What is It?
Open Circle's resource staff are available for spiritual companioning, an opportunity to take regular time out of your daily pace for reflective space and conversation. A spiritual companion is someone who listens in a supportive and resourceful way, acting as a sounding board as you discover your own truth and sift through your experiences to find meaning. Possible topics of exploration are values, self-awareness, mindfulness practices, life choices, spiritual practices and beliefs, dreams, “what am I going to do with my life?” etc.
How Can It Help?
- Keep perspective and maintain balance as you explore different ideas about spirituality and meaning
- Increase self-awareness and listen to your life for direction
- Examine your worldview, intuitions, and values so as to act in the world with greater intention and integrity
Other info
- For people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives
- Flexible meeting times for up to 50 - 60 minutes at a time
- Free for McMaster students
- Choose to meet with either Jeff or Marybeth
Jeff compassionately listens, helping you to connect with your inner life and to discover where your “deep gladness meets the worlds’ deep need.”
By being attentive to your story and experiences, he will offer questions to deepen your reflection and help you to find the practices and habits to support you in your journey. Jeff is trained through the Ontario Jubilee Spiritual Direction program and offers spiritual companioning for students of all faith and non-religious perspectives. He enjoys creative writing, making music, and getting around Hamilton by bicycle.
“Just being around Jeff is calming, and he has a gift for putting feelings and questions into words and a quiet sensitivity that makes it easy to talk with him about anything.”
Marybeth listens in a supportive way for where meaning is emerging in your life.
She responds compassionately wherever you are at in your journey, supports you in hearing your own voice, and offers opportunities to try spiritual or creative practices. She companions students from a diversity of backgrounds. Marybeth explores spirituality in all of life and through creative expression such as art and movement. She is trained through the Ontario Jubilee Spiritual Direction program and as an Expressive Arts Practitioner through the Haliburton School of Art and Design. Marybeth is committed to working towards a world in which we value and care for each other, while living lightly on the earth.
“Mary Beth’s support and encouragement have been so valuable to me. She can always ask me the right question or share the right story to help me think and grow spiritually and otherwise. I value her openness and her authenticity.”
"I wanted to learn more about my religion of birth, but when I got involved with a study group on campus, I felt pressured to ignore my own ideas, refrain from asking too many questions, and act like I was comfortable with everything I was learning when I wasn't. I wanted to talk about what I was going through with someone outside of that group. I found out about Open Circle's spiritual companioning, but I was very skeptical. With so many groups out there trying to recruit for their faiths, I was wary of a hidden agenda. I tried it anyway, and it became clear to me that Marybeth's genuine motive was to provide a safe space for students to figure things out for themselves. Her way of asking questions helped me to sort out my relationship with my religion of birth, and to figure out what is meaningful to me in life."
