Changing Life Patterns: Adult Development in Spiritual Direction

by Elizabeth Ann Liebert

Looks at the process of spiritual direction through contemporary research on understanding of adult development and the predictable crises of transitions.

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Lynn Wetherbee]

Liebert explains that understanding that adults are developing throughout their lives, helps the spiritual director identify how to work with the directee. Liebert describes some commonly understood developmental stages, and particularly examines structural theory of development which looks at how an adult’s way of ordering their ordering of the world becomes more complex and inclusive thus enabling them to become more reflectively engaged with their outer and inner world. She explores the importance of a spiritual director creating a “holding environment” for the directee to feel safe to live and then grow out of each stage. She gives clues to identifying the developmental stage of a directee and describes in detail characteristics and behaviors of adults in the most common adult stages which she labels: Conformity, Conscientious, Interindividual, and Integrated.

Main "take away" point: spiritual directors are in it for the long haul with their directees, if possible, and development of adults never stops!

The book is carefully written by an experienced spiritual director, yet was, for me, a slow read. Engaging were the fictional stories of several directees from different developmental stages and one congregation seeking spiritual guidance, and how they make choices and develop throughout a ten year period.