The purpose of spiritual direction is to grow in holiness and strengthen one's relationship with God. Like a coach, the spiritual director guides, affirms, and teaches. Like a counselor, the spiritual director listens, advises, and supports. Like a friend, the spiritual director consoles, and shares laughs.

The focus in spiritual direction, however, is on the directee and his/her relationship with God. It seeks to deepen the directee's prayer life through the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is the true spiritual director. 

The spiritual director support directees seeking help discerning God’s will, guidance on how to overcome certain obstacles in prayer, clarity on how God may be working in their life, assistance recognizing God’s presence throughout their day, and instruction on how to distinguish God’s voice, among other reasons. 

Each session begins and ends in prayer imploring the Holy Spirit to guide the encounter. Then, the directee is free to discuss their current spiritual state, struggles and advances in their faith, where they recently experienced God's presence, and inquire how God may be working during their troubles. The spiritual director prayerfully listens and responds to the directee's successes and concerns emphasizing on what God may be trying to tell the directee through these experiences. The spiritual director may also incorporate the desires of the directee to learn particular prayers or focus on a certain aspect of Catholic spirituality like the Saints, the Catholic mass, etc.

Most directees find it helpful to meet once a month with their spiritual director. However, this is all dependent on the directee and their own individual needs. Some directees choose to meet on a quarterly, bimonthly, or on an as-needed basis. Each session should not last more than 1 hour and the directee brings the agenda. It is not advised to meet more frequently than once a month as it is essential that directees have time to reflect and pray about all that was shared during the meeting. Some spiritual directors may choose to establish a time limit in certain cases, such as one year, and then re-evaluate after that.

A Spiritual Director can be a priest, a deacon, a nun or other religious, or lay person. Many spiritual directors are certified in the field. What is more essential though, is to find a spiritual director who you feel you can relate to and someone who authentically lives out the Catholic faith. It is advisable to have an initial series of sessions (three the most) as a probational period to ensure there is a match between the spiritual director and the directee.
Spiritual direction and spiritual counseling could be done in person or virtually.

In the case of spiritual counseling, the principles of spiritual direction apply but the meetings are usually oriented towards addressing a specific issue and may last between one and three encounters in total.
Spiritual direction and spiritual counseling could be done in person or virtually.