On Monday, December 12th, 2022, a vital mass of Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling graduates came together to celebrate our past, understand our present, and build upon our vision for the future. As part of One Spirit’s year-long celebration of its 20th Anniversary, an idea emerged to salute our Interspiritual Companions and Counselors and explore ways to propel you to the forefront of the field of spiritual counseling, companioning, and care. We’re calling this the Companioning Initiative, and Monday’s kick-off was a defining moment!

We want all of our graduates to have the opportunity to get involved! If you missed the event, please click here to watch the video or read all about it below and learn how you can be a part of this exciting endeavor.

Celebrating the Past: Naming the Pioneers of Spiritual Counseling and Companioning at One Spirit

To honor those that came before throughout our 20-year history, One Spirit’s Director of Admissions, Rev. Darren Polito, opened the evening with a grounding practice and a celebration of our educational ancestors: Rev. Dr. Joyce Liechenstein, Rev. Dr. Tony Zito, Rev. Dr. Lucille Rosen, Dr. Elaine Valdov, Rev. Rene Shipley-Ragan, Rev. Dr. Barbara Kinney, Rev. Therese Bimka, and Rev. Sally Schwager. Participants shared reflections, appreciation, and love for these pioneers of the spiritual counseling program.

Understanding the Present: Reflections from the Current ISCC Program Co-Facilitators

After remembering where we have been, we reflected on where we are now. At this point, the faculty of the current generation of training introduced themselves. They shared insights about emerging trends in the fields of spiritual counseling and spiritual education and explained how these best practices are being integrated into the Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling (ISCC) program.

Decolonizing Spiritual Care and Education

Rev. Nathan Brisby shared about the critical work of decolonizing spiritual care. He explained that when dominant cultures establish standards for “health,” anyone who deviates from that culture is pathologized as unhealthy and needing treatment. In response, the ISCC program now guides aspiring companions and counselors to reevaluate definitions of health and wholeness. It also works to exit the traditional education paradigm, created from a colonized mindset that perpetuates systems of oppression. The current ISCC Program breaks this mold by acknowledging every student’s inner and innate wisdom and encouraging students to share their knowledge within a safe learning community that validates and supports them.

Embracing the Spiritual Companioning Model

Rev. Dr. Ed O’Malley built on this and elaborated on the shift in the field from the term “spiritual counseling,” which grew out of the pathology mindset, to “spiritual companioning,” which appreciates people as whole. This emphasis is not just semantics: the ISCC program reframes the professional relationship from an expert-patient model to a peer relationship where the Companion holds space for the Companionee to tune into their inner wisdom.

Practical Applications of Companioning in Our Communities

Rev. Dr. Khadijah Matin expanded the frame and spoke about the ISCC Concentrations, which are educational intensives for any spiritual counseling graduate targeted toward building  Interspiritual Companioning skills within three specific and critical contexts. Nathan leads Companioning Within the Workplace, exploring how work environments have become profane spaces and what to do about that. Ed’s concentration, Companioning Mother Earth, looks at how humans have lost touch with the ecosystem and how to repair the spiritual rift resulting from that disconnect. In Companioning the Inner Spiritual Activist, Khadijah dives into the inner work of spiritual activism and creating social change. 

From Directors to Co-Facilitators: Modeling the Pathway Forward

In their presentation, Khadijah, Ed, and Nathan exemplified their roles as program facilitators. Truly walking their talk, just as they describe the movement from notions of Spiritual Counseling to Spiritual Companioning, they have also moved from their roles as Directors to becoming Co-Facilitators. They have dropped the industrial “Expert” education model where knowledge was imparted to fill the heads of learners and replaced it with one that acknowledges the wisdom that is already present in the collective. Their role as Co-Facilitators is now to hold the space for connections to be made and learning to emerge. 

The Future of Spiritual Counseling and Companioning at One Spirit

The proceedings then moved into the future of spiritual counseling and companioning at One Spirit and outlined our bold vision to become the top resource for finding spiritual companions on the web. One Spirit is investing in Search Engine Optimization, and in partnership with our graduates, we anticipate becoming a top-3 link in Google and other search engines within a year! 

How will we do this? We’ve engaged a brilliant consultant to help us retool our web presence to be more discoverable by folks who are looking for us but might not know exactly what to search for. We’re constantly rolling out updates, but we need your help! 

Three Ways to Help People Find the Perfect Spiritual Companion (We mean YOU!)

• First, we want all of our grads to make sure to list themselves on our Interspiritual Companions & Counselors Directory so that people in need can find you on the Internet. 

• Second, we are in the process of writing and publishing stories to our blog, informing the public about the need for Spiritual Care and the special ways that One Spirit companions and counselors are trained to meet people’s spiritual needs. These blog posts will also educate the spiritual counseling community and the public about best-practices and advancements made in the field. Do you have important insights to share with the world through One Spirit’s news blog? Please click here to connect with Rev. Garrett Foster & Rev. Rev. Stephen Symbolik to express your interest and ideas.

• Third, please link to us! Not only are your links to our site an important way that new students find us, but it is also something Google looks at to determine how authoritative and legitimate our website is, compared with others. If you have a bio on your website, or in profiles when you author content, please mention your training at One Spirit and link to 1spirit.org.

The Importance of Continuing Education

And as Damia December, One Spirit's Manager of Student Services, discussed, being a resource of spiritual companions means keeping our skills honed and relevant, so please take advantage of the educational opportunities available to our graduates! Remember, anyone who affiliates with One Spirit receives one workshop credit to take a class in each year’s calendar. These workshops are co-curated by ISCC facilitators and supervisors to be relevant to Companioning and Counseling graduates. 

And, naturally, the ISCC concentrations discussed above are also profoundly relevant ways to build skills, awareness, and connection to today’s most critical needs and applications of our work and they are open to all ISC and ISCC graduates. The next round of intensives will begin in early 2024.

Creating a Community of Practice

Gordon Brode, One Spirit’s Director of Organizational Development, then floated an invitation and an open discussion of Incubating a monthly Community of Practice available exclusively to graduates of all of One Spirit’s Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling certificate programs.

He shared a simple definition. “A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." 

The idea emerged on the Operations team as they heard from students and graduates the need for ongoing support around the work of spiritual counseling and companioning, and was brainstormed to be a potential container for ongoing practice, discussion of new developments, peer supervision, requests for support, skills building, and perhaps most importantly, the nurturing of resilience for self and others. 

One Spirit CEO, Ilene Sameth, is thrilled about the idea, and wants to help incubate the community of practice by providing institutional structure and support: marketing, technical infrastructure and platforms, registrations systems, communications, and thinking partnership on creating a vital community based on our past successes. 

The Invitation to ISCC Graduates: Create a Community of Companions that Serves and Support You!

The invitation to the graduate community is to unleash your creativity. Schedule, convene, design, create space, co-facilitation, and hold each other in community. What will this look like? Many important needs and wonderful ideas emerged from the community that was present: 

• Desires for Peer Supervision

• Desires for Nourishment

• Requests for Being rather than Doing (“I don’t need another task!)

• Ongoing Spiritual Practice with Other Spiritual Companions

• Community & Continued Connection

• Continuing Education but also “Re-Education” for those who learned in earlier generations of the program and sense they may need to get caught up

• Creation of a Safe and Stable Container with Commitment among participants 

Critically, as part of the last bullet point above, one participant raised the issue of safety and confidentiality and that a revolving door offering would create a much different experience than a community committed to meeting regularly and deepening in connection, a desire emblematic of the cohorts in One Spirit’s training programs. 

Perhaps the overarching question, as evoked by Khadijah, may be how do we do “Both…And?” How do we create a space where these needs can be appreciated, understood, and met? Where might we strike a balance between collective needs and individual needs? 

Are You Called to Pioneer this Program? Join the Incubation Team!

If you’d like to help bring life to this community of practice, please click here to declare your interest in being on the incubation team! When the community is ready to launch, all Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling graduates will be invited!

The World Needs More Spiritual Companions: Spread the Word!

The evening closed with deep gratitude for our graduates and all you offer the world through your service. Thanks were also offered for the program facilitators and for the program itself. The world truly needs more spiritual companions. This is why we ended with an appeal from Darren in his recruitment and admissions roles. The new cohort of Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling begins April 1st, 2023, and there is still room for more students! 

Did you know that over 50% of our new students come to us through graduate word of mouth? 

Whom do you know who might be interested in joining this field at a critical juncture in human history? 

If you found value in your training at One Spirit, please invite your friends to: 

• Attend an information session and meet Khadijah, Ed, and Nathan. 

• Speak with Darren for a free 1-on-1 Discovery Call. 

• Learn about our Fair Share Tuition program, where they select the tuition they can afford with no questions asked. 

And remember to mention your training and include a link to 1spirit.org on your website, blog posts, and bios. For every referral you send who enrolls, we will give you one workshop credit as a thank you! 

The Future of Spiritual Counseling and Companioning is in Great Hands!

The Companioning Initiative Graduate Kick-Off was many things: a celebration of our past, a reflection on our present, and an inspiring first step towards our future as a leader in the field of Spiritual Companioning. As a staff, we were overwhelmed with gratitude for each and every one of our ISC and ISCC graduates. You are the spiritual leaders of the future that are embodying One Spirit’s vision to inspire and advance the evolution of sacred consciousness in service to individuals, communities, and the earth. Thank you.