Counseling, discipleship, mentoring and coaching can all be wonderful additions to the spiritual life of an individual. Spiritual direction, though, is distinct from each as the Holy Spirit is the true Director. Spiritual direction happens as a trained listener companions another person seeking to experience God and build capacity in their ordinary life for more of the same as the embodied spiritual director listens to both the directee and the prompting of the Spirit. To explore a bit more nuance between your need for a mentor or a spiritual director, consider this brief blog.
Spiritual direction focuses on increasing awareness of God and noticing our feelings as we name our deeper desires to God. In Spiritual Direction: A Practical Introduction, Sue Pickering states “spiritual direction takes place when the [director] and [directee] are both intentional about paying attention to what God is doing in the [directee’s] life…spiritual direction could be defined as taking place when [the director] prayerfully supports and encourages [the directee] to attend and respond to God.”