Spiritual Direction, also known as spiritual guidance or spiritual companionship, is an intentional relationship in which you get to explore your spiritual path in the presence of someone who is trained to listen deeply and to facilitate reflection and discernment. People who engage in spiritual guidance are committed to a spiritual path, and are seeking greater awareness of the Sacred in their lives.

Though the roles are labeled “director” and “seeker,” both trust that the true guidance comes from the connection between the seeker and a transcendent reality, which many name God. The seeker’s role within spiritual guidance is to be honest and attentive to that which is stirring and emerging within the depths of their hearts. The guide commits to holding a contemplative, compassionate, nonjudgmental space in which they can bear witness to the journey the seeker is on, offering loving curiosity and invitations to go deeper.

Spiritual guidance is not about “fixing” any problems, diagnosing, teaching, or leading you toward predetermined answers. Spiritual guidance is about exploring and discovering for yourself how it is that you are being invited into greater alignment and intimacy both with yourself and the Divine Life. In this way, it is not mentorship, formation, or therapy.

Spiritual guidance sessions are generally once a month and last about an hour. Everything shared within a session is confidential. This is essential in creating a relationship of trust, and is part of the professional code of ethics for spiritual guides.

Spiritual Direction with Nicki:

I work with mission-driven individuals as they seek to become more deeply connected to the Sacred Mystery as a grounding and sustaining source of their work in the world.

This inner work can take many forms - exploring your beliefs about the world, yourself, and God; making meaning of your life stories; deepening your sense of purpose; grieving; discerning your next steps. The essence of this work is:

• to become increasingly attentive of and connected to the presence and activity of the Divine Love in your life

• to tend to those places within your heart that can become barriers to your full participation in that Love

• to then continue to step into the invitations to bring that Love into the world

In these sessions, the true direction received is from listening deeply and encountering the font of Wisdom within you. As such, I meet with seekers of any religious tradition, as well as those who identify as multiply religious, spiritually independent, and those who do not currently have a spiritual home.

My own spiritual path is situated within the community that continues to desire to learn from the person of Jesus of Nazareth and how he lived and what he taught. I acknowledge that in our current religious, social, and political context, the identity Christian means very different things to different people and that throughout history, it has been a source of, and used as justification for, great harm. My path is shaped by the evolutionary worldview and spirituality of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and others who have deepened and expanded on his work. As a life-long learner, my work is informed by additional training and experience in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Yoga tradition, the enneagram, mindfulness, self-compassion, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, interpersonal neurobiology, and attachment theory, all of which shape my understanding of the spiritual path of transformation.

I have an M.A. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA with a concentration in Social Theory and Ethics and a certificate in Women’s Studies in Religion. I also hold an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI. I trained as a spiritual guide and as a supervisor at the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, WI where I now have the privilege of serving as the Director of the Spiritual Guidance Training Program. I am also part of the training team for Compassion Based Spiritual Direction through the Center for Engaged Compassion, which integrates Internal Family Systems into spiritual direction. Additionally, I have received training in Group Spiritual Direction from the Shalem Institute.