Lucy Abbott Tucker is a renowned spiritual director and supervisor of spiritual directors. I was fortunate enough to take her supervision course in the spring of 2022, to join a group of wise UU Spiritual Directors who also participated in the course to meet to explore these new skills, and to create a practicum group who were trusting enough to go on this journey with me as they complete their own spiritual direction training programs.
This work calls to me as a way to support spiritual directors, both through consultations and spiritual direction supervision. What is the difference? Spiritual Direction Supervision is bringing forward a session, with no names or identifying information about the directee, and to work through the images, emotions, joys, and blocks that occurred within the spiritual director. The supervising spiritual director helps the spiritual director explore their own responses to the session to deepen their own spiritual lives and their openness to what their directees bring to them.
I see consultation as more of the “what is a way to handle a specific situation that comes up in a session?” What are some additional pathways I might pursue to help my directee?
So supervision is for the spiritual directors own spiritual life and consultation is to improve the skills of the spiritual direction. Although supervision provides opportunities for the spiritual director to improve skills, it comes from within. Supervision is based on outside information.
