Spiritual Direction in Charlottesville, VA
Welcome to House Work. I'm glad you're here.
My name is Cathy. I am a spiritual director here in the Charlottesville area. It is my life's passion and love to journey with others in their path toward wholeness, deep connection with their life, and awakening their consciousness.
Carl Jung, who established depth psychology and whose teachings permeate our culture, often likened the Soul unto a house. In this house there are many rooms, hallways, aspects, and features. Some of them we visit often, others we haven't touched in years. That's why I call my offering house work; together, we explore the self that we are like a house, recognizing and owning that it is a whole entity and that all parts belong, even the rooms you haven't entered since a young child. Especially those rooms. That's where the gold is found.
As a Spiritual Director, I utilize a variety of "wisdom tools" such as the Enneagram, dream exploration, poetry, guided contemplative exercises, and above all, deep listening and reflection to my client's deepest, truest self.
By this illuminating process, a person comes into a newfound relationship with themself. The work we do together is liberating, healing, and arguably, addresses the most important task of our lives: becoming our truest, most whole self.
My name is Cathy. I am a spiritual director here in the Charlottesville area. It is my life's passion and love to journey with others in their path toward wholeness, deep connection with their life, and awakening their consciousness.
Carl Jung, who established depth psychology and whose teachings permeate our culture, often likened the Soul unto a house. In this house there are many rooms, hallways, aspects, and features. Some of them we visit often, others we haven't touched in years. That's why I call my offering house work; together, we explore the self that we are like a house, recognizing and owning that it is a whole entity and that all parts belong, even the rooms you haven't entered since a young child. Especially those rooms. That's where the gold is found.
As a Spiritual Director, I utilize a variety of "wisdom tools" such as the Enneagram, dream exploration, poetry, guided contemplative exercises, and above all, deep listening and reflection to my client's deepest, truest self.
By this illuminating process, a person comes into a newfound relationship with themself. The work we do together is liberating, healing, and arguably, addresses the most important task of our lives: becoming our truest, most whole self.
Who is spiritual direction for?
To truly know one's soul and purpose on this planet in an intimate way is the inheritance of every human being. I recognize throughout history that this work has been done with and for the people who have the privilege and resources to access it and that this is unjust. It is my hope that psyche or soul could be the unifying ground that all variety of people can stand on and embrace one another at great depth. I recognize that the color of my skin has given me a particular subjective experience of our culture that is blind to the experience of many others. I am committed to engaging these realities and more as I learn along the way. As a spiritual director, and human soul, there is no gender, skin color, life circumstance, cultural stigma, orientation, ethnicity, or -ism, that I am not willing to journey alongside with. If you are a person of color, LGBTQ+, or generally identify as a person who has been marginalized in anyway by our culture—you and your whole story and self are welcome in House Work.
My hope is that this work will spread to all communities and peoples.
As Carl Jung said, "no one can make history/herstory who is not willing to risk everything for it, to carry the experiment with her own life through to the bitter end, and to declare that her life is not a continuation of the past, but a new beginning."
My hope is that this work will spread to all communities and peoples.
As Carl Jung said, "no one can make history/herstory who is not willing to risk everything for it, to carry the experiment with her own life through to the bitter end, and to declare that her life is not a continuation of the past, but a new beginning."
Are you curious about spiritual direction?
Head here to check out what the next steps are and to schedule a free, half an hour discovery call with me.
What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction has its roots in many traditions. It is present in both the catholic and protestant limbs of the Christian church, as well as lesser known, but highly worthwhile desert mothers and fathers of the middle ages. The role of a spiritual director, however, is in no way monopolized by Christianity. Every spiritual tradition (and even most non-spiritual organizations) I can think of has some role like this, it's just called different things. In other contexts, it's called a mentor, a guide, an elder, or a shaman.
My particular style of Spiritual Direction is deeply ecumenical, meaning it celebrates and draws from all faiths with excitement and respect. It is also draws on aspects from what I believe is the best of the best when it comes to human psychology. My style as a spiritual director is heavily steeped in the work of Carl Jung, Emma Jung and subsequent Jungian teachers like James Hollis, Marion Woodman, & Robert Johnson. Additionally, many of the Jungian teachers at the Haden Institute, where I trained, have been a life-changing influence on my work. I pull on the influence and teaching of all of these teachers throughout our working together,
I also leverage mythology and storytelling in the style of Joseph Campbell, whose teachings have resounded with millions over the past 50 years and somehow seem to become more relevant and popular year after year. We may also look at Marie Louise Von Franz work with Fairy tales along with other Jungian writers on Myth and Meaning.
My particular style of Spiritual Direction is deeply ecumenical, meaning it celebrates and draws from all faiths with excitement and respect. It is also draws on aspects from what I believe is the best of the best when it comes to human psychology. My style as a spiritual director is heavily steeped in the work of Carl Jung, Emma Jung and subsequent Jungian teachers like James Hollis, Marion Woodman, & Robert Johnson. Additionally, many of the Jungian teachers at the Haden Institute, where I trained, have been a life-changing influence on my work. I pull on the influence and teaching of all of these teachers throughout our working together,
I also leverage mythology and storytelling in the style of Joseph Campbell, whose teachings have resounded with millions over the past 50 years and somehow seem to become more relevant and popular year after year. We may also look at Marie Louise Von Franz work with Fairy tales along with other Jungian writers on Myth and Meaning.
Spiritual Direction and the rhythms of life
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My approach to this role is not to give you answers or do all the "work" for you. That wouldn't be very fulfilling for either of us. In fact, when it comes to answers, I'm far more fascinated and focused on their questions. As many spiritual and psychological teachers implore us: "live the question!"
This seems so counter-intuitive for our culture that loves a good statistic, an immediately microwavable solution, and closure to any sort of discomfort at the speed of a text message. Know this, though: the human soul is first and foremost a being of the natural world—like the willow tree, a quartz deposit, or Turkey Tail mushroom—and as such, the soul abides by the rhythms of nature. Unlike the 24 hour news cycle, the rhythms of nature happen to be impressively slow and gentle in their story arc. If one is to do the work involved with spiritual direction, one must unlearn our cultural obsession with fast answers and cultivate a deep contentment with slow questions. Trust me—life, everything, feels better this way. |
Trametes versicolor, Turkey Tail Mushroom
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“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Why work with a Spiritual Director?
These days, we have directors for all sorts of things: director of operations, musical directors, traffic directors, business directories, and on and on. The practice of having a "director" for one's spiritual life is by no means new. We obviously see the importance of a musical director. They're the hub of a person that ensures that the show progresses from day one of auditions to the last showing of the weekend.
Without a director, the show would inevitably be chaos. I don't mean to be dramatic, but honestly, for many of us, our spiritual life is chaos without a director of sorts, without some sense of structure and guidance.
Spiritual chaos can feel mundane, too, full of a base-line anxiety and a sense of having no bearings on reality. Spiritual chaos is no stranger to the citizens of the 21st century, who wonder how they'll navigate all of the unknown and uncertainty. It's a good time to get bearings on (y)our reality. Our avenues for answers are greatly limited in their capacity to deliver actual clarity to our experience.
For instance, in a day, a person in the US in the 21st century might bounce around from Netflix to News, from Instagram to Facebook, and then go looking for answers to existential questions on Google, and gratification delivered tomorrow from Amazon.
In our relationships, we feel like we're in a sea of loved ones, coaches, friends, and work mates that often feel like strangers, feeling unknown and not seen or heard, valued or worthy.
Essentially, it's exhausting to constantly be reacting to life and our loved ones and work places without knowing why it is so hard why it affects us this way—how did it come to this? Reading the above paragraph alone feels creates a tension in the body. It's even more so to actually live it, which many of us have adapted to living this way for a long, long time.
If one is to do the work involved with spiritual direction, one must unlearn our societal, culture, familial, and individual norms and, as Ghandi is cited to say "be the change." Choosing your own evolution is a fundamentally different posturing toward the world than living life as a victim of your circumstances.
Spiritual direction is one path—one path!—among many to help find some stability and to curb the reactivity.
A spiritual director, me or another, can help a person get a sense of their deepest, truest self, to love their insecurities and limitations, to connect with source, and to finally come home to themself.
This has perhaps never been more relevant than it is now, in this cultural moment.
Without a director, the show would inevitably be chaos. I don't mean to be dramatic, but honestly, for many of us, our spiritual life is chaos without a director of sorts, without some sense of structure and guidance.
Spiritual chaos can feel mundane, too, full of a base-line anxiety and a sense of having no bearings on reality. Spiritual chaos is no stranger to the citizens of the 21st century, who wonder how they'll navigate all of the unknown and uncertainty. It's a good time to get bearings on (y)our reality. Our avenues for answers are greatly limited in their capacity to deliver actual clarity to our experience.
For instance, in a day, a person in the US in the 21st century might bounce around from Netflix to News, from Instagram to Facebook, and then go looking for answers to existential questions on Google, and gratification delivered tomorrow from Amazon.
In our relationships, we feel like we're in a sea of loved ones, coaches, friends, and work mates that often feel like strangers, feeling unknown and not seen or heard, valued or worthy.
Essentially, it's exhausting to constantly be reacting to life and our loved ones and work places without knowing why it is so hard why it affects us this way—how did it come to this? Reading the above paragraph alone feels creates a tension in the body. It's even more so to actually live it, which many of us have adapted to living this way for a long, long time.
If one is to do the work involved with spiritual direction, one must unlearn our societal, culture, familial, and individual norms and, as Ghandi is cited to say "be the change." Choosing your own evolution is a fundamentally different posturing toward the world than living life as a victim of your circumstances.
Spiritual direction is one path—one path!—among many to help find some stability and to curb the reactivity.
A spiritual director, me or another, can help a person get a sense of their deepest, truest self, to love their insecurities and limitations, to connect with source, and to finally come home to themself.
This has perhaps never been more relevant than it is now, in this cultural moment.
Are you curious about spiritual direction?
Head here to check out what the next steps are and to schedule a free, half an hour discovery call with me.
Ancient Tools of the self
for Modern Times
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Enneagram Wisdom
Jungian Depth Work Dream Exploration The Mystic's path of all faiths |
Contemplative Practices
Myth & Story Deep Listening Interfaith Awareness |