When someone contacts me about meeting for spiritual direction, the first thing I propose is an informal meeting for coffee, or an extended phone conversation if the person lives far away. In this initial meeting, we talk about what I offer as a spiritual director, what the person is expecting and hoping for from direction, and how the logistics of a direction relationship would work for us. It’s a chance for both of us to get a sense of each other and whether we are a good match.
After this initial conversation, we both take time to think and pray about whether we’d like to start meeting regularly. People often interview multiple spiritual directors before they decide, which is great.
If the person and I both feel that we would like to move forward, then we need to take care of a little bit of paperwork. I set my fees on a sliding scale, so we need to determine what rate this person will use. Then I ask the person to read and sign a boilerplate agreement that covers some general ground: what services I can and cannot provide, our agreed-to rate for payment, and my commitment to confidentiality, along with the limits that I must put on that confidentiality in exceptional cases.
I use a similar process in my work as a supervisor of other spiritual directors.
Here are the PDF versions of the agreement forms that I use in my spiritual direction and supervision relationships:
