Dr. Karen Shields Wright
In the Ignatian Tradition
Accompanying Catholics in Discipleship & Leadership
Consulting
Individualized accompaniment for one discerning significant decisions involving career, leadership, vocation, retirement, or life transitions.
Ignatian discernment encourages attentiveness to the movements of the Holy Spirit, greater interior freedom, and thoughtful consideration of the moral and social dimensions of one's choices in light of Catholic social teachings.
Group Retreats
and
Self-Directed Individual Retreats
Following the Liturgical Year
Individually Directed
The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius is a school of prayer in which we progress toward living more intimately and consistently in the mystery of Christ’s love for us by coming to know who He is through His humanity and divinity.
It is a journey of conversion with experience that unfolds and emerges as we grow in the capacity to bear more grace (Sr. Janet Ruffing) and to be filled more with God. In this journey of transformation, we are gifted within this developmental mystical experience as the Spirit takes us to the next step of ongoing, successive transformations; nothing is ever the same again.
Spiritual Direction
It "addresses what is in one’s daily life as one prays their way through life’s complex decisions and interpretations of their spiritual experiences in those everyday life circumstances." Fr. Joseph Tetlow, SJ
Individual spiritual direction for attending to one's relationship with God, prayer, interior movements, and continuing spiritual formation
Education
Ongoing formation for leaders and professionals seeking to live their vocation with greater knowledge, freedom, and purpose.
About
My approach to spiritual accompaniment integrates Catholic spirituality, Ignatian discernment, and the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine across personal, professional, and vocational dimensions. I have worked with Catholic lay leaders in business, the professions, healthcare, and those in religious life, supporting their discernment of seeking God's will in their everyday decisions and responsibilities.
My services supporting specific projects for discernment , offering the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in EveryDayLife (SEEL), and ongoing spiritual direction. I have maintained a private practice in spiritual direction since 2003, offering virtual accompaniment since 2011. I have also served at Fairfield University's Murphy Center for Ignatian Spirituality since 2017.
As a retired chiropractic physician and former hospital chaplain, I bring clinical experience and CME studies in neuroscience, psychology, and spiritual theology to my understanding of the human person as an integrated whole, a unity of body, mind, and soul, who is created in the image and likeness of God.
My background in Catholic Social Doctrine includes leadership and teaching with CAPP-USA .org and its graduate-level Catholic Social Teaching Certificate Program, co-sponsored with The Catholic University of America. Dr. Karen is a Dame in the Order of Malta American Association since 2010.
Dr. Karen Shields Wright, MS, DC, DM