COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course for spiritual directors and supervisors will address the growing understanding of the spiritual impact of sexual abuse and its repercussions both for the directee and the director. It will comprise two, one-hour Zoom sessions over the course of three weeks.

Feedback from survivors of sexual abuse in a church context has highlighted the profoundly negative impact that it has on their faith and relationship with God. They speak about their struggle with belief; their sense of rejection by the institution that betrayed them; and their feelings of loss and darkness, of deep mistrust and suspicion. In many cases they feel abandoned by God.

Providing spiritual direction in such cases can prove difficult. In addition to processing all of the above, the director must sometimes cope with the fact survivors might see them as representing the organization which perpetrated the abuse in the first place.

Further, they may have their own particular set of complicated feelings or experiences that they bring to the conversation. What is more, listening to stories of betrayal by those in church authority may elicit very difficult feelings in the heart of the director which need to be processed in supervision.

Over a period of two, one – hour sessions this course will engage these issues. The first session will lay the groundwork and session two will focus on practical aspects of directing people who have been abused sexually. The course will address approaches that might be helpful – and not helpful — along with discussing the kinds of support needed by directors who work with abuse survivors and what to watch for in directees that might indicate a need for referral.

REGISTRATION:

• To register, please email: margaret@togetherinthemystery.org

• Cost of $150 USD. You will receive an invoice via Square or Paypal after registering.

• You will receive both zoom login credentials for the course and access to the course webpage once registration is complete.

Instructor: Una Allen

Una has an interdisciplinary background including a BA in Social Science, A Diploma in Spirituality (Spiritual Direction), a Masters in Pastoral Theology, and an Advanced Diploma in Spirituality (Supervision) under the auspices of Together In Mystery and StPatrick’s College Maynooth. She worked for thirty years with the Probation Service in both Dublin and Galway and has volunteered with Towards Peace, a Catholic agency in Ireland founded to offer support to survivors of abuse by church personnel.

Her work and ministry have brought Una into contact both with those who have perpetrated sexual abuse and those who have survived it. Una’s experiences and education have also taught her about the physical, psychological and social consequences of abuse – for survivors, their families, and their communities.  She continues her involvement in this area with Athru, a multidisciplinary agency attached to HSE West, working with young people who exhibit sexually inappropriate behaviour. 

A spiritual companion and retreat leader with a number of years’ experience, Una regularly directs abuse survivors and has experience supervising other directors who do the same.  She has taught on the Diploma in Spiritual Direction Course at the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality and Culture in Galway and in Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality in Dublin. Una is married with four children.