Career Direction and Leadership Support for Chaplains
Chaplains and spiritual care professionals often navigate burnout, evolving responsibilities, and questions about direction while remaining deeply committed to their work.
Who this is for
These offerings are for chaplains and spiritual care professionals seeking:
- Intentional reflection: Dedicated space to reflect on career direction, leadership, and impact
- Active transitions: Navigate growth, burnout, or increasing responsibility and want to respond thoughtfully
- Clarity: Where to focus energy and attention
- Engagement: Active and intensive professional development
Who this is not for
These offerings may not be the right fit if you are:
- Job-first focus: Primarily looking to secure any next role rather than taking time to clarify fit, direction, and what matters most right now
- Shortcut seeking: Hoping for quick answers, shortcuts, or access to job leads rather than engaging in a reflective process
- Limited capacity: Not in a position to invest time, energy, and financial resources in your professional development
- Transactional expectations: Seeking a one-way service rather than a collaborative, learning-oriented working relationship
These supports are designed for people who approach career and leadership decisions with care and who are willing to invest accordingly.
Preferred Rates for Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Members
Members of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab are eligible for preferred rates on the offerings below:
- CILSUBSCRIBER for 10% off
- CILINNOVATOR for 20% off
Codes may be applied at checkout and apply to the first three months when paying monthly.
Clarify My Direction™ (CMD)
A Reflective Career Program for Chaplains and Spiritual Care Professionals
Clarify My Direction™ is a facilitated career program designed to help individuals gain perspective on where they are and clarify intentional next steps for their work and lives.
This program is especially supportive for chaplains and spiritual care professionals navigating uncertainty, burnout, transition, or leadership growth who want a structured process for reflection without pressure to have everything figured out.
Participants engage with guided prompts, practical frameworks, and reflection tools that help them clarify strengths, priorities, and next steps, supporting clear thinking and sustainable decision-making aligned with values.
New to Clarify My Direction™?
You may begin with a free course preview to explore the approach and determine whether it is a good fit:
- Start with the free course preview
- Clarify My Direction™ details
Intentional Professionals Community
Group Coaching for Purpose-Driven Leaders
The Intentional Professionals Community is a small, facilitated group coaching community for chaplains and other purpose-driven professionals who want ongoing reflection, connection, and support.
This community is well suited for people who:
- Want consistent space to think about work, leadership, and impact over time
- Are seeking greater alignment between strengths, priorities, and daily responsibilities
- Care about boundaries, sustainability, and burnout prevention
- Want to deepen their impact at work while protecting relationships and personal well-being
Members participate in monthly group coaching conversations, share challenges and insights, and develop clarity alongside others committed to meaningful, sustainable leadership.
Examples of Impact
Erica has supported chaplains and spiritual care professionals across healthcare, higher education, hospice, and nonprofit settings as they balance professional responsibilities with mental health, relationships, and long-term sustainability. Examples of this work include:
- Supporting a neurodiverse chaplain navigating a career pivot while balancing mental health needs, family commitments, and preparation for a leadership role within a mission-aligned nonprofit organization. The work emphasized self-compassion, clear boundaries, and aligning strengths and priorities with a sustainable leadership path.
- Working with a university chaplain seeking a new professional challenge and greater impact in their workplace. Together, priorities were clarified, aligned opportunities were identified, and positioning for an employer change was strengthened while remaining attentive to burnout prevention and relationships outside of work.
- Partnering with a hospital-based chaplain experiencing burnout and role misalignment to reconnect with strengths, creativity, and a sense of meaningful contribution. Coaching focused on establishing healthier boundaries, reshaping daily work in more life-giving ways, and protecting energy for loved ones.
- Supporting a hospice spiritual care professional who was feeling overextended and undercompensated to reimagine a career with greater autonomy, time in nature, and improved financial security. This work centered on clarifying priorities, strengthening decision-making, and honoring both purpose and personal well-being.
Across these engagements, the emphasis has been on self-compassion, boundaries, burnout prevention, meaningful impact, and helping people build careers that support both their calling and full lives.
What Chaplains Have Shared
Chaplains and spiritual care professionals who have participated in these offerings have shared the following reflections.
This course has illuminated the role my values have played in my career fulfillment. When I’ve felt fulfilled in the past, my work aligned with my values. Through this course I was able to clarify what those values are, identify what an ideal work environment looked like, and what type of career would be in accordance with those values. – Matthew
I’m really enjoying the group coaching sessions—I always leave with a takeaway. Being part of the Intentional Professionals group and hearing about others’ journeys and successes has been inspiring. – Hilary
I love being a part of a supportive learning environment. Working toward a common goal with others provides a richness of experience. Others’ questions are often mine that I just didn’t think to ask. – Mid-career professional
Partner Perspective
“Erica provided a 3-part coaching series for our professional community. Each session included clear, actionable coaching in both enhancing established careers and pursuing new paths. She also provided many opportunities for audience participation without making the session feel like work.”
Michael Skaggs
Director of Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Programs
About Erica Mattison
Erica Mattison, MPA, JD, is an executive coach and facilitator who works with chaplains, spiritual care professionals, and other purpose-driven leaders navigating career transitions, leadership development, and questions of direction.
She has partnered with the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for several years, facilitating small-group coaching experiences and large-group workshops that support chaplains in clarifying goals, strengthening leadership capacity, and approaching their work with intention.
Erica is a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, a Certified Everything DiSC Practitioner, and a Certified Career Services Provider through the National Career Development Association. She integrates research-backed strengths, behavioral, and career development frameworks to deepen self-awareness and increase professional effectiveness. Her strengths-based approach helps individuals understand how they lead, respond under pressure, and make thoughtful decisions aligned with their values and responsibilities.
She also uses storytelling and storylistening as core coaching practices, inviting clients to reflect on lived experience and surface patterns and insights. From there, she supports clients in translating clarity into action, whether that means pursuing advancement within their current institution or navigating a career pivot into a new setting, industry, or role type. Erica helps clients articulate transferable strengths, reframe their professional narrative, and position themselves thoughtfully for opportunities aligned with their values and evolving sense of direction.
Her work centers on creating space to think clearly, establish sustainable boundaries, and make aligned choices that support long-term impact.