Photo Credit: Mallory MacDonald
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 and generativity 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.
Context
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Wiith-ness and witness over time.
Together, we create space to attend to the invisible dimensions of life.
I accompany you in presence and active listening (once or twice a month is the most common cadence).
I offer two session lengths. We can start with what you are drawn to now, and adjust over time.
60-minute sessions — $85
A steady rhythm for spacious accompaniment.90-minute sessions — $125
More room when you’re moving through transition, complexity, or grief, or when you’d welcome additional time for silence, practice, discernment.I am neurodivergent, and my practice is LGBTQ+ celebrating.
If you feel a draw, let’s meet for a free exploratory session.
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Life is hard and beautiful. Connection is vital. Presence, space, and the transformative flow of relating are fertile conditions for becoming. There are no formulas for living, and there is wisdom to guide us.
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On the way to becoming a spiritual director, I encountered a residue of pain within me that I didn’t know was there. It surfaced as an intense response in my body to a perceived threat.
When a wise mentor named my experience “trauma,” new self-compassion emerged.
Being held in compassion gives me the courage to turn toward my pain with love and kindness, deepen fluency in my body’s intelligence, and strengthen my capacity to be present. There is deepening freedom and a lightness of being.
Formed in Cynthia Bourgeault’s lineage, I embrace a non-dual posture: wisdom arises from a common Source, yet takes a distinct form in each tradition.
I completed an apprenticeship in Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction with Rev. Dr. Shannon Michael Pater to deepen my practice.
Read about my trauma-informed wisdom approach.
I’m a member of Spiritual Directors International and am committed to their Guidelines for Ethical Conduct.
I am unabashedly LGBTQIA+ celebrating.
Projects
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I’ve been creating over on Substack since late 2024. There is some overlap with Soulspace, but also some differences. I’m beginning to see a body of work take shape.
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Small offerings to midwife us in becoming who we already are.
Little Containers is an experiment, catching a little bit of presence and wisdom from the space between us.
Stirring recognition that anchors us in welcoming inner contradictions + bearing the beauty and terror of being here, in service of mutual flourishing.The name arrived as if from the future. I recognized it immediately, and it felt like LOVE.
Listen to the words that inspired the name, from Dr. Chris Morris and Father Bruno Barnhart. Here’s the primary quote:
“Our words are just little containers…that catch a little from the waterfall…[and] don't contain the whole of it…the mystery is a totality, it is always more.”
Sometimes it helps to see someone on video before booking a session. Here are some recent clips. You can also listen to audio on the blog.
On a more personal note
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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 call 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, it feels like home
P.S. Our cairn terrier Polly has recently passed on, but her feisty spirit still accompanies us.
Collage
The cosmos is not treacherous or a trickster, not punitive, but giving and forgiving. It does not set up tests and traps. It does not delight in our failure but gently encourages us onward, to risk and offer everything at even greater depths.
—Cynthia Bourgeault