Spiritual counselling

Let us sit together, usually via Zoom, Whereby or phone, and ask the God of your understanding, whoever or whatever you might believe them to be, to offer direction on whatever matter you might be searching answers for, or wanting words of comfort, a listening ear or assurance for.

What is spiritual counselling?

Through prayer, compassionate listening and being open to guidance, spiritual counselling offers a sacred space for tuning into the heart. It is relevant for whatever question, difficulty or challenge you may be facing.

"Spiritual counselling" is in many ways an unfortunate term. To counsel might typically have therapeutic connotations, but, for me, to follow such thoughts would be to miss what spiritual counselling is about. This said, spiritual counselling offers an opportunity to attend to whatever might be on a client's mind or heart – working out the way forward in a relationship, coping with a major life change, moving on from past pain, coming through a time of grief, amongst many other situations. It creates a unique space for opening to what the heart has to say, albeit it can also complement other types of counselling and therapy (if appropriate) too. It is always relevant where matters of a 'soul in anguish' are concerned.

This form of counselling is more of a dialogue, created in an especially reserved space. For those who can accept this, including myself as a counsellor, this means inviting the Divine to sit right at the centre of our meeting place, whoever or whatever the Divine is perceived to be and whether or not the meeting place is at one place or virtually created over many miles. This is what I and many others call creating sacred space, a place in which we might be open to divine leading, revelation and exploration.

In this space, counselling aims to help a client find answers to whatever they want to bring to the conversation. This may involve open questions, everyday or earlier-in-the-day thoughts, soul searching and trying to understand why something is happening. Answers come through the questioning, listening and occasionally invited suggestions or thoughts of the counsellor, but most importantly, from what comes into the client's mind and heart. Both for client and counsellor, the Divine is giving a guiding hand, even if this is often silent.

Counselling may at times delve deep. Issues that at first seemed to be upper-most in a client's mind can often be underpinned by hidden motivations, fears, past experiences or subconscious beliefs. Often, they may ultimately be directed at 'life', 'the Universe' or 'God'. Counselling can seek to understand what leads to such attributions and to help reset objective thinking, when this is needed.

Asking for healing or stepping back in time to give assurance to a once troubled child might form a part of the process. As a coach, minister and as someone who has experienced different practices and been exposed to different teachings and perspectives, a counsellor may be able to offer an appropriate reading, guided mediation, suggested practice or prayer to help in any situation. But their role isn't to steer a conversation, merely to be a facilitator and a listening ear, as well as a second brain, heart and body through which the Divine might act.

A counsellor is no kind of expert, though they must be properly trained and supervised to serve their clients with integrity. They are neither miracle-workers, psychologists, nor therapists, although they may have other training and professional experience in these or similar fields. They must understand what the boundaries for the help they can offer are. They must not impose their own beliefs on their clients, but must be sure in their own way of calling upon God. They are companions for helping their client communicate with the God of their own understanding. They must be sincere, able to hold their client, and ready to create sacred space and make space for silence when it's called for. They must put their own priorities and egos at bay. They must come to sessions with an open and loving heart. They must always have a client's best interests at heart.

What is spiritual counselling? In this brief video, I attempt to offer my thoughts on the meaning and value of spiritual counselling. Simply click on the play button above to watch.