People meet with a spiritual director/companion for many reasons, including:

• Considering a life change or coping with unexpected change (home, work, relationship, identity)
• A new/renewed desire to practice listening to your own heart/spirit/Truth/God
• Feeling distant from or conflicted with God/the Universe/the Divine
• Long-held beliefs or spiritual practices are not as helpful or satisfying as in the past
• Coping with discrimination/exclusion or other spiritual and emotional woundedness by a religious organization
• Coping with acute loss and grief
• A desire to deepen spiritual practices that are already meaningful

No one longs for what they already have, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red 'x' that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.

- Barbara Brown Taylor