About Mary

A Companion for the Journey Inward
Mary Yerkes is a Certified Spiritual Director and trained Ignatian Director whose ministry has been shaped by more than thirty years of walking closely with God — and with people she genuinely loves.
Who She Is
photo of a walk through a dark forest leading to light<br />
Known for her warm presence, sound wisdom, and keen discernment, she has a gift for creating unhurried, prayerful spaces where leaders can slow down, breathe, and listen for the voice of God. At the heart of Mary’s work is a deep passion for spiritual transformation and emotionally healthy spirituality.

She holds a quiet, firm conviction that the inner life is not a luxury for busy leaders; it is essential to sustainability in life and ministry.

Her offerings continue to grow: Beginning in the spring of 2027, she will also offer supervision to spiritual directors seeking a thoughtful, experienced companion in their own unfolding practice.

Training & Organization Affiliations
Trained through Sustainable Faith‘s Schools of Spiritual Direction, Ignatian Direction, and Supervision — a collective of spiritual directors and pastors devoted to cultivating spiritually healthy leaders and the communities they love — Mary is endorsed by Sustainable Faith and the Institute for Ministerial Wholeness. She is also a member of the Christ-centered Spiritual Direction Association.

Her advanced training and education equip her to accompany ministry and marketplace leaders, missionaries, mental health practitioners, fellow spiritual directors, and anyone with a hungry heart.

The Writer Behind the Director
What many people discover when they come to Mary is that her gift for deep listening did not begin with her spiritual direction training — it was already being formed over a thirty-year career as a professional writer. After studying writing at the University of Maryland, she built that career by learning to carefully attend to other people’s stories and help them find their voice.

After studying writing at the University of Maryland, she built a 30-year career as a professional writer, specializing in ghostwriting for senior executives. Her extensive publishing history includes articles in AG News, Focus on the Family, Conversations Journal, CBN.com, Christianity Today’s Christian Women Leaders, and the Journal of Biblical Counseling, to name a few. Notably, her expertise is widely recognized—for instance, her article on living well with chronic illness was adopted as a seminary teaching resource.

Writer Mary Yerkes in her library writing
A Life Well-Tended
Mary makes her home on a ten-acre hobby farm in North Carolina — shared with two miniature horses, five Collies, two English Angora rabbits, and a flock of chickens who have little interest in contemplative silence.

In the margins of her days, she writes, loses herself in British mysteries, and tends the kind of unhurried, attentive life she lovingly invites others into.

She is the proud mother of an adult son and daughter-in-law who live in New Jersey.

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