Spiritual Companionship in Ordinary Life – Accessibility and Serving Clients with Disabilities
November 9 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm PST
What does it mean to truly welcome someone into spiritual direction? For people living with disability, welcome often depends on things others never notice: a ramp, a caption, plain language, a community that makes room. Without these, ableism quietly closes doors. Accessibility opens them, and offers the dignity and joy of sharing fully in common life.
In this 90-minute session, Mike Walker draws on his own experience of living with cerebral palsy to explore accessibility as a spiritual practice. He shows how it can be physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual, and how each kind creates the conditions for belonging and empathy. Drawing on disability theology and on Jesus’ way of listening to people who were different in body and mind, Mike shows how deep listening becomes a form of access in its own right.
You will leave with a broader sense of hospitality and practical ways to make your practice a place where everyone can belong.
Who it’s for: spiritual directors, companions, supervisors, and anyone who wants to make spiritual care more accessible. No prior background in disability studies is needed.
Through teaching, personal reflection and small-group conversation, you will explore:
- The four kinds of access (physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual) and how each one gives people dignity
- What to listen for with directees who have disabilities: their access needs, the toll of ableism, and how it can affect their connection with the Divine
- How welcome and recognizing a directee’s agency shape the spiritual direction relationship
- One concrete accessibility support you can bring into your own practice
Listen to accessibility advocate Mike Walker as he draws on his experience of living with cerebral palsy to explore how physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual access create belonging, and how deep listening can open the door to spiritual direction.
About Mike Walker:
Mike Walker is a Canadian theologian and advocate for people with disabilities who has worked in Toronto, Chicago, Whitby, and Ottawa. He’s happy to be here. If you’d like, you can reach him at [email protected].
