Here is a copy of the recent article I authored for a special Spiritual Direction themed edition of the Franciscan magazine published by the Society of St Francis, UK, January 2022. It is part of a series of articles I have now written on the S hadow and the spiritual life . Over many years of working as a spiritual director, I have found people come to me, some in Christian leadership, in times of crisis in their lives - relationship issues, anger, hidden addictions, extram

Following my earlier article looking at how to work with our dreams, detailing the initial stages of recording all the detail of the dream and then building up all your associations with the dream symbols, we now move on to the later stages, towards understanding any meaning the dream has to convey to us. 3. Dialogue with your dream There are many creative ways we can prayerfully dialogue with our dreams to help unlock their meaning. The important thing to always bear in mi

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 & Our Images of God I looked at how our inner images of God (as opposed to beliefs about God) can impact on our spiritual journey. These images often lay buried deep within us and, because our distorted images often begin to form early in life, we may not even be aware of them. Healing from these images requires that we look deep inside ourselves to expose them to the light. However, because they are often rooted in painful emotiona

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

As explored in my earlier article, Cultivating Compassion is seen as embodying a divine quality that brings us closer to our true selves in God. Wisdom - seeing others and all of life through the eyes of God - guides us into such compassion. And through cultivating wisdom and compassion we can become a conduit opening up the flow of divine compassion in the universe, embodying the mystical understanding of the interconnectedness of all being. The international Charter for

​Most spiritual paths teach that we come close to God when we 'walk in God's ways' - that is when we embody the divine quality of compassion. In the midrash below, from Jewish mysticism, the attributes of divine mercy revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai form the template for the practice of compassion: ''Walking in all His ways'': (Deut 11:22). What are the ways of the Holy One? ''A God compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to

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

Art can be a wonderful way of communicating ( both listening and sharing ) with God beyond words. It is not about creating masterpieces, but about allowing patterns to emerge that can offer you new insights and be turned into prayer. Mary Daly (an American philosopher and theologian) understands that it is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. And our creativity springs not from the intellect but from the play instinct: ' Perhaps the time ha