Spiritual Growth Through Coaching
Spiritual coaching can be difficult to define. In fact, even giving it its own category might seem to separate spirituality from the rest of life. But I don’t see it that way. Like Rob Bell writes in his book Everything Is Spiritual, I believe spirituality infuses everything. It’s not a separate compartment—it’s the undercurrent of all we do and are.
We may not be able to hold spirituality in our hands or see it with our eyes, but that doesn’t make it any less real. We can't grasp the wind, but we can feel its movement. In the same way, we experience love, joy, purpose, and meaning—intangible, yet undeniably vital to a whole and thriving life.
What Is Spiritual Coaching?
Spiritual coaching is a holistic form of guidance that helps individuals explore and deepen their spiritual awareness and growth. While other types of coaching may focus on goals, habits, or relationships, spiritual coaching helps connect people with their inner life—values, beliefs, purpose, and the often-unspoken questions that shape their decisions.
It may include practices such as mindfulness, meditation, journaling, silence, or spiritual reflection—tools that help bring greater awareness and alignment between one’s internal convictions and external life.
More than anything, spiritual coaching offers space to ask deep questions:
What really matters to me?
Where do I find meaning?
What is shaping my choices at the deepest level?
Who am I becoming?
The goal isn’t to prescribe a particular belief system but to help you uncover and live more fully into the truth that resonates with your unique journey. Whether you draw from a religious tradition, a philosophical worldview, or a personal sense of the sacred, spiritual coaching honors and supports that process.
The Role of Spiritual Coaching in Real Life
To see how this works in practice, consider a situation where someone is navigating a painful relationship with a parent who caused harm. A relational coach might focus on boundaries and communication; a mental health coach might work with the emotional aftermath—grief, anger, anxiety. But spiritual coaching offers a different kind of lens.
It helps people explore the underlying forces shaping their choices—like the pull to stay connected to family out of a sense of spiritual obligation, identity, or forgiveness. These unseen motivations may come from religious teachings, deep-seated values, or a personal belief in redemption or reconciliation.
In situations like this, spiritual coaching can be a path to clarity, compassion, and inner alignment—helping a person discern what is truly theirs to carry, and what is not.
A Spiritual Path Toward Purpose
Spiritual coaching also helps people explore calling and direction in their lives. I once worked with a client who managed a stock portfolio but began sensing a pull toward something entirely different—coaching youth soccer. As we explored this shift, it became clear that a childhood coach had played a pivotal role in their life, offering hope and encouragement when no one else did. That memory had quietly shaped a desire to give back in the same way.
This is the kind of discovery that spiritual coaching helps uncover. Often, our deepest sense of purpose is hidden in the places where we’ve experienced pain or transformation. Meaning emerges not just from what we do, but from why we do it—and that “why” is often spiritual at its core.
Final Thoughts
Spiritual coaching is not about arriving at all the answers. It’s about making space for the questions that shape your soul. It’s about becoming more aligned, more aware, and more alive to the unseen forces that give your life meaning.
You don’t need to be “religious” to explore the spiritual dimensions of your life. You just need a willingness to be curious, reflective, and open to growth.
