Welcome

Your spiritual journey is sacred and deeply personal. It is important that you find a spiritual director with whom you feel an openness and willingness to share your spiritual journey. Sometimes, it is helpful to have a spiritual director who has had similar experiences to you or who shares experience of some aspect of your journey. Here is a bit about me that may help you get a sense of who I am and how I do spiritual direction.  Please feel free to contact me to continue the conversation.  

I have been a spiritual seeker throughout my life. I was not raised within a particular religious community yet religion and spirituality intrigued me.  As a pre-teen I joined various friends at their worship services. For a time, I attend a Christian youth group where l felt a sense of belonging. When my parents divorced and we moved away, I was disconnected from organized religion. As a young adult, I affirmed agnosticism and atheism for a time. Then, when I found 12-step recovery in 1993, I began to develop a relationship with a Higher Power which is, for me, sustaining, empowering and affirming. I found Unitarian Universalism around the year 2000. I continue my spiritual seeking engaging with a variety of spiritual practices to connect with mystery, universe, the transcendent, a God of my own understanding.   

I am originally from Minnesota; born in St. Paul, MN. I lived on a hobby farm in Lindstrom/North Branch area, then Stillwater and Lakeland, before moving to South Minneapolis where I attended high school and college. In 1997, I moved to Chicago, Illinois for graduate school. In 2006, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, which is where I now reside. I also briefly lived in San Diego, CA in the mid 1980's and in Louisville, Kentucky for a year in 2017.  

I earned an Associate degree from a community college in the early 1990's, and then a Bachelor degree from a Lutheran liberal arts college. In 1997, I moved from Minneapolis to Chicago to attend graduate school a Catholic University. While there, I earned a Master and doctorate in Sociology which focus on Religion and Applied Research. It was for a research project in graduate school that I first encountered Unitarian Universalism. Upon earning my doctorate, I accepted a research position at a United Methodist Institution. Later, I attended theological school at a Unitarian Universalist school, then trained as a Spiritual Director and received my spiritual direction certificate from an ecumenical and interfaith program. I also became a Veriditas Trained Labyrinth Facilitator. 

I am a member of Spiritual Directors International, the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, and listed with the Unitarian Universalist Spiritual Directors Network. 

Nature and animals have always played an important role in my life. I grew up with many dogs and cats, some were our family pets and others we fostered. I loved and deeply grieved the death of many pets over my lifetime. We currently share our home with a super affectionate and cuddly Standard Poodle, a Great Dane, two anti-social cats, fish. My spouse is an arachnid hobbyist, so we have many tarantulas and scorpions as well. I thoroughly enjoy being in the woods - hiking, sitting and listening, watching birds, and collecting rocks. I love to explore new places and we camp as often as we can. Our favorite places to camp are the state parks. I have personal and professional experience with trauma, violence, addiction, infertility and childlessness.

I hope these pages have given you a sense of who I am and how I approach spiritual direction. If you would like more information, have any questions, or would like to begin spiritual direction, please feel free to contact me. 

Rev. Michelle