This code of practice comes from the London Centre for Spiritual Direction and conveys guidelines I adhere to.
The ministry of Spiritual Direction is a privilege.  It seeks to enable an engaged and dynamic interaction between life, spirituality and theology in the context of the directee’s life, lived in relationship to God, creation, the world, the local community and the community of faith.
The director has significant potential power and responsibility that should be exercised with care to ensure the intention of the relationship is not undermined.  Such care needs to be practiced in the use of language, in the expression of moral judgements and in the handling of decision-making so that the autonomy of the directee is not undermined.  To this end;
A member of the Community of Spiritual Directors is required to:

  • Have an ongoing relationship with God and a commitment to deepening that relationship by maintaining an appropriate spiritual life (personal prayer, worship, retreats etc.);
  • Have an understanding of and be in sympathy with the Christian tradition;
  • Be rooted in a widely-trusted faith tradition and transparent about religious influences in the spiritual direction relationship;
  • Receive regular spiritual direction;
  • Receive regular supervision (sufficient for their own practice and workload) to reflect on and develop their practice, and to be accountable;
  • Engage in ongoing training and development by attending courses or day events, reading appropriate books, etc;
  • Explain and agree the role of spiritual direction to enquirers;
  • Contract the terms of confidentiality and maintain clear professional boundaries; e.g. will not (ordinarily) relate to the directee in a separate context;
  • Act in a way that respects the integrity (including sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, disability, or gender) and wellbeing of the directee;
  • In matters relating to the wellbeing of a directee, act solely in the interests of the directee;
  • Encourage directees to seek further support where necessary, e.g. counselling, medical attention, etc;
  • Have knowledge of, and abide by legal and ethical guidelines – for instance in relation to Safeguarding;
  • Comply, where appropriate, with Data Protection.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.