Spiritual Direction
What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction offers you the opportunity to deepen your relationship with God.
While this ministry has evolved over centuries, its essence remains unchanged: accompanying others, helping them discern God’s presence, and guiding them into a richer experience of his grace.
Historically, spiritual direction has been a vital part of Christian discipleship. The practice can be traced to the desert fathers and mothers of the 3rd and 4th centuries. These ascetics mentored others in prayer, discernment, and spiritual discipline. By the Middle Ages, monastic communities continued this tradition, emphasising prayer, contemplation, and the formation of the soul. The Jesuits later refined the practice, shaping spiritual direction into a structured ministry grounded in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
At its core, spiritual direction is not about the wisdom of the director but the movement of God within the directee. God, the Holy Spirit, leads the directee into deeper channels of grace through Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son. The spiritual director serves as a gentle guide, listening attentively, offering discernment, and helping others recognise how God is already at work in their lives.
"I value the gift of spiritual direction in my life. It is a place of safety and accountability for me, a time to lean deeper into God’s grace and work in my life in fellowship with someone who loves me fully and is walking this path with me."
Recipient of Spiritual Direction “I received God’s love for me in a deeper way, which led to an increase in self-awareness and revealed coping skills that were serving me no longer. I experienced freedom to love God more and to love him more deeply. The deepened connection with God led to exploration on calling and discernment over new things God was leading me into during this time.”
Recipient of Spiritual Direction 
Spiritual direction
Spiritual direction creates space to listen more deeply to God and to what is happening within you. It helps you grow in freedom and discernment to become more attentive to God’s presence in your life.
At Greenwood
If you are staying at Greenwood for a retreat, we offer in-person spiritual direction during your stay. This can be a helpful way to make space for prayer, reflection and deeper listening while you are here. Please contact us to arrange sessions when booking your accommodation.
Online
We can meet you one-to-one every 4–5 weeks. Sessions last around an hour and offer a regular rhythm of prayerful reflection and accompaniment.
Spiritual direction is offered on a suggested sliding scale.
For those seeking a more regular, intensive retreat, we also offer the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius; see below.
If you are unsure whether spiritual direction is right for you, you are very welcome to get in touch for an initial conversation.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius
The Spiritual Exercises, developed by St Ignatius of Loyola, are a structured journey of prayer through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Through Scripture, prayer, meditation and contemplation, they invite us into a deeper relationship with God and a growing awareness of His presence and work in our lives.
The Exercises can be made as a 30-day silent retreat or over a longer period alongside ordinary daily life. This makes them possible for people in many different seasons of life — parents, working professionals, pastors, students and others who long to make space for God amid the demands of everyday life.
Although written in the 1500s, the Spiritual Exercises continue to speak deeply into modern life. Their invitation to slow down, pay attention to God, grow in freedom and discernment, and discover where God is leading remains as relevant today as it was in Ignatius' time.
We offer the Spiritual Exercises as a 32-week retreat in daily life, beginning each autumn.
Participants commit to a rhythm of around 60 minutes of personal prayer each day, alongside a weekly session of spiritual direction.
The spiritual exercises are offered on a sliding scale, paid in instalments. For those needing financial support, we can signpost to grants.
If you are interested in making the Spiritual Exercises, please get in touch for an initial conversation. Usually, the decision to make the Spiritual Exercises is discerned together, by you and your spiritual director, after initial meeting(s).
"The 32-week Spiritual Exercise Prayer Course was wonderful and impactful. It took commitment to set apart daily prayer times and intentionality to be open with God, but I felt I grew to know myself better and to meet God more deeply in who I was – the real me! I began to learn to receive God’s love and to respond to Him in love. The impact has been life-changing and ongoing."
Participant of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, 32-week retreat. "Through those 32 weeks, I encountered Jesus, I found myself relationally connected with God in ways I hadn’t before, and it was completely transformative. I was formed into Christ in ways I had always desired but never understood the way to see it happen."
Participant of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, 32-week retreat. Spiritual Director Training
For those who feel called to become spiritual directors, we offer a two-year training course called Hearts on Fire, designed to equip and support you in this ministry.
Through prayer, study, and practice, you will learn how to accompany others, listening with Christ's heart and discerning with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Year 1: A Study of the Spiritual Exercises. This year we study the text of the Spiritual Exercises, commentaries and contemporary practice of the Spiritual Exercises, as well as related themes of the contemplative life. As well as online class participation, there are personal reflection essays.
Year 2: An internship in giving the Spiritual Exercises and the Art of Spiritual Direction. During the internship, participants will direct 1 or 2 individuals through the Spiritual Exercises.
This programme ran 2024 - 2026.
Next possible training course: September 2027.
Before application, entry requirements for participants:
Experienced the full Spiritual Exercises retreat (given by a trained director).
Experience meeting with a spiritual director for at least 12 months.
Be a committed and mature Christian, with a strong, personal relationship with God, rooted in prayer.
Be an active member of a local Christian community/church.
Be prepared to have an initial meeting with trainers and provide references.
Meet Our Spiritual Directors
Our team offers spiritual direction for people across many walks of life. Each director brings particular experience and interests, and we can help you find someone suited to your circumstances and season of life.
Rev Howard Espie
Howard is an Anglican priest, Ignatian Spiritual Director and founder of The Way of the Beloved. At the heart of his ministry is a desire to help people become attentive to the presence of Jesus and to grow more deeply into the life they have received from him, secure in the love of their heavenly Father, and in the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Howard’s spiritual direction practice focuses on leaders and emerging leaders from all spheres of life. He offers space for God to deepen his life in them, and help them learn to lead from a place of rest in Christ.
Accepting directees
Dr Charlotte Espie
Charlotte is a trustee of The Way of the Beloved, a Spiritual Director and trainer in the Ignatian tradition. She lives on-site with her husband, Howard, at Greenwood with their two young boys.
Before founding Greenwood, Charlotte worked as a doctor for 11 years in both Scotland and Canada. She specialised in General Practice and has always been interested in the interwoven nature of physical, psychological and spiritual health. Developing skills in spiritual direction, healing prayer and prophetic ministry, she has always enjoyed ministering alongside Howard.
She loves to accompany people in spiritual direction and host at Greenwood, whilst also being thoroughly content as a Mum. When time and weather allow, she can be found walking in the hills or wild swimming.
Accepting directees
Dr Jane Gallacher
Jane is a trustee of The Way of the Beloved and Spiritual Director in the Ignatian tradition. She and her husband Kevin live near Stirling and are active members of the Callander Christian Fellowship.
Jane is passionate about Bible teaching, women’s ministry and prayer. She enjoys facilitating Quiet Retreat Days and participating in contemplative, reflective approaches to prayer. Jane works as a part-time GP in Stirling with particular interests in women’s health, palliative care and psychological well-being. She enjoys reading, journaling, walking and paddle boarding.
Accepting directees
Debbie Nicolson
Debbie is a Spiritual Director in the Ignatian tradition, living on the Isle of Skye. Along with her husband, John Murdo, they minister together in the Parish of Strath and Sleat, Church of Scotland, Isle of Skye. Debbie preaches regularly, leads various bible studies and prayer groups, and her greatest joy is prayer.
Because of her desire to become more and more a “contemplative in action”, Debbie’s daily activities are often focused on meeting with people to encourage others in their journeys to develop prayer lives. She loves to read, collect sea glass from beaches, and play her guitar.