Group Spiritual Direction: Community for Discernment

Dougherty, a trainer of spiritual directors at the Shalem Institute, shared her expertise in this basic text. Chapters 1-3 were about spiritual direction in general--interesting and informative, but I found myself feeling impatient to get to the "group" part. Consideration of groups began with Chapter 4 and was worth the wait. The author presented a clear, sound model of how to organize and conduct a spiritual direction group and included readily understandable examples and verbal illustrations. I especially appreciated her relentless emphasis on the role of God in spiritual direction. My only reservation about her recommendations was that she seemed to underestimate the importance of discouraging spouses and close friends from being in the same group together.