Recommended Spiritual Directors
This page has been created to provide general information about Nuos Formation's recommended spiritual directors for spiritual directors in training. The directors below generally align with Nuos Formation's philosophy and practice. Please prayerfully read the bios and consider who God might be leading you to work with.
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If you have any trouble getting a hold of someone or have any further questions, email jessica@nuosformation.com
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Adam B. Shaeffer
Adam B. Shaeffer is a writer, contemplative theologian, spiritual director, and poet. You’ll typically find him hanging out with his family, trees, or characters in fiction. He has an MA in Spiritual Formation and a PhD in Theology and Literature.
Location: Fircrest, WA (in-person and online)
Website: abshaeffer.com
Email: adambshaeffer@gmail.com
Fee: $75 per session w/ sliding scale
Andrea Wong
I love spiritual direction for the ways that it invites healing, connection, and a deepened awareness of how one can be fully known before God and others. I cherish the sacred privilege of accompanying others, and I am particularly passionate about sitting with those who may feel lost or experiencing disorientation in their faith. My experience includes over a decade serving in ministry, initially in the UK and then as a pastor in Hong Kong. I trained as a spiritual director with Nuos Formation from 2022-2024, and additionally hold Master's Degrees in Chinese Studies, Leadership, and Education.
Location: Hong Kong (in-person, online: can accommodate NORAM/EU time zones)
Email: andie.wong@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Genalin Metcalf
I love sharing the sacred space where we grow in discernment of God's movements in your life. I love seeing people more deeply own they are Beloved. I've had the joy of seeing this beautiful work for over 16 years. I graduated from Talbot School of Theology with a MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care. Soon after, I felt God leading me to Wheaton College where I received my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and specialized training from the Danielsen Institute at Boston University in depth therapy that is informed by spiritual, religious and existential perspectives. My approach to spiritual direction is Spirit-led and contemplative.
Location: IL (in-person and online)
Email: genalin.sd.psyd@gmail.com
Fee: $110 per session w/ sliding scale
Jen Madueño
Hi, my name is Jen. Like many people, my first half of life was marked by striving and busyness. I ticked many of the boxes of “success” at the cost of little margin in my life. I was stopped in my tracks after a wave of betrayal trauma and reckoning with religious trauma. Over time, I deconstructed and cultivated a more authentic relationship with God. Today, I revel in grace-filled ways of being and doing. As a trained spiritual director and Jungian Coach, I support people from all walks of life who desire to integrate their true selves with the life God calls them to.
Location: Rancho Cucamonga , CA (in-person and online)
Website: www.birthrightspiritualdirection.com
Email:birthrightspiritualdirection@gmail.com
Fee: $100 per session
Jill Jones
I find great joy in discerning the movement of the Spirit in an individual’s life and holding space for them while God does His healing work. I completed training as a spiritual director with Nuos in 2024. As a former pastor’s wife, mother of four mostly grown children, and a contemplative by nature, becoming a spiritual director has truly been a God-orchestrated move. Special areas of interest include chronic illness, deconstruction, supporting church leaders, and the empty nest.
Location: Merrimack, New Hampshire (in-person and online)
Email: jilljones77@gmail.com
Fee: $80 per session w/ sliding scale
Maggie Ainsworth
As a spiritual director, counselor, ministry leader, and pastor’s wife, Maggie has spent her adult life walking alongside others as they encounter God. Trained as a spiritual director through Nous Formation, Maggie brings her experience as a counselor walking with others through suffering and trauma into her practice. She enjoys meeting with people of all ages and accompanying them on their journey of faith. Maggie and her husband are also adoptive parents and reside in San Francisco along with their three teenage children.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person and online)
Website: www.maggieainsworth.com
Email: maggie.ainsworth@gmail.com
Fee: $100 per session w/ sliding scale
Sarah McHale
I am an artist and Spiritual Director based in Studio City, Ca. As a Spiritual Director, I serve as a
companion offering another set of ears to listen for God’s moving. I will sometimes use
creativity (collage, poetry, painting) and movement as a way to access what feels inaccessible
or unknowable within.
I received a B.S. in Psychology from University of Washington, studied Interior Design at UCLA
Extension, completed Spiritual Direction training with Nuos Formation and Group Spiritual
Direction training with Stillpoint.
Location: Studio City, CA (in-person and online)
Email: sarah@sarahmchale.com
Fee: Please inquire
Tiffin Perkins
Tiffin has invested over 40 years in teaching, mentoring and facilitating group spaces. She secured a B.A. in Interpersonal/Group Communication and certification in Spiritual Direction. After decades as a military spouse, mother, teacher, and caretaker, she has discovered some new rhythms and possibilities. In her “second half of life” Tiffin has become passionate about holding and creating space for others to discover God’s presence in their struggles, transitions, joys, griefs, and celebrations. She desires to journey along soul friends in the tensions life can bring. Tiffin enjoys hanging out with her husband, children, and grandchildren. She loves hiking, swimming, growing, and being outside.
Location: Colorado Springs, CO (in-person and online)
Email: perkinstiffin@gmail.com
Fee: $50 per session (first session free)
Aly Wilson
Aly has over a decade of experience in spiritual formation, discipleship, and leadership development. She is a trained spiritual director and transformational life coach, and her passion is holding space for people to slow down and listen deeply to themselves and God so they might live with more purpose, joy, and connection. Aly is currently serving as a spiritual director, coach, trainer, retreat leader, and pastor in Boston, MA where she lives with her husband, Josh and their daughter, Ava Jubilee.
Location: Boston, MA (online only)
Website: www.alywilson.com
Email: aly@alywilson.com
Fee: $80 per session
Bev Emerson
Bev brings 30 years of corporate executive experience into her Spiritual Direction as she helps to transform individuals, organizations, and families. She has been practicing Listening Prayer since adolescence and became a Spiritual Director after leading retreats and classes for a number of years. With a deep love for Ignatian Spirituality, her passion is accompanying managers and executives in their faith journey and facilitating faith-based discussions around divisive issues. Married for over 30 years with two teenagers, her happy place is hiking and paddle boarding in the mountains.
Location: Edmonds, WA (in-person and online)
Email: bev@nuosformation.com
Fee: Please inquire
Jason Martinez
Hello, my name is Jason Martinez. I received my training from Nuos Formation in 2021-2023. I have been in ministry for the last 18 years, both supporting the unhoused and leading young adults through spiritual formation. In spiritual direction, I love listening and helping people connect the things that they have intellectually understood with how that is lived out and connected to their relationship with God. I am a husband and father of three kids and I love the outdoors and being physically active: surfing, skateboarding, basketball, hiking, bicycling.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person and online)
Email: jasonleemartinez@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Jen Manglos
As a spiritual director, pastor, and writer, Jen Manglos delights in helping others discover their own belovedness in God. Embodiment, hospitality, and storytelling characterize her approach to spiritual direction, as well as pilgrimage, having completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. She has been offering spiritual direction for over 13 years, holding an MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology, and in the last few years has moved into training and supervising directors.
Location: Seattle, WA (in-person and online)
Website: jenmanglos.com Email: jenmanglos@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
John Stiefel
As a Spiritual Director, John considers it a deep privilege to accompany others in their journeys of faith. John has been in ministry for over 20 years, living and working in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and N. America. He loves the outdoors, adventuring, community, and deep conversations. John’s hope is that you will experience more of God’s life-giving presence, hope, and healing as you courageously explore what God is revealing within and around you.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person and online)
Email:stiefel.john@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Melissa Jantz
God has met me in profound ways through my own spiritual direction journey and it is an honor to companion others in theirs. I delight in meeting with people of any age and stage in their spiritual journey—whether that’s starting from a desire to develop a deeper understanding of what relationship with the Divine is, a longing to grow closer to God in your daily rhythms, or feeling estranged from God and looking for healing and reconciliation. In addition to offering regular spiritual direction, I offer direction in the Ignatian Exercises starting in September of each year. I live in San Francisco with my husband and three teenagers and am out in nature as often as possible.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person and online)
Website: melissajantz.com
Email: melissa.lynn.jantz@gmail.com
Fee: $90 per session w/ sliding scale
Sarah Trank-Vasquez
Wherever you find yourself in this moment in life, I believe God is fully with you in exactly the place you are. As a spiritual director, I'm interested in how we move toward the freedom to be who we really are; how all the identities and complexities we hold are a part of the journey into deeper connection and love. As you find more of yourself, may you discover more of God there with you.
Location: Pasadena, CA (in-person and online)
Website: www.sarahtrank.com
Email: sarahtrankspiritualdirection@gmail.com
Fee: $40-$60 per session
Amber Andreasen
I delight in nurturing a contemplative, compassionate space where others can be loved and beheld into fuller being by the Beloved. I have two decades of experience as a spiritual director, receiving my M.A. in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from The Institute of Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. I take a holistic approach to spiritual direction and have done training in the Expressive Arts and in BioSpiritual Focusing. I am awed by the body as sacred story-holder and storyteller and by dance and movement as conduits of deep interior silence, stillness and joy.
Location: Orange, CA (in-person and online including written/email spiritual direction))
Email: infinitedanceoflove@protonmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Gabrielle Smith
Gabrielle has over a decade of combined experience in integrative medicine, pastoral care, and the healing arts. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Worship Arts and Biblical Studies and an MS in Business Leadership, and is a Certified Music Practitioner and harpist. Trained as a spiritual director through Nuos Formation, Gabrielle draws from her range of experience in both art and business in her spiritual direction practice. She possesses a unique lens to see the spiritual journey through the seasons of vocation, church leadership, parenthood, and entrepreneurship. Gabrielle is mom to Gloria (5) and Judah (3), and loves a slow walk in the trees of Colorado.
Location: Colorado Springs, CO (in-person and online)
Email:gabrielle@nuosformation.com
Fee: Please inquire
Jason Tom
I love coming alongside people in their journeys of noticing God in the ordinary of their lives. I’ve always been curious about the stories we live out of and where we experience God in them. Before becoming a spiritual director, I served as a pastor and have an educational background in psychology. I am a dad of two littles and have a soft spot for those in ministry and the intersection of culture and how it informs our relationships with God.
Location: San Diego, CA (in-person and online)
Website: jasontomspiritualdirection.com Email: jasonjtom@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Jessica Lacy
What I love most about spiritual direction is that it creates a space for people to come unguarded before God and bring what's authentic, even when it's unpolished. In turn, they encounter God's presence in familiar and fresh ways that deepen faith and generate freedom. I approach my work holistically and will often use the body to help people have a felt experience of grace. I am trauma and BIPOC informed and have an MA in theology from Concordia University. Spending time with my playful husband is one of my greatest joys.
Location: Long Beach, CA (in-person and online)
Website: www.jessicalacycoaching.com
Email:jessica@nuosformation.com
Fee: $160 per session w/ sliding scale
Justine Martinez
I received training from Nuos Formation in 2021-2023. With a degree in psychology and 18+ years in ministry in San Francisco, I have learned to listen to the narrative of each person’s story and how that has shaped their capacity for relationship with God, themselves, and others. I offer a compassionate witness to your story and experience of God, as we practice listening to the deeper themes of how God is moving in and around you.
Some of my specific areas of interest are expressive arts and creativity, vocational ministry, body-mind connection, cultural identity, imaginative prayer, storytelling, and trauma-care.
Location: San Francisco, CA (online)
Email: info@justinemartinez.com
Fee: $100 per session
Megan Elrod
Like yeast working its magic into risen bread, sometimes it’s hard to see what’s happening beneath the surface of our lives, but we have sensed something is taking shape. As a spiritual director, I love to accompany others as they learn to see themselves in light of God’s great grace and love. We will explore together and learn to see the nudges, yearnings, invitations, and movement of the Holy Spirit in your life at a gentle pace. In my free time you can find me engaged in one of my many creative hobbies or laughing with my husband and sweet boys.
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA (in-person and online)
Website: https://meganelrod7.wixsite.com/megan-thomas-1
Email: mtspiritualdirection@gmail.com
Fee: Please inquire
Shelton Oakley Hersey
I have 10 years of experience in the realm of spiritual formation and spiritual direction, first in the Christian non-profit sector in South Africa, then with seminary students from all over the world, and currently as a retreat leader, dialogue facilitator, and spiritual director here in the U.S. I hold a Masters in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and love how the diversity of this world reveals so much about the colorful God who loves us. I continue to traverse a circuitous life path of ordinary days - filled with both joy and grief - with God as my companion. As a spiritual director and mother of two little ones, my desire and joy is to help individuals become more attuned to God's love and how God is weaving in and through their life.