Q: What is a spiritual coach?

A: A spiritual coach is concerned not only with the material, physical, and emotional wellbeing of the client, but also with their spiritual health and growth. Spiritual coaching takes for granted that our greatest wellbeing arises from an integrated spiritual core, an intimacy with and appreciation for life’s great mysteries, and a capacity to interrogate the often rigid frameworks created by the ego and an overly material focus. 

Spiritual coaching avoids religious dogmas, while drawing on the perennial wisdom—or mystical roots—at the heart of all the world’s wisdom traditions. We understand that there is a Divine Mystery underneath and inherent in the world of matter, that there is within our human souls a natural capacity and longing for intimacy with this Mystery, and that the final goal of all existence is union (or reunion) with this Mystery. Spiritual coaching is as rich an exploration for someone deeply devoted to a particular religion, as it is for someone who identifies themself has having no religion.

Q: What is shadow work? 

A: Shadow work is the process of exploring and integrating the unconscious (shadow) parts of ourselves. These can be aspects of ourselves that we’ve denied or suppressed through no fault of our own in order to protect attachments on which we depended, as a result of societal expectations, or in some cases, as a result of trauma. We encounter our shadow in our patterned behaviors, in our triggers, and in our dreams. When we practice hospitality towards less than savory parts of ourselves, we liberate the patterns and no longer need to act them out unconsciously. A good spiritual advisor is also a shadow worker, guiding the client to turn towards and integrate disowned or unconscious aspects of the self. Shadow work takes as a foundational premise that our integrated wholeness serves our lives and the collective in far richer ways than a compelled or false form of goodness.