Spiritual Direction School

                    Spiritual Accompaniment for a Liberated Future

Our Program

We Created This Program For Us

Our program and curriculum were designed by BIWOC and Queer BIWOC

for BIWOC, Queer BIWOC, Trans and Non-binary folks of color

At Liberated Together Spiritual Direction School, we believe that spiritual formation should be liberative, healing, and deeply rooted in our lived experiences. That’s why our curriculum was created honoring the wisdom, traditions, and sacred practices that have sustained our communities for generations.

This 9-month journey is designed to equip you with the tools to hold sacred space while also experiencing your own transformation. Together, we will explore:

Self-Encounter and Ancestral Traditions – Honoring the wisdom of those who came before us
Contemplative Listening, Witnessing, and Honoring Trust – Learning the art of deep presence
Embodied Sacred Awareness – Integrating spirituality with the wisdom of the body
Starting a Spiritual Direction Practice – Practical tools to build your calling
Imagination and Sacred Encounter – Expanding our spiritual awareness through creativity
Spirituality for Collective Liberation – Holding justice, faith, and community together
Decolonizing Spiritual Practices – Reclaiming traditions outside of white supremacy
Holding Our Intersecting Identities – Exploring identity, faith, and sacred belonging
Trauma and Healing – Creating spaces that nurture healing and wholeness

This training affirms who we are, where we come from, and what we carry. If you are ready to step into this sacred work with a community that truly sees you, we invite you to join us.

Our Spirituality

Women of Color

We Draw from WOC Theology

Our spirituality centers the lived experience and spiritual realities of WOC/ Queer WOC and non-binary folks. We honor our specific ethnic and cultural traditions and we seek to reclaim them, while acknowledging our collective experience of systemic and institutionalized injustice. We welcome exploration, questions, ambiguity, and healing. We honor the voices of the mothers, aunties, and grandmothers of our spiritual traditions.

Queer

We Center Queer Wisdom

We practice a spirituality that is guided by the wisdom of our queer ancestors who defied dehumanization and taught a spirituality anchored in love, fluidity, expansiveness and radical imagination. We believe in a spirituality rooted in a liberatory existence that disrupts binaries and hierarchies freeing us from the violence of heteronormativity and homophobia. We honor Queer wisdom, agency, love, power, resilience, and hope.

Collective

We Hold a Collective Spirituality

Spirituality is our everyday connection to the sacred and divine. This connection is communal and includes the experiences of all faith traditions, spiritual lineages, the living presence of our ancestors, as well as our nature kin. Our spiritual wellbeing is connected to the communities to which we belong and are accountable to including ethnic communities and chosen kin. We hold values of co-creative learning and collective care.

Liberative

We are Committed to Liberation

We believe that spirituality is intrinsically tied to our liberation. We foster spiritual communities that embody justice and compassion. We actively resist systems and ideologies that uphold white supremacy, anti-Blackness, patriarchy, ableism, and homophobia. A liberative spirituality is a sustainable spirituality which makes room for healing, imagination, and creativity.

Ancestral

We Honor Our Ancestral Traditions

We believe in the active and living presence of our ancestors. We are committed to decolonizing spiritual teachings that co-opt our cultural wisdom and perpetuate the erasure and demonization of our ancestral communities. Our spirituality incorporates the spiritual practices, lineages, rituals and celebrations of our ancestors. We honor the voices of the mothers, aunties, and grandmothers of our spiritual traditions.

Embodied

We Practice Embodiment

Our body is the sacred space in which we experience the divine.

Our bodies, in all their expressions non-binary, trans, disabled, fat, cis, female, dark and light skinned are good and sacred. Our bodies speak truth and wisdom, though they may not always feel good. We access divine connection when we fully inhabit our bodies in our grief, pleasure, desires, and joy.

Our Teachers

  • Cindy S. Lee

    Director of School

    Teacher

  • LeAnn D. Jenkins

    Teacher

  • Puanani Poti-Calvillo

    Teacher

  • Christina Quintanilla

    Teacher

  • Erna Kim Hackett

    Founder Liberated Together

Let’s Connect!

Want to learn more about our program?

We would love to meet with you. Just fill out this form and one of our teachers will set up a time to answer your questions and share more about our program.

How to Apply

Application Form

You won’t be able to save your answers. So you may want to consider downloading this pdf of the questions, writing out your answers and then cutting and pasting them in.

Download Application HERE.

Fill Out Application HERE.

References

Submit Two References from
Your Spiritual Director (preferable) or a spiritual mentor if you have not yet started meeting with a spiritual director
A soul friend (someone that you share your inner life with).

Send this link to your two references to fill out for you: reference form

Scheduled Call

After we have received your application and two references, we will schedule a call with you for a conversation to continue discernment together.

Decision

Receive an email letting you know if you have been accepted to the program.

If you are seeking a scholarship or need a payment plan- attend our Program Payment Options meeting.

Pay $500 deposit to secure your spot in the cohort.

TUITION & PAYMENT

Tuition: $5,000 (Scholarships are available)

Deposit: There is a $500 non-refundable deposit to secure your spot in the school. This is included in the $5,000 total. After the deposit, the balance can be paid in one, three, or nine payments.

Payment Options
One-time: $500 deposit + $4,300 payment - there is a $200 discount if you make one payment.
Quarterly: $500 deposit + 3 payments of $1,500 in September, December, and March
Monthly: $500 deposit + $500/month for nine months, September 2023-May 2024

Here are some of the values that we hold when it comes to setting the cost of the program and offering scholarships.

  • We believe that WOC/folks should be paid fairly for their labor and expertise, so that the work is just and sustainable.

  • We are committed to working collaboratively and as a team. That means that we have more instructors who participate in our program. Learning from multiple voices is an important part of our approach to liberative spiritual practice, but it does mean we are paying more people.

  • We also want this program to be accessible to as many people as possible and understand how systems of race, gender, and capitalism give us different access to resources. And so we work to offer scholarships as needed.

Program Requirements

attendance

Attendance at all monthly sessions and monthly practice/supervision groups is required to complete the program.


spiritual direction

Students are required to meet monthly with a spiritual director through the duration of the program. Costs for one-on-one spiritual direction is at the student’s own expense.


practice sessions

After the first 4 months, students are required to meet monthly with 2 individuals one-on-one to practice spiritual direction under the supervision of one of the program mentors. (These sessions will be free to the directees while the student spiritual director is still in the training program.)


FAQ

  • In this way, Spiritual Direction, as I understand it, is an intentional touchpoint to both honor and grow our collective capacity to hold space for all of life.

    Read More →

  • I can’t describe in words what it feels like to align my natural gifts and lived experience with a practice I love - for myself and for the communities the Spirit calls me to accompany.

    Read More →

  • We are reclaiming a spirituality that is rooted in the wisdom of our elders, queer ancestors, movement leaders, organizers, mothers, aunties, and grandmothers who modeled an inner life rooted in communal care, indigenous wisdom, activism, and healing.

    Read More →

  • Seven questions to help you discern.

    Read More →

  • We believe that spirituality and the practice of spiritual direction can be a liberating experience when our own embodied experiences are centered.

    Read More →