Spiritual Direction Program — Certificate Training

The Spiritual Direction Program is an online certificate training in Enneagram-informed spiritual direction, offered by Evolving Enneagram, a contemplative Enneagram formation school based in Kansas City, Missouri. It is a professional formation program for people who are already accompanying others or sensing a call to do so: spiritual directors, companions and guides, clergy and lay leaders, therapists and counselors, coaches, holistic healers, and experienced Enneagram students or contemplatives. It is co-led by Revs. Scott McRae and Nhien Vuong, and this is the inaugural cohort.

What to Expect

The program runs twenty-two months, with twenty modules in six phases: Foundations, The Inner Integrative Work, Methods, Skills & Accompaniment, Practicum & Practice Development, Practice Design & Outreach, and Graduation & Send-off to Supervision. Everything happens online via Zoom.

Each phase begins with a live training held over a Friday and Saturday, from 10:00am to 2:30pm Central Time on both days. There are six of these in all. Between them, the cohort meets monthly for a gathering of an hour and a half, with a choice of a Tuesday evening or a Thursday morning. A summer break in August leaves room for rest and integration. Each phase closes with a final reflection.

The Enneagram is woven through every phase rather than taught as a separate course. Early modules cover the history and traditions of spiritual direction, the contemplative Enneagram, and how spirituality is evolving. Later ones turn to ego, soul and spirit, instinctual patterns in the director's inner life, and energy, boundaries and power, including ethical anchors and common red flags. Phase 3 moves into the craft of a session, with a three-part model of holding, engaging and guiding, and draws on Motivational Interviewing and narrative approaches. A supervised practicum follows with Rev. Nhien or Rev. Scott.

The approach is inside-out. The primary instrument of spiritual direction is understood to be the person of the director, so the work is on presence, self-awareness and inner freedom, not technique alone. The teaching also treats presence as active: listening deeply, and knowing when to inquire, reflect, challenge or stay silent. The cohort itself becomes a field of shared practice, supervision and companionship.

Credentials and Pathways

Finishing all twenty modules earns a Certificate of Completion. The full Certificate in Spiritual Direction also includes four post-program Spiritual Direction Supervision sessions.

Participants may add the Contemplative Enneagram Practitioner (CEP) Certification at no additional tuition. It involves about forty hours of pre-recorded coursework, taken at your own pace alongside Phase 3, and the dual track earns IEA professional accreditation hours. It is entirely optional.

Two further pathways exist. Those who have already completed a spiritual direction training can pursue an Advanced Practice Certificate, which requires a separate application and a reflection paper on their formation as a director. Certified CEP graduates of Evolving Enneagram can earn Level II Certification by completing the program and its supervision.

About Evolving Enneagram

Evolving Enneagram was founded by Rev. Nhien Vuong, JD, MDiv, and treats the Enneagram as a map of inner awakening, not a system for labeling personality. Through silence, self-observation and discernment, students learn to use the map wisely and not reduce themselves to a type. The school's mission is to nurture inner awakening through contemplative practice and radical hospitality.

Before You Go

The program is interspiritual and welcoming to people of any faith tradition or none, including those who are deconstructing, reconstructing, spiritual but not religious, contemplative or mystical. Applications are required. The program is entirely online, so there is no residential retreat, and meals and accommodation do not apply. Individual therapy or personal counseling is not part of it.