Erin Matteson completed training as a spiritual director through the Art and Practice of Spiritual Direction program at Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA in May of 2016. She has been working as a spiritual director and retreat facilitator since. She had practiced the art of spiritual formation and spiritual leadership prior as a pastor for nearly twenty-five years, after completing a Master of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary in 1993 and being ordained in the Church of the Brethren that fall. Erin is also a musician, having a Bachelor’s of Music degree in vocal performance from Millikin University (1988). She completed Joyce Rupps’, Institute of Compassionate Presence (now Boundless Compassion), training in 2012, and Joyce’s facilitator training for Boundless Compassion work fall of 2018. She currently serves as a Boundless Compassion Facilitator. (See boundlesscompassion.org for more information.) In 2021 Erin completed a week long training on Supervision of Spiritual Directors at Mercy Center in Burlingame.
Erin believes the human experience and all creation contains the presence and activity of the Sacred. She loves working with individuals and small groups sifting through the soil or walking through the garden of their lives to discover it there. Erin does spiritual direction one on one, has led group spiritual direction and contemplative experiences on a number of topics, evening/morning events and weekend retreats on particular themes, labyrinth walks for groups, and enjoys crafting new spiritual explorations. She also works with The Bread of Life Center out of Sacramento, CA training spiritual directors, and is available to be a supervisor to spiritual directors.
Erin is always seeking to deepen her sense of the Sacred, self, the world, and the interconnectedness of all through savoring various books and writings, poetry, the experience of silence, running, gardening, watching the Chicago Cubs play baseball and more. Some of her favorite writers are Joyce Rupp, Gunilla Norris, John Philip Newell, Richard Rohr, Resmaa Menakem, Valerie Kaur, Tara Brach, Ibram Kendi, Bell Hooks, Brené Brown, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Howard Thurman … She is currently reading: Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation by Cindy S. Lee