What is Spiritual Companionship?

Spiritual Companionship is, above all, a sacred time and space for deep listening.  As spiritual companions, we provide our clients with a safe place to be fully heard without being judged, criticized, or offered advice, a place where you can be as vulnerable as you need to be.

Classically, the term that has been used for this work is spiritual direction and this is the certification that all our volunteers hold.

At Spiritual Support Services, we find that the term spiritual director is a bit misleading, as the true director of the process is the divine within.  Your spiritual companion will act as a gentle loving guide as you share the story of your journey, helping you to see more clearly where the inner divine is calling for healing, rest, movement, or some new insight.

Our commitment is to offer each member of the WNC community four free sessions of spiritual support. Should you feel the need to continue after those sessions are complete, we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Each session will be an hour in length and take place in most cases by phone or video chat. We only have a few volunteers who live in the area, so if meeting in-person is important to you, let us know and we’ll try to connect you with someone local.

This hour is your opportunity to unburden yourself, to share the challenges, joys, pains, losses, intentions, struggles, memories, and dreams you are currently experiencing in your life. Your companion will be fully present with you, only interjecting when feeling “nudged” by divine to do so.

Typically counseling follows a medical model in which a professional counselor looks closely at the symptoms of the client and diagnoses her/him with a mental health disorder.  Then, the counselor and the client work on developing skills which will help the client alleviate his/her symptoms and have the capacity to function in daily life with greater ease. Since counseling is considered a treatment for a health issue, insurance often covers the full or partial cost of it.

Spiritual Companionship on the other hand, is more focused on developing the spiritual well-being of the client, including discovering meaning and purpose in the client's life. In this work, the assumption is made that you already have the answers you need inside of you and that through the supportive presence of a spiritual companion, those answers have a chance to come forth. We will encourage you to discover your own personal path in this life, living from your truest self, not just living the life that is expected of you. Insurance does not cover this process, and a diagnosis is not involved.

Since spiritual companionship and counseling are two different types of services, they are not a substitute for one another.  If you have specific mental health needs, counseling may be the best option for you.  Some people may decide to participate in both since they meet different needs, while others may feel they do not need counseling but simply want a companion to share their spiritual journey.

Spiritual Support Services is an interfaith and interspiritual organization. This means that we are committed to honoring the needs and perspectives of all souls from all faiths, all forms of spirituality, and all walks of life. We believe that your spirituality is a deeply personal matter, consequently we will never tell you what to believe or how to conduct your life.

Many of the same ethical standards found in counseling can be found in spiritual companionship.  You can expect that anything you share during your sessions will be kept in strictest confidence as far as the law will allow and that the dignity of each client will be held sacred. 

Absolutely. We believe that love is love. No matter how you identify, our hope is that you will feel safe here.