What is Spirit Tending?

What is Amy's Approach to Spirit Tending?

These days it's hard to avoid being broken-hearted and soul-weary. 

Too much! I wish I had a magic wand. I do have compassion, and space for the grief, pain, and frustration. 

And an opportunity to drink in the wisdom of bodies, ancestors, tribes, land, and universal experience.  

Wouldn't it be lovely to engage in practices to connect with that which gives you LIFE?! 

I know each person has life work that you must do, which only you can do. Your connection with your life work, and ability to whole-heartedly DO it may be drowned out by the challenges of life, your own doubts, or conflicting stories you’ve been told. Together we create an inviting space to uncover and connect with your unique spiritual superpowers. I accompany your story with compassionate and joyful curiosity.

I want you to feel your flow with your own inner nature and best self through conspiring with divine love.

I celebrate your relationship to divine love, however that may look right now and however that unfolds. We may find the sacred in your relationships with people, animals, earth, the stars, the arts, one or more Deities, and your inner self.

I offer practices which can help you develop nourishing roots and support you as you strengthen or bloom.

You are whole and holy.  

What each of us knows about the sacred is a piece of the truth.  

It matters what you choose to do and how you choose to be.

You need not go it alone.

What is it?

Spirit Tending is a process of finding your spiritual direction: Through spirit-tending, people uncover their sacred stories. Individuals attune to the mystery of the spirit of life, learn and grow in their unique spirituality, and deepen their relationship with all they hold holy. This opens you to the source of energy for your ministry, purpose, and joy in life.

BOOK free first appointment

What does it look like?

We may meet one-to-one for an hour once or twice per month for one year, 5 years, or longer. You may come with a specific question that we will focus on for 1-4 meetings. We may be speaking over Zoom, just us, or with a small group.

A typical individual appointment begins with a centering exercise, and a ‘check-in’, then we explore together through talking, movement, drawing, or any one of many modalities. The hour ends with a ‘check-out’. You will lead how we use our time together.

Roots of Spiritual Direction/Spirit Tending

In indigenous cultures and spiritual traditions for millennia there have been people set apart for their ability to attend to spirit, to help in meaning-making, and to witness the seeking and healing of the people in their communities.  In modern western culture this vital, sacred relationship has become less known, and has only survived in small segments of society such as monasteries or in a very modified form in the practice of therapy.

Sometimes it is easier to say what something is not. This is not therapy: we are present to the movement of spirit and the whole self, not just the domains of psychology, which are primarily the mind and emotions. YOU ARE NOT BROKEN. You don't need to be fixed.  This is not pastoral care: though we can do brief or question-focused spirit tending we are not limited to responding to life events, paying particular attention to your sense of self, your inner resources, resilience and capacity to cope. Also, your spirit tending companion is not your minister - your parish minister is the person who will teach, preach, provide pastoral care, and officiate at your rites of passage. 

You are not broken, though you may feel broken-hearted or broken-spirited. You are whole and holy and we tend to that wholeness. 

I felt a flexibility, non attachment to the outcome which I liked, to me you felt like a guide. -Mela

Who is it for?

Folks with:

- Shared values: Integrity is non-negotiable. Contribution and being of service are needs. Success is a good thing. Spirituality is real. You want to make a difference in the world. 

And who are not:

- Anti-spiritual. Spirituality is at the core of how we work. All spiritual paths and orientations are welcome.

- Not curious about the possibility of changing, expanding, unfolding, or growing. 

- Unwilling to try new things and risk sharing what is true for you.

- We are not a match if you are intolerant of different religions and paths, and no path at all. Different cultures and races. Queers and trans. Don’t like the diversity of humanity? Please don’t contact me.

What are Amy's Spiritual Roots?

I’m a womanist process panentheist. What that means is... I am made of my relationships with my body and kin of blood and spirit. I grow from the insights and lessons of teachers, including the sun, stars, moon, and universal experiences. I am accountable to my relationship with the sacred as manifest in the place I find myself... trees, soil, ocean, breeze, and community of human and other beings. I think of it as a religion of moon/forest/bone. (Or, in the order I just described... bone, moon, forest. )

Finding the right match:

I'm happy to help you find the right companion, whether that's me or someone else in our network (http://www.uusdn.org/) or a Cherry Hill Seminary SpiDir Graduate (Spiritual Direction Program Graduates). The match process is important since different companions have different styles and strengths, and different explorers come from different places and are seeking different things. (Note, SDI is another directory of potential compaions, however, they do not require any training to be listed. DO ask any potential companion about their qualifications!)

BOOK FREE FIRST APPOINTMENT with Amy

Pay-From-The-Heart pricing:

I seek to serve persons of all economic situations and I make my livelihood from this work. When we can speak directly and from the heart, we can find ethical ways to navigate capitalism.  If you experience marginalization or systemic oppression, I hope you will pay less. If you have more resources I hope you will pay more.   Together we will find an arrangement that supports reciprocity in right relationship. Base rate: $135/hour

Want to know more? Back to main Spirit Tending page 

Modalities

Click here for an idea of the breadth of possible modalities!