I’m with you & for you as you walk your unique path
This is it, friends. We are alive. It’s painful and exquisite. Each of us must walk our own path, but we do not have to walk alone.
Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Kirsten Harrison, and I’m so glad you’re here.
Recently, I went on a walk with a friend. Along the way, she told me what was happening in her life. I asked questions to take her deeper into her experience. As we reached the end of our walk, she asked: “Is this what you do?”
I’ve written a lot of words to describe my vocation. Here, I’d like to tell you…
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I’m a deeply curious learner & storyteller (Gemini Sun), someone who lives an evolving life in public & makes space for others to do the same (Leo Rising).
I’m an unconventional Christian mystic & spiritual theologian (Aries Moon in the 9th house).
If you were to examine my soul under a microscope, you’d recognize an alchemy of these teachers who — for me, resonant and evocative — have invited me to embody alternative wisdom: Rev. Eugene Peterson, John O’Donohue, Dr. James Finley, Tilden Edwards, Rob Bell, Cynthia Bourgeault, Father Richard Rohr, and Fred Rogers.
While I have a deep reservoir of knowledge and life experience to draw from, the most valuable thing I offer is my embodied yes.
Yes to who you are today. Yes to who you are becoming.I accompany others as they listen to their lives. Together, we notice, name, process, wonder, rail against, grieve, celebrate — we are present to “what is” with curiosity and compassion.
It’s not just what I was trained for. It’s who I am.
I’m told it’s unusual to find someone who will slow down and make space, who is interested in the details we don’t want to “bother” people with. A place where we can say anything, and it doesn’t have to come out “right.” A place where we can be held in our big questions. Where we can savor & celebrate even the tiniest signs of our emergent becoming.
This is my jam.
If you have ears to hear the song I’m singing, bring your instrument.
Let’s tune in together.
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In this season of my spiritual journey, Contemplative Christianity, the Christian Wisdom Tradition, and the mystics feel most like home.
Tending and propagating houseplants, creating playlists and collages, and opening to Beauty in my everyday life are some of the practices that keep me close to my center.
I married my favorite person in 1996, and it’s been a wild ride. He’s still my favorite, and I think we enjoy each other now more than ever.
When we experienced back-to-back seasons (a decade’s worth) of incredible pain and uncertainty, some of the things we believed held up. Some of them fell away.
Our kids are 20, 24, and 25 now (and my oldest has a fabulous partner!). All of them are incredible humans. Parenting has been the most impactful invitation to love of my entire life — a call to plunge into the depths of my faith and my soul.
The complexities of life have led me to a more expansive, inclusive, embodied faith.
I grew up and spent most of my life in Southern California. Our family has also lived in the Midwest & the South (Roll Tide!). We are in the Pacific Northwest now, and it is where we belong.
P.S. We have a cairn terrier mix, Polly, and a grand-dog, Nitro, an American bully (AKA Goose & Fathead).
How I’m Participating
We are alive, friends. It’s beautiful and so very hard.
In the process of living, we encounter inner and outer experiences that — in the absence of a steady guide — are disorienting and nearly unbearable. Each of us must walk our own path, but we don’t have to walk alone.
I accompany folks as they explore the invisible dimensions of being and becoming.
I offer practice-based teaching to call forth what’s already in you and spacious presence as you listen for and live into wisdom in context.
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Spiritual direction is where I became deeply acquainted with the inner ground of my soul. It was a steady, loving, non-judgmental place for me to rest and be open to what was emerging, held in presence by someone who was not afraid for me.
With a compassionate witness, I explored my inner landscape, I became familiar with what it’s like to listen deeply.
On my way to becoming a spiritual director, I encountered a residue of pain within me that I didn’t know was there. This arose as an extreme overreaction in my body to a perceived threat.
When a wise mentor named my experience “trauma,” new self-compassion emerged. This compassionate orientation gave me the courage, over time, to turn toward my pain with love and kindness.
This experience beckoned me toward a field of study that I now see as an investment in liberation — freedom to be loved and to love.
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I was trained as a spiritual director. After feeling funny about that term for some time, I’ve decided to talk about what I’m doing in a new way - spacious accompaniment.
I completed an Apprenticeship in a Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction with Rev. Dr. Shannon Michael Pater to deepen my scope of practice. I studied neuroscience and trauma — not just for the sake of gaining knowledge — but to apply what I was learning to my life and my professional practice. I’ve been accompanied as I’ve glanced with compassion and curiosity at my pain, and I’ve been supported as I’ve witnessed and integrated it. I prioritize this lifetime practice of integrating my trauma so I can hold space for others artfully and skillfully, though not perfectly, for I am human.
I’m a member of Spiritual Directors International and am committed to their Guidelines for Ethical Conduct.
I am unabashedly LGBTQIA+ celebrating.
Spiritual Direction is about presence and curiosity — holding space for what is actually happening for you without judgment — trusting that deep, subterranean movement is happening, even when we don’t see it.
- From my essay Moving Through a Dark Night of the Soul