WELCOME
My name is Mickie, Wing Yin Yau
I'm a trained psychotherapist and spiritual director
Hope this website provides you some helpful information about my services
BA; MDiv; MA (Family Counselling & Family Edu); MA (Spiritual Direction); Grad Cert (Supervision); Advanced Clinical Training Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy; PhD.
About Me
Born in Hong Kong, I developed a love for solitude and reflection in my youth. During university study I was inspired to pursue pastoral work. My training in Hong Kong and overseas has included theology, counselling, family therapy, spiritual direction (Ignatian tradition), Gestalt therapy, clinical pastoral care and ministry supervision. Some years ago, I spent several months in the Taizé community in France and the Grandchamp community in Switzerland as a volunteer, and a year in the Community of Holy Name in Australia as an 'alongsider'. I now serve as an ecumenical Christian. In addition to providing psychotherapy and spiritual direction services, I also lead retreat or spirituality workshops in retreat centres and parishes in Asia and Australia. I also serve as a guest lecturer for counselling programs or spiritual direction at several theological colleges, providing supervision to students in formation and spiritual directors.
Being able to meet and journey with people from diverse backgrounds across different cultures fills me with a sense of blessing and continuously expands my experience of life.
Services
Here is a brief description of my services. For detailed introduction, please refer to information below.
Psychotherapy
I offer short-term to long-term therapy to those who considered themselves needing a safe, compassionate, and non-judgemental space to talk about what bothers them in life, so their wellbeing and life-satisfaction could be improved. My hope is that this service will provide you with care and support and help you find the resources you need.
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Spiritual Direction
The process of spiritual direction is similar to counselling, but the conversation is focussed on your spiritual experience, and how to nurture your relationship with the spiritual 'other' that you identify with.
Group/ Workshops
The more one knows oneself, the more one knows God. Self-knowledge, healing, learning, reflection, and integration are lifelong journeys. Through connection with others, one comes to know oneself in relationships and then explores how to share one's unique personal grace with the community.
THERAPY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED RELGIOUS OR SPIRITUAL TRAUMA (60 mins session)
Religious and spiritual exploration aims to help people find meaning and transcendence in life. Many people find that learning and practice through participation in religious and spiritual groups can bring spiritual benefit as they meet with like-minded individuals and exchange ideas and insights. However, some may also experience physical, mental, spiritual, and social trauma because of such involvement.
Over the past years, I conducted a doctoral research study on the exercise of power in spiritual direction services and focused on the interactions between the individuals, communities, circumstances, and cultures that for the complex weave of service activity. I am a trained psychotherapist and spiritual director but I too have personally experienced severe trauma and can empathize with those who have been hurt, who may sometimes lack support and protection for religious and spiritual reasons. They may even be subjected to control, humiliation, and serious life-threatening situations. Due to force of circumstance, some may remain silent about their traumatic experiences, continuing to face life within the shadow of trauma.
This counselling aims to facilitate healing by helping individuals express their personal experiences in a safe, non-judgemental space. I fully respect each client's relationship with any community related to their traumatic experience and will not presuppose or control their choices. It also will not involve religious or spiritual development dimensions unless, after a period of exploration, consultation and evaluation, both of us deem it suitable to transition the relationship to spiritual direction.
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION / SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE (60 mins session)
A key difference between humans and other living beings lies in the capacity for self-awareness and reflection. Human existence is not merely about fulfilling material needs; we seek to understand the meaning of being created and to discern the value of our lives, while simultaneously possessing the capacity to confront the limitations and suffering that are inherent to our humanity. Historically, the development of different religions aimed to provide guidance on these issues.
Spiritual direction, or spiritual guidance, belongs to an ancient tradition with an informal form that is expressed through an apprenticeship within different religious systems. Particularly in the Christian tradition, some will actively seek out a guide they feel can assist in providing such guidance. Such guides include early desert fathers/mothers, hermits, monks, nuns, or clergy.
Contemporary spiritual direction has been influenced by the model of professional counselling services and has gradually developed into an independent service where the arrangements are not necessarily aligned with traditional religious organizations. Whether and how a spiritual director provides guidance according to a particular religion, denomination, or spiritual tradition is a personal choice. Therefore, those seeking guidance can also seek helpful guidance based on their own beliefs and needs.
According to the definition of Spiritual Directors International: The spiritual director (or spiritual companionship) inspires people to practice authenticity in their lives, connect with and explore the foundations of all existence, and explore the deepest truths beyond life and death. It has many names, including God, and some have no name at all.
The underlying belief behind spiritual guidance is that God, through unconditional love, desires to establish relationships with people. For various reasons some people cannot or do not participate in church gatherings, or perhaps have been marginalized from a community. They may have left the church due to harm from a faith group, or cannot agree with certain doctrines or rules of faith. However, they can also voluntarily choose to receive spiritual guidance by opening their hearts and allowing God to personally guide them on their life's journey.
MINISTRY SUPERVISION (60 mins session)
Ministry supervision is designed for those who serve, including pastors, counsellors, spiritual directors, formators and chaplains. A common challenge within these areas of service is the constant giving of oneself coupled with a lack of self-care. In the West, regular supervision has become a professional requirement for ministers to ensure their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being and the quality and safety of their service. Supervision aims to provide a safe, confidential, supportive, and prayerful environment for sharing struggles, stresses, and interpersonal tensions in service. The role of a supervisor is not to evaluate the supervisee’s success or failure, but rather to accompany them in a relational alliance as they discover the resources needed for professional growth and thus enhance the integrity, inner freedom, and compassion required in the service relationship.
IGNATIAN RETREATS AND SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
St. Ignatius of Loyola was one of the 16th-century Catholic saints who left behind important spiritual resources. His important work, The Spiritual Exercises, is a manual for spiritual guides, compiling a series of prayer methods, scripture meditations, and thematic meditations according to Christian tradition and Ignatius' wisdom derived from personal spiritual reflections. Practitioners can follow these exercises in intensive retreats ranging from several to thirty days; some may also choose to complete the Spiritual Exercises in daily life over approximately forty weeks.
Jesuits William Barry and William Connolly described this traditional spiritual guidance:
…help given by one believer to another that enables the latter to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on the religious dimension of experience, i.e., that dimension of any experience that evokes the presence of the mysterious Other whom we call God.
(Adapted from The Practice of Spiritual Direction, 2009, p. 8-9)
Choosing to follow the Ignatius tradition in spiritual practice has the following characteristics:
• Paying attention to the dynamics of one's inner movements such as desires or emotional changes in daily life and prayer to discern the promptings of different spirits.
• Sometimes using memory, imagination, and senses for contemplative prayer.
• Encouraging direct communication and interaction with God, which Ignatius calls "colloquy."
• Aim to achieve inner freedom to live for the glory of God through the practice of "active indifference".
• Regularly meet with a spiritual director to share their prayers or life experiences; intensive retreats typically involve daily meetings, while praying the full Spiritual Exercises in daily life involve weekly meetings.