Am Kolel's
              Sanctuary Retreat Center -
a place of natural beauty and spirit where all are welcome...

Spiritual Direction at Sanctuary...

Spiritual direction and companionship sessions are available by appointment to help individuals develop or deepen their spiritual life. The sessions can draw upon various religious traditions and spiritual practices. Guided individual retreats can be scheduled for the day or with overnight accommodations.

Spiritual direction offers an opportunity to explore our understandings and our yearnings for an awareness and relationship with the Source of Being and mystery of creation. In individual or group meetings, spiritual directors help direct us into a deeper connection with ourselves, with others and with creation. Through discussion, meditations, prayer, text study and right actions spiritual directors help us discover those paths that work best for the cultivation of our inner lives. Often spiritual companions will help us sort our concepts of God that are troubling and have been obstacles to spiritual growth.

The ministry of spiritual direction or companionship has a long history in various religious traditions. The stories in Genesis and the Wisdom literature of the Bible are examples of texts used for spiritual guidance. In ancient time times, the priests, the prophets, the judges, and the shamans served as guides.

In the early Celtic tradition, a person who acted as a teacher, companion or spiritual guide was called anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and cara is the word for friend. Thus a "soul friend" is someone with whom you can share your soul's gentle stirrings and deepest longings. In the Hassidic tradition, such a person was known as a "rebbe." A spiritual companion can also be your dear friend or even your grandmother or your "bubbe.
"

 
 

Jewish Spiritual Direction
                        with Rabbi David Shneyer

Reb David, founder and director of Am Kolel, studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary and in Israel, earning degrees in Judaic studies from Rutgers Unversity and Baltimore Hebrew College.  Reb David received his “semicha” ordination from the Aleph Seminary founded by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shlomi. The past president of Ohalah, the Rabbinic Association of Jewish Renewal Rabbis, Reb David is also accomplished musician and composer of new liturgical music. He is a founder of Jews United for Justice, active in the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Rabbis for Human Rights. Reb David he is also the spiritual leader of Kehila Chadasha a havurah-fellowship community based in Bethesda, Maryland.


Rabbi David Shneyer


Suzie Kline Massey
skmassey@verizon.net

Spiritual Companionship
                        with Suzie Kline Massey

Suzie provides the time and space for others to explore their joys and challenges on the spiritual journey.  In addition to her work as a spiritual director, she is an artist and writer.  She may offer expressive arts opportunities for you, as you desire.

Suzie is Jewish and a Unitarian Universalist. Her diverse background offers a unique perspective to those wishing to deepen their experience of the Holy. For over 20 years, she has actively explored a diverse life of the Spirit, while continuing to explore her religious roots. She typically brings practices learned through her ecclectic studies to her clients. She received her certificate in spiritual direction from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, MD. Suzie has written numerous articles for publication, and was recently published in An Artist’s Rule, a book about nurturing the creative soul with monastic wisdom.


 

"Melavah Ruchanit" ~
Spiritual Companionship

                        with Janeane Marks

Experience:

Group Leader in Spiritual Direction and Dream Work – 10 years

Group Leader - adolescent health (teen parenting, smoking cessation, and substance abuse prevention – 18 years

40 years of clinical nursing experience including school nursing, maternal child nursing, childbirth education, adult medicine, and critical care

Education:

All Faith’s Seminary International, New York, New York: 2007 – Graduate “Physician of the Soul” Program

All Faith’s Seminary International, New York, New York: 2006 – Graduate and Ordained Interfaith minister

Walking Stick Foundation: 2005 completed 2 year training in Jewish Shamanic Healing

Trinity College, Washington DC: 1994 graduate Master of Arts Health Promotion Counseling

Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, 1977, Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Barnes Hospital School of Nursing, St. Louis, MO, 1972, Diploma in Nursing


 

Spiritual Companioning
            with Anne Schwartz Delibert

Anne Schwartz Delibert, LPC & Spiritual Director brings three decades of experience as a holistic, body-oriented counselor to enhance her work as a spiritual companion or mashpia.  She offers spiritual companioning to people wanting to deepen their relationship with the divine through exploring their life experiences and deepening their spiritual practices.  Sessions can include emotional and creative expression, as well as embodied and contemplative practices.  Anne provides a safe environment for deep listening within oneself and compassionate connections with others.

Anne received a certificate in Jewish Spiritual Direction from Lev Shomea (which means “listening heart”) in 2010.  As a student of spirituality, psychology, bereavement, and meditation, Anne’s background and training has deepened her sensitivity to issues of spiritual longing, Jewish identity, grief and surviving loss of a loved one to suicide.  She is sensitive to universal truths and mystical experiences that transcend faith traditions. 

Anne also trained with the Washington Institute for Body Psychotherapy, the Organismic Psychotherapy Training Institute, Family Constellations Training group and a Core Energetics Training program.


Am Kolel's Sanctuary Retreat Center
19520 Darnestown Road, Beallsville, MD 20839-3308, (301) 349-2799 Fax (301) 349-2744
www.sanctuaryretreatcenter.com

© Copyright 2011 Sanctuary Retreat Center. All rights reserved.
Website design by Stone Graphics