The purpose of peer group supervision is to develop the directing skills of the directors within the peer group. We are interested, not so much in the case being presented, but rather, what is going on right here in this room at this time. Our emphasis is on these people and what they say to each other. Peer group is a fine opportunity for ongoing education among spiritual directors and directors of the retreat. It gives them an opportunity to have some kind of reality check on themselves so that they do not become a kind of private guru. In addition one checks out his or her own communication skills, decisions about some of the things that they have been doing in the directing situation with other good directors who also have experience.

          I have found that peer group is an opportunity to sharpen some of my awareness about my own thoughts and feelings, about communication patterns that I have, and my own way of going about directing. I have found it helpful to gather together four or five good directors to discuss aspects of direction, hearing what different people would do about specific directing situations. It is helpful for the other people in the group to get a wider range or wider perspective on what is going on within themselves as they direct. 

          Peer group helps me become clearer about the way I speak with people in the interview situation, giving me a chance to own my own thoughts, my own feelings, helping me to be up front and direct. When I intervene during the retreat interview, that intervention should be crisp, and have the possibility of bringing the conversation one step further from where it is.

          We assume that the people coming to peer group have directing experiences. For instance, a woman director who has not had the opportunity of dealing with many men, might be able to get some experience in peer group. A clergy person who has not been dealing with religious women, or a religious woman who has not been directing lay men or clergy, can be helped to learn how to deal with them in the peer group setting. Peer group is a good opportunity to experience familiar diads and to learn something about one's own communication patterns so that when one goes into the real directing situation, one is neither intimidated by the directee nor patronizing towards them. 

          One can approach peer group from many different levels. I have often asked the people who are attending peer group with me to decide what issue or what pattern of communication they want to learn. For instance, one might come to peer group and decide that today I am going to be particularly aware of how all of the interventions in the peer group have something to do with the Spiritual Exercises. Thus, in one sense I put on my spiritual director's cap and my Spiritual Exercises cap and I listen to all of the conversation from that particular point of view. On the other hand, it may be that someone wants to look at things from the point of view of how Teresa of Avila would name it, using the Seven Mansions, or I might look for the matrix of the dark nights of St. John of the Cross. 

          On another occasion I might decide that I do not want to use a spiritual matrix, but rather I would use a psychological matrix. I might be listening, for instance, for enneagram perspectives or I might be trying to hear something about the Myers- Briggs or Jungian psychological type. On still another occasion, I might want to heighten my awareness of how people use metaphors. What kind of images are they operating under as they go through the interview?

          There are many different opportunities here. Whether I am looking at learning styles, thinking of audio words, or visual words, or kinesthetic words, the psychological perspective, the spiritual perspective, I choose one of those and I go to peer group with that particular focus in mind.

          There are certain assumptions that we have about peer group. The people who come to peer group are mature people. We assume that they have been acting as spiritual directors, and in that sense we are peers with each other as we come together and look at a case.

          Secondly, we are very careful about confidentiality. We have agreed with each other that we will not be speaking about this work together outside of the peer group. Even within the peer group we are going to make an effort not to present the case in such a way that other people within the peer group will know either the subject of the case or the actual circumstance.

          A third assumption is that we are all here to grow. No one comes out of peer group without learning something. It is that kind of "what am I going to learn today" that becomes a necessary attitude as I enter into a session.

          Lastly, we agree with each other that we are going to work within a particular time-frame. A time-frame that we have found useful is the two hour period. During this block of time a group can usually hear two or three cases and have time for reflection on the learnings.

          With these assumptions in mind I want to say something about making an intervention. We know that grace is the most important reality in the directing situation or the retreat; but I am willing to say that "how to make an intervention" comes right after grace. It might be second only to grace. How I make an intervention helps me set up the atmosphere of the directing situation so that the other person can feel free, get a hold of his or her experience and issues, and be able to work with them in my presence. When I make an intervention, I am always trying to say to myself, "What can I say that will let this other person know that I heard him or her and at the same time what can I say that will carry this process one step further?"

          A person might ask, what is this one step further? That is where knowing one of the spiritual matrices helps. If I know, for instance, in the Spiritual Exercises what is the material of the First Week, the Second Week, the Third Week and the Fourth Week, I can use that matrix as background for what I hear. For instance, the retreatant is telling me something that fits in the Second Week. Therefore, I need to make an intervention so that the person will move one step further in that Week's material. In my mind, then, I am moving the person through the Second Week and moving them toward Third Week material, presuming it is appropriate. This principle of moving forward according to the broad schema of the Spiritual Exercises would apply no matter where a person began.

          Making facilitative interventions is part of the art and skill of spiritual direction. When the interventions are done well, the atmosphere that is created in the interview with the director puts the retreatant at ease and allows him or her to explore the thoughts and feelings, the spontaneous movements of affectivity, that have arisen during prayer. The interview is held in a non-defensive, simple, human way.

          These skills require a certain amount of practice and discipline on the part of the director, but they help to facilitate a good interview within the retreat situation that allows "the Creator to deal directly with the creature."