Past events

Presenter Macrina Scott, OSF, is a Franciscan sister, former director of a program of adult biblical education for the archdiocese of Denver, author and retreat director. She has been trained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's Spiritual Eldering Institute to facilitate programs on spiritual growth in the later years. She directs Wisdom Center, which offers a year-long program as well as shorter events for individuals of all faith traditions who choose to age consciously.

Continuing Education for Spiritual Directors

Topic  Are you meeting people who are confused and unsettled by the rapid changes we are encountering in the 21st Century? Do you find that you are encountering people who are struggling with the role of the church in their life? Do you find yourself increasingly directing people who describe themselves as “Spiritual and not Religious”? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then this workshop is for you! Michelle integrates her study of quantum physics with years of spiritual formation to lead us through a paradigm shift that will show us how the Ancient Art of Spiritual Direction is an essential and integral piece of the Emerging Church.

Click here to watch a brief video with author Phyllis Tickle about "The Great Transition" to which Michelle refers.

Topic  What is the spiritual impact on survivors of different trauma experiences? Are they the same? How do you companion a traumatized directee from spiritual despair to hope? These are some of the questions we spiritual directors ask as we work with trauma survivors. This workshop will provide a conceptual framework of the core issues and healing process that grounds spiritual work with trauma survivors and will offer several approaches for listening and for spiritual healing. You will learn how to heal negative images of God; how to work with the difficult questions of spiritual despair, abandonment, and forgiveness; and how to work to instill hope and meaning in a directee’s life. You will also learn to recognize and avoid some pitfalls in working with trauma survivors, especially if you yourself are a survivor. We will emphasize the importance of self-care in this work throughout this workshop.

Workshop Leader  DR. MARGARET ARMS is the Parish Spiritual Director at St. Raphael Episcopal Church in Security, Colorado. She is a retreat and workshop leader, and consultant who has presented training workshops on spirituality and trauma in the Rocky Mountain region and in Canada. She is also a licensed clinical social worker and for many years had a private psychotherapy practice working primarily with trauma survivors. She was the executive director of The Shalom Center, which worked with trauma survivors as they walked back to find spiritual meaning and purpose in their lives. She has been an adjunct faculty member teaching in the trauma track at the Colorado School of Professional Psychology at the University of the Rockies. 

Intended audience  Practicing spiritual directors, clergy, pastoral counselors, or psychotherapists who wish to be sensitive to spiritual issues of trauma will find this workshop helpful.

Design of the workshop  This workshop was designed for practicing spiritual directors, clergy, and pastoral counselors. We maximize interactive and group learning. Participants were encouraged to bring their own experiences and questions working with trauma survivors. Although this was designed as a workshop and not a retreat, there was time for individual silent reflection.

About the retreat  Father Ed Kinerk helped us use the Scriptures to explore our experiences of Christ. He will guide us in a process of discernment that we can use with the people who come to us for Spiritual Direction. We will have ample time for reflection, prayer, relaxation, networking, and a daily ecumenical Eucharist, all held together in a healing web of silence.

About Fr. Ed  FR. E. EDWARD KINERK, S.J. 
was ordained in 1972. He received his doctorate in Spiritual Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.  His first assignment was to Sacred Heart Retreat House in Sedalia, Colorado from 1975 to 1979. In subsequent years he has served as Novice Director, Provincial of the Missouri Province of Jesuits; President of Rockhurst University in Kansas City; and currently as administrator at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House.

Presenter  REV. SANDRA BOYD is an Episcopal priest, retired from parish ministry, who continues to offer a course on Death and Dying for Regis University that she’s been teaching for nearly ten years. “It’s the most popular course in our program,” she reports, “because the students emerge from it enormously empowered for having ‘let death in’ for five weeks.”

Topic  If spiritual direction is about finding God in our ordinary life, then God must also be in our financial, tax and business activities. Barb will cover promotion (“how to get directees”) as a follow on to Pegge Bernacker’s workshop in May 2008. Then she’ll turn to the question of whether or not to charge, and, if so, how much. She’d like you to bring your questions on business expenses, accounting, income and payroll taxes, business entity, insurance, engagement letters, supervision and anything else you’d like a business expert to answer. There will be time for reflection, small and large group discussions. You are invited to bring promotional items and ideas for display.

Presenter  BARB CHAMBLESS is both a spiritual director and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She blends these two diverse gifts to bring a practicality to her spiritual presence and a spirituality to her tax and mediation business. She was trained to be a spiritual director in the Benet Hill Program for Spiritual Direction and was a founder and coordinator for the Benedictine Spiritual Formation Program in Denver. She is a past chair of Spiritual Direction Colorado.