In SPIRITUAL COUNSELLING sessions (AVAILABLE ON SKYPE) I am with you in discovering the peace and freedom of your True Self and being a presence of love with you on this miraculous journey with all its pain, grief, joy and transformation. We are in this together. This work is an honour and privilege. Do get in touch!
In life we can all experience traumas and hurt and disappointment that can effect the way we see ourselves and the world. We can be conditioned to look out into the world for satisfaction and love rather than seeing we are the source of love itself. We can develop a self image that simply is not true and perhaps severely effects our natural sense of freedom and joy in being. Sometimes life becomes unbearable so that we are forced to begin to look within. It is good that this suffering starts to emerge because it pushes us to look deeper and to start to search for something more nourishing and peaceful.
Spiritual counselling is not necessarily to do with religion at all but holds an awareness of the Universal Source that sustains and upholds all life. If you do have a sense that spirit is alive in you and that somehow a greater freedom is what your heart yearns for as well as a deeper happiness, spiritual counselling can help us to not only be deeply heard and acknowledged as we are but also to truly see now natural and effortless our true being actually is.
What are the key elements of spiritual counselling?
I see essentially that the awareness and invocation of GRACE is a key element here.
To drop into sacred space that moves beyond the grip of the egoic reactions and to allow grace to flow forth as a benevolent indescribable intuitive love is essential in this work and it is this openess to the grace of God, or spirit that differentiates spiritual counselling from other forms of couselling. That is not to say of course that grace is not at work in other forms of counselling – I am sure it is. However it perhaps has more opportunity to be heard and followed if the spiritual counsellor has the ears to hear these unforced rhythms of grace, with qualities such as openess, honouring of the divine and awareness of how egoic thinking can dominate if given the chance! So to make room for grace is essential and most importantly, by grace to be a PRESENCE OF LOVE.
SURRENDER to a higher power is at the heart of each session. This is of course linked to grace and prayer. This surrender is about giving fully of myself in a depth of listening and reflection, drawing on life experience and also the tools of the training but totally releasing the burden of responsibility and trusting the divine power and presence to guide and infuse the session with love receptivity and wisdom.
This is what Krishna spoke of when he said ‘You have the right to work, but none to the fruits thereof!’
The shift from the primal lie (the false identity we have constructed that feels separate from source) to the primal truth (the true identity in harmony with God) I see as a fundamental element of spiritual counselling. We all are children of God in essence with absolutely nothing wrong with us. All problems stem from an egoic identity which is rooted in the belief that I am separate from the source, from others, from love. Divinity is so often projected out into the world rather than seen as the natural and pure beingness that we actually are.
Even before the client arrives I would see them as being whole complete and one with the divine source. If this reality is held in the heart of the spiritual counsellor then the stories emotions and conflicts are seen from a deeper place. Pain can be acknowledged and held in a living presence of love. In this space there is so much freedom and peace and the client has an opportunity to merge with this seeing and be released from the trauma and pain of identification with only the body/mind and conditioning. The true self has a chance to be revealed as the light and beauty that it has always been, infinite and free.
DEEP LISTENING not just to the words but to the energy and the body and the subtlety of what is really being pointed to is an essential aspect of spiritual counselling. The tone of the speech can be keenly observed and the layers of fears and attachments can be uncovered and gently acknowledged in the presence of love and with a knowing that in essence we are safe. Deep feelings that can result from this sense of separation that we can all suffer from. This can be expressed through difficult feelings such as grief, anger, depression, inadequacy, confusion, defensiveness and stress.
It is the counsellors job to listen deeply whilst holding awareness of who we truly are. This begins to draw us gently into our true heart which is of the divine nature, full of love, forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and openess. This transformation can be remarkable.
During the sessions, the essential activity would be listening from the heart, but also there could be some simple meditation, guided visualisation, prayer, inspiring readings, simple ritual and healing. But the most powerful tool is deep listening whilst being consciously aligned with spirit. This in itself can be powerfully transformative.
HEALING. The client is as much a healer to the counsellor as the counsellor is the client because this is a deepening for both in an awareness that truly we are one in the heart. The skill of the counsellor is also to follow the lead of the client and trust to see what emerges, following and picking up on things that have arisen that will lead us both deeper, in order to release what needs to be released and to touch on the sweet nectar of truth, of the divine essence, of God.
SUPERVISION is essential in this work in order to keep a safe and professional perspective and to ensure that the counsellor is working in a way that really is effective and deeply beneficial. Also of course issues of transference and projections and counter transference need to be held in awareness and explored safely in supervision so that the counsellor has the opportunity to be more self aware, to honestly look at deeper issues that the sessions could be triggering in them and to make sure that the interactions with the client are not tainted by any kind of personal unconscious agenda.
Also a deepening of SPIRITUAL AWAKENING is very important for spiritual counsellors as this allows for a true self realisation to not be some spiritual fantasy or idea, but actually a rootedness in being, a reality. If the spiritual counsellor knows she is actually one with the source, she is not a slave to her mind and conditioning and false identity as only the egoic separate constructed self. She therefore is not bound by the delusion of phenomenality, but deeply aware and alive in the non phenomenal realms of grace, peace and true freedom. Then energetically this beautiful universal truth, this unitive presence can permeate the spiritual counselling sessions in a way that invites a powerful transformative alchemy and healing to take place on many levels.
Skype sessions available or one to one in Alison’s home in Devon
One of Alison’s clients said…..
‘Joyous, welcoming, enthusiastic, gracious, encouraging, acknowledgement of the preciousness of time together in presence of Spirit and a willingness / openness to explore with a heart filled with love and grace. Deep listening, reflective empathy and an ability to relate what was and was not said.’
‘It’s been a beautiful experience which has been of tremendous benefit to me and has helped me to reconnect with my true self, refresh precious memories from my youth and more recent times that have a crucial bearing on my present life experience’
‘I’ve been able, with this therapeutic holding and containment to use and compare past experiences of mine with present ones to clarify and relax into present challenges. This is a revelation and gives me confidence in myself that I may already have the answers within.’ ‘
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