Ignatian Training for Spiritual Directors

Next Cohort Launches in May 2025

Consider The Ignatian Center’s Ignatian Training Cohort if you are a spiritual director wanting Ignatian training. This two-year training cohort gives you the knowledge, tools, and experience to lead others through the Ignatian Exercises. The training includes online training and an in-person training retreat with Dale Gish, followed by two years of support as you lead your first two groups of people through the Exercises.

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History:

Bill Zuelke, who spent 20 years as a Jesuit, started this program. Bill led Dale Gish through the Exercises and provided his Ignatian training. Bill Zuelke and Dale Gish co-led this training for several years before his retirement. Dale Gish now leads this program as part of The Ignatian Center.

Advantages of this training program:

Builds on your spiritual direction training and provides you with upfront Ignatian training and ongoing support, allowing you to grow as you lead others through the Exercises.
Begin offering the 19th Annotation of the Exercises as soon as September 2025, while your support and training continue for the first two years you offer them.
Join a community of trained directors who use the same model and accompany and encourage one another.
Lead people through the Exercises during the training program, which helps to offset your training costs.
Rich in Ignatian in content and Catholic in the best sense, but accessible for Protestants.
Be trained to use Dale’s reworked prayer materials (following Joseph Tetlow’s approach).
Uses a flexible and gentle approach that trusts the Holy Spirit to be the primary director of the Exercises.
Receive Dale Gish’s ongoing support, direction, and supervision, which helps make the training a rich experience.
Train with an online training cohort and an in-person, deep dive retreat, balancing flexibility and cost with in-person connection and continuing relationships.
Join a program with a proven record: over 50 directors trained. Join an ongoing community of directors that collectively has led 800 people through the Exercises.
Become part of The Ignatian Center’s work and community.
Be listed on The Ignatian Center website to help build your practice.

Advantages of our approach to offering the Ignatian Exercises:

An approach to the Ignatian Exercises that is rich for the retreatants but doesn’t burn the director out.
Offers a price retreatants can afford yet provides you a living wage. Our model allows offering the Ignatian Exercises as a significant part of your spiritual direction practice.
Provides group sessions with rich context for retreatants, thus increasing their motivation to pray.
Offers individual sessions to foster growth with personalized touches to deepen conversations with retreatants.
Allows more people to pray the Exercises. (Nearly 200 people are praying this year with directors trained by our program.)
Builds friendships and colleagues for the future as your training cohort stays together.
Follows the liturgical calendar: Jesus’ birth at Christmas, passion in Lent, and resurrection at Easter.
Uses teaching videos to help provide content for your group times.
Focuses on belovedness and a profound and impactful love relationship with Jesus.