Join me at Hamilpalooza!

I’m excited to be part of Hamilpalooza, Hamilton’s celebration of local creativity, community, and connection! On Saturday, August 23 from 12 PM–6 PM at Marcum Park, you’ll find me at the Listening Heart booth.

Stop by to:

  • Walk a finger labyrinth and experience its calming, centering effect
  • Pick up a word stone or prompt card to inspire your day
  • Learn about SoulCollage®, spiritual direction, and other offerings from Listening Heart
  • Enjoy a welcoming space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with yourself

Whether you’re curious about contemplative practices or just want a quiet moment amid the festivities, I’d love to meet you and share what Listening Heart is all about.

See you at Hamilpalooza!

A Visual Language for the Inner Journey: Reclaiming Soulful Self-Care Through SoulCollage®

Dear Helping Professionals
As helping professionals—therapists, caregivers, clergy, spiritual directors—we are often the ones others turn to for guidance, comfort, and strength. We hold space, offer wisdom, and extend compassion. But where do we go when we need to reconnect with our own center? How do we nourish our inner life so we can continue serving with integrity, presence, and heart?

One answer is found in a simple yet profound practice: SoulCollage®.

SoulCollage® is a creative and intuitive process that invites you to explore the many layers of your identity, your inner voices, and your spiritual journey—all through imagery. Using found pictures, scissors, glue, and blank cards, you create a visual representation of your inner world. But these cards aren’t just art—they become mirrors, guides, and companions on your path.

This practice offers what so many of us long for: a sacred pause. A chance to step away from the roles we play and the expectations we carry, and instead listen to the quiet wisdom within. For those in the helping professions, this kind of self-reflection isn’t just nice—it’s necessary.

SoulCollage® came across my path shortly after I completed spiritual direction training. It continues to be a source for introspection, healing and even prayer.

Why It Matters for Helpers

When we give to others constantly, it’s easy to lose touch with parts of ourselves that also need care. SoulCollage® helps you:

  • Name and honor your inner parts—the tired one, the wise one, the fearful one, the joyful one.
  • Access intuitive insight when logic or words fall short.
  • Engage the soul in a playful, non-performance-based way that is both grounding and freeing.
  • Reconnect with the sacred in a way that is personal, imaginative, and alive.

SoulCollage® doesn’t require artistic skill. It simply asks for your presence and your openness. As you create and reflect on your cards, you begin to develop a personal deck—each one a voice or symbol from your inner landscape. Over time, your deck becomes a living archive of your journey, one you can return to for guidance and renewal.

A Tool for Ongoing Support

Many helpers find SoulCollage® to be a sustaining spiritual practice—one that grows with them. I have. I return to it again and again for insight, support and healing. I have taken my SoulCollage® cards into my own spiritual direction sessions and discovered deeper insights. It can be a monthly ritual, a tool for discernment, or a gentle form of prayer or meditation. It’s especially powerful in seasons of transition, fatigue, or when your soul is asking for something deeper.

In a world that moves fast and demands much, SoulCollage® invites you to slow down, listen, and create. It gives voice to what’s been silenced, and helps you find language for what your soul has known all along.

If you’re longing for a self-care practice that nourishes your spirit and helps you stay connected to your authentic self, SoulCollage® may be the gentle companion you didn’t know you needed.

Contact me to learn more or sign up for one of my workshops or events.

Blessings ~ Christy

Five Gentle Benefits of Spiritual Direction

At Listening Heart, we hold space for the sacred whispers of your soul.

In a world that often prizes speed, productivity, and certainty, spiritual direction offers something beautifully different: a space to slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with the Sacred. Whether you’re rooted in a particular tradition or exploring your spirituality in a more personal way, spiritual direction can offer meaningful support on your journey.

Here are five gentle but powerful benefits of engaging in spiritual direction:

1. A Deeper Connection with the Sacred

Spiritual direction invites you to listen for the presence of the Divine in your everyday life. Through quiet reflection and sacred conversation, you may come to see more clearly how Spirit is moving—in your longings, in your questions, even in your struggles.

2. Clarity in Times of Transition

Life brings moments of change, grief, or decision that can leave us feeling unmoored. Spiritual direction offers a safe, grounded space to explore these crossroads with honesty and compassion. Through prayerful discernment or mindfulness practice, new clarity and direction can emerge.

3. A Practice of Stillness and Awareness

Spiritual direction encourages you to pause and turn inward. As you practice noticing your inner landscape—your thoughts, emotions, and stirrings of the soul—you may begin to recognize the gentle invitations of grace hidden in the everyday.

4. Being Truly Heard and Accompanied

There’s something profoundly healing about being listened to with care and without judgment. A spiritual director offers compassionate presence, helping you hear your own inner wisdom more clearly. You are not alone on the path.

5. Living the Sacred in Daily Life

One of the greatest gifts of spiritual direction is learning to see the sacred not just in special moments, but in the ordinary rhythms of life. Whether you’re washing dishes, walking the dog, or facing a difficult day—your life becomes the place where the Sacred is found.

Spiritual direction isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about being lovingly accompanied as you listen for the ones already within you. If you’re feeling the nudge toward deeper reflection, connection, or clarity, spiritual direction may be a meaningful next step.

Contact me to schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation.

Blessings ~ Christy

Walking—or Engaging With—the Labyrinth: A Path to Presence and Peace

In the quiet presence of a labyrinth, the noise of the world begins to soften. Whether we walk its winding path with our feet, trace it gently with a finger, or sit beside it in contemplative stillness, the labyrinth invites us to return to ourselves. It’s not about how we move through it—it’s about being open to what it reveals.

As a Veriditas-certified labyrinth facilitator, I hold space for many ways of engaging with the labyrinth, honoring each person’s body, rhythm, and experience. Whether you are walking, sitting, tracing, visualizing, or simply breathing with intention, the labyrinth meets you where you are.

Why Engage With the Labyrinth?

Cultivate Presence: The labyrinth offers a sacred pause—a way to shift out of the mental busyness and into grounded awareness, no matter how you experience it.

Find Clarity: Whether you’re navigating a life transition or simply seeking stillness, the labyrinth can open the door to deeper listening and inner wisdom.

Gently Release, Gently Renew: Engaging with the labyrinth—whether by walking or using a finger labyrinth—can be a meditative ritual of letting go, making space, and receiving what is ready to emerge.

What is a Finger Labyrinth?

A finger labyrinth is a handheld or printed version of the full-size labyrinth. Instead of walking, you trace the path slowly with your finger, following it into the center and back out again. It offers the same invitation to slow down, reflect, and connect—especially useful for those who prefer stillness or have mobility challenges.

Finger labyrinths are deeply portable, intuitive, and accessible. They can be used as part of a daily spiritual practice, during prayer or meditation, or whenever you need a few moments of quiet reconnection.

An Invitation to Experience the Labyrinth, Your Way

I offer inclusive workshops that welcome everyone—whether you walk a labyrinth with your body or explore it through your fingertips, imagination, or presence. Each session is designed to support your unique way of engaging with the practice, in a safe and spacious environment.

If you’re curious about experiencing the labyrinth—through movement, mindfulness, or a finger labyrinth—I’d love to guide you.

Click here to schedule a workshop or get in touch. Let’s Connect – Listening Heart

May your journey inward be gentle and spacious—and just right for you.

Blessings ~ Christy

Using SoulCollage® Cards as Prayer: Deepening Your Practice Through Sacred Dialogue

As seasoned SoulCollagers, you’ve likely experienced the magic of hearing your cards speak, guiding you through moments of insight, healing, and self-discovery. But have you ever considered using your deck as a tool for prayer?

Beyond its roots in personal growth, the SoulCollage® process offers a deeply creative and intuitive entry into immersing into the sacred. Prayer, when reimagined through the lens of SoulCollage®, becomes less about scripted words and more about listening, witnessing, and allowing the Divine to meet you in image, silence, and presence.

Letting the Cards Lead You into Prayer
You already know how powerful a card reading can be. The same intuitive process can be used to open a dialogue with the Sacred—whether you name that Source as God, Spirit, the Universe, or your own Inner Wisdom. SoulCollage® becomes a threshold space where your personal symbols meet the infinite, and where prayer becomes not something you say, but something you experience.
Here are some ways to begin integrating your cards into a regular (or spontaneous) prayer practice:

1. Create a Prayer Deck or Mini-Stack
Look through your cards and pull out the ones that feel imbued with spiritual energy. These might represent divine archetypes, ancestors, guides, animals, or parts of you that show up in times of deep faith, trust, or surrender. You can also include cards that reflect longing, grief, or uncertainty—anything you want to bring into your sacred space.
This smaller, curated stack can become your “prayer deck”—a collection of cards you turn to regularly for spiritual dialogue or inspiration. Rotate it seasonally or intuitively based on what your soul needs.

2. Use Cards as Prayer Prompts
Choose one card at a time and let it guide your prayer. Here are a few prompts to help you enter into conversation:

  • “I am one who…”: Begin with the classic SoulCollage® exercise, then transition to asking the card what it needs from you—or what it wants you to know in the presence of the Divine.
  • “Show me where You are in this image”: Invite God/Spirit to speak through the card. What part of the image feels most alive with sacred energy? 
  • “Teach me to pray through this image.”: Let the card itself model a new kind of prayer. Does it invite you to be still? To sing? To weep? To act?

Over time, you may notice that your cards begin to function like visual psalms—each one holding its own rhythm, voice, and prayer.

3. Create a Visual Prayer Practice
Lay out a few cards and treat them like a prayer mandala. Arrange them in a circle, cross, or any configuration that feels meaningful. Light a candle. Breathe. Let each card become a window or door through which you encounter something holy.
Some SoulCollagers create ritual around this—pulling a “daily prayer card” each morning and sitting with it in silence or journaling a few words in response. Others might draw a card during difficult moments and hold it in meditation, allowing the image to hold space for unspoken prayers.

4. Build an Altar of Living Images
Your SoulCollage® cards can form the heart of a rotating altar. These are images you created—infused with your energy, your questions, your longing. Arrange a few cards in a sacred space in your home and visit them regularly.

  • Swap out cards weekly, during the moon cycle or during liturgical seasons.
  • Create altars for grief, gratitude, healing, discernment, or celebration.
  • Let your cards serve as visual mantras or silent companions during prayer.
  • Even just glancing at them as you pass by can become a quiet moment of reconnection.

5. Write Your Own Prayers Through the Cards
After working with a card, write a prayer in its voice. Or write a prayer to the card. This could take the form of a poem, a letter, or a stream-of-consciousness plea. Consider these prompts:

  • “Beloved, help me to embody the courage of this card.”
  • “May I see through the eyes of this guide.”
  • “I offer this prayer on behalf of the part of me this card holds.”

Let the boundaries between you, the card, and Spirit dissolve. The result may be surprising and deeply moving.

Reclaiming Prayer as Sacred Creativity
Using SoulCollage® cards for prayer isn’t about doing it “right.” It’s about bringing your full, authentic self—your imagery, your intuition, your longing—into conversation with the Divine and being fully present.

For those of us who sometimes struggle with traditional prayer forms, this visual, embodied practice offers a profound and personal way to enter sacred space.

Prayer, in this context, becomes less a monologue and more a listening, more presence. Less striving, more being.

So next time you’re drawn to your deck, pause. Let it be more than a reading. Let it be a prayer.

Blessings ~ Christy