Spiritual Direction

William Gaultiere, Ph.D. & Kristi Gaultiere, Psy.D.

You may want spiritual direction and not even know it because you don’t know to ask for it! Christian spiritual direction is an ancient form of soul care focused on mentoring or guiding a person’s spiritual formation in Christ-likeness (Galatians 4:19).

Kristi and I (Bill) think of spiritual direction as guiding another’s relationship with God into an expanding consciousness of God's presence and a preparedness to to follow Jesus as his apprentice in all of life.  As spiritual mentors we help people to listen to and respond to God through conversation, prayer, and the practice of "Spiritual Disciplines for the Soul."

There are many ways that we offer spiritual guidance:

• Private appointments with ministers, priests, Christian leaders, and others who want to grow spiritually(This may be done over the phone)
• Meetings with groups of pastors or leaders to faciliate spiritual growth experiences and conversations
• Consultation with church leaders seeking to implement spiritual formation ministry in their church
• “Christ’s Ambassadors Spiritual Formation Groups”
• Seminars, classes, and retreats for groups, couples, or individuals
• Writings like the free Christian Soul Care Devotional that we send out
• Informal conversations with fellow apprentices to Jesus (we guide one another)

You Can Pay Online for an Appointment

If you have agreed to our Spiritual Direction Policies and mailed a signed copy to our office then you can order a 45-minute consultation by PayPal.  The session may be done over the phone and the cost is $70.

Learn More

If you want to seek spiritual mentoring from one of us the logistics of that are flexible. For individual meetings or consultations most people meet with us for about 45-minutes either in our office, walking around the lake near our office, or at a restaurant.  We can even talk via phone or e-mail. Group meetings can be at the conference room in our office, your church, or a retreat center.  Couples who want to meet with Kristi and I together for ministry may do so at our office or home or a retreat center.

Our fee and the frequency of meetings is negotiable. To get started we’d discuss what you sense God is wanting to do in you, your relationship, your group or your church. You’d introduce where you're at in your relationship with God and it’s history. We might discuss how things are going in your ministry and in what ways you’d like to better serve God.

To help facilitate our prayerful conversation we'll probably meditate on God’s Word at times. We also might discuss and practice other spiritual disciplines like silence, Scripture memorization, journaling, fasting, or breath prayers. But mostly we’d converse. The kinds of questions that Kristi and I ask people in spiritual direction are:

• How is your relationship with God going?
• What is Jesus teaching you?
• Did you talk with God about your feelings?
• What do you think God might be saying to you?
• When did you especially sense God’s presence since we last talked?
• What are you and God working on?
• How can we pray for your relationship with the Lord?

Kristi and I believe that spiritual direction is not the same as Christian psychotherapy, which focuses on helping people to overcome a struggle like depression, anxiety, compulsive behavior, or relational conflict.  Clients in spiritual direction may have issues like these that aren’t disabling to them, but their primary concern in meeting with us would still be their spiritual growth.  And often the interest in seeking guidance is prompted by specifically by a struggle in relationship with God - God seems distant, prayer has gone flat, God's plan/calling is unclear, burn out in ministry is setting in, or anger at God has become a problem.

In spiritual direction our focus is on helping clients to grow closer to God and to serve his purposes.  As "directors" or guides (Jesus, by way of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, is the true Director) we’re acting as facilitators that guide clients to interact with God and respond to his care and his direction.  In other words, God and the "directees" relationship with him is the focus.  In Christian psychotherapy God is more likely to be in the background, as we focus on the client's life struggle and using the therapy process to mediate God's help or healing.

Also, to help people in spiritual direction we primarily use explicitly spiritual resources (like prayerful conversation and the disciplines mentioned above) rather than psychological interventions. Other obvious differences are that spiritual direction does not have the professional formalities of psychotherapy like state-regulated licensure, diagnoses of a mental disorder with corresponding treatment plan, and insurance reimbursement.

Read our Spiritual Direction Policies for clients/directees.

Learn about the Benedictine Retreats Bill leads.

Read more about giving and receiving Spiritual Guidance.

Practice having a Spiritual Conversation with a friend.

Learn Spiritual Disciplines for your Soul that you may want to implement.