Avalon Counseling - William T. Ryan, Therapist

"Healing the Wounds of the Soul,
Bridging the Transitions to Deeper Life in the Divine."

I am retired from active involvement in providing professional counseling and spiritual direction services here in Salem, Oregon. In its place I am committed to offering support to individuals who are seeking to establish a daily practice in Prayer of the Heart or Hesychastic Meditation in the Christian tradition. I also offer support in other forms of heart meditation for those who have no sectarian identification. I do this not as a formal professional service, but without cost as a form of soul-friending in the Celtic tradition of Anam Cara, or as an expression of spiritual hospitality in the tradition of Benedictine monasticism. I also offer teaching and reflection materials on page two of this site for for those who are committed to this way of life. In my personal life and practice I am devoted to a hermit life of meditation and interior transformation of soul and the daily disciplines of lay monasticism. I am pleased to offer support and encouragement for those who seek to do likewise.

I am committed to the contemplative awakening of humankind as the essential need of all, personally and globally. Mahatma Gandhi said if one percent of humans meditate, humankind will be transformed. We live in a time of world crisis when the healing of the soul of humankind is vital. Only a unitive awakening of the human soul will heal us, individually and communally, of the spiritual wounds of violence, hatred, and division between ourselves and all other beings, human and non-human, who inhabit this beautiful planet we have been given.

In this interior journey of the hidden life all of our human resources must be gathered to the purpose of deepening involvement with the life of inner Communion with the Divine. A primary mode of my personal spiritual work involves cultivating contemplative spiritual disciplines to bring the interior capacities of spiritual attentiveness, presence, and mindfulness to the spiritual healing and growth process of the soul.

William Ryan M.A., Retired Professional Counselor and Director of Avalon Counseling and Spiritual Resources - I have an M.A. in Counseling Psychology, with 30 plus years experience as a licensed professional clinical counselor and over 19 years as a spiritual director and teacher of meditation practice. I have completed a two-year training program in Spiritual Direction at the Benedictine Shalom Prayer Center in Mt. Angel, Oregon. I have over 45 years formation and training in the practice of meditation, contemplation, or Prayer of the Heart in the Eastern and Western spiritual traditions of Zen Meditation and Christian Contemplation. I have extensive experience as a retreat and workshop leader in meditation/contemplation practice through Contemplative Ministries of the Pacific Northwest and the Shalom Retreat Center. I am a member of Spiritual Directors International and adhere to their Code of Ethics. I have two decades of affiliation with the contemplative practice communities of Dharma Rain Zen Center and Seven Thunders in Oregon. I have authored five books on contemplative spiritual practice: The Beloved is My Refuge- A Guide to Consecrated Life in Prayer of the Heart, Breathing Yeshua- Christian Meditation in the Way of the Heart, Starting and Sustaining a Prayer of the Heart Practice, Entering the Stream of Mercy in the Jesus Prayer, and (newest) Yeshua-Our Sacred Path in Prayer of the Heart. (These books are all downloadable without cost on the next page on this site- see below.) I have also published an article in the June 2006 issue of Presence magazine, "Apprenticeship—One Model for Spiritual Direction."

Contemplative Spiritual Resources