Dallas Spiritual Direction Training 2024/2025
Learn the life-giving craft of spiritual direction through a two year intensive training cohort.
Time & Location
Sep 07, 2024, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM PDT
Online via Zoom w/ 1 in-person day retreat
About
This spiritual direction modality of ministry is the art and craft of skilled sojourning. Â Spiritual direction finds itself in a unique place among helping professions. Â It is richly rooted in the history of the church, steeped in contemplative tradition, and was in its pre-modern time, the quintessential discipline for attending to matters of the interior life. Â Modernity replaced this practice with the field of psychology. Â While in some ways, psychological research, Freud and beyond, served the modality of spiritual direction well, the contemporary discipline of psychology has provided an ill equipped substitute for the spiritually discerning, attuned accompaniment of spiritual direction. Â This course seeks to harness both, the richness of the tradition of spiritual direction as well as the contributions of object relations psychology and even more recently, interpersonal neurobiology. Â For this reason, the content spans the spectrum of graduate level and popular level reading, personal prayer and reflection assignments, as well as rigorous clinical practicum (second year). Â
What makes this program distinct from other offerings is its over indexing in cross-disciplinary study and an overview approach to other relevant (but less relevant) topics. Â Our points of focus are curated to ministry with Christian professionals living and working in a post Christian context. Â To learn more about our training distinctions, click here.
Overview
• 2 year training program resulting in all requirements met for membership into Spiritual Directors International and Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association.  You do not have to join these organizations, but you will need to join at least one if you want to secure insurance for your spiritual direction practice. Â
• In the 1st year:Â
   - Nine monthly 3 hour online meetings for Group Supervision (1.5 hours) followed by Book Discussion & Instruction (1.5 hours) with a brief break in between (dates and times listed below).
   - Eight monthly 1.5 hour in person Prayer Project Reivew meetings (dates and times listed below).
   - One day cohort retreat (date and time listed below).
   - Approximately one book per month of reading due.
• In the 2nd year:
- Nine monthly 1.5 hour online meetings for Group Supervision
- Nine monthly 1.5 hour video presentations to watch prior to discussion
- Nine monthly 1.5 hour online prayer and presentation reflection
- You will pick a spiritual direction topic of research and create and record a 45 minute presentation of the topic
- At least two meetings with directees per month for 10 months.
- You must be in personal spiritual direction
Meeting Dates for 2024/2025 Cohort
In-Person Cohort Retreat
Saturday, January 18, 2025 from 9:30am-5:30pm PT
Location: Assisi House in San Francisco, CA (address will be provided)
Saturdays (Group Supervision, Book Discussion & Instruction Zoom call from 11:30am-2:30pm CT)
2024
September 7 (first year students from 1:00 PM -2:30 PM CT this meeting only)
October 5Â
November 2Â
December 7
2025
February 1Â
March 1Â
April 5Â
May 3
Thursdays (Prayer Project Review Zoom call from 8:00- 9:30pm CT)
2024
September 19Â
October 17Â
November 21Â
December 19
2025
January (In-person retreat)
February 20Â
March 20Â
April 17Â
May 15
Application
If you have questions please email julie@nuosformation.com or are ready to apply, send the following application materials by August 24, 2024 to julie@nuosformation.com Â
From there we will schedule an interview. Â I would like to keep the cohort to 8 participants. Â
Application Materials
Spiritual Autobiography (no more than 5 pages double spaced)
Answers to the following questions (approximately 100 word answers)
• What makes you interested in spiritual direction training?
• What is your understanding of what spiritual direction is?
• What is your relationship to Scripture?
• What are some books that have influenced your spiritual growth?
• What have you been saying to God lately?
Letters of ReferenceÂ
• One from a pastor or mentor
• One from someone who has benefited from your spiritual care
Cost
$2600 for each yearÂ
Total of $5200 for entire Spiritual Direction Certificate Program
This can be paid each year or split into semester payments. Â
Additional Costs:
Books: Approximately $200/year
Make up days $150/session
Personal spiritual direction $50-$160/monthÂ
About the Instructors
Julie Barrios
Julie Barrios has over 15 years experience as a spiritual director, supervisor and trainer of spiritual directors. She holds an MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology and an additional certificate in Ignation Spiritual Formation from Loyola Institute. Julie has found great joy in helping people grow in the craft of spiritual direction. With interests in art, technology, embodied spiritual practice and thoughtful ideas of all kinds, Julie weaves her interests to serve her passion of forming directors for a rapidly changing and dynamic world.
Jessica Lacy Driscoll
Jessica Lacy Driscoll has over ten years experience pastoring youth and families in the church and completed her MA in Theology from Concordia University. She was trained as a spiritual director through Nuos Formation and loves the way it creates spaces for people to come unguarded before God. She sees her greatest accomplishment as having an honest, flourishing, playful marriage with her husband of seven years and learning to feel secure and connected to her young adult step kids. She is passionate about holisitc discipleship -spirit, mind and body.