We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joey Doherty a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Joey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I imagine there were plenty of clues along the way. Plenty of holy breadcrumbs God placed in the form of teachers or school assignments or brightly-colored birds making me ponder this whole existence but not knowing how to channel this creative energy. I was the teenager who sat at a window as time flew by while watching the trees sway with the wind, and that thinker has not left me. The difference is, now I know how to channel these inner stories into writing instead of allowing them to crash around in my head like wind against a boat with unraised sails.

I attended college for psychology and then graduate school for clinical counseling, but never took courses on creative writing. I enjoyed writing academic papers, but it wasn’t until after graduate school that I began writing poetry, seemingly out of nowhere. I began journaling out of necessity, to process a big uncertain transition in my life and then the words began to flow. They had rhythm. They felt different than the school papers and they made me feel different. I remember writing one poem in particular while sitting on the counter of my one-bedroom apartment with no air conditioning during the blazing Ohio summer. That poem solidified something within me. It was the kind of poem that comes swooping down like an eagle ready to catch whoever is willing to be swept up and fly wherever the wind takes him.

I still had no intention of writing as a career, but I knew I wanted to keep writing. Then for the first time on Instagram (and with anyone, really), I shared a poem, and I was shocked. Strangers were impacted by the poem and one person commented, “Thank you. I was going to hurt myself today, and this poem made me realize life is worth living.” So to answer your question, that was the moment I realized I wanted to write books. That was the moment I realized writing wasn’t only something that filled me up, but was another way I could help people.

Joey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an author, licensed professional counselor, meditation instructor, and podcast host. I have self-published five poetry books and I am thrilled to release my debut novel in 2025, which is about a seeker on a mountain pilgrimage. My poetry books are titled Subtle Medicine (2021), Student of the Moment (2020), Color the World (2019), Wild Compass (2018), and Remember to Harvest (2017). My books speak to the themes of nature, spirituality, relationships, and personal growth.

As for my counseling work, I help clients not only heal through painful experiences, but also grow closer to themselves, God, and their unique gifts along the way. I guide clients through many challenges, including chronic stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, poor concentration, and religious trauma. I take a mind-body-spirit approach and specialize in a variety of therapeutic styles, including Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Narrative Therapy, Ecotherapy, and Spiritual Direction. I have trained over 300 mental health clinicians to holistically treat their clients and I have facilitated mental health workshops for thousands of people. I have also written hundreds of mental health courses, meditations, and coping skills for a mental health app.

I am the founder of Creatives Gone Hiking, where I lead group hikes around Ohio. We hike, create art at a secluded section of the woods, share with the group what we created, and then finish the hike. It’s a blast. I am also the host of the Student of the Moment Podcast, which is a bite-sized, meditative podcast to help listeners sink into their moments.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, to guide others closer to God, nature, and humanity, and for me to cherish the process. To empty myself out over and over so God can speak through me and reach more deeply into my readers or clients than I possibly could through my own efforts alone. To honor the Creator in my work, whatever shape that work takes, and the work of a writer is woven into life itself. It’s not only the hours sitting at a computer or notebook writing. It’s the walk in the woods. It’s the conversation with the barista at a café. It’s witnessing a bluebird swoop down and somehow snatch a frog from the creek. Life is the research lab and writing is the distilling of that life into medicine in the form of words. My aim is to be as present as I can to witness God’s masterpiece and be as dedicated as I can to sit down every day and write about it. Presence and words. Those are my specialties.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Communing intimately with God, myself, and this intricate puzzle of a life through my work. Writing helps me unravel the puzzle, begin putting pieces together, and even allow certain pieces to be remain a massive question mark. Writing is my most reliable doorway to truth, and that’s priceless to me. Writing helps me reach deeper into myself and in turn connect more authentically with others. I am honored by the many messages I receive from strangers about how deeply my books impacted them. Those messages are fuel for the fire that has been blazing since I wrote that first poem while sitting on my kitchen countertop many years ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joeydoherty.com
• Instagram: @joeydoherty
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeygdoherty
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-doherty-lpc

Image Credits

Joey Doherty