An English major in college, I became a fashion writer after graduation, even though I was far from a fashionista.  My best gig was at a pricey Fifth Avenue department store in NYC, where I remember sneaking down to the boys-wear department, to watch Jackie Kennedy pick out socks for baby John John.

When writing one-liners for basic black dresses got old, I took what I thought was going to be a short sabbatical, and enrolled in painting and drawing classes at the New School.  There, unexpectedly, I discovered my inner artist, who was, apparently, the happy, mojolicious part of me.


Ten years later, I was living in California, finishing up an MFA in sculpture, and teaching art in rec centers.  In order to get more work, I developed a series of art-based personal-growth offerings:

•   Create Your Fate,
•   Create Your Weight,  and
•   Create Your Mate. 

My idea was to demonstrate how drawing, poetry, imagery, dance, and other artistic forms of expression could help my adult students manifest what they wanted in their lives.  And it worked -- better than I could have imagined!


While teaching these transformational classes, I discovered that I enjoyed helping my students draw themselves out more than I enjoyed helping them draw geraniums.  With that aha, suddenly doors started opening.  A junior college hired me to teach creative weight loss, my students asked me to lead private groups, my group members asked to be my clients.  And so my career as a Life Sherpa began.  




Like the eskimo who listens to the stone for clues about the sculpture that's already existing inside, I'm always looking for the hidden or disguised life-forwarding movement -- the mojotivity -- within each individual.  

Rather than asking "What is wrong with this person?"  I wonder, "What is turning off his lights?"  or   "How can she not realize how unique she is?"




A friend of mine who has spent his life on a spiritual path first pointed out to me the spiritual aspect of my work.  I taught him a simple practice, and he said,  





The practices that I teach connect you to your sense of flow, and bring you closer to intuitive truths.  The more emotional and mental leftovers you release --  the closer you get to a peaceful, connected state.




Once I realized that I had found my calling, I began a lifelong commitment to further training and exploration.


These trainings include ...

• Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell, Glenn Fleisch and Rob Parker;
  
  
• Energy Therapy with Larry Nims, Gary Craig, Asha Clinton, Tapas Fleming.
  
  
• Enneagram studies with Helen Palmer;
  
  
• Hypnotherapy with Noelle Poncelet and Dick Olney;
  
  
• Spiritual Psychology with John Welwood;
  
  
• Existential Psychology with James Bugental;
  
  
• Process Work with Arnold Mindell;
  
  
• Shamanic Journeying with Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman;
  
  
• Art Therapy with Janie Rhyne;
  
  
• Continuum Movement with Emily Conrad;
  
  
• NLP with Leslie Cameron Bandler and Eli Jaxon Bear.

For many years I trained with Muriel Schiffman, author of "Self Therapy," and "Gestalt Self Therapy."    As a child in the foster-care system, Muriel had been so badly abused by adults that even after she grew up, she couldn't, and wouldn't, trust adults in positions of authority (like therapists).  So she learned healing techniques from books and seminars, and then figured out how to use them on herself.  Then she taught others.


Muriel turned me into a self-therapy junky.  From the get-go, I relished the feeling of of being in charge of my own mojomorphosis --  I loved going in a caterpillar, redesigning my cocoon, and coming out a butterfly -- and it didn't hurt that I had plenty to work on.

This instilled in me the belief that almost any transformation process could be tweaked into a self-therapy process.   And so,  I've taken every technique that I've learned over the past 30 years, and found a way to turn it into a do-it-oneself practice.



One colleague said, "make sure to tell people about your discernment and coherent synthesizing!"     Huh???  

I'm guessing she means that I listen with a third eye, and see with a third ear, and then interpret intuitively!  You can expect to be seen and listened to deeply and supportively -- and with compassion.

I guess I should warn you, too, that I have an absurd sense of humor, and get people laughing about things that just moments ago seemed soooooo verrrry seeerrrrrious. You could call me a compassionate trickster.




When my interests in the healing arts and the visual arts merged, and I began calling my work Mojotivity®, some of my friends and clients began calling me Mojone.  

One of them wrote it in the sand:




Whatever your presenting problem, my intention is to help you release both the triggers and the leftovers which keep you from manifesting your mojotivity.

I appreciate your quirkitude, and reflect the magnificence lurking behind your quirks. I notice the perfection in peculiarities, and the giftedness trapped in stuck souls.  It will be exciting to discover what makes you tick, where your true excitement lies, how you hold yourself back, and what you could become into if you stopped stopping yourself.



My joy lies in helping you to turn your life around -- and helping you to to find satisfaction where before there was mostly frustration.  I love being part of the process of discovering what puts the big grin on your face!

_____________________

"Joan's work is like having an eraser that simply removes problems.

Once you work on a problem you can easily forget that it
was a problem,
because it's
completely gone!"

Cathy Hedgecock,
journalist