NILS HAHN
I have been accompanying people since 2014, when I started my spiritual direction training in the Pacific Jubilee Program, which I completed in 2015. I am a member of Spiritual Directors International. I am currently taking graduate studies in spirituality and theology at St. Stephen’s College.
My faith tradition is Christian. I grew up Lutheran, and my current congregational home is in the United Church of Canada. I believe the Spirit is broadly inclusive and blows where it will.
My being in this world is comprised of a variety of roles, which seem to wax and wane with the seasons of life through which we all travel. Structural engineering is my workaday service by which I earn my daily bread. In my church, I periodically facilitate small groups and provide occasional worship leadership. I am the father of two school-age children.
My own spiritual practices include regular scripture reading, poetry, art, journaling, prayer, silence, walking among trees or down back alleys, sipping tea, and mindfully washing the dishes. Music—making a joyful noise unto the Lord—is also an important part of my life.
It is from the basis of my training, tradition, callings, life experiences, and practices that I approach spiritual direction and create the spaciousness for you, the directee, to speak what you are needing to voice. I accompany primarily by deep, open listening and being attentive to what is shimmering and percolating in the moment and over time. Together we tune our hearts and ears to hearing whatsoever things are true within you. I guide by reflecting your words back to you and by occasionally asking gentle questions. Through this we seek to discern where God, the Divine, the essence of your own inner knowing and ground of being may be leading you.