Trustworthy Connections: Interpersonal Issues in Spiritual Direction

by Anne Winchell Silver

Overview

Although God is at the center of the process of spiritual direction, the more readily visible participants are human beings. Like all other people, directors and directees are subject to relationship dynamics. Trustworthy Connections identifies some issues and challenges that can arise in spiritual direction relationships and offers resources for further consideration and reflection. The topics and examples are focused on traditional one–to–one, face–to–face spiritual direction, although some are also relevant to group direction and direction by correspondence. Trustworthy Connections is designed for use as a reference and a springboard for discussion for spiritual directors and anyone else who is interested in spiritual direction. Like the process of spiritual direction itself, this book is about asking questions, discussing ideas, and suggesting alternatives rather than giving advice or getting answers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781561012527
Publisher:	Cowley Publications
Publication date:	01/25/2004
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	819,843
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.59(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Anne Winchell Silver draws upon more than thirty years of experience as a member of the counseling faculty at Kingsborough Community College in the City University of New York. She studied at New York University, Fordham University, and the General Theological Seminary’s Center for Christian Spirituality, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	xi
	Introduction	xiii
Chapter 1	Sacred Space	1
Chapter 2	Covenant	11
Chapter 3	Payment	23
Chapter 4	Dual Relationships	37
Chapter 5	Attraction	47
Chapter 6	"Fixing Things"	61
Chapter 7	Referral	69
Chapter 8	Self-Care	81
Chapter 9	For Directees: What to Expect	93
Chapter 10	Concluding Suggestions	105
Appendix 1	A Code of Ethics for Spiritual Directors	111
Appendix 2	Spiritual Directors International Guidelines for Ethical Conduct	137
	Annotated Bibliography	145

Editorial Reviews

.. . a practical guide to spiritual direction.. .. Silver's focus is on the basics of traditional, one-on-one spiritual direction with all its relational challenges. I am impressed with the thoroughness of this practical guide.

Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction - Kriss Erickson

For those who practice the art of Spiritual Direction, there has been an ongoing difficulty in how one will learn more about the call and work of spiritual companioning those who seek to know what God is doing in their lives. Two schools of mentoring are available: one that sees the call of the spiritual director as a charism or gift from God and helps the director to go deeper into his or her spiritual life as well as the tradition and practice over the centuries. The other school sees the gift or call into spiritual direction from a more clinical mode of training, as a set of skills and practices to be learned. Ann Winchell Silver. .. helps the reader to see it is not an ‘either/or' proposition but a ‘both/and' situation. Believing in the grounding of this call in the Holy One, she balances this spiritual calling with sound suggestions for its practice. .. everything from the space one uses for direction to ethical guidelines and what to look for in a spiritual director.

Living Water/Episcopal Life - Rev. Al Keeney