Soul & Spirit | spiritual-life

Welcome to Reflections on the Spiritual Life

Here you will find articles on spiritual direction, psychology and spirituality, contemplative practice, and the deeper movements of the spiritual life. Drawing on decades of experience in psychospiritual work and spiritual accompaniment, these reflections explore common themes such as shadow material, prayer struggles, images of God, dreamwork, and the emotional dynamics that shape our spiritual journey.

Whether you are seeking support in your own inner life or resources for spiritual direction practice,

I hope these writings offer clarity, depth, and encouragement.

A contemplative image of gentle hands tending a small inner garden or luminous vessel, with roots extending downward into shadow and light rising softly above, symbolising depth spiritual direction, inner transformation, and attentive care of soul and spirit.

Depth Spiritual Direction: Tending Soul and Spirit

A contemplative space where soul and spirit are held together, and deeper truth is allowed to emerge. Spiritual direction has always been concerned with the interior life — listening where soul and spirit meet — with how a person responds, over time, to the presence and movement of God. At its best, this ancient practice has never been limited to prayer techniques or spiritual discernment alone, but has attended to the whole terrain of human experience through which the spir

A dancer moves gracefully in a flowing dress against a textured background of blue and gold patterns, creating a sense of fluid motion and elegance as in the dance between our psychology and spirituality.

Psychologising our Spirituality: Depth, Soul, and the Loss of Mystery

I have had cause to reflect recently on looking the other way down the lens of this dialogue between our psychology and spirituality, to reflect on a relatively new 20th - 21st century phenomenon of how we can also unhelpfully reduce our spirituality to our psychology. We now live in a very 'psychologised' world where this paradigm can too dominate our perspective.

Sculptures by Barbara Hepworth with circular holes in her sunny garden reflecting the Jungian interplay of inner light and spaciousness, surrounded by lush greenery and flowers.

Barbara Hepworth's Spiritual Vitality

A Garden of Presence: Encountering Barbara Hepworth in St Ives I've been staying a stone's throw from Barbara Hepworth's studio and museum in St Ives. So, before the crowds arrive each morning, I slip alone into her extraordinary garden - a captivating blend of sculpture and exotic planting. Her working spaces lie undisturbed as if she has just popped out for a moment to fetch milk for morning tea, or perhaps in her case a packet of cigarettes. The early morning light in St I