Hello, I'm Jon Gottsegen.

Hello​,​ I'm Jon​,​ a certified Spiritual Director and Forest Bathing guide. I've trained in guiding people to connect to spirit in nature​,​ including guiding multi-day solo vision fasts in the wilderness​,​ and have a Wilderness First Responder certification. My tradition of birth is Judaism​,​ and I have been involved in leading creative prayer and spiritual engagement for many years in that tradition and elsewhere. Of course​,​ I bring that into our spiritual work together​,​ and I bring a variety of other experience and practices to my spiritual companionship​,​ including deep work in men's groups and earth-based practices. It also includes a long career in information systems​,​ which I am winding down now. I have wrestled with the seeming separation between a "mundane" work life and spiritual pursuits and can speak to those tensions. Most of all I bring deep listening​,​ joy and love to this work. I was in my 30s when I discovered the depth of beauty and joy in my tradition. I remember thinking​,​ "So this is what spiritual practice is about. Now I get it." I like to say that our spiritual practice should help us to fall more in love. In love with Spirit​,​ with the world (as hard as it can be) and ourselves. One of my passions is spirituality in the wild. I feel the Wild gets a bum rap in spirituality sometimes​,​ and it is important to reconnect with our wild indigeneity to the earth. There is a particular kind of listening that occurs when opening to Mother Earth. I call my work Earth-Based Spiritual Direction. You can read more about this in the "Why Nature" page on my web site. One thing I take very seriously is….we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously​,​ and our psalms say Serve G!d in joy! I work with all faiths and really enjoy seeing how others' spiritual traditions inform their connection with the Divine.