AWAKENING THE CREATIVE SPIRIT:
Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Arts and Imagination

with Betsey Beckman, MM and Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Offered next in FALL 2009!

at St. Andrew’s Retreat House in Union, WA on the Hood Canal!

A weeklong experiential intensive exploring tools for integrating the arts and imagination into spiritual direction ministry.

Our encounters with the holy are rooted in symbol and image and speak the language of dreams. Spiritual direction tends to these encounters and can be deeply enhanced by tools that invite listening to and engaging the inner symbolic life. The focus of this program is on developing the skills of working with the arts and imagination to deepen the work of spiritual direction.

Together we will explore how the healing power of such tools as guided imagery, body awareness, dream work, ritual, poetry, journal writing, visual art, movement, song, and storytelling enrich our own spiritual lives and our work in spiritual direction by giving us access to another language with which to encounter the divine presence within. Participants will develop comfort and skills in using these tools. The program consists of didactic input and time for discussion and reflection on how we see using the arts concretely in our work as spiritual directors.  Also appropriate for counselors and chaplains who want to integrate the arts into their work one-on-one.

Absolutely no previous art experience necessary — only a willingness to awaken the creative spirit within!

Facilitators:

Betsey Beckman, MM, is nationally acclaimed as a spirited dancer, storyteller, teacher of SpiritPlay and dancing Spiritual Director. With her extensive background in performance, movement therapy, ministry and InterPlay, she is regularly featured as artist/presenter at national conventions as well as local churches. Betsey’s publications include books, audio-cassettes and videos on embodied prayer and she offers the gift of playful improvisation whenever possible!

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD in Christian spirituality is adjunct faculty at the School of Theology and Ministry, Seattle University and at the Loyola Univeristy New Orleans Ministry Extension Program. She is also the co-founder of Creating Space, a Seattle nonprofit dedicated to exploring the connections between spirituality, creativity, and the arts. Christine also works as a writer and artist, and a spiritual director and retreat leader who integrates the arts into her ministries.

Program Cost: $1450 includes all instruction, art supplies, handouts, articles, shared room, and meals.

Minimum 10 / Maximum 12 participants. 

Please feel free to contact Christine at Christine AT AbbeyoftheArts DOT com or (206) 329-3110 with any questions you may have.

To Register:  To hold your place in this program we require a $100 nonrefundable deposit.  You may either pay by credit card through Paypal (please use TheCreatingSpace@aol.com as the payment email address so it goes through our nonprofit or you can request an invoice) or you can send a check to The Creating Space, PO Box 23160, Seattle, WA 98102.  The balance of $1350 will be due one month prior to the start of the program.  We cannot offer refunds of the program costs after that time.  Any requests for refunds prior to that time will have our credit card fee of 3% deducted (if you paid by credit card) in addition to the $100 nonrefundable deposit. 

In addition to payment, please also submit your responses to these questions by email to Christine AT AbbeyoftheArts DOT com:

1. Describe your background and training in spiritual direction and/or counseling.
2. Describe your background in the arts (if any).
3. What is your spiritual tradition and/or faith community?
4. What are your primary spiritual practices?
5. What are your hopes and expectations for this program?
6. Is there anything else we should know? (other background, special needs, limitations, concerns, food allergies, etc.) We do have ADA accessible rooms available. Please indicate if you require on of these.
7. Are you willing to have your name, email address, and phone number on a contact list provided to the whole group? 
8. The retreat center is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from the Sea-Tac airport. Would you like to be connected with other participants who will be flying into Seattle to coordinate renting a car and traveling together to the intensive location?

Comments From Previous Participants:

This has been a remarkable opportunity to hold up the power of the arts to reveal on the deepest level. We have entered several forms of discourse in ways that are liberating for the Spirit. I recommend this series highly. -Dr. Carol Scott-Kassner

These workshops have been phenomenal…they have validated my intrinsic desire to move, create, laugh and wonder. They have also cracked open living and working in ways I had previously unimagined, deepening and rounding out my sense of peace, inspiration and gratitude. -Ann Keller

I really love the program. . . Each weekend, I sense an excitement getting ready to come. It is an opportunity to be with others who both inspire and broaden my perspective in Spiritual Direction. The leadership is balanced and flows with an easy grace. There is a fresh newness to the experience. . . I love the versatility and implications the various art modalities give for Spiritual Direction. -Cathy Rhoads

The program has been excellent for me in numerous ways. Although not a spiritual direction training program, I don’t think I could have grasped the essences of spiritual direction without this augmenting the spiritual direction training program I am in. I call it the following the Divine Flow, whether following internally or expressed externally in words or art, movement or writing. I feel truly and greatly blessed from having had this experience and consider it a core learning experience in my spiritual director’s honing journey. -Cynthia Gayle

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