia people have turned to one another for spiritual guidance, direction, and companionship. Spiritual companions, guides, elders or directors come from a variety of backgrounds and types of spiritual formation. Seekers (directees) ultimately determine who is right for them. The process of becoming a professional offering spiritual direction work is a particular kind of spiritual formation, and is ongoing for as long as one serves in that role.  

We UUSDN members agree that spiritual companions:

• are good listeners

• accompany the seeker, rather than imposing their own agendas

• are comfortable with a variety of spiritual experiences, paths, and language

• attend to and are grounded in their own relationship with spirit

• attend to their own ongoing formation as spiritual companions and in their own spiritual lives

• act ethically (UUSDN members agree to follow the SDI Guidelines for Ethical Conduct) https://www.sdicompanions.org/media/guidelines-for-ethical-conduct/

Who are members of UUSDN?

We are Unitarian Universalist religious professionals and lay people who take many different paths into spiritual direction. We want to assure those looking for companions within our network that our companions have been formed for spiritual direction work, continue to grow, and are accountable both to their seekers and to one another. 

How to become a member of UUSDN

We know there are many paths through formation to offer spiritual direction work, so we want to be in conversation with you about your formation. We expect our UUSDN spiritual companions to have completed training, be engaged in an ongoing formation process, and have a level of readiness needed for ethical and skillful professionalism. We expect our UUSDN members to be grounded in UU communities and literate in the breadth and diversity of our UU theologies and practices, recognizing we cannot be proficient in all of them.

The profession does not yet have an accrediting body, so UUSDN has established the following path toward membership: 

While in Formation: 

• Be ‘in care’ during formation, Get in touch! 

• If the form doesn’t work for you, you can email directly by contacting UUSDNMembershipTeam@gmail.com

Ready to be a full member:

• To express interest in being a UUSDN member Complete the membership form, (you may ask a membership guide at UUSDNMembershipTeam@gmail.com to assist you in filling out the form) to describe your training and experience. 

• We will connect you with a membership guide to talk about your preparation and readiness.

• The membership guide will have a conversation with the membership committee offering a recommendation, and after consultation will reply to you about your path forward into UUSDN, which could include a recommendation for additional training, formation, or supervised praxis. 

• Once you have been welcomed into membership, participate in a “Welcome to UUSDN Membership” orientation.

 

Information for incoming and renewing members of UUSDN

All those who offer spiritual direction have an ethical obligation to engage wholeheartedly in supervision work. 

Supervision is not to evaluate if one is “doing it right” but is to create time out of time to savor the companion’s experience with the divine as they learn to de-center themselves and to develop a capacity to hold the spiritual direction experience.

 

The work of spiritual direction supervision is to support the following outcomes:

• Transformation
• Gain diverse perspectives
• Experience being seen and known
• Learn things one is not aware of
• Learn existing and emerging gifts (charisms)
• Grow my freedom so I can grow my seeker’s freedom
• Make me a better spiritual director/wisdom
• Model vulnerability
• Be held accountable (What is my stuff?)
• Be in a community of care
• Be in a community of growth
• Be witnessed
• Space to reflect and grow in intentional practice
• Inspire and encourage
• Witness how we nourish ourselves

 

MODALITY: Our hope is that all members of UUSDN are able to benefit from these outcomes through the following modalities (types of supervision). We ask that member covenant to participate in at least one of the below supervision modalities.

There are several types of Supervision

• Individual: Meeting with a trained supervisor
• Supervisor-Led Group: Meeting in a group with a trained supervisor facilitating (can be more affordable)
• Peer supervision: meeting in a group where the person facilitating rotates among the group. May or may not include a trained supervisor (can be free) If not working with a trained supervisor, we encourage UUSDN members to be vigilant and to commit to bringing anything significant or unfinished that comes up in a peer supervision group to a trained supervisor/supervised group.
• A mix of the above – Some may meet with a group 6 months of a year and with an individual supervisor 6 months. 
• Any participant in one modality may wish to bring specific needs to a different modality (for instance, if something feels unresolved after a group meeting, make an appointment with an individual supervisor! Discern with your supervisor how to continue working on material that emerges with more supervision, or your spiritual director, or therapist.) One may wish to build in a mix of types of supervision across the year.

 

FREQUENCY: Our hope is that all members of UUSDN are able to benefit from these outcomes through participating in supervision frequently enough to support their work. We ask that UUSDN members covenant to engage in supervision consistent with the following frequency recommendations.

Frequency

• Presenting in a group at a minimum of 3 times per year OR Meeting with a supervisor (can be facilitated-group or individual)  at a minimum of 3 times per year
• Increasing the number of meetings (group or individual supervision) based on the number of people you see in a typical month. 

 

Other types of support that do NOT qualify as supervision, but are helpful…

• Peer support—In addition to supervision, we encourage members to meet with peers for support, continuing education/study, and consulting. It can be nourishing to meet with local colleagues and members of your training cohort monthly, quarterly, or annually.
• Consultation with a Specialist as needed—in addition to supervision, we encourage members to meet with individuals with specialized information. Topics where this might be appropriate range from dementia care to disabilities to neuro-diversity to parenting…
• Consultation – Consultation and education will occur within the supervision relationship, though they are not the primary purpose of supervision. We encourage members to find additional outlets to receive consultation as needed, such as peer groups and continuing education..

UUSDN will list the type and frequency of supervision, which you attest to in your membership intake/renewal form.