What are your deepest questions? What spiritual issues are difficult, demanding, intriguing, exciting? What’s alive for you right now? When we come to the end of it all, what do you hope you’ll have clarified for yourself?
Just as the questions arise in us, the responses arise in us as well, quite often when we are with fellow travelers. Would you like a companion in your inquiries, as you open to and unpack the responses that appear? If so, let’s enjoy a conversation and see where things lead.
For most of my life I’ve wondered “What’s going on?” Sometimes in confusion, but mostly out of curiosity. “There’s something more going on here, what is it?” What is It within me? What is It around me? How are those things connected? How big does It all get? How does this inform how I live my life?
What is Spiritual Direction?
The way I practice it, Spiritual Direction is the two of us together, and in the presence of the Divine, opening to your deepest questions and seeing what responses arise – from within you, perhaps from within me, and from beyond us both. I believe in the power of good questions. Good questions clarify what’s most important to us. Asking them in an openhearted way, with the support of a fellow traveler, often brings valuable responses, helping us to grow and deepen in our lives.
If we work together, we’ll meet semimonthly or monthly for a 50-minute phone call. In the beginning we may meet more often as we get to know each other and gain some momentum. We’ll start each session with a few minutes of quiet contemplation, inviting the Divine’s presence (which is never not with us), and encouraging ourselves to drop into our bodies and our immediate experience. Then we’ll open up and see what happens! No preparation required.
Between sessions you’re encouraged to continue your spiritual exploration through whatever means are most interesting and compelling to you. For some this includes participating in spiritual or religious community, for others it means trying new and different experiences, both with others and alone. Some find meditation, journaling, yoga, study and creative expression helpful. Everyone is encouraged to listen to their inner guidance for how their particular path is unfolding.
My own experience has included formal and informal practice and study in multiple religious traditions, and in paths and teachings not tied to specific traditions. I’ve found this all fruitful and fascinating, and I encourage people to follow their inner guidance, whether that means going deeper in a tradition you’re already part of, exploring teachings that are newer to you, a combination of these, or something else entirely!
If this sounds intriguing, I hope you’ll email me to set up an introductory conversation.
Practical Info:
Fees – sliding scale of $120-160 per 50-minute session. Our first meeting is half price.
A poem from Rumi:
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense
Let’s explore that field together, email me!
About Keith
Questions have taken me lots of interesting places. When I was a teenager they took me to my local Catholic priest, I wanted to know what it meant to become one too. When I heard it included not having a family and kids, I knew that wasn’t for me. But part of it was – the seeking part. In college my questions took me to the local Buddhist center, and then to Japan for a year and then, after graduation, to a Zen community in California where I met my long-time spiritual mentor.
In subsequent years I raised two wonderful children (in the Jewish tradition), built a business, participated for several years in the Diamond Approach school, studied the Enneagram, been nourished by the Christian mystics, spent many years in therapy (talk and somatic), I’m part of a recovery program for overcoming codependency, I’ve trained in spiritual counseling and I’m very happily married to Erin Reese, a fantastic teacher of non-duality in the Hindu Advaita tradition. Oh, and I’ve collected a delightful (to me) library of many many books. I love my books!
So my questions have taken me many places. Have I gotten any answers? Yes… and finding answers hasn’t been the most challenging part. Did I listen to them? Hmmm, that has been the harder piece. I’ve tried to make them a part of my day-to-day living and I keep at it. That’s the practice. At the very least, they have brought me greater ease and enjoyment in my life. I wish the same for you.
I live in the Sierra mountains of Northern California. When I’m not studying and immersing myself in work and spirituality, I spend my time hiking, biking, and generally enjoying the great outdoors and my many dear friends.
My occasional writings can be found at www.keithheller.substack.com
Spiritual Counseling 