EVERYONE NEEDS A SAFE SPACE TO SURFACE QUESTIONS AND HOPES AND JOYS AND FEARS IN THE MIDST OF A NOISY WORLD.
Spiritual direction is soul companionship that can help you tune into your own soul as well as the goodness and grace that’s in and around you. A spiritual director can help you surface the gifts and invitations for this season of your life.
It’s a chance to pay attention to what brings you life as well as what drains it from you. It’s about living more fully into the wholeness and dignity for which each of us are made. It’s an ancient contemplative practice that I’m thankful is being rediscovered and revitalized in our time.
Spiritual direction is not therapy or coaching but has some similarities with both of those kinds of helping. Whereas the primary focus of therapy might be better communication or stress reduction and typical coaching goals are vocational next steps or work-life balance, spiritual direction is about cultivating deeper connectedness to your truest and best self and your connection with the Divine.
My role as a spiritual director is not to be an expert who has all the right answers. Rather, it’s to be a support, resource, and fellow traveler. It’s to host a space for us to listen together for the Spirit’s gifts and invitations in this season of your journey. Sometimes you’ll find those end up being hidden in plain sight within the details of your everyday life. Other times they emerge more slowly over time. Either way, spiritual direction can enrich your ability to listen to the voices of freedom and goodness and live into them more fully.
Hi, I’m Terra.
I’m a spiritual director, teacher, and writer who loves making space for people of all ages to tune into their own souls!
After starting my career in sociology and demography, I spent two decades in church planting ministries in Houston and Austin. After a season of loss and upheaval, spiritual direction helped me heal and rebuild.
IT’S MY JOY TO HOST THAT KIND OF LISTENING SPACE FOR OTHERS NOW
I host spiritual direction for children and adults and absolutely love making space for people of all ages to tune into their own souls. I’m convinced that the Spirit is working both within the church and outside it and am always honored to host those who feel spiritually homeless. I have experience with enneagram work; Ignatian and Quaker spirituality; lectio and visio divina; and healing from spiritual and other abuse. I’m convinced everyone is created in the image of the Divine and that this is the truest thing about each of us.
I also love leading formational workshops and worship gatherings around justice, contemplative practices, and deconstructing or reconstructing faith.
I live with my husband Kyle in East Austin, Texas with our rescue dogs Edie and Albert. I’m thankful my daughter, son-in-law, and twin grandchildren live close by.
Fun Facts
I can do a handstand!
My first book was released on the same day as my twin grandkid’s 1st birthday.
My neighborhood was once a pecan orchard.
How I became a spiritual director
Not too many years ago, spiritual direction was pretty foreign to me. I grew up in churches where it simply wasn’t part of our practice. I was taught to love God, go to church (often), pray, read my Bible, and try to love our neighbors as myself—all good things. More contemplative practices received less emphasis. As an adult, I sensed God’s call to serve the church and often did so full time.
But when my family and I entered a season of disruption, I found myself shaken by disturbing questions. I prayed. I journaled. I met with lots of wise, kind, generous people to ask for their prayers and their help. I spent time in therapy. All of this was valuable and helpful.
But the brokenness that had seeped in remained. I could no longer ignore the deeper questions and fears that had probably been lingering under the surface for some time. I started hearing more about spiritual direction and it sounded like exactly what I hadn’t known I was looking for.
I began meeting with a spiritual director. Through my time with him, it became clear that my faith had become too focused on right thinking over the years. This corrupted view had slowly overshadowed my grasp of God’s love and kind intentions. My faith wasn’t broken but my theology was.
I found new ways to pray and tune into wisdom and trust my own discernment. And somewhere along the way, it became clear that I was invited to play a similar role for others. It’s now one of my greatest joys to serve as a soul companion, listening along with others to what is being surfaced in their lives; supporting them with curiosity and kindness as they navigate growth, change, loss, and questions.
I HAVE TWO PERSPECTIVES THAT GUIDE ME AS A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR.
I am convinced of the essential value and dignity of every person. In some faith traditions, including some Christian streams, human capacity for sin or error has become the headline. Pain and brokenness certainly exist inside every person and in the world around us. But it can’t be allowed to overshadow our fundamental value and worth. I believe all people are created in God’s image and that this is the truest thing about each of us.
And while life is precious and every moment worth treasuring, growth takes time. It’s nonlinear, unfolding over a lifetime. And it isn’t merely a mental exercise. Becoming whole and holy involves heart and mind and body, soul and spirit. Honoring all these fosters coming from a place of patience and hope rather than anxiety or fear.
Training and Experience
I originally planned to stay in the academic world; teaching and researching. I studied sociology and demography at Texas A&M and, later, at the University of Houston. (Fun fact—I completed my master’s degree the same year Brene Brown received her doctorate at UH. But our respective work in sociology and social work, kindred fields though they are, meant our paths never crossed.) My thesis nearly twenty years ago explored how internet connectivity would influence the practice and engagement of religion and spirituality. I had only the vaguest image of what our age of zoom church and online spiritual direction would be like at that time. But I did realize I wasn’t satisfied with simply thinking about how people could live well and what stood in the way—I wanted to be part of facilitating growth and change.
So instead of moving forward with pursuing my Ph.D., I started working at a new church plant in Austin. My family and I served there for nearly a decade. I loved my work as a teacher and leader there. But as the church grew, it began to change in ways that no longer fit the kind of work I’m called to do. My family and I stepped away and, after a time, I joined the staff of a parish plant of a small liturgical church in east Austin.
In this season of transition, I began meeting with a spiritual director. After we’d been meeting for some time, he wondered aloud if I’d ever considered returning to seminary and becoming a spiritual director myself. I sensed the Spirit’s nudge in his question.
I studied spiritual formation at George Fox University’s Portland Seminary with an incredible group of people I’m thankful to call friends and mentors. After getting my MDiv, I was able to be part of the first cohort to participate in the seminary’s certification program for spiritual directors.
A few years later, I had the privilege of learning how to host children in spiritual direction with Lacy Borgo’s class through the Companioning Center. I now work with her and Kaisa Stenberg-Lee to help train others to engage children in spiritual conversations with children as well as equip trained directors to learn to host children in spiritual direction. I treasure my role of helping train more compassionate listeners to work with young people. And I love getting to host people of all ages in the holy listening of spiritual direction.