FAITH NOSTBAKKEN, PhD, MTS

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ron flamand

I believe life is both sacred story and sacred journey because God comes to us in the everyday, inviting and allowing us to see the holy in our own experiences. My role and privilege as a spiritual director is to engage people in discovering their own sacred stories by listening with compassion and respect to what needs to be told so that it may be more fully and freely lived. I also believe that there is no landscape on our sacred journeys, whether of doubt or deep conviction, hope or the edges of despair, where God is not prepared to meet us; every interior landscape then becomes an opportunity for our faith and hope to broaden and deepen whether through joy or pain, grief or contemplation, or the quiet or busy rhythms of everyday life. And so I encourage people seeking spiritual direction to “come as you are” and be open to the mystery of God’s transforming presence.

Trained in spiritual direction at the Providence Renewal Centre in 2004-2006, I also have a PhD in English Literature (U of Alberta) and a Master of Theological Studies degree (Newman Theological College) with a focus on spirituality.  I am currently working on a Doctor of Ministry program. I am an ordained Lutheran deacon with appreciation for the many denominations and expressions of faith, having worked for numerous years as a Synod-appointed ecumenical officer and offered spiritual direction to people from a broad and diverse range of traditions.  I have both training and experience as a supervisor and teacher of spiritual direction, a guide for the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, a facilitator of retreats, a post-secondary instructor of Christian spirituality, and an Advanced Specialist in the Grief Recovery Program.  I am willing to meet people face-to-face but also online through Skype or Zoom. Please feel free to read more about me at my website, faithnostbakken.ca.

Convinced that we are all creative beings, made in the image of the Creator, I am passionate about exploring various conventional and less familiar pathways to prayer, which are expressions of each person’s unique relationship with and reflection of the Creator.  My personal passions also include rich conversation, poetry, photography, music, and dance.

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