Dates

August 25

September 1, 15, 29

October 6, 13, 20

November 3, 10, 17

December 1, 8

Day & Time

Tuesdays
8-10am PT / 10am-12pm CT

Format

12 Virtual Sessions

Spiritual Conversations with Children is a program for spiritual directors and others who feel called to offer a listening presence with children. Those interested in this practicum course will have noticed a lifelong interest in the spiritual lives of children. They will feel curious about the possibility of fostering spiritual conversations with young people. Our program consists of learning through reading and discussion, as well as through listening sessions with children. Those interested must complete an essay and an interview with the instructor before admission. 

Please note there is a $40 application fee. 

Course Description: Spiritual Conversations with Children is designed to form grown ups into listening companions for children. Through readings and experiences, adults will learn about the unique aspects of a child’s life with God and how to come alongside and support them in their journey. Adults will glean information and insights into children’s spiritual formation, and how meeting the child with acceptance and encouragement opens the child to holistic resilience and a lifelong relationship with the Divine.

There are 3 Options to Engage:

Track One

This option is for trained spiritual directors. 
Participants in this track will be meeting with children and bringing their written recollections of those sessions to peer supervision conversations with an experienced mentor during the second half of our regular Tuesday meetings. 
Cost for first-time students is $750
Scholarships Available

Track Two

This option is for those who work with children, including children's pastors, school counselors or nurses, chaplains, therapists, and nannies.
Participants in this track will be meeting with children and bringing their written recollections of those sessions to peer supervision conversations with an experienced mentor during the second half of our regular Tuesday meetings.
Cost for first-time students is $750
Scholarships Available

Track Three

This option is for parents and grandparents who want to cultivate more spiritual conversations with little ones in their everyday lives. 
Participants in track three will meet in a peer community hosted by an experienced mentor to model listening together, and to share ideas and possible practices for listening with the children in their families during the second half of our Tuesday meetings.
Cost for first-time students is $550
Scholarships Available
Cost for auditing students: $250. The course fee includes peer supervision sessions.
Note that all three tracks will learn together for the first hour of our time and then be gathered into track-specific break-out rooms hosted by course mentors for supervision conversations and peer learning. 

Would you like to partner with us so others can participate?

So much is required to offer a robust course like this. We bring together a large team to help provide the resources for those who walk alongside children in their lives. Would you be willing and able to partner with us by providing funding for scholarships and resources?

Through this course, you will...

Learn the four elements of children's spiritual formation. 
Gain a working understanding of the unique ways in which children experience God and how to serve as thoughtful, present witnesses to these experiences.
Explore and understand the various dimensions of the person and how that impacts the spiritual lives of children.
Grow in skills and posture to be a listening presence for children.
Explore and reflect upon your own childhood experiences of God in the presence of a trained spiritual director.
Engage in intentional child-like spiritual practices that are natural to children.
Describe, practice and implement the distinctive elements in the practice of listening with children.
Develop and practice spiritual direction skills that meet children where they are.
Notice moments of transcendence and the Spirit's invitation in the life of a child.

Requirements for Spiritual Conversations
with Children Completion Certificate
(Tracks 1 & 2)

Class attendance and participation is required at all sessions. One excused absence is allowed.
Eight hours of spiritual conversation sessions with children and completing written reflections for each session. (Reflection Forms will be provided) 
Active participation in 6 in-class Group Supervision Sessions

Your Lead Instructor

Terra McDaniel

Terra is a spiritual director, teacher, and supervisor who loves making space for people of all ages to tune into the holy and their own souls. She is the author of Hopeful Lament: Tending Our Grief Through Spiritual Practices. She received an MDiv with a concentration in spiritual formation from Portland Seminary. Terra is thankful her daughter, son-in-law, and twin grandchildren are only a short drive away.
You can find her online at terramcdaniel.com.

Note from Terra: As young people are living through the same complicated moment in history that we are, accompanying children in spiritual conversations becomes all the more important. Our passion is to help kids delight in how fully they are seen, known, and loved by God. Spiritual Accompaniment with Children training exists to help adults empower children to find antidotes to isolation, discord, and pain as they listen and respond to themselves and to the Holy One.

Since participating as a student at the first offering of Spiritual Accompaniment with Children in 2018, I’ve had the joy of being part of every iteration of the course, accompanying cohorts of listening adults as a mentor and co-teacher, and listening with countless children myself. I’ve borne witness to stories of children finding their voices and telling their hard and beautiful stories. Of learning to trust themselves and their sense of God. I am beyond grateful to be part of this and look forward to learning with you this fall!

Your Mentors

Ellie Beatty

After a career educating young children and directing a Christian preschool, Ellie became a Spiritual Accompanist with Children in 2020. She delights in helping children recognize and respond to God’s loving care for them, encouraging them to form a lifelong friendship with Jesus. It is Ellie’s pleasure to teach and mentor adults to welcome children, to listen well and to encourage children to recognize and respond to God’s presence in their lives. Ellie holds an M.S. Ed. in Early Childhood from Boston University’s Wheelock College, and is a spiritual director, and parent educator. In her free time she also plays euphonium, quilts, and watches birds. Ellie and her husband are the parents of two adult sons and live in southern New Hampshire.
Julia began accompanying children when she was a teenage swimming instructor. Since then, being with children has been her most natural posture. After 10 years of directing a Godly Play program for her church, Julia discovered Spiritual Direction with Children through Dr. Lacy Finn Borgo’s book, “Spiritual Conversations with Children”. Sensing a strong calling to this work, she enrolled in the 2021 class. She has since found Holy Listening with children a thin place and personally transformational. Helping others discover the practice of resting in the work of the Spirit in the presence of children is a privilege and a joy.

After years of working with children and pursuing a teaching degree, Julia got married and raised four wonderful children with her husband of 35 years (so far!). Homeschooling, teaching and encouraging parents have been a significant part of her life. She currently works as a Children and Family Pastor. She also loves morning coffee with her hubby, hiking in her backyard of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, spending holidays at the beach and being with her adult children who live all over the world.

Julia Barger

Kaisa Stenberg-Lee

Kaisa has listened to the sacred stories of both children and adults first as an educator, then as a family pastor, and since 2015 as a spiritual director through the practice of spiritual direction. After 20 years of living in Italy, Wales, The Netherlands and Colorado, USA, she recently returned to her country of origin, Finland, with her husband and a 5 year-old son. She is thrilled to get to come alongside others in this life affirming and life changing journey that she knows the Spiritual Accompaniment with Children course to be! You can read more about Kaisa at www.kutsucompanions.com
Catherine has spent the last two decades working with children and young people, both within church contexts as a youth worker and children's worker, and as the founder and CEO of non-profit Refugee Education UK. She started the organization as a small volunteer project, and has seen it grow to a national charity, using trauma-informed approaches to support several thousand refugee children each year to access and thrive in education. Catherine has led refugee education research and programs internationally for various UN and
non-profit agencies. She is a qualified teacher, an Honorary Associate Professor of Refugee Education at the University of Nottingham, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Winchester.

Catherine completed the Spiritual Accompaniment with Children course in 2025 and found so much joy in listening to children and accompanying them through both their beautiful and painful stories. She lives in London with her husband and daughter.

Catherine Gladwell