ABOUT ME

I’m Jess Uhler, a Tacoma based spiritual director/ companion, photographer, writer, contemplative, cold-water-swimmer. Finding the sacred in the everyday is a theme in all my offerings (and life). I desire to live an intentional life and find balance and sacred connection in the midst of it all. Exploring contemplative, creative and embodied spiritual practices is life-giving to me and I’m always searching for wonder and the transcendent in the midst of the quotidian.

In my free time I love to lift weights, decorate and renovate our 125 year-old house, garden, cook nourishing food, travel, read, swim in the Salish sea, run, and hang out with my family. Laughing with my adult kids is one of my favorite things in the world. My two dogs- a 14 year-old Labradoodle and a 4 year-old Frenchie also make me laugh everyday.

MY STORY:

My own spiritual path through culturally “evangelical” faith spaces brought me to a place of feeling burnt- out and overburdened, emphasizing a more binary, intellectual, masculine way of understanding God, and certainty over Mystery. I longed for a more experiential, formative, expansive way of interacting with God, beyond the focus on belief or dogma. I longed for deeper practices, not just deeper “belief”.

Contemplative practices and the Christian mystical tradition gave me a lifeline back to faith, a way for my whole self and creativity to be a part of my spiritual life, an embodied way toward the heart of God, so I can move outward in love to the world, not driven by guilt or striving or performance, but already fully loved and always in the presence of The Holy One who loves me.

As I heal and grow in my union with God, I deeply desire to help others find ways of integrating body, mind and spirit in their spiritual journey, to discover the sacredness and the story of God in their lives, to deepen their spiritual awareness and the Loving Presence of the Holy.

My practice and faith are rooted in the Christian story, but I believe we are all on a path of grace and that God is whispering to you wherever you are on your spiritual journey. You are welcome here.

“YOU DO NOT COME TO KNOW THE TRUTH. YOU COME TO BE KNOWN BY THE TRUTH ”

— Tripp Fuller

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
excerpted from Hearts on Fire

I’d be honored to walk alongside you, to help you deepen your experience of the Divine and become more aware of your communion with God and your own spirit. Work with me to cultivate your spiritual journey and become more attentive to God’s presence and invitations in your life.

WORK WITH ME

TESTIMONIALS

“From our first meeting last fall till now, I have gained confidence to be brave and do hard things; experienced peace that has given me the ability to fall asleep quickly after years of insomnia; learned to notice who I really am and to like myself; experienced the gift of the Holy Spirit working through me and loving me as I live my daily life and also as I do things out of the ordinary; and, I have learned to remember that God loves me just as I am.”
— K.R.
“This experience was genuinely far beyond what I expected and truly brought deep spiritual change within me.”

— Kelly
“I went into spiritual direction thinking it would be just another person to help me verbally process, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was so much more than that–and that Jess’ particular expertise with holistic awareness helped me make better sense of what I wanted to say verbally.”
— A.R.
I came in thinking there might be something wrong with my connection with God, and I was so grateful to Jess for showing me that God is still so present in my life even if that looks different than it used to. - A

WHAT TO EXPECT?

QUIET

We often being with time to settle and still ourselves, becoming aware of our bodies and God’s presence in this present moment
Reflect

I may offer a poem or reading to begin with, or you may feel led to bring up a current issue, struggle, or noticing
LISTEN

Rooted in listening and curiosity, reflection and questions will help guide our time through discovering and opening to God’s presence