Hi, I’m Lauren.

I have always loved story. I've been an avid reader and an active listener since childhood, but I followed a wandering path before I discovered how to use those loves in my work. I studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (where I fell in love with both the city and a fellow engineering student, Nick Burdette), and worked as a management consultant for several years. After Nick and I married, we moved to Birmingham, England, which was an amazing adventure. While there, I worked as an operations manager for a design and digital firm, applying lean business practices within a creative culture. 

I enjoyed that work, but it never felt completely "me." After we moved back, I continued to consult while working on a novel, honoring my long-held dream of writing. Yet something was still missing. A few months after my first child was born, I prayed every day, "Lord, what else am I meant to do?" Even in the midst of motherhood, the most consuming thing I'd ever done, I knew there was more to my call. In the quiet of my wondering, I heard the words "spiritual direction." Within weeks I had applied to a training program (through Pneuma Institute), and I never looked back. 

Spiritual direction is the work to which I can bring all of me - my deepest gifts of listening, curiosity, and interior hospitality; my deepest passions to simply be with another, to hear their story and enter their pain, and my desire to know Jesus better and to dwell in the mystery of God. It is an unbelievable privilege to do this work.

It's also an unbelievable privilege to be the mother of my three children, Declan, Ronan, and Healy.