An Integrated Approach to Spiritual Direction: Converging Spirituality, Creativity, and Cognitive Theories through the Expressive Arts as a Model for Christian Spiritual Formation

Abstract

Christian spiritual direction today builds on both an ancient and an emerging practice. There remains both in the old and the new, a theological assumption that the “spiritual life and the practice of spiritual direction assume that God acts in the world and can be experienced in the world” (Barry 1992, 12). I focus here on the beneficial integration of creativity within Christian spiritual direction as one way to experience God. I present a complementary model that promotes the adjunct use of the expressive arts (music, visual, literary, and movement arts) within the practice of spiritual direction. I include biblical, cognitive, and theoretical orientations to support creativity as an enhancement to spiritual formation. A qualitative research study involved the active participation of spiritual directors in an expressive arts workshop, and the field application of the tools taught. I posit spiritual formation as a holistic process involving the body, the mind, and the soul and that true transformation occurs where these three distinct areas converge. This model also has application for spiritual clinical care practitioners, and ecumenical spiritual direction. This expressive art inter-modal approach illustrates how God weaves, and connects our ordinary everyday circumstances together with the seemingly dissonant pieces of our lives to spiritually transform, and direct us towards our Kingdom of God purpose.