NICKY TEMPLE | SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
About Me
NICKY TEMPLE | SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
My journey
My own spiritual journey began some 33 years ago, at the age of 18, when I awakened to a love for the Trinity. I was immersed in a charismatic world of worship, prayer, Holy Spirit and life! This church world was my home for a long time, both as an attendee and in various forms of leadership.
A decade ago, I took a fork in the road, being drawn towards a contemplative spirituality in which stillness, silence, centering prayer and being in nature are highly valued, with more liturgically focussed practices. My faith has become more integrated into the here and now, and the line between sacred and spiritual has disappeared – for me wild swimming, eating with friends and cuddling our Yellow Labrador are as spiritual as reading the Bible or meditating.
The Trinity have remained constant throughout my journey, even though who they are to me has deepened – they are so much MORE than I ever thought possible. I am a mystic at heart and intentionally walk this path, gaining more understanding of the depths of a mystics road as I travel. I frequent places of unfamiliarity and mystery knowing that they contain great gift. As part of this journey, God has many names which I discover to be liberating and which offer me great richness, safety, comfort and belonging.
NICKY TEMPLE | SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
I love connecting
I’m an introvert and a pretty healthy four on the enneagram. I value space, quiet and solitude but I also love meaningful connection with people, which means that friendship is hugely important. Creativity is a big part of my life – including writing, poetry, painting, fibre arts – and it’s a thread that runs through everything I am and do.
I absolutely love my husband Mike and our life together. We didn’t get to have children of our own, which is one of my most painful experiences, but I do treasure my relationship with my step-daughter and her husband, and am now Ammy (Grandma) to a gorgeous little girl. I have lived for many years with a Mother shaped hole inside, but am beginning to realise that mothering comes in so many forms and that I can and do offer it in many ways outside of raising children.
During the last decade, Mike and I have had a more transient life. We travelled in Europe and North America, and for some time were without a home to call our own. Most recently, we had four wonderful years living in Eastern Canada, before moving back to the UK and settling in Devon two years ago. I’m accustomed to living in liminal space, with the unknown and the unfamiliar. It’s a path that invites constant trust, letting go, letting be in a never-ending cycle. I’ve grown to love this unknown path and the immense treasure it contains. Trust comes more easily now, living in the moment is an ever-increasing though step-by-step reality. Although life is simple and there are still places of pain, I am more content than ever.
NICKY TEMPLE | SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Your companion
I’m a nature and animal lover, a friend of trees and the sea. I’m a walker, a connector, a creator, a writer and a lover of people. My greatest joys are warm spring days sitting in the sun with a cuppa, walking with my husband and Moth the dog chatting about anything or not chatting at all, doing the same with good friends, eating and snuggling in front of a fire with warm socks on, a blanket and a good book. I am surrendered to the journey of life and find joy now in the small everyday things that are loaded with the goodness of God. I remember everyday how blessed I am to be held in the great and unknowable love of the Trinity and how they sustain my every breath. I’m broken, whole, messy and glorious and it’s all okay.
My formal training as a spiritual director was with The Sustainable Faith School of Spiritual Direction in Amsterdam, and I have accompanied others on their spiritual journey for over 25 years, through many different seasons, struggles and suffering in their lives. I have also had many years of experience working with the body as a Pilates Instructor, Health Coach and Personal Trainer. I am also gaining more training and experience in working with the body as a gateway to deeper healing, freedom and transformation with a focus on trauma and how it’s carried within the body.
It is my delight to listen to and really hear the hearts of those with whom I journey, and I would love to be a friend on your journey. It would be my honour to accompany you and offer what I have in whatever ways you need it, to walk into the darkness and the light, through the sunsets and sunrises, and to discover together who God is for you and the true you that is waiting to emerge more and more fully.
