Joan Wright Howie is currently in the midst of a PhD project exploring how to nurture spiritual life in organisational contexts. She is a Uniting Church minister, spiritual companion, retreat leader, and pastoral supervisor. Joan describes spirituality as an unfolding relationship with the sacred that shapes character, identity, and action. It’s not bound by religion; rather, religions evolve to nurture spirituality. In her work, Joan seeks to foster interior freedom by offering hospitality to people’s narratives and lived experiences, welcoming creative expression, dream work, focusing, and embodied awareness. 

With a place on the surf coast and an apartment in Melbourne, Joan lives with her husband and their fluffy black dog, Kai. Her three kids have recently become independent, and she’s discovering a new phase of life. Joan loves swimming in the ocean, walking on the beach, tending her garden, painting, going on adventures, making things, and gazing at the stars.