joy wilson
Joy earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Westmont College, specializing in Latin American and Southeast Asian cultures. She earned her Master of Arts degree in Teaching from George Fox University in 2010. Currently, Joy is a counseling intern working towards a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from George Fox University. She will hold a specialized Trauma Response Certificate.
Ministry Experience:
Joy has utilized stories for teaching and healing since first becoming a puppeteer at the age of 13. Then over the years, she trained teams and lead various puppetry ministries doing street witnessing and longer, full performances. She has served in various women’s ministries with MOPS as a small group leader in California, and as a Publicity leader in Florida. She homeschooled her two boys for ten years and then entered the public school system where she taught for nine years.
Joy was also a teacher/missionary in Indonesia for one year and has taught summer school in China. She is passionate about quality food available to all and at one point ran 3 different food ministries. She delights in nursery duty and can brew a strong after-church latte.
Joy has also designed a program to meet the unmet needs of women suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and provided lay counseling for those individuals at the request of her pastor. She writes poetry, community magazine articles, and children’s stories, with one published in Clubhouse Jr. Magazine, distributed by Focus on the Family.
Counseling Approach:
Joy knows that our life stories do not always have the fairytale endings that we hoped for, but also that we are not mere puppets. We are actually active agents in pursuit of meaningful moments and positive outcomes.
Her approach as a counselor is to help clients identify their strengths and collaborate with them to help them find solutions to challenges in their story. She strives to provide a counseling relationship in which one can feel safe, heard, and supported as they explore or process whatever they choose. She offers an integrative approach to therapy with a focus on strengths in individuals and relationships as a foundation of growth.
The theoretical foundations that inform her counseling include Person Centered Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She has a great passion for empowering those suffering from chronic mental health disorders such as BIPOLAR DISORDER. She also holds experience with PARENTING, BLENDED FAMILIES, DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, ADDICTIONS, LIFE TRANSITIONS, PTSD, ABUSE and TRAUMA. She is being trained in EMDR and SANDTRAY THERAPY.
