Spiritual Counseling

This page illustrates spiritual counseling in a story format that can be helpful to individuals with whom this resonates and who will do the weekly meditations. It also provides a tool that can be helpful. This page and the tool are completely private to the individual, and no personal information is ever collected. The stories require a subscription, which is private, to continue because this is not light reading—it is paced work.

The Difference Between Personal Counseling, Religion, and Spiritual Counseling

Most people aspire to something higher, outside themselves, for meaning and purpose. Yet, when we hit a wall in life, the two places we traditionally turn—psychology and religion—often leave us feeling like something is missing.

Here is why, and how Spiritual Counseling bridges the gap:

1. Personal Counseling (The Psychological Level)
   Personal psychology is primarily about the individual. It is contained and focused on resolving developmental problems, overcoming past trauma, and getting through immediate cognitive blocks. It is incredibly valuable for getting a person back to a baseline of health. However, its primary goal is usually to fix the "container." It rarely addresses the deeper, transcendent questions of what that container is meant to hold, or how the individual connects to a larger, universal purpose.
2. Traditional Religion (The Institutional Level)
   While religion holds the potential for deep connection, in practice, it is often very "all about me." From an organizational standpoint, it can become about consuming programs and maintaining the institution. From a personal standpoint, it often defaults to a transactional posture: "Protect me, lead me through ancient teachings, and give me a strict set of rules to keep me safe." While it provides a community, it frequently stalls personal agency, asking individuals to conform rather than empowering them to grow.
3. Spiritual Counseling (The Transcendent Level)
   Neither standard psychology nor traditional religion fully addresses the general need of the individual to seek higher ground and genuine spiritual development. That is where Spiritual Counseling steps in.

Spiritual Counseling isn't about fixing a pathology, nor is it about memorizing religious dogma. It is about:

• Meaning-Making: Moving beyond simply surviving your circumstances and learning how to construct deep, resonant meaning from your life experiences.
• Personal Agency: Shifting from being a passive recipient of life (or religion) into an active "co-creator" who takes ownership of their spiritual journey.
• Self-Transcendence: Answering the innate human call to connect to something larger than the self—whether through community (Ekklesia), active love (Agape), or exploring the "potential space" of your own unique calling.

The Larger Picture of Spirituality, Meaning, and Purpose

To fully understand this journey, it helps to look at the larger picture of how we develop as human beings:

• Spiritual Growth: As brilliantly illustrated by James Fowler in Stages of Faith, spiritual maturity is a progression. While our early approach to life and other people is often very utilitarian and transactional, true spiritual growth invites us into a much less self-focused, more universally compassionate way of living.
• Felt-Meaning: Drawing on the work of psychologist Eugene Gendlin, we explore our intuition and what deeply resonates with us. This is different from simply "getting in touch with your feelings" (like basic anger or sadness); it is about paying attention to the profound, bodily-felt sense of rightness and truth in our lives.
• Spirituality: At its core, spirituality is our connection to what is higher and outside of ourselves. It is the bridge that provides resonance and deep interest in the world, other people, and the divine. This connection can express itself through social justice, beauty, music, helping others, love, religious work, and a million other things.
• Meaning: The universe is full of an infinite number of things, but very few of them are actually relevant to your specific journey. Meaning is what stands large in our minds as deeply relevant to our lives. Everyone finds different things meaningful, and not only does this change over time, but it often grows and expands into many different areas.
• Purpose: This is our outward expression of meaning. It is "walking the walk" and putting your money and energy where your mouth is. Purpose is the meaningful expression of what is most important to you—an artist communicates beauty through their art, while an advocate works tirelessly for social justice. These outward activities are what ultimately make a person feel fulfilled.

In short: Personal counseling helps you survive the journey. Religion gives you a historic map. But Spiritual Counseling helps you find your own true north and gives you the courage to actually walk the path.

In short: Personal counseling helps you survive the journey. Religion gives you a historic map. But Spiritual Counseling helps you find your own true north and gives you the courage to actually walk the path.

A Reflection Tool is in development as these chapters develop that explore 20 different spiritual questions.

Series Chapters