Main Menu
Play Video

Formation & Spiritual Director Training Programs

Spiritual direction is at the core of everything we do at the Journey Center and it is our joy to offer Spiritual Director Formation and Training Programs  for those called to serve as spiritual directors. 

“The goal of spiritual direction is spiritual formation- the ever-increasing capacity to live a spiritual life from the heart.”
-Henri Nouwen

Spiritual Director Formation Program through the Journey Center Association

We have offered this 2-year program since 2009 and have had the privilege of preparing more than 75 people to serve as spiritual directors in their communities and churches. This program is for those discerning a call to be trained in the art and ministry of spiritual direction. Participants are prepared and equipped to offer individual and group spiritual direction, and to envision and lead contemplative retreats. The initial commitment is to the first 6 months of the program, which is a time of discernment for participants- is God calling me to be trained as a spiritual director in this program at this time in my life?

Our hybrid Spiritual Director Formation Program is offered online and in person (twice a year in Northern California).

This mostly-virtual program format accommodates those who are able to travel here twice a year for our in-person retreats, as well as those who live more locally. In the time between our two retreats each year, there are two Zoom sessions every month with the whole cohort, plus small group practice sessions and dyad conversations.

Our next cohort begins in September 2024 and we are currently accepting applications (with a deadline for application of March 31, 2024). For program details, please see the Information Sheet and Cover Letter in the adjacent column, where you will also find the application materials.

The Spiritual Director Formation Program Coordinator is Joanna Quintrell. She would love to hear from you to know of your interest in the program and answer any questions you have. Please contact her at joanna@journeycenter.org.

2024 Spiritual Director Formation Program Information

Cover Letter
Information Sheet
Online Application*
Letter of Reference

*You must use a personal Google account to fill out the online application. If you do not have one, please use our SDFP Print Application instead.

 

Journey Center Association Spiritual Director Formation Program Staff

Linda Albert

Pamela Carraher

Helen Cepero

Julie Miller

Joanna Quintrell

Jan Stanish

Jenny Trees

Linda Albert

Linda completed a two year training program in Spiritual Direction through the Center for Spiritual Direction in Chicago in 2009.  She has been active in her own faith community as a retreat coordinator and speaker as well as a guide in contemplative prayer practices. She has been on staff in the Journey Center Association’s Spiritual Direction Formation Program since 2014 and has been a member of the Journey Center Santa Rosa’s spiritual direction staff for many years. Linda offers retreats, workshops, and guidance in Ignatian Prayer of the Imagination. Linda’s first experience with spiritual direction was during a nine-month retreat in everyday life using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  Living through her own dark night of the soul, Linda learned to notice the presence of God in unexpected ways and, over time, experienced a return of hope and deeper faith.  It is her privilege and joy to companion others who are seeking a deeper relationship with God however they find themselves in relationship to God now … in crisis or confusion, in emptiness or in fullness and gratitude.

Pamela Carraher

Pamela Carraher is a listener, teacher, spiritual director, facilitator, and education consultant, with emphasis in spiritual formation and worldview studies. She mentors lifelong learners of all ages and carries a passion for bringing life’s deeper questions into meaningful conversations.

Pam received her training in Spiritual Direction and Contemplative Retreat Leadership from Journey Center Santa Rosa where she currently serves as a facilitator in their two-year formation Program. She received Supervision training in Chicago at North Park Seminary.

As a board member of the Journey Center Association, Pamela works with teams worldwide who have interest in developing Journey Centers in their areas, as well as developing Advanced Training Seminars intended for Spiritual Directors. Her newest project is a program in Spiritual Formation, currently in development.

She is married with three adult children and five grandchildren.

“As my formal career draws to a close, I find my deepest interest and desire is to facilitate groups that discuss and reflect upon our deepest longings and desires combined with meaningful action in and around our neighborhoods, communities and the world. I love reading, spending time with family and friends, nature study, art journaling, and Yosemite. “

Helen Cepero

Helen Cepero is a wife, mother, and grandmother as well as a  spiritual director and supervisor of spiritual directors.  Though a spiritual director for nearly twenty-five years, she is still energized by the way the Spirit works through all of life’s experiences of the people she companions.  She is grateful for the privilege of walking alongside each person.

Helen is the author of Journaling as a Spiritual Practice:  Encountering God through Attentive Writing and Christ-Shaped Character: Choosing Love, Faith and Hope both published by InterVarsity Press.

Julie Miller

When I was a child, I was often found immersed in the natural world and completely engaged. That path of curiosity and connection to nature has not altered but has only expanded. I sense that my truest self communicates with the Creator best when I am in a natural setting. The practice of silence, alone or with others, as well as the skill of deep listening and reflection were first experienced when in nature but have found residence in my daily living through contemplative practices.  I yearned for a way to bring my traditional church values and history alongside what I experienced in nature but did not have the exposure or language until my first year of seminary.  I thought I would find a way into deeper fellowship with God by attending seminary but what I realized is that I was seeking soul connection, not head connection. It was in seminary that I took an introduction to Spiritual Direction course and was exposed to practices that seemed innate to me.  When I became involved in Journey Center Santa Rosa in 2008, I finally entered into a community of like-minded people who were on a spiritual quest for more… more connection, more Spirit, more experience of God, more love.  I had found my tribe. After completing the first 2-year course in Spiritual Direction offered via the Journey Center (JC) in 2010, I joined the team of facilitators who work with the students in the Spiritual Direction Formation Program. 

Joanna Quintrell

Joanna discovered spiritual direction in 2000 and this experience continues to transform her life with God, herself and others. She loves holding sacred space for directees and those who are saying “yes” to God’s invitation to offer spiritual direction to others. Joanna was trained as a spiritual director at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA (2003) and the C. John Weborg Center for Spiritual Direction in Chicago, Illinois (2007-2009). She has also been trained as a supervisor and as an Enneagram teacher. Joanna and Helen had the privilege of birthing the Journey Center’s 2-year Spiritual Director Formation Program in 2009.  She lives in Santa Rosa, CA with her best friend and husband, John, and she loves hiking, organic gardening, cooking and her wonderful grandchildren!

Jan Stanish

 Jan completed the 2-year Spiritual Direction Formation Program with the Journey Center Association in Santa Rosa, California, in 2011 and was also trained in group direction at that location. She was certified in spiritual direction supervision at North Park Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently part of the facilitator team for Journey Center Association’s Spiritual Direction Formation Program and serves on the Journey Center Association board. 

Movement toward a more contemplative way of life began for Jan in 1999 with a compelling invitation to know herself in more authentic ways.  This God-guided journey included redeeming truth from her early childhood.  As in a mirror, she saw evidence of who she was created to be:  deeply connected with nature, courageous, creative, secure in one who is loved and belonging to self and God.  Challenge and freedom are always part of holding these truths and living in them.   

As a Spiritual director, Jan creatively holds space for another’s sacred journey of encountering the Holy and embracing the true self.

After living a few miles north of San Francisco, CA for 40 years, a move to Tucson, AZ, in 2020 fulfilled a desire to be near family. 

Jenny Trees

Walking alongside someone as they uncover who they are and how they interact with God is one of Jenny’s greatest passions. Jenny received her Spiritual Direction Certificate and Masters in Christian Formation at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago.  She served as the Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Staff Development at Hillside Covenant Church for 14 years.  Currently Jenny is focusing her attention on her Spiritual Direction practice, workshops and Enneagram trainings as well as pastoral care. Outside of ministry her greatest loves are her husband and three sons.

Advanced Training Intensives for Spiritual Directors

Intensives and workshops are offered online and in Santa Rosa, CA and other locations. These provide spiritual directors with the opportunity to deepen and enrich their practice of spiritual direction.

Training and certificates are offered in:

  • Spiritual Direction as if Oppression Matters
  • Group Spiritual Direction
  • The Art of Supervision
  • Dreamwork in Spiritual Direction
  • The Enneagram and Spiritual Direction
  • How to Offer Virtual Spiritual Direction Sessions
  • The Arts, Creativity and Spiritual Direction
  • and others

Our workshops and intensives are designed for spiritual directors who have completed their training; some are appropriate for those who are currently in a program but have not yet graduated. Check the description of the training for details.

Information about upcoming workshops and intensives is posted here as these opportunities are scheduled. Please contact Joanna Quintrell if you have any questions or would like to let her know of your interest in this program: joanna@journeycenter.org.

Previously Recorded Advanced Training Intensives

Learn More & Register

This one-day online workshop will equip Spiritual Directors with the beautifully simple practice of BioSpiritual Focusing, which invites us and our directees to tune into the knowledge our bodies have to offer us as we seek to grow, heal, discern and be transformed.

Coming up 2023! Spiritual Direction Training Program through the Journey Center of Chicago (Online)

Each person has a need to be heard and to share about one’s life because our stories matter. We believe to listen to another is sacred. And so we practice radical hospitality, listening deeply and valuing each person we sit across from. People who desire to deepen their awareness of God’s presence and work in their life can meet with a spiritual director where they will experience this deep hospitable listening through the practice of spiritual direction.

Those who feel called to become spiritual directors and to listen in this deep hospitable way are welcome to apply to our training program.

Because of the unpredictability of the pandemic our program remains online at this time. We will continue to monitor it.

Visit the Journey Center of Chicago website or contact us at info@journeycenterofchicago.org to download the information and application packet.

NEW COHORT BEGINS MARCH 2023. APPLICATIONS DUE BY JAN 30

Spiritual Formation Program

In 2021, we will be offering monthly conversations that center around contemplative spiritual formation, practice and the complexity of being human.  These two-hour sessions will begin with silence and stillness, a spiritual practice and conversation around a particular topic and will be hosted by Journey Center Association Board Members and other Guest Hosts.  

This experiential program invites participants to explore contemplative life through various spiritual practices, readings and journaling, in community with other seekers on the same journey.  Encountering the presence and love of God, discerning and opening to the movement of the Spirit, and living from the true, authentic self…these are some of the anticipated gifts of these ongoing conversations.  

Information about upcoming spiritual formation conversations will be posted here as these opportunities are scheduled. Please contact Joanna Quintrell if you have any questions or would like to let us know of your interest in this program: joanna@journeycenter.org.

 
Scroll to Top