Open hands. Open ears. Open heart.

A smiling woman with glasses and white hair sitting outdoors on a bench during winter. She is wearing a gray button-up shirt, a brown quilted vest, black pants, and red gloves. In the background, there are leafless trees and a building.

As a spiritual companion, I come to you with open hands to welcome you, open ears to listen to you and an open heart to receive what you bring. I come to you with love, compassion and understanding. As a woman elder, I’ve experienced years of life and am ready to be in conversation with you about yours without an onslaught of opinions and assumptions. 

I come to this work as a life-long learner, a partner, a friend and a parent of two now-grown children, and a grandmother. 

Along with holding a certificate in spiritual direction, having worked as a hospital chaplain and being trained in grief work, I also spent 24 years in parish ministry, serving a church community in Oak Park, Illinois. Of course, “ministry” can mean different things to different people. For some, it can be a trigger and not necessarily a good one. 

Other people wonder if being a minister makes me closer to God. (Not really; I am on my own journey too.)

I believe being a minister has made me more willing to live my twisty-turny spiritual journey out loud with others. 

For me, working in a church was all about relationship, about being and talking with people and wondering together about the big questions of all life and one’s life. It opened me to being with others in the hard moments of life and in the glorious ones. And everything in between.

If you’re a person who likes to know such things, here’s more about my educational background:

  • Kenyon College (Gambier OH), Bachelors of Arts in psychology (1974)

  • Northwestern University (Evanston IL), Masters of Arts in Teaching in secondary English (1977)

  • McCormick Theological Seminary (Chicago IL), Masters of Divinity (2008)

  • Ordination in the United Church of Christ (2012)

  • 3 months of chaplaincy at Loyola Hospital as part of the ordination process

  • The Claret Center (Chicago IL), Certificate in Spiritual Direction (2018)

  • The Grief Training Center, (Wisconsin) Grief Training for Supporting the Bereaved (2022)

  • 24 years of parish ministry as an ordained pastor and program staff at First United Church of Oak Park (1992-2016)

How I got here: