So nice to meet you
HI, I’M DENISA.
I grew up in Romania, moved to Canada when I was twenty, and then spent the next couple of decades building a life and moving houses there - seven, if you’re counting. By the time I landed in Spain in my mid forties, transition and I were on first-name basis. Sometimes those moves felt like adventure, other times felt like loss, but always they carried both - and a bit of culture shocked sprinkled in for good measure.
Not long ago, when I moved from Canada to Spain, I thought the hardest part would be speaking a new language and trading maple syrup for sangria. Turns out, it was figuring out where on earth the Spanish grocery store keeps the eggs. (Answer: definitely not where a Canadian would expect.)
At the same time, my 22-year-old daughter was leaving home to study abroad, my body strated shifting in ways that left me Googling things I didn’t want in my search history, my husband of 26 years set up camp in the living room (it turns out, togetherness is a spiritual discipline) and friendships now lived mostly on WhatsApp. Family, marriage, parenting a young adult from afar, my body, my faith rhythms, community, even the air — it all seemed to change at once and I found myself thinking who am I, and where did my life go?
I went looking for a gentle place to hold the questions that came with all those changes — about faith, belonging, and what it means to become in the middle years, without being handed a program, a pep talk, or a 10-point checklist. I couldn’t find that place.
So I decided to set a table instead. That’s what The In-Between Table is: a gathering place for women who want to pause, breathe, and remember we don’t have to do this alone.
The official bits: I’m a certified spiritual director, retreat leader, and trauma debriefer with a Graduate Diploma in Christian Theological Studies from Regent College in Vancouver. I also wrote Kairos: When the Holy Meets the Daily, which is basically me admitting I don’t have life figured out but I’m paying close attention to God in the middle of ordinary Tuesdays.
Beyond all that, I’m an evangelist for beauty in all its forms. I find it in books, in art, in long walks in nature, in interior design (in which, by the way, I’m professionally trained), and lately in the slow, earthy work of clay at a pottery wheel. Beauty has always been one of the ways God gets my attention.
So if you find yourself navigating your own in-between — a season of change, waiting, or becoming, if you’re wondering who you are now and how to keep going with hope and faith, you don’t have to do it alone. Pull up a chair. I saved you a seat.
For those who like the behind-the scenes details, here are some of the professional communities I’m a member of:
Association of Spiritual Directors International (SDI), the Association of Spiritual Directors in Europe (SD-Europe), Emmaus Society of Spiritual Directors Canada (ESSD), Regent College Spiritual Direction Network, Canada, and ESDA Spiritual Directors.
