ABOUT THE SCHOOL
A Deeper Understanding
We may have many people in our lives but few with whom we can share the depths of our spiritual journey. If you are someone who finds yourself listening to others, perhaps it is time to seek a deeper understanding of the spiritual path. Is it time to develop your skills in accompanying others along the way? Spiritual direction takes many forms, informal and formal: guiding, companioning, befriending, counseling, mentoring and sharing.
Spiritual Direction Training
Adelynrood is blessed by the opportunity to provide special training for persons from all faiths seeking to develop a call to holy listening. The Adelynrood School for Spiritual Direction is held each summer at Adelynrood for one week in June and one in August and consists of four modules. Students may enter the program at any time. Each module includes opportunities for practice and reflection. Students receive a certificate of completion when all four modules have been completed.
During each module, students will experience a different approach to a one-day retreat or Quiet Day program. Fuller descriptions of the Quiet Day and Leaders are included in the Adelynrood Summer Program announcement.
All faculty have been trained in recognized spiritual direction training programs and are experienced directors.
Get an overview of the curriculum, our mentors, and how to register below.
Program Comprised of Four Sessions
Two Sessions are offered each year. Take them in any order.
Our approach to this training assumes that self-understanding and continuing growth is essential to our availability to others as spiritual directors. In this module we look in depth at tools for understanding human personality. The June 2025 session will focus on the Enneagram, using the Riso-Hudson type indicator.
Leader: The Rev. Michelle Meech
This session invites participants to examine the ways in which biases shape our responses without our being aware of them and how we can cultivate openness through our spiritual practices. Our presenters will offer tools that can be used with any population, including dream work, exploration of archetypes, and the effects of trauma and addiction. The practicalities of ethics and developing a spiritual direction practice will also be addressed.
Leaders: The Rev. Anne Ritchings, SCHC; Kathleen Hope Brown, D.Min; Tracey Clarkson
This session introduces spiritual direction/spiritual companioning, how it differs from and relates to other kinds of helping relationships, and what gifts it calls out of us. Participants will be introduced to various spiritual direction approaches and invited to explore these in practice sessions. Attention will also be given to models of self-reflection and peer supervision.
Leaders: Linda Williams, Ph.D., SCHC; Kathleen Hope Brown, D.Min.
Check back for registration.
This session focuses on the core practice of discernment in spiritual direction, drawing on Benedictine, Ignatian, Quaker, and other models. Students will explore their own spiritual journeys and practices of prayer. Attention is also given to practices of spiritual self-care for those who offer spiritual companionship.
Leader: Kathleen Staudt, Ph.D., SCHC
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For graduates of our program and others involved in ministries of Spiritual Companionship and pastoral guidance. Come and spend 24 hours with us, refreshing your skills through the presentations offered in our School for Spiritual Direction.
Explore what it means to listen for God’s dream for our lives using creativity and
imagination as well as active listening. Practice discernment through attention to your own story, and through participation in a “clarity team” – a group process for clarifying and exploring our desire and God’s desire for our lives.
Experience the Holy Routine at Adelynrood.
Be a co-learner in the Spiritual Direction all day Tuesday (total of 8 hours of instruction).
Meet Our Leaders
Dr. Kathleen Staudt, SCHC, Ph.D. (Program Co-Director and Presenter, August 2026)
Kathy has worked as a teacher, poet and spiritual director at a number of institutions in the Washington, DC area. She received her certificate in Spiritual Direction from Washington Theological Union and has been offering Spiritual Direction for over 20 years. A finalist in the 2021 Paraclete Poetry contest, she has published several books of poetry, most recently Viriditas: New and Selected Poems (2023) as well as scholarly work on the British artist and poet David Jones. Her approach to discernment is developed in her book Shaping a Faithful Life: Discernment and Discipleship for Young Adults (2021). Her website is kathleenstaudtpoet.com
Dr. Linda M. Williams, PhD, SCHC (Program Co-Director and Presenter, June 2026)
Linda received her training in spiritual direction from Christian Formation and Direction Ministries Arizona and has been offering spiritual direction for over 10 years to both clergy and lay individuals exploring their journeys. She has served the faith community in multiple capacities, including teaching Christian Ethics and co-developing a Second Half of Life Spirituality Ministry within the Arizona Episcopal Diocese. Her work experience is diverse: USAF and NASA management positions, formation and leadership of nonprofits, and consulting with city governments on social services….from boardrooms to prisons. “The opportunity to walk alongside individuals committed to contemplating and exploring their spiritual journeys is my most precious experience.”
The Rev. Michelle Meech (Presenter, June 2025)
The Rev. Michelle Meech trained with the Enneagram Institute and has taught the Enneagram ever since. She works as rector for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Kingston, New York, where she lives and grows things with her beloved wife, Ana.
Tracey Clarkson (Presenter, August 2025)
Tracey Clarkson is an active Unitarian Universalist in Portsmouth, NH, where she has lived for over three decades and has been working her dreams for almost as long. She completed both the Dream Work and Spiritual Direction programs at the Haden Institute in NC (2017 & 2019); and she is currently enrolled in a two-year training program at the Assisi Institute to become a certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst. Tracey offers Spiritual Direction with dream work as her main focus, believing and trusting that the Holy speaks to us in and through the landscape of our dreams.
Anne Ritchings, SCHC, MA, MSLS, MDiv (Presenter, August 2025)
Anne Ritchings is an Episcopal priest with 30 plus years’ experience in spiritual direction. She received her training at the General Theological Seminary and the Adelynrood School for Spiritual Direction. She is also certified as a Dream Work Facilitator and a SoulCollage® Facilitator. She serves as a spiritual director in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania companioning those who are in a vocational discernment process. She has worked as a college English teacher, a reference librarian, and a cheese maker at a goat dairy in New Mexico. “Every life experience offers us a connection with the Divine presence. We need only to open ourselves to hear the music of eternity, the song that God is singing in our souls.”
Dr. Kathleen Hope-Brown, DMin, (Presenter, August 2025, June 2026)
Kathy is affiliate faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary and DeSales University, where she teaches spiritual direction and spirituality studies. She is the co-founder and primary instructor of the Bon Secours Spiritual Direction Institute and Director of Spiritual Care Services at the Saint Luke Institute in Silver Spring, MD, a psychiatric treatment facility for clergy and religious. Kathy trained at Catholic University and the Washington Theological Union. She is the author of Lay Leaders of Worship: A Practical and Spiritual Guide (Liturgical Press 2004) and co-author of Companions on the Journey: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship (DeSales Resource Center, 2006). Her article about spiritual direction with victims of abuse was published in Presence (Vol 23, No 4) in December 2017.
ENROLL NOW
Registration Details
Applicant Requirements
It is essential that anyone desiring to offer spiritual direction to others be engaged in the practice with her/his own spiritual director. Ideally, applicants should have at least six months experience with direction. If you don’t have a spiritual director, visit Spiritual Directors International for a list of spiritual companions at or check with your parish, diocese, conference or synod for a local list.
Applicants must submit before their first session, a 3- to 4-page spiritual autobiography that includes:
- Challenges you have faced.
- Ways in which you think you have grown.
- Practices that support your life in God.
- Your experience with spiritual direction.
- What draws you to seek training as a spiritual director.
- How you see yourself using this training.
Prior to the first session, participants should read chapters 1-3 in Spiritual Direction: A Practical Introduction, by Sue Pickering. It is available to order from your local independent bookstore, or wherever you purchase your books.
Enrollment
The program fee for one session is $868. This includes all materials, single room lodging and meals (Monday dinner through Friday Lunch) at Adelynrood, attendance at the Quiet Day and the opportunity to practice spiritual direction during the session dates.
Lodging and Meals
Single room lodging and meals at Adelynrood are included in your program fee. (Monday dinner through Friday lunch.) If you want to share a room, are commuting to Adelynrood or would like to stay before or after the session dates, contact our reservations staff at 978-462-6721 ext. 31 for rates.
Registration
Registration is now open for the 2025 programs. Please see the registration links located within each description.
Scholarships are available for the School for Spiritual Direction. If you are interested in applying for a scholarship, complete this form.
More Information
Thank you for your interest in the Adelynrood School for Spiritual Direction. We welcome your questions about programs, enrollment or lodging.