Meet Steph.

she/hers

I Am From…

Fields of golden wheat and farmers on the North Dakota plains
Urban sidewalks of concrete in Chicago and South Minneapolis
A Legion of Sports Enthusiasts
Hot yoga sweat and body healing
Public schools, even when it’s tough
A home full of young men and a funny English bulldog
George Floyd’s city
Lake Harriet’s walking path
Laughter, music, and dancing
A college romance still blooming
MBA classrooms and corporate culture
Connections and signs and relationships
Up North Cabins and loons calling
Tennis courts, then and now
Political interest and intrigue, God help me
Lone Peak and Big Sky, MT
Poetry and profanity (occasionally)
Fire and Enneagram 7 energy
Silence, listening, and naps
Disorders still rising up
Progressive Lutheran church youth work, small groups, and welcoming
Progressive Lutheran church disappointment, questioning, and wondering
God, Her Holy Spirit, Jesus, and all forms of love

Book your free consultation with Steph today!

Why The Listening Field?

In this noisy world, listening well to one another is a sacred gift. It’s a simple and profound way to say, “I love you. You matter. Your story is important.”

Spiritual Direction invites us to listen to more layers of the real story - God’s story alive in ours - a reminder of the love and light within. Our stories are tangled up with those of our ancestors and family systems. They are imperfect and may include historical trauma and pieces of our past that feel especially vulnerable. All of these stories are welcome in Spiritual Direction.

My heritage is born from the wheat fields in northern North Dakota where nature wields a lot of power. Our attention offered to one another could be disrupted by the primacy and urgency of attention to the land.


Attention for each other and attention for our location are both separate and related. When I close my eyes and picture the fields of North Dakota, they remind me of these primal calls to care and connect. The fields are listening - present, paying attention, and stretching on forever - just like our souls and like God’s love for us.

And so this practice is called The Listening Field, inspired by my family’s literal fields - their roots and harvest - and the proverbial listening space we need as human beings in this wild world. May it be an ode to the space you need to feel heard and whole.

All they really needed was someone to behold their lives with them, someone to hold their...chins so they could not look away until wisdom rose up inside of them to meet what they saw.  At best, my job was to say back what I heard them saying so they could hear it too, sometimes to offer a new name for what they beheld, or to place a frame around it.  – Barbara Brown Taylor

FAQs

    • Spiritual practice

    • Intentional work

    • Accompaniment and reflection

    • Sharing and listening

    • Tending the soul

    • Honoring the tension

    • Remembering who and whose we are

  • The simple answer…Anyone. All are Welcome.

    The more nuanced answer…Spiritual Direction is for those yearning for a deeper sense of self and a more robust relationship with God. In Spiritual Direction, we speak about God in ways that you sense a higher power at work in your life. This practice does not come with an institutional doctrine or rubric for exploration. We begin together in what feels true and holy to you.

  • Spiritual Direction always happens in a place of safety. We can meet at my south Minneapolis office, on a walk around a lake, meandering through an art museum, at a yoga studio following class, or using a digital format like Zoom. You choose the setting that suits your needs and sessions are typically 60 minutes in length.

  • Steph received her Spiritual Direction Certification from Christos Retreat Center in May 2023.