Safeguarding and Safety

Spiritual Direction UK helps people find and book sessions with a carfully selected team of independent spiritual directors. Directors are not employees of SDUK and remain professionally responsible for their own practice, judgement, supervision, insurance, confidentiality and safeguarding decisions within sessions. However, independence does not mean the platform is passive or ungoverned.

Every director listed on SDUK is required to work within our safeguarding and professional standards framework. Directors are expected to have completed safeguarding training with a recognised external provider appropriate to their professional context. SDUK’s own in-house safeguarding training then builds on that foundation, focusing specifically on the realities of spiritual direction: remote one-to-one work, confidentiality and its limits, spiritual abuse, vulnerable adults, international directees, escalation, record keeping, complaints and platform-level concerns.

Our safeguarding framework has been created specifically for remote spiritual direction and developed with specialist input from practitioners with experience in social work, charity-sector safeguarding and spiritual direction, including work with vulnerable people. SDUK also maintains a platform-level safeguarding route for concerns and serious incidents, and may pause or remove a listing or restrict access where safety, trust or professional standards require it.

For referrers and partner organisations, we can provide further detail on our safeguarding framework, director requirements, escalation routes and training process on request.

If you are in immediate danger

Call your local emergency number now.

If you are in the UK, call 999 or 112.

If you need urgent medical advice

Use your local urgent medical service.

If you are in the UK, call NHS 111.

If you need someone to talk to

If you are in the UK or Republic of Ireland, you can contact Samaritans (24/7): 116 123.

If you are outside the UK or Republic of Ireland, please use an equivalent local service in your country.

Spiritual direction and safety

Spiritual direction is a supportive and grounded practice but it is not a crisis service. If you are experiencing severe distress, immediate risk, abuse, or feel unsafe, we encourage you to seek urgent support from emergency services or appropriate specialist services in your location.

Confidentiality

Directors aim to offer a confidential space. In some situations confidentiality may need to be broken for safety, for example if someone is at serious risk of harm, or if a child is at risk. Your director will explain confidentiality and its limits at the start of your work together.

Safeguarding concerns or complaints

If you have a concern about a session booked through SDUK, you can contact us here.

You can also raise concerns directly with your director.

We may pause or remove listings or user accounts where needed to keep the platform safe.

Age policy

SDUK is for adults aged 18+.