Kirsten is wearing a short-sleeved black sweater, sitting cross-legged on a tan leather couch, smiling softly. She is surrounded by plants and behind her is a yellow and green print that reads Morris and Museum.

About Kirsten

I’m Kirsten. I hold space as a spiritual director, writer, and collage artist in Vashon, Washington.

The more I live, the less I know, conventionally.

Lately, I have been contemplating the interplay of two postures: TO BEAR and TO RESOUND. One of the fruits of the inquiry has been softening into the beauty of contradictions. This space is full of them. I hope you’ll follow along, anyway.

May something robust be born in us in the dissonance.

Book a session with Kirsten

Collage of hearts over a black night-sky background with white dots as stars. Hearts contain fire, stormy water, pink flower drawing, red legos, red, white, gold sprinkles. Synringe filled with red and pink hearts. Reads "How to Love without a plan."

We Are Here

Formed in Cynthia Bougeault’s lineage in the Christian Mystical Wisdom Tradition—the path my soul recognizes as home, I embrace a non-dual posture: Wisdom arises from a common Source, yet takes a distinct form in each tradition.
On the way to becoming a spiritual director, I encountered a residue of pain within me that I didn’t know was there. This arose as an extreme overreaction in my body to a perceived threat.
When a wise mentor named my experience “trauma,” new self-compassion emerged. This experience beckoned me toward a field of study that I now see as an investment in liberation — freedom to be loved and to love.
This compassionate orientation gives me the courage to turn toward my pain with love and kindness, to deepen fluency in my body’s intelligence, and to strengthen my capacity to be present.
I completed an Apprenticeship in a Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction with Rev. Dr. Shannon Michael Pater to deepen my scope of practice.
Read about my Trauma-Informed Wisdom approach here.
I’m a member of Spiritual Directors International and am committed to their Guidelines for Ethical Conduct.
I am unabashedly LGBTQIA+ celebrating.
- As we enter more deeply into a confluence of crises that mark a breakdown of systems as we’ve known them, how do we find an inner stability to bear uncertainty, to act in the face of our fear?
- How do we see and know more deeply and play the instruments of our lives with courage and solidarity?
- As wave after wave of distressing news rolls in and illusions of exterior stability and rescue deflate, how do we nourish the nervous system and come into rhythm with the still center within?
- How do we attend to our pain and reduce the violence we cause to ourselves and others?
- Where does our help come from?
- The path that was paved for us is cracking underneath our feet. I am living into this wager: the ground underneath the path is fertile.
- Our actions matter deeply, and much of the spiritual life is learning to relax our eyes.
- We have choices to make, but they are not conventional choices, and that can be scary.
- Life is hard and beautiful. The Universe is vast and loving. We cannot comprehend these truths with the mind alone.
- There are no formulas for living, and there is wisdom to guide us.
- All of our notions of moving toward a destination are illusions, yet what we do is essential and upholds the planet.
- Connection is vital. Presence, space, and the transformative flow of relating are fertile conditions for becoming.

On a more personal note

I live on an island in the PNW with Scott, my husband of 29 years, and our grand-dog Nitro. I am Mom to a handful of young adults. These relational fields are places of nourishment that calls forth becoming. Their love gives me the courage to keep turning toward tender places. I can now bear witness to painful experiences, more often, from a place of safety instead of threat. This is miraculous.
Tending and propagating houseplants, creating playlists and collages, and opening to Beauty in my everyday life are some of the practices that keep me close to my center.
Complexities and contradictions have led me to a more spacious, embodied, dynamic, practice-oriented faith.
I spent most of my life in Southern California. Our family has also lived in the Midwest & the South (Roll Tide!). We are in the Pacific Northwest now, and it is feels like home.
P.S. We have a grand-dog named Nitro, an American bully. Our cairn terrier Polly has recently passed on, but her feisty spirit still accompanies us.