"In a sea of online voices, how do Christians discern and find guidance that is genuine, seasoned, and responsibly formed?"
If you’re seeking a spiritual director, also known as spiritual accompaniment, my principal formation and training were in 2002/3/6 with Dr. Larry Crabb, NewWay Ministries School of Spiritual Direction in the US. I’m Andy Maitland, and welcome.
My practice is simple and accountable: I offer spiritual direction on a nonprofit basis, online via video call, I adhere to an established code of practice that includes safeguarding, and I am accompanied by my own spiritual director. I’m also a member of the London Centre for Spiritual Direction (LCSD) in the UK.
Quick glance summary
Introduction
A UK-based Christian spiritual director offering online personal accompaniment focusing on encountering the Spirit of God in daily life. The practice is non-profit, follows an established code of practice including safeguarding, and includes supervision through spiritual direction.
Formation training
Principal formation and training in 2002/3/6 with Dr. Larry Crabb, NewWay Ministries School of Spiritual Direction, US.
Crabb was a psychologist, author and spiritual director, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Colorado Christian University, and spiritual director for the American Association of Christian Counselors. Larry was also an accomplished and a hilarious Elvis impersonator! Crabb: Christianity Today, Wikipedia and The American Association of Christian Counselors,
Approach
The Spirit is the director. Focuses on spiritual formation - how the Spirit of God shapes individuals to become more Christ-like through relationship, rather than mere introspection or structured practices.
Costs
Spiritual direction is not offered as a business, this is run as a non profit. This begins with a no-obligation introductory conversation for £25 / $35 to explore your needs and help both director and directee discern the next steps together. Ongoing sessions are typically £50 / $67 per hour but with a sliding scale available, to ensure accessibility, based, on what each person can afford.
Methodology
Offers informal, conversational, and contemplative accompaniment that explores God moving in personal life.
Accesibility
Sessions are conducted online, aiming to help individuals connect with the Spirit's direction.
Contact
Connections can be made here, via this Christian Spiritual Direction website or the LCSD.
My story
I’m an artist, author, and spiritual director living in the South of England. I’m married, my wife is a healthcare professional.
Much of my work grows out of a life-long fascination with imagination: not as escape or fantasy, but as a way of paying attention more deeply to life, to God, and to the world we actually inhabit. I’ve spent most of my working life in creative industries as a graphic designer working in digital design and marketing, alongside involvement in church leadership. That combination has given me a grounded sense of how faith, creativity, and everyday life overlap in practice.
I’m the author of The Digital Garden® and An Imagined Garden One, both of which explore the garden, augmented reality and architecture, as a place where perception, creativity, and awareness meet.
Alongside my creative work, I serve as a spiritual director, accompanying people as they listen for God’s presence in their own stories. My principal formation and training was with Dr Larry Crabb (2002/3/6), and my approach is shaped by attentiveness, reflection, and a belief that God is already moving in our lives.
All of this work is held together by a simple conviction:
“Imagination’s true purpose is not invention but revelation. Faith, hope, prophesy, trust and relationship all require imagination.”¹
Spiritual direction, my own story
For me, receiving spiritual direction has been transformative. At the beginning of this century the Spirit was deeply at work in my life, painfully transforming me. Amidst what felt like a fierce tornado, a lightning shard of blue sky emerged. In late 2001 I discovered a book, with the highly unappealing title of “Shattered Dreams”. Back then phrases like “spiritual formation” and “spiritual direction” weren’t widely a part of the church or ministry vocabulary here in the UK or the US.
I was not a new Christian but Dr. Larry Crabb’s book helped to stabilise and orientate me. He put words to experiences my pastors and friends didn’t yet know, didn’t understand or have language for (and my wife was concerned for my well-being). But this wasn’t a literary schooling but a relational revelation that stormed into my life. Larry wasn’t the genesis for this new thing, that was the Spirit years earlier, but Larry, half way across the world, was most definitely a part of this.
Larry was a psychologist, Author and spiritual director, and he was hugely inspirational to me.
That experience of an unfamiliar God and my reading of Larry’s book led me from the UK to meet him in Colorado. In 2002, at his intentionally small School of Spiritual Direction, I was amidst thirty people with a variety of backgrounds from a number of different nations. That time was a life-changing encounter and I returned again to the US for teaching and training in subsequent years.
I had not planned to train in spiritual direction, I wanted to know what God was doing in my life and so that journey began. And I’m learning that often the Spirit changes our perception and identity, before we have the language to describe this. Amidst disorientation I think He invites trust more than explanation. Relationship.