Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is different than counseling, coaching, or mentoring. It is a holy conversation between God, the Spiritual Director, and the directee. A Spiritual Director is someone who has been trained to hold space for the Holy Spirit to speak to the directee, to help the directee discern God’s voice in and through all things, and to equip the directee with wisdom that can aid him or her on a journey of discovery with Jesus.

Our Directors

Sara Carrara Di Fuccia, MA

Co-Founder & Executive Director
Director Somatic Spirituality & Leadership
| Platform to Table

Having served in leadership for more than 20 years, I understand that leaders need someone with whom they can share their deepest spiritual questions, failures, pain, and dreams. I believe a Spiritual Director can be a “spiritual friend”—someone who is trained to hold these conversations with confidentiality and deep concern for the leader’s higher good.

I was baptized in the Catholic church as a baby, but was raised in the Assemblies of God church from the age of 5. I served in lay and pastoral leadership in the Assemblies of God Church for 8 years. Then, I attended seminary and was ordained by the non-denominational church. There, I served as a full-time missionary, founded a service and missions ministry in England, and served as the Associate Director of Campus Ministries and Director of Leadership Development, Life Groups, and Outreach at Regent University in Virginia Beach.

In 2017, I sensed a call away from my platform of leadership to “the Table”. I have since embraced Anglo-Catholic theology, and have been deeply formed by contemplative spirituality and the experience of living and working at a Camaldolese Benedictine monastery. Contemplative spiritual practices like silence, solitude, stillness, simplicity, Eucharist, and liturgy have aided me on my journey inward, to the Table in the center of our being, where our authentic self is made whole and finds its home in communion with the Trinity.

I acquired my MA in Practical Theology, MA in Human Services Counseling, am a certified Leadership Coach, and advanced certified 500HR Christian yoga instructor. I have also completed SoulCare and SoulLead through WellSpring ministries, year-long spiritual formation cohorts for pastors and leaders in Ignatian Spirituality.

In the last ten years, I have experienced many different styles of Spiritual Direction. My style is trauma-informed, somatic, conversational, 12-Step infused, and directee-centered. I offer a blend of exercises, tools, and spiritual practices from the contemplative tradition and my study and experience with Internal Family Systems (IFS), Attachment Theory, Polyvagal Theory, EMDR, and the Al-Anon 12-Step program.

My vocation has been (re)formed into a ministry of presence and solidarity with those who have said yes to the call (and cost) to the contemplative life, and who have experienced great suffering, loss, and a history of attachment or spiritual trauma. 

Co-Founder
Director Spiritual Theology & Formation
| Platform to Table

Michael Di Fuccia, PhD

Michael envisages spiritual direction as two friends on a pilgrimage traversing the mountains and valleys of life. As they journey together the directee experiences an ever-deepening awareness of God’s abiding presence and love.

Michael’s approach to direction balances the rich mysticism of Carmelite spirituality with the practical discernment of Ignatian spirituality. Michael believes that if we are brave enough to examine our biggest fears and doubts, and explore our deepest desires, we discover that God is love.

Michael is the Director of Research and Communications at the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture at Westmont College where he also directs the Cultura Fellowship. He is a Research Fellow for the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, UK. He holds a PhD in Theology from the University of Nottingham, UK and is certified as a Spiritual Director through the Anglican Diocese in New England.

Michael likes to work with his hands and thinks of himself as somewhat of handyman. He enjoys being outside and experiencing God in nature; a passion he shares with his wife, Sara, and their little dog, “Sunny.”

“Therefore, careful and informed spiritual direction is essential if the Charismatic movement is to make progress. The movement needs to create within it a network of spiritual guides who can help individuals through peak experiences and enable them to cope with the inevitable experience of darkness for which traditional Pentecostal spirituality may leave them unprepared . . . Those who, through the Charismatic renewal, have come to a deeper experience of the Spirit's power need personal guidance in order that they can make progress and not become fixated at a particular stage in Christian experience. Personal guidance is necessary so that the radical movements of Christian discipleship will be helped to relate the inner and outer worlds in a spiritual direction which takes account of the movement towards human liberation in our time. Never was spiritual direction more urgently called for than in the present climate of soul searching.”

— Kenneth Leech
Soul Friend: Spiritual Direction in the Modern World, (pp. 27-29)