Soul Accompaniment
Soul accompaniment, or spiritual direction,
is a contemplative practice of attentive listening.
A practice of attending to soul —
that which is felt to have depth and importance.
A space of accompaniment,
where you are met within the depth of your own experience
and meaning can unfold uniquely to you.
A walking alongside.
A companioning.
A deep listening.
Hi, I’m John.
It’s lovely to encounter you here.
Meeting each person is something I experience as a privilege — and something I genuinely look forward to. I’m drawn to the different ways people feel in and inhabit the world. The subtle differences, the quiet idiosyncrasies — the things that make each person’s experience their own.
It quietly excites me.
This website is a place to offer a few glimpses of who I am. Not as a fixed image or a story to match or conform to, but as a way of meeting you partway.
You bring your own stories, your own images, your own ways of feeling and being in the world.
And that matters.
I am large, I contain multitudes.
— Walt Whitman
What we might do together
My work is what I call soul accompaniment — a practice also known as spiritual direction or spiritual accompaniment.
It is distinct from therapy and counselling, with a particular focus on the spiritual and existential dimensions of experience.
There is a notion that I like, harking back to the early Celtic church: ‘soul friend’. The poet John O’Donahue popularized this in Anam Ċara, speaking of the great human need for this type of relationship where “mask and pretensions” can give way to belonging and recognition of your “inner- most self, your mind and your heart.”
I was formed within a tradition of monastic hospitality, where the monastery opens its doors to pilgrims who may rest, eat, pray and share in the life of the monks as a reprieve from the grind and cares of the everyday — a place to reconnect, restore and find some deeper baseline before re-entering the world.
In like manner I hope this space provides a moment of stillness set aside from the fast pace of modern life. Meeting can become a sort of repeated ritual where soulful attention can feed back into everyday life.
Together, we listen for what in your life is seeking to be heard.
People relate to soul, spirit, or divinity in many different ways.
You are invited to come as you are.
Meaning is not confined to any one domain. While it may be felt in transcendent vision, it is often found within the ordinary fabric of life and the quiet sense of what matters.
—
My work mostly takes place in one-to-one sessions
From time to time, I also offer articles and other learning spaces for those who wish to explore related topics more widely. You can also find ruminations on my Substack and Podcast (coming soon).
You will not discover the limits of the soul by traveling, even if you wander over every conceivable path, so deep is its story.
— Heraclitus, Fragments.
What a Private Session is Like
Together we listen
Conversation, reflection, shared quiet and stillness, reading, ritual, creative expression, embodied dreamwork.
A session takes the form that speaks most to you.
What is alive for you in your life?
Dreams, memories, sensations, images, questions that carry meaning.
We take our time
What is surfacing now?
What is asking for attention?
We stay with what comes — allowing understanding to emerge, not to solve, but to deepen.
We keep company with what appears —
both within and between us.
A space that welcomes difference
This space is open to people of all backgrounds — across differences of culture, race, gender, sexuality, and belief.
It is an affirming space for LGBTQ+ people.
You are not required to fit a particular path, identity, or worldview in order to be here.
Belief may or may not be part of your experience. It is welcome, but not required. We begin with what is present — what is moving, what is asking to be met.
My own formation draws from a range of traditions — but here, we begin with your experience rather than any framework.
I seek to be trauma-informed in my work. This does not mean that I treat trauma, or that this practice replaces therapy or medical care. Rather, it means that the space is grounded in an approach that prioritizes safety, agency, and respect for each person’s experience — with sensitivity to the wider social, cultural, and personal contexts that shape it.
Where I come from
My initial formal studies included a BA in Philosophy and a GradDip in Education (2006–2010). My undergraduate work was broad but marked by a sustained interest in ways of knowing often set aside or marginalized within dominant Western frameworks.
From 2011 to 2016 I lived as a cloistered monk, formed by silence, attention, and contemplative practice.
After leaving monastic life, I completed an MA in Theology (2017–2018). I was particularly drawn to decolonizing perspectives, sect analysis, religious conflict, identity formation, and the plurality of the individual.
I have also worked for several years with people with disabilities — a deeply formative time that grounded for me the importance of different ways of knowing and living meaning.
Alongside this, I have maintained a long engagement with Jungian and post-Jungian thought, and I am currently training in Embodied Imagination®, a post-Jungian approach that works directly with dreams and images through embodied practice.
Across these paths, a single thread remains: a way of giving attention to what is present — what appears, what moves, what asks to be met — and how a life unfolds in its particularity and uniqueness.
I live and work in Lutruwita / Tasmania, on palawa Country.
The rhythms of this place — the land, and the life I have shared in communities — continue to shape how I accompany others.
An Invitation
If you feel drawn to this work, you’re invited to share a little about what’s stirring for you. I’ll read your message with care and respond within a couple of days.
Acknowledgement of Country
This work takes place on lutruwita / Tasmania, on lands held and cared for by Aboriginal peoples for thousands of years. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land and pay my respects to Elders past and present.
Long before my presence here, this land has been known, walked, and cared for in ways that continue to endure. This land holds ways of knowing and healing that precede my own and continue beyond Western frameworks.
I offer this work as a guest on this land.