Conference 2025 Workshops
Made possible with support from the
Workshops, Interdisciplinary Companionship, & Affinity Group Gatherings
Our workshops will run during independent time slots this year, so no sign up will be necessary when registering for the conference. Just show up!
We will also be offering a number of experiential sessions in interdisciplinary companionship, including musical, art, and embodiment practices, as well as a variety of affinity group gatherings.
Spiritual Awakenings in Grief: Helping Others Locate Their Path at Life’s Crossroads
Rev. Jamie Eaddy-Chism, DMin
Thursday, May 29 - 4:00PM
Grief often brings us to a crossroads, where loss reshapes our understanding of self, community, and the sacred. This session explores how grief can be an invitation to spiritual awakening, reorientation, and transformation. Through a culturally attuned and justice-centered lens, we will discuss ways to companion others in grief, honoring their unique experiences while helping them locate meaning, agency, and connection along their journey. Participants will engage in reflective practices that integrate spiritual care, embodied awareness, and ancestral wisdom to support those navigating loss.
The Rev. Jamie Eaddy-Chism, DMin, works with people’s healing and well-being, perhaps especially with navigating trauma, loss, and grief. Her work intersects justice, theology, and thanatology, and she incorporates art, music, and movement when providing education and care. She is a 2015 Princeton University Black Theology and Leadership Institute Fellow. She received her Master of Divinity from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, and is a certified trauma professional (CTP). She is a certified thanatologist through The Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). She founded The Remembering Station, a 501C3 committed to providing resources to those navigating grief, whether finances for funerals or resources for doulas.
Affectionately known as Dr. J, she facilitates sessions on the intersection of Trauma, Black Grief, and White Supremacy throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Jamie is the author of Getting Naked to Get Free and curator of the “The Ratchet Grief Project™.
Carl Jung as Spiritual Companion
Robert Hull
Saturday, May 31 - 2:15PM
First, we will set Jung within the context of his time when the familiar understanding of the historical Jesus was dismantled by Albert Schweitzer. Facing the deeply shaken faith of his clients with their personal sense of being abandoned in the world, Jung saw a way ahead. We will explore Jung’s “strategy for a loss of faith.”
Robert Hull has been an adult educator for 50 years and a certified Myers Briggs Type IndicatorTM (MBTI) practitioner for 40 years. Likewise, he has participated in all three levels of the Progoff Intensive JournalTM workshop training over more than 35 years. He has been an adjunct university faculty member for 13 years.
Compass JournalingTM is his own development of a spiritual journaling process to track, reflect upon, and dialogue with one’s psychospiritual development over a lifetime.
Professional Considerations for Spiritual Directors During the "Psychedelic Renaissance"
Nicholas Collura
Friday, May 30 - 4:00PM
In Nicholas’ words, “The field of psychedelics is undergoing a “renaissance,” as the FDA has approved breakthrough psychedelic-assisted therapies to treat a range of conditions, and hallucinogenic plant medicines are becoming increasingly popular among spiritual seekers today. What impact might this new frontier have on our profession, and are we prepared to accompany those who have had transformative, or challenging, psychedelic experiences?”
Nicholas Collura is a spiritual director, Enneagram teacher, and board-certified healthcare chaplain who currently serves as a university chaplain and directs an ethics program at MIT. In the past, he has worked in population health and palliative care chaplaincy, and he is the co-founder and co-coordinator of EcoPhilly, a faith-based organizing initiative dedicated to creation care in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The Integration of Spirituality, Trauma, Attachment, and Neuroscience
Karen Bartlett
Friday, May 30 - 2:15PM
This workshop delves into the interconnected realms of spirituality, trauma, attachment, and neuroscience, with a goal of enhancing understanding of both ourselves and those we guide.
Karen Bartlett resides in Wichita, Kansas. Her passion for learning has resulted in obtaining the following: Licensed Master of Social Work, Masters Certificate in Theology, M.Ed in Neuroscience and Trauma, and a certificate in Spiritual Direction. Karen currently works as both a school social worker and as a spiritual director.
Interdisciplinary Companionship
We will also be offering a number of experiential sessions in interdisciplinary companionship, including musical, art, and nature practices.
Forest Bathing
Simon de Voil & Jeanette Banashak
Thursday, May 29 - 12:45PM
Grab your lunches and expand the nourishment of the meal as sacred musician, Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil, and nature companionship guide and educator, Dr. Jeanette Banashak facilitate an integrative, joyful, and reflective experience with copious amounts of song and spontaneous fun while we eat. The focus will be on relationship and reciprocity with the natural world, feel free to bring any poems that you’d want to share as we connect with the land, the Sacred, each other, our ancestors, our selves, and the collective work of this gathering.
Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, storytelling and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon is also an experienced workshop and retreat leader, drawing on 15 years of study, training, and practice that grew from his time living and working in Iona Abbey. Although influenced by many traditions, Simon’s spiritual path and teaching is deeply rooted in Celtic Christianity, the wisdom of the earth, and in the Scottish land where he’s spent most of his life.
Dr. Jeanette Banashak is a queer and bilingual interspiritual and interreligious companion. She has a diploma in shinrin yoku (forest bathing) and guides people of all ages in urban nature immersion experiences as an act of justice and is deeply committed to the work of integrating life’s experiences. She is the co-founder/director of The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, which offers trainings in nature companionship as well as interfaith & interspiritual direction. Jeanette also teaches social and emotional learning and child development at Erikson Institute and spiritual direction at the Graduate Theological Foundation. She loves to be outside and near and in the Great Lakes during her free time.
Mandalas and Spiritual Awareness: Being Held in Our Innate Wholeness
Marybeth Leis Druery
Friday, May 30 - 12:45PM
Experience guided mandala-making to find and lose yourself, practice letting go, and listen to symbol as a pathway to your inner world and divine source. Mandalas have been part of human spiritual expression throughout history and across many cultures. Carl Jung created free form mandalas every morning to gain insight into his inner life and encouraged others to create them as an expression of our innate wholeness. We’ll entice our creative selves through playful improvisational warmups and guided mindfulness practice. No artistic skill or experience needed!
Marybeth Leis Druery began creating mandalas in 2005 to reflect on her Ontario Jubilee Spiritual Direction training. She is an artist and Spiritual Companion who journeys with emerging adults from diverse faith and non-religious backgrounds through Student Open Circles, a charity she co-founded in 2001. She facilitates mindfulness and creativity circles, personal development courses, retreats, leadership development, and engages university students to volunteer with local underserved communities.
In addition to her training as a Spiritual Director, Marybeth is a certified practitioner of the NARM modality for addressing complex trauma and she received her Expressive Arts Facilitator Graduate Certificate through Haliburton School of Art where she is Part-time Faculty, teaching courses in Mandalas, Creativity, and Spirituality. She deepens her journey through practices from diverse spiritual traditions, art, dreamwork, the Enneagram, body awareness, and meditation. She is committed to working towards a world in which we value and care for each other.
Creative Practice in Spiritual Direction: a Hands-on Exploration for the Soul
Christine Hiester
Saturday, May 31 - 12:30PM
With gently guided practice stations, group discussion, and concrete suggestions for expanding awareness around creativity, attendees will experience a modality expanding opportunity for their spiritual companionship work.
Christine Hiester is a spiritual companion, retreat leader, supervisor, and trained grief companion in Central Ohio. Christine received training through the Wellstreams Program on the Art of Spiritual Direction in Columbus, Ohio, in Interfaith and Interspiritual Wisdom through the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, and as a Grief Companion through the Metta Center. She is affiliated with both the Metta Center and the Spirituality Network of Columbus, Ohio as course/workshop facilitator and supervisor.
Nathan Bettger
Interdisciplinary Facilitator
Nathan Bettger is a board-certified hospital chaplain and spiritual director from Oshkosh, WI. Deeply committed to companioning and nurturing sacred sanctuary for individuals and communities, both human and more than human, Nathan draws from the mystic tradition within Christianity and the intuitive knowledge of nature-based and animist cultures throughout human history. Nathan is dedicated to helping liberate others into a more expanded consciousness and incorporation of their heart, body, and mind. Parenting a child with a disability, walking with those at end of life, and focused attention to the natural world have led to a deep passion for paradox, process, and presence. He is a trained Enneagram facilitator, an ordained interfaith minister, a graduate of Stephen Jenkinson’s Orphan Wisdom School, and an SDI New Contemplative Alumni.
Affinity Groups
Lunchtime sessions for a variety of affinity groups.
BIPOC Affinity Group Gathering
Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares, Cynthia Bailey Manns, Elsy Arevalo
Thursday, May 29 - 12:45PM
We as BIPOC spiritual companions are navigating these challenging, stressful times, it remains crucial to keep alive our connection to our spiritual lineages, to honor the ways in which our teachers, the more than human world and ancestors are still guiding us. In this panel, each person will draw on their own journeys, gifts, wisdom, and learnings from their traditions and from those they serve to offer some guidance and some questions for us to ponder. We will together deepen our connections to ourselves, our communities, to Mystery and with people we serve. (open to members of BIPOC affinity group only)
LGBTQ+ Affinity Group Gathering
Karen Erlichman, Larry J. Morris III, Jeanette Banashak
Friday, May 30 - 12:45PM
As spiritual directors in this era of global threat and violence, we offer a holy container for exploring queer ritual, reflection, and contemplation as resources for wholeness and liberation. LGBTQ+ people have a special and historical relationship to ritual and spiritual companioning that can be nourishing and fortifying in these times. This interactive panel will explore reclaiming the Sacred and repurposing traditional rituals as well as creating new rituals and practices, such as nature companionship. (open to members of LGBTQ+ affinity group only)
Global Outreach Group Gathering
Althea Banda-Hansmann, Seicho Sydney Roth, Wanjiku Kiarie, Joan Alexander, Amrutham Babu, Agnes Hermans, Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares, Kate Keefe
Friday, May 30 - 12:45PM
10 Minutes each – Individual Intros, Geography of region/country share, a highlight of SE in your region (What is happening? What can people join?), Regional Q&A
- SDI Africa- Althea + Seicho + Wanjiku (In-person)
- SDI Canada – Canada Rep + Seicho + Joan (Hybrid)
- SDI New Zealand+ Australia – Aus/NZ Rep + Amrutham + Agnes (In-person)
- SDI Europe – European Rep + Seifu + Kate
20 Minutes – Open House
Conversations with all who attend inducing Q&A
Spiritual Direction Educators Group Gathering
Althea Banda-Hansmann, Cindy Lee, Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Saturday, May 31 - 12:45PM
Being grounded in the Spiritual Integration – Beyond the Field conference theme, the Education Gathering prompts a vital and transformative exploration into the central question: How are our spiritual formation education programs called to evolve in response to these unprecedented times? Drawing on the experience and wisdom of spiritual directors Althea Banda-Hansmann, Cindy Lee, and Shawn Zevit – all working within spiritual formation education programs – this session will delve into key aspects of this evolution, considering the interconnected themes of Community and Care:
- How must we revision spiritual companionship to meet current needs?
- How can we best model care for staff and interns?
- Crucially, how must our curriculum content and design shift to meet the needs of this time?
Join us for a collaborative exploration that aims to shape the future of spiritual formation education.