Spiritual Direction & Companioning
Welcome to the Spiritual Direction & Companioning Pathway
After Interspiritual Foundations, students can choose a year of the Spiritual Direction & Companioning pathway. This pathway builds on the legacy of the One Spirit Interspiritual Companioning & Counseling program (ISCC), offering a formation process that invites students into deeper listening, facilitation, and compassionate service to communities and individuals.
Program Length: 9 months, starts Sept 2027
9 weekends online via Zoom + 4-day Intensive
Application Opens:
January, 2027
Certificate in Spiritual Direction & Companioning
Spiritual Direction & Companioning Pathway
For those called to walk alongside others on their spiritual journey.
Spiritual direction is the practice of accompanying another person as they listen for the movement of the sacred in their life.
Rather than offering advice or solutions, spiritual directors cultivate deep listening, thoughtful reflection, and compassionate presence. They help others notice where wisdom, healing, and insight may already be unfolding within their own spiritual journey.
This nine-month path builds on the Interspiritual Foundations year and is designed for those who feel called to support others through spiritual conversation, discernment, and inner exploration and those who wish to pursue certification in spiritual direction.
We prepare graduates to accompany people from many backgrounds with humility, openness, and respect for diverse spiritual paths in private practice, retreat settings, spiritual communities, counseling contexts, and organizations seeking deeper spiritual support.
This pathway is at the forefront of the interspiritual movement—a heart-based, open, inclusive, and loving approach to impact. It provides a profound spiritual education for agents of change in our fast-moving world. It’s grounded in the understanding that there is a core spirituality that transcends differences in our beliefs, backgrounds, and life experiences.
An interspiritual focus gives students the opportunity to support communities and clients of any background through life transitions, healing in relationships, grief and loss, work-related stress, and purpose and meaning-making.
Spiritual Direction & Companioning Curriculum
In your second year, in the Spiritual Direction & Companioning pathway, you’ll learn to impact change from a place of deep listening. Through the program, you will develop five foundational competencies:
Commitment to Personal Interspirituality
Embodiment of Sacred Presence and Service
Active Respect and Inclusion of Others
Cultivation of Personal Ethical Behavior
Facilitation of Spiritual Growth
The next cohort for the Spiritual Direction & Companioning pathway (year two) starts in September 2027.
The program runs through May 2028, meeting a full weekend per month, totaling 18 educational days.
The program year ends with a required in-person 4-day intensive in May/June in the NY area.
Elective requirements: 3 workshop credits per year, plus volunteer hours of choice.
Participants develop both the inner grounding and practical skills required for spiritual direction.
The Curriculum Includes:
Sacred listening and reflective dialogue
Ethical and compassionate spiritual care
Discernment practices that help others recognize the movement of the sacred in their lives
Interspiritual literacy across traditions
Integrating contemplative practice into companioning relationships
Certificate
Upon graduation, students receive a Certificate of Spiritual Direction & Companioning from One Spirit.
One Spirit is widely recognized as a respected leader in Interspiritual Companioning & Spiritual Direction, with over 20 years of demonstrated excellence in spiritual and transformative education.
Your certificate with us demonstrates the highest-quality professional skills and ethical standards and places you at the forefront of the field.
Investment, including intensive: $5,400
Payment plans and limited scholarships are available.
Application starts:
January 15, 2027
Application deadline:
June 30, 2027
Spiritual Direction & Companioning is one of several pathways in the One Spirit Applied Interspirituality Program
After the Interspiritual Foundations year, students choose a pathway that resonates with their inner calling and vocational focus.
Students choosing the Spiritual Direction & Companioning pathway earn a One Spirit Certificate upon completing assignments and graduating.
Students at One Spirit build their own educational path.
For example, after completing the second year of the Seminary pathway, a student might choose to add Spiritual Direction & Companioning.
Former graduates of OSLA Seminary or ISCC are welcome to add pathways to their Seminary ordination or ISCC certificate!
The Interspiritual Seminary ordination pathway is the former One Spirit Interfaith/Interspiritual Seminary, now offering the option to earn Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) credits.
The Spiritual Direction & Companioning pathway is the former One Spirit Interspiritual Counseling & Companioning (ISCC) program.
One Spirit also offers Sacred Transitions Doula Training as a professional pathway, earning students a Doula Certification.
The pathway Applied Interspiritual Leadership readies students for spiritual leadership in any industry, earning students a Certification in Applied Interspiritual Leadership.
The “Deeper Curriculum”
The most meaningful learning and growth happen in safe environments that also challenge us to ask important questions, reflect honestly, and go beyond our current ways.
At One Spirit, we invite you to bring your unique experiences and challenges. We will support and nurture you as we encourage your spiritual growth.
Your deep transformation, supported by your peers and our experienced faculty, allows you to serve others with love and spirituality.
The One Spirit “Deeper Curriculum” has helped many students like you reach their highest and most meaningful goals.
The One Spirit Learning Experience
Classes
Interspiritual Seminary classes are taught one weekend per month by facilitating deans and expert teachers who shepherd growth and learning, deliver lectures, pose transformative questions, and lead group work.
Online Education
We value our global community and offer live video conference training to our diverse students from around the world via our online class portal.
Student Study Groups
Our Interspiritual Foundations students take part in student-led study groups.
These groups promote community, facilitate discussions among diverse group members, provide an opportunity to explore spiritual practice, and engage in ritual and ceremony.
Facilitating Deans
Each year, you'll be assigned a Facilitating Dean who is responsible for supporting your educational progress and spiritual formation through your seminary experience.
Your Dean is available to assist you with educational, personal, and spiritual concerns, and to help explore and resolve issues that may arise during your studies. In our Kaleidoscope teaching model, most deans also participate in facilitating your Seminary classes to support your sacred journey safely.
Sacred Homework
Homework assignments include essential texts, inspiring questions, personal reflection, life reviews, and the design of ceremony and ritual.
They are designed to deepen your understanding, improve your thinking, and expand your sacred experience.
Teachers & Presenters
Our faculty members are among the most experienced educational staff in Interspiritual Education. Teachers will follow your journey throughout the Seminary year, and Presenters share their profound expertise.
Year-End Intensives
Each year culminates in a four-day intensive in the NYC area. We bring our students together from around the world, which always leads to profound personal and collective transformation.
The intensives leave sacred space for certification and ordination ceremonies.
Sacred Service
Our seminary students give at least 20 hours of volunteer service each year of training, although many give much more.
Spiritual Care Team
At One Spirit, we support each other. Students may choose a graduate mentor who will be available to serve as a sounding board and spiritual friend, and a spiritual care team is available throughout the school year.
“The ISC Interspiritual Counseling Program at One Spirit Learning Alliance has added a whole new dimension to my life. It has literally transformed who I am and how I show up in the world. “
- Nancy Dominique Dessables
City University of New York Interfaith Council
Social Worker, Spiritual Counselor
“The ISCC program gave me the confidence and skills to enter a whole new and amazing phase of my work with others. My time in the program helped bring a sense of grounding and clarity in my own gifts that I’d never thought possible.”
- Jay Waxenerg
Training Program Director,
Center for Medicinal Mindfulness 
Kaleidoscope Teaching Model
At One Spirit, we believe ministry formation should be as dynamic and sacred as the life it prepares you to serve.
Guided by One Spirit’s Kaleidoscope Pedagogy, learning develops through leadership that draws from diverse lived experiences, hands-on practice, and the collective wisdom of the community.
Students don’t just study ministry—they engage in presence, listening, and discernment in real time, discovering how spiritual insight transforms into compassionate action.
Qualifications for Enrollment in One Spirit’s Programs
We are committed to diversity and welcome all qualified adults to apply. All applicants are given full consideration regardless of age, gender identity, race, religion, ethnic background, national origin, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Each applicant will be assessed individually, and acceptance into the program is based on alignment with the program’s interspiritual perspective and program objectives, as well as personal engagement with a deepening spiritual maturity.
Additional Requirements
English fluency: All course materials are in the English language. As a result, written and spoken English fluency is required.
Technology: A computer or laptop with a webcam, microphone and stable internet connection are needed to participate in online classes and meetings via Zoom. You will also need them to access the online student portal (ClanEd) for course communications and learning content.
A Community of Practice for a Changing World
At One Spirit, we believe that the wisdom of the world’s spiritual traditions points toward a profound truth: life is interconnected and sacred.
Our programs cultivate this awareness and translate it into real-world service, care, and community leadership.
Through shared practice, dialogue, and skill-building, students learn how to:
Accompany people through life’s most meaningful transitions
Offer spiritual care across traditions and cultures
Build communities of belonging and compassion
Bring spiritual wisdom into activism, organizations, and everyday life
Integrate spiritual practice with justice, service, and collective wellbeing
This is where the sacred meets the work of everyday life.