What is spiritual abuse? What impact can the experience of spiritual abuse have on people’s lives and spiritual journey? What may be going on at a psychological level when religious leaders consciously or unconsciously inflict spiritual abuse on others? This workshop will help spiritual directors look at what spiritual abuse is, consider the thresholds of how it could manifest in spiritual direction work and how we hold safe and secure space for others. We will also begin to take a look at some of the issues of working in spiritual accompaniment with a directee who feels they have experienced spiritual abuse in a religious context.

Anne Solomon is a tutor on the Gloucestershire Spiritual Direction Course, supports other formation programmes and runs workshops for experienced spiritual accompaniers. Also a Chartered Psychologist AFBPsS with an MA in Religion and Society, and Divinity awards, she works and writes within the fruitful dialogue between spirituality and psychology. Always in this work Anne carries a particular heart for ethics in soul care settings. www.spiritual-life.co.uk