COURSE INFORMATION
Spiritual Direction is different from counseling. It is a one-on-one relationship between director and directee born out of charity and agape love. It helps admonish, guide, instruct, and help cultivate a closer relationship between the directee and God. It involves trust and a secure relationship that permits discourse and opening of one’s deepest secrets and wounds. It is not meant to heal psychological wounds or treat pathology but look to help one grow spiritually and in a closer relationship with God. The history of spiritual direction is a rich tradition within the Church and is crucial to the pilgrim Church on earth. It is not merely tied to the responsibilities of clergy, but even to a lay apostolate where Christian mentors help and aid others in becoming more perfect in Christ.
This course places the exploration of the interior life at the heart of spiritual direction, examining how attention to one’s interior life forms the indispensable foundation for growth in holiness and union with God. Students will develop an understanding of the structure and dynamics of the interior life, learning to guide directees in the self-examination that spiritual progress requires. The course will explore the identification and addressing of root sins — the deep, often hidden patterns of disorder that shape behavior, obstruct grace, and impede the soul’s movement toward God. Drawing on the spiritual masters John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Ignatius of Loyola, students will trace the three phases of the
spiritual life and the process of purification. Students will also examine the themes of woundedness, healing prayer, and the role of vulnerability in both the spiritual director and the directee. Emphasis is placed on the practice of attentive listening and effective communication within the spiritual direction relationship. Students will receive and utilize a spiritual director’s guide designed especially for the course to assist in exploring the interior life by mastering reflective questioning, identifying corresponding virtues for roots sins and positing strategies to grow in those virtues.
This CE course is a Christian based spiritual direction format that introduces qualified professionals and pastoral caregivers the necessary information and confidence to help others through spiritual life. The course includes both a Christian text as well as a general spiritual text that highlights important elements of spiritual direction and lays the foundation for a strong understanding of what spiritual direction encompasses. In addition, the course looks to strengthen basic core counseling and communicative skills to enhance one’s ability to better communicate and help individuals reach spiritual goals.
Course Code: SC 690
Contact hours of continuing education = 60
Instructor/Course Authors:
Rosemary A. Castelli, Ed.D., MA, BA, SMC-C,GC-C
Certified Funeral Celebrant
Certified Grief Counselor
Instructor Resume: Access Here
&
Mark Moran, M.A., SC-C, GC-C
Instructor Resume: Access Here
TEXTBOOKS: There is two (2) required textbook for this course.
Spiritual Direction: A Guide for Sharing the Father’s Love. By Thomas Acklin, OSB and Boniface Hicks, OSB. Emmaus Road, 2024.
- ISBN-10: 1945125683
- ISBN-13: 978-1945125683
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here
Spiritual Direction 101: The Basics of Spiritual Guidance. By Teresa Blythe. Apocryphile Press, 2018.
- ISBN-10: 1947826204
- ISBN-13: 978-1947826205
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here
Additional Reading
There are additional readings which are required for this course. These are provided to students who are enrolled.
TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete this course. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the course within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records. Also, if you would like to complete the course after this two-year expiration time, you would need to register and pay the course tuition fee again.
GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 60 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by AIHCP and will be permitted one more attempt to retake the online examination.
BOARD APPROVALS:
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637. Access information
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 60 Contact Hours.
This course, which is approved by the Florida State Board Of Nursing (CE Provider # 50-11975) also has the following Board of Nursing Approvals, for 60 contact hours of CE
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here
ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS
- Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.
- Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.
- Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.
- Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.
- Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional “readings” and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the differences between counseling and spiritual direction
- Define interior life
- Understand the key elements of interior life
- Develop self-awareness in spiritual life
- Cultivate the spiritual director and directee relationship
- Identify the key qualities of a good spiritual director
- Understand the ethical commitments required in spiritual direction
- Identify other faith based or forms of spiritual direction outside one’s o
- Apply spiritual direction to different faith bases outside one’s own
- Utilize the fundamentals of spiritual direction
- Comprehend the nature of interior life and its development
- Point out key spiritual figures in spiritual development
- Apply basic counseling skills and apply them to spiritual direction
- Explore the key concepts of Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and Ignatius Loyola
- Understand the role of Ignatian principles between desolation and consolation in spiritual life
- Analyze the three phases of interior life: purgative, illuminative, unitive
- Comprehend the nature of spiritual purification
- Guide souls to better spiritual outcomes and closeness with God
- Identify stumbling blocks to spiritual growth in a soul
- Develop a stronger prayer life for a soul
- Understand the key elements of prayer
- Comprehend the nature of woundedness and healing prayer
- Explicate how to develop vulnerability when practicing spiritual direction
- Help souls identify a spiritual plan and meet that goals
- Strengthen souls in ways to form better spiritual habits and closeness with God
- Direct souls from vice to virtue and help them to grow in God’s grace
- Create a spiritual direction practice or apply it within one’s ministry
- Define and explicate the root of sin
- Identify corresponding virtues to the roots of sin
- Articulate strategies for growing in virtue
COURSE CONTENT:
A brief abstract of content:
- Fundamentals of Spiritual Direction
- Interiority
- Vulnerability
- Listening
- Communicating
- Particular Aspects of Spiritual Direction
- Guidance for Prayer
- Passages of Prayer and the Spiritual life
- Psychological Models of Healing
- The Spiritual Director
- Important Qualities for Spiritual Direction
- Saints for Spiritual Directors
- What is Spiritual Direction
- Historical Background
- Theologies in Spiritual Direction
- The Evocative Method in Spiritual Direction
- Tools for Listening and Responding in Spiritual Direction
- Forms of Spiritual Direction
- Working Outside One’s Tradition
- How Spiritual Direction Differs from Other Helping Relationships
- Ethics in Spiritual Direction
- Training of Spiritual Directors
- Setting Up a Spiritual Direction Practice
- Empathy in Counseling
- Responding Skills
- Attending Skills
- Empathetic Confrontation
- Challenging and Encouraging
- Counseling Ethics
- Role of Change
- Spiritual Direction and Planning
- Early Spiritual Issues in Spiritual Formation
- Characteristics of a Spiritual Director: Justice and Mercy
- Spiritual Direction and Prayer Formation
- Spiritual Director’s Guide to Exploring the Interior Life: Root Sins