About Barbara Joy
Barbara Joy Laffey is an award-winning writer who holds a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology /Jungian and Archetypal studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Barbara Joy writes memoir, creative nonfiction, and autobiographical psychology. Her evocative storytelling about threshold moments in her life brings readers deep into their own psyche. Within her narrative style, she uses a depth psychological approach and a feminist lens to explore what it means to honor the feminine, our bodies, and our selves, and the challenges of navigating this patriarchal culture.
Taking her ideas far beyond the written page, Barbara Joy is a popular conference presenter and workshop leader. She taught “Honoring the Feminine” as an online course, and has facilitated personal growth and self-healing for individuals, families, and groups for forty years. Trained at the Toronto Institute of Self Healing, she draws on active imagination, Focusing techniques, dreamwork, and inner dialogue for healing through the body-mind connection.
A lifelong artist and adventurer, Barbara Joy also had award-winning careers as a film and television producer and stained glass artist, while feeding her life and art with threshold moments of awe, such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and camping out in the Arctic Circle.
A Canadian at heart, Barbara Joy grew up in Chicago, lived for years in Toronto and Los Angeles, and now makes her home on a beautiful island in the Pacific Northwest.
“Your stories are boiled to essence, and powerful as a result. I can feel the Picasso line being drawn from the unconscious.”
—Marion Woodman, author of Bone: Dying into Life and Addiction to Perfection
WRITING AWARDS
Runner Up, Minerva Rising Press, Memoir Publishing Contest, 2023
Soroptimist Fellowship Award, In support and recognition of academic achievements to improve the lives of women and girls, 2012
Hedgebrook Residencies, 2001 and 2007
Finalist, Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, Salem College Center for Women Writers, 2003
Honorable Mention, Writers Digest Annual Competition, 2002
Photo by Jim Carroll
An Interview with
Barbara Joy
Why did you choose creative nonfiction and memoir as your preferred genres of writing?
My purpose in writing is to share what I’ve learned so that others may benefit from my experience, and perhaps avoid some of the challenges and pain I’ve experienced along the way. I’m an introvert who tends to see the world through the lens of my inner experience, and writing memoir and creative nonfiction is a natural fit that offers the best way to communicate my message.
When did writing first enter your life?
I’m not one of those people who’s been writing since childhood or always knew they wanted to be a writer. I was always more of a visual person, involved with the arts. I didn’t even call myself a writer until I was working on Missing Parts while in residence at Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers, where I found myself in the company of some pretty amazing poets and writers. At that point, I could no longer deny the label, though it took some time for me to be comfortable with it.
What has been your writing practice over the years?
I began keeping journals during my medical journey with cervical cancer, then continued journaling to record and work through my emotional healing process. I still occasionally journal, and I regularly record my dreams. There have been many years when I wrote daily “morning pages” (The Artist's Way). That practice always takes my work to a deeper level. Over the years I’ve taken dozens of writing classes and I’ve taught memoir writing. I’m always looking for ways to give myself mini-writing retreats that feed the soul of my work. Most importantly, I've participated in writing groups in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Whidbey Island, and now online, where the feedback and support have always been invaluable!
How would you describe your relationship with writing?
I would say it’s a vocation that serves my larger life purpose.