Dates

August 20, 2025 - 
April 28, 2027

Day & Time

Wednesdays
9:30-11am PT

Format

21-Month
Fully Virtual Program

$3600 per year with a total cost of $7200.
Tuition includes full curriculum including supervision, mentoring, and eight spiritual formation courses.
Application Fee: $50

Spiritual direction instruction forms those who wish to accompany others desiring an intimate friendship and experience of God. The breadth and depth of today’s challenges and questions in this threshold moment highlight the need for those who are trained for generous-active listening as soul companions. As a listening and healing presence, spiritual directors assist others to recognize their inner movements toward greater freedom and wholeness to encourage active responses of love and goodness for the sake of the world.    

Following a contemplative, compassionate, and evocative model, we offer attention to foundational components which include theory and robust practical experience. Our approach is in the Christian Contemplative traditions that engender a capacity to host those of other faiths or no faith.

  • Listening Silence
  • Encountering Presence
  • Generous Compassionate Justice
  • Forming for Companioning Self and the World
  • Discernment Leading Toward Freedom
  • Embodied Listening Awareness
  • Collaborative Learning and Relational Focus

The art of sacred listening in spiritual direction nurtures and sustains soul-tending and is different from problem-focused pastoral counseling, goal-making in coaching or mentoring, and teaching through discipleship. We live in a time when our souls are easily ignored, languishing in the ambiguities and paradoxes of being human. We experience both our greatness and our fragility and underneath those tensions, we may notice fear and uncertainty, busyness and achievement, shame and isolation. Taking the time to intently listen to our inner life readies and sustains our personal encounter with Christ and prepares us to engage our outer world with compassion, grace, and new insight. Here we find for ourselves and for the sake of others space and time for the soul to thrive.

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Our program is designed for a cohort to journey together in learning the art of spiritual direction while growing deeper in self-awareness. The cost of this robust program is $3,600 per year.

  • Virtual Intensive Dates: October 6-9, 2025 and October 5-8, 2026
  • Weekly Online Sessions starting Wednesday, August 21, 2024, 1:30-3pm PT
  • Session dates honor summer breaks and holidays
  • Program completion by May 2027
  • Personal Attention From Experienced & Engaging Instructors and Supervisors
  • Advanced Standing with 12 Graduate Credits for those seeking a Masters in Spiritual Formation at Portland Seminary or Richmont Graduate University after completion

Spiritual Formation Courses Included

Each of these eight spiritual formation courses are included in the program cost. They are all designed for spiritual directors in training. They are designed to hold space for our own journey as well as for those we walk alongside. If you believe you already have the understanding gained from these courses, you may challenge them based on prior training. 
  • Creating a Rhythm of Life
  • The Shape of Our Beliefs
  • Revealing Our Images of God
  • Holding the Questions
  • Integration Toward Wholeness
  • Introduction to Christian Mystics
  • Shame and Resilience
  • Trauma Informed Spirituality

Our Program Guides

Lynn Holt

Jeff Savage

Sharon Leerar

Jean Nevills

Alyssa Bell

Kathi Gatlin

Lisa McMinn

Tracy Busse

Katie Skurja

Frequently asked questions

Who should apply?

We are welcoming Spiritual Seekers and Spiritual Leaders who have a capacity to listen to and articulate their own spiritual experience and are drawn to deep authentic and vulnerable conversations. Applicants should have experience in an ongoing relationship receiving spiritual direction or less formal spiritual accompaniment. A recommendation from that person will be required as part of the application process. Those who do not currently have a formal spiritual direction relationship will need to engage one. We have a list available of spiritual directors who offer the same contemplative flow of what we are teaching. 

What is the expected workload?

Students can expect to spend 8-10 hours per week in reading, reflection, online cohort discussions, and praxis sessions.

What is the size of the cohort?

Due to our high praxis and relational approach we are limiting each cohort to 8-18 participants. With three trained praxis mentors, the student to mentor ratio is six to one maximum. 

Why would I join?

As we journey together over these 21-months, you will receive content with guided praxis to develop listening skills to hold space for others without having to fix them. Our program is heavily weighted with listening and spiritual direction praxis, while you are accompanied by trained supervisory praxis mentors who desire to help you learn to openly listen with empathy, compassion, offering a contemplative, judgment-free space. In addition to spiritual direction content, we include eight spiritual formation courses to help define your own way of understanding yourself, God, and those around you. 

What is included in the cost?

The cost for each year of the two-year program—excluding personal spiritual direction, books, and supplies—is $3,600. A deposit of $1000 is due by July 1st each year once a student is accepted. The remaining is split between $1000 due by September 1st and $1600 by January 31st for each of the two years or through a 20-month payment plan of $318 per month after the first deposit. All spiritual direction training sessions, spiritual formation courses, and supervision/mentor sessions are included.

Where are you located?

We are located outside of Portland, Oregon and our weekly sessions are all virtual. So there is no need to travel to our location.

Who do I contact for more information?

Email Kathi Gatlin at kathi@companioningcenter.org for more information.description

Are you accredited or can I receive college credits?

We are not an academic program and there is no accrediting body overseeing spiritual direction training. However, upon completion of our program, students will be able to receive 12 credits of advanced standing at two Universities.

  • At Portland Seminary, our graduates can apply 12 credits of advanced standing toward their 36-credit hour Masters in Spiritual Formation degree. More information is on their site. 


  • At Richmont Graduate University, our graduates can apply 12 credits of advanced standing toward their 40-credit Masters in Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction degree. More information is on their site. 

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