This book represents a significant departure from most contemporary writing about spiritual direction. While most writers focus on long-term relationships of guidance, specifically envisioning long listening sessions, Bidwell changes focus. Spiritual direction, he insists, typically requires intervention in a specific crisis or situation or question, is not formal, lasts fewer than five sessions, and must be actively and intentionally focused on the person's growth. Bidwell's work shows what spiritual directors can learn from the short-term therapy model, especially about enabling people briefly but effectively to ''learn to listen on their own and with others for God's presence.'' Focusing on how God is already active in the directee's life allows the participants to identify God's action and respond in ways that collaborate with that identified movement of the Spirit. Key Features: A one-volume guide to the practice of spiritual direction Beautifully and simply explains the classic concepts Specific and helpful advice for different situations and for group direction
Duane Bidwell explores the intersection of spirituality, mental health and social justice as a teacher-scholar-clinician in Southern California, where he lives with his wife and son.
Professionally, he spends his time teaching, researching, writing, and providing pastoral psychotherapy and spiritual direction at Claremont School of Theology.
These days, Duane is writing "Empowering Couples: A Narrative Approach to Spiritual Care" to be published in 2012 by Fortress Press. He is also co-editing a text on spiritual care with the queer community to be published in 2011.
A clinical Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Duane serves on the AAPC board of trustees.
In his day job, he has three formal titles: associate professor of practical theology, spiritual care, and pastoral counseling at Claremont School of Theology; senior staff clinician and supervisor at The Clinebell Institute for Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy; and co-director of the Center for Sexuality and the Christian Life at Claremont School of Theology.
He co-edits "The Journal of Pastoral Theology" and co-directs "Beyond Apologetics: Sexual Identity, Pastoral Theology, and Pastoral Practice," a research project of 13 scholars who are constructing the next generation of thought and practice for spiritual care with the GLBTQI community.
In his off time, Duane hikes the San Gabriel mountains with his family and friends, grows native California plants, and eats and reads voraciously.
From 2007-2009, he served on the faculty of Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, and from 2002-2007 he was director of the Pastoral Care and Training Center, an accredited pastoral counseling center at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth. He has served as a parish pastor, pastoral counselor, spiritual director, hospital chaplain, and director of an interfaith HIV/AIDS agency.
