'Spiritual directors and gurus have always been listeners, but the language to which they listen is the 'forgotten language' of myths and dreams and symbols, the language of fundamental human experience,' Kenneth Leach in Soul Friend. From ancient times, people of all religions have shown reverence for dreams and sought to understand their meaning. In the Christian tradition there is a particularly long history of respecting and working with dreams. Apart from well-known exa

Soul is the most common translation of the Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word psyche . The biblical meanings of these concepts are richly varied. In the Old Testament, for example, the meanings of nephesh range from life, the inner person (particularly thoughts, feelings and passions), to the whole person, including the body. Similarly, in the New Testament, psyche carries such meaning as the totality of the person, physical life, mind and heart. Here, soul is presente

Since my first article on spiritual abuse , I have been surprised and saddened by just how many people have contacted me who have experienced forms of spiritual abuse and church hurt. Yet, it is an issue that many still deny as being real in our church and faith communities; awareness is only beginning to dawn. And, as that level of awareness about spiritual abuse continues to grow, there will be increasing numbers of people who recognise themselves as being affected. In thi

In my earlier article on The Spiritual Life and our Shadow, I describe the Jungian under-standing of how we learn, from early childhood, to suppress aspects of ourselves deemed unacceptable to our culture and context. They remain in our ​ unconscious and can dramatically influence our daily lives in unseen ways. As we grow up, we receive both subtle and overt messages (from our family, care-givers, peer group, school, religious community, wider society and so on) that cer

In my earlier post on Spiritual Landscapes I describe the contemplative places where our inner and outer spiritual journeying can come together, and in my post Travelling... about the living paradox of how there both is and isn't a journey to God. It is key to hold both understandings in mind as we reflect on our spiritual life and path. If we go to the extreme of one side, we end up seeing ourselves as an improvement project and striving for our own wholeness, not living i

In my earlier article on Struggling with Prayer: A Psychological Perspective , I looked at ways we can unconsciously resist the change prayer can start to bring within us. In this article, I take a wider view to look at ways we can undermine or sabotage our spiritual transformation. It may, at first, seem a strange idea that we can in some unconscious way resist our transformation in Christ, which is what we consciously desire and proclaim. But growth is understanding what w

God calls us to wholeness, through self-transcendence, to embrace our true selves in God - our deepest Ground of Being. Richard Rohr (a contemporary Franciscan monk and spiritual writer) expresses this as the journey from our False Self to our True Self. Jung understands it as the journey of individuation from the Ego to the Self. What increasingly interests me in my work, as both a spiritual director and psychologist, is the role the unconscious plays in this journey. If, in

In our contemporary world, we understand that psychological growth and spiritual growth are intricately linked. A mature relationship with the divine demands, and is supported by, a striving for psychological wholeness. This has also long been understood by the great spiritual guides of the past. John Calvin in 1536 said: 'There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self, and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God.' And his contemporary from a ve

Many people following a spiritual life are often mystified by the fact that when they are most troubled and in need of quiet prayer, they are least likely to find the space for it. There can always seem to be reasons why there isn't time, we have other pressing obligations or we simply forget. And even when we do pray there may be inner resistances to focusing on the very areas of our lives that are most troubling to us. Here, I highlight some of the psychological defenses

Having looked at some of the benefits and challenges of our emotions in the spiritual life and journey, we can now explore some practical ancient ways of meditative prayer to facilitate this process. The key is to find, and rest in, a place of undefended awareness where we can open to the divine with intention of heart in the midst of our emotional turmoil; returning again and again to the unconditional divine embrace that offers us this freedom of heart. So, below, I explor