A timeout from everyday life

Saturday, June 3, 2006 | 7:39 a.m.

In a worldly town chock-full of storefront day spas for physical refreshment, Roisin O'Loughlin operates a lone refuge to help soothe souls.

The one-time Irish school principal operates an interfaith religious retreat center. It's in the unlikely place of an office park on the west side of town, next to a dentist's office.

Visitors to Stillpoint Spiritual Development Center are greeted at the door by the peaceful tinkling of a decorative water fountain and candlelight.

And inside, O'Loughlin helps spiritual seekers tap into the divine in a town better known for its indulgence of things more base.

"We're attempting to be the connection between the spirit of God and the human story," O'Loughlin says with a distinctive Irish lilt. She founded the center with fellow Roman Catholics Delise Sartini and Mary Alice Nielson.

Through prayer groups and individual counseling, which encourage self-reflection, O'Loughlin and Sartini help people discover and apply God's wisdom to their everyday lives. Only by learning how to follow God's will can individuals reach their full potential, O'Loughlin says.

The nonprofit center, which is promoted mostly by word-of-mouth, offers spiritual advice, prayer groups, personal growth classes, study of various religions and instruction on contemplative prayer.

The offices also are available for retreats or small group meetings.

The center features a library, private counseling offices and a meditation room with floor cushions.

Visitors frequently pray or meditate outside, next to a small pond in a grassy courtyard that Stillpoint shares with other office complex tenants.

O'Loughlin picked the location to offer an easily accessible, peaceful refuge in an otherwise fast-paced city.

The in-town location is consistent with how Jesus, Muhammad and the world's other major religious figures encountered their followers: where they lived, and not in a distant, hilltop retreat, O'Loughlin says. She envisions Stillpoint as a day center with lunchtime and evening programs designed around work schedules.

Most of the people who come to Stillpoint are seeking a relationship with God beyond what they find in a conventional church environment, Sartini says.

"There are a lot of people who have turned a deaf ear to organized religion but still seek spiritual direction," says Gard Jameson, president of the Las Vegas Interfaith Council and a member of Stillpoint's board. As the only interfaith, nonchurch-affiliated center in Las Vegas, Stillpoint fills a void in Las Vegas, where people are "yearning to find meaning beyond basic needs."

Richard Martinez, principal at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic School, says the spiritual direction he receives from O'Loughlin and the classes he attends at Stillpoint fortify his other religious experiences.

"To have a one-on-one session with someone who can really touch my spirit, touch my life and help me through the journey of life is so important in this world, which is so rushed and that can so overwhelm us," Martinez says.

O'Loughlin says that she began pursuing her ministry as a spiritual counselor after feeling called by God to leave behind her family and financial security and to "make my home in Him."

In her 40s, she moved to Chicago to pursue her master's degree, leaving her job as a school principal in County Clare, Ireland.

She moved to Las Vegas in 1996 and finished her doctoral dissertation on spiritual counseling.

After teaching a class at a Catholic retreat, people began seeking her spiritual advice. With the financial backing of Station Casinos founder Frank Fertitta Jr. and his wife, Vicki, she opened up her own private practice, which thrived.

Her popularity expanding, she closed her private practice and founded Stillpoint in October 2004. She serves as executive director, a counselor and teacher.

Sartini and Nielson helped bankroll the start-up costs, including covering the lease for the center, but it is still largely dependent on donations.

People who attend counseling and workshops pay based on ability.

O'Loughlin wrapped up her second year at the center this week and, for her own spiritual refreshment, will retreat this summer to Ireland.

"You can't be a spiritual director," O'Loughlin says, "if you don't engage in your own spiritual direction."