SDI - Home of Spiritual Companionship

An invitation to all spiritual explorers: Please join SDI Executive Director Rev SeiFu and Imam Jamal Rahman for a free online gathering to launch our new online community on multi-spiritual direction and companionship. Join us on January 14th, 2026, from 1pm to 2:30pm Pacific Time (Registration link in comments). We hope to see you soon!

This will be the start of a series of dialogues, designed to facilitate deeper engagement with individuals from diverse faith traditions and spiritual orientations—or those with none—by exploring how we, as directors and companions, can communicate and discern effectively with people whose spiritual beliefs differ from our own. Together, we’ll cultivate a collaborative space for ongoing conversations, community-led presentations, and vibrant interactive dialogues.There will be presentation from our speakers, open Q&A with speakers, extended breakout discussions, and a collective harvesting of insights to weave our shared wisdom.

Our aim is to address the ongoing, and growing, epidemic of spiritual loneliness, alienation, disconnection, frustration, depression, and anxiety. In these challenging times, our calling as spiritual directors and companions feels more essential than ever.

We at SDI are excited to share something really special with you.

From SDI Press, we are announcing the launch of a new activity book for children. It’s called My Spiritual Journey, written by SDI member and spiritual director Christina Roberts, and it’s designed to help children of all ages explore wonder, stillness, and presence of Divine Love in their everyday lives.

And it’s available now from sdicompanions.org. To celebrate the launch, we’re offering an exclusive discount. Grab your copy for just $16.99 through December 15th: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/my-spiritual-journey/

Kids are naturally spiritual. They notice things adults often miss — small moments of beauty, quiet feelings in their hearts, the mystery of the world around them. And this activity book gives them simple practices to reflect, draw, notice, and listen in a way that’s playful and encouraging.

Inside you’ll find original illustrations to color, reflection prompts, and ample space for adding your own drawing and writing, along with select original artwork made by children from within the SDI Community. The book is designed to be inviting and engaging, spacious and playful - with multiple ways for kids to connect with their own inner wisdom.

It’s perfect as a gift from a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, godparents, aunties, uncles, friends and caregivers of all types! Use as a resource at your church, synagogue, temple, or similar spiritual community. Or perhaps you are seeking to nurture the curious and playful child within your own heart. Whatever your age, we hope you’ll find this book offers a sense of connection, kindness, and wonder.

If you’d like to support the growing spiritual life of a child or child-at-heart in your world, you can order your copy today.

We hope this book becomes a beloved companion on their journey.

If you have heard about somatics, body work, or are curious about incorporating other forms of knowing, awareness, and connection to Wisdom into your practices, but haven’t found an entry point into this framework, Somatic Spiritual Companionship is the course you have been waiting for! Somatics are about so much more than simply body practices. Somatic awareness and listening emphasizes internal physical perception and experience that allows us to attune—body, mind, and soul—to our own inner Wisdom and to those we companion.

This new 8-part series, facilitated by renowned and widely respected somatics instructor and InterPlay co-founder Cynthia Winton-Henry, and supported by 19 somatic practitioners from across approaches and traditions promises to be experiential, creative, diverse, and life-affirming. Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 4-5:30pm PT, beginning on September 30th. Early Registration Pricing ends Monday, August 4—join now to save $30 on registration!

https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/somatic-spiritual-companionship/

Have you seen the latest free reflection from SDI? Our Listen publication is free to all those interested in spiritual direction and companionship.

In it, Rev. SeiFu (SDI's Executive Director and ordained Zen Priest) shares a talk delivered to his sangha community last month, crafted around the challenges and opportunities faced as directors and companions in these particularly trying moments. And how we can actually use considerable difficulties to resolve into greater Love, as individuals, and to assist those we companion. Because Love always persists, and remains.

We hope you'll take a moment to read the reflection online here, and if it's helpful to you, please share it with a friend! Link in comments.

QOD

"There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men." - John Locke

QOD

"Dripping water can wear through a stone." - Chinese Idiom

QOD

"You never fail until you stop trying." - Albert Einstein

✨ Join us for a transformative gathering! ✨

Today, from 2:00-3:30 PM PST, we invite spiritual directors, formation leaders, and mentors to come together for the Spiritual Director Formation Program Leaders and Spiritual Companion Mentors Gathering.

🌀 In times of profound change, many are seeking a path forward. This workshop, featuring Nan Weir and Leonard McMahon, will dive into these questions and offer insight to help us navigate this shifting landscape. Through a blend of teaching and discussion, we’ll explore the work of spiritual direction and companionship in supporting transformation for both individuals and the world.

🌿 What is the Spirit inviting?
🔮 How can formation programs prepare us for the changing world?
💬 Let’s come together in community to reflect, discern, and grow.
If you’re a part of a spiritual direction program or a guide to spiritual companions, don’t miss this opportunity to connect and deepen your practice.
🗓 TODAY from 2:00-3:00 PM PST join us in this powerful time of reflection and connection. 🙏✨

QOD

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson