In spiritual direction, I listen with ears tuned by my love for people and my love for God.

While my story will not come up in our spiritual direction sessions, knowing a bit about who I am is important for building trust. It might also help you as you consider spiritual direction or a retreat with me.

As far back as I can remember, I have been interested in how people grow and change, inside and out. How do we learn to love? How do people heal from sadness? How do we learn to make decisions that are good for us, for the world, and for the people around us? And what does God have to do with any of that?

I grew up in Minnesota in a church-going family. I always knew that God was with me all the time, but I struggled with shame and doubt. After college, I pursued my passion for human development through studying early childhood education and spiritual and moral development in children and adults. I began to really believe that as God’s beloved child, I was loved and valuable just as I was. I felt called to help people of all ages form relationships of belonging within their communities. And I recognized that that belonging, rooted in God’s Love, binds us together even when difference and conflict threaten to separate us. I wanted to help people grow in their awareness of God’s Love and in responding to that Love with an active life of care for others and the world.

While raising my children, I began seeing a spiritual director. She helped me recognize the sacred threads woven through my story, and it was through that discernment that I felt a call to become a spiritual director, myself. I graduated from the interfaith Spiritual Direction Institute at Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA in 2010. Since that time, I have offered individual direction, retreat direction, and group spiritual direction. I am also a member of Spiritual Director’s International, a professional organization for spiritual directors.

After a childhood in an evangelical church and young adulthood in a Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), I found my spiritual home in The Episcopal Church in 2010. I was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of California in 2016 and have found that my ministry as priest is shaped and textured by my years of accompanying directees through their own faith journeys. It is my great joy to listen prayerfully as individuals’ faith stories unfurl.

For fun and rest, I read, hike, knit, cook, sing, and laugh with family and friends.