Welcome to My Website
​For more than 40 years, I have accompanied people through times of change, healing, creativity, and transformation—as a therapist, spiritual mentor, and meditation teacher, and for nearly 30 years as a Writer’s Sherpa, mentoring writers through the inner and outer terrain of the creative life.
At the heart of all my work is a simple understanding: we each carry an inner wisdom that knows something about the way forward.
Whether I am working with someone seeking greater clarity and wholeness in their life, or with a writer bringing a book, story, or creative vision into the world, I offer a place to listen more deeply—to the body, to the imagination, to what is emerging, and to what is asking for our attention now.
My approach has been shaped by decades of study and practice in somatic and embodied awareness, meditation, breathwork, trauma-informed practices, transformational journaling, narrative medicine, Buddhist psychology, ceremony, and ethical mentorship. Rather than offering formulas or telling you what your path should be, I use inquiry, deep listening, and embodied practices to help you recognize and trust your own knowing.
I believe our personal and creative lives are inseparable from the world we inhabit. Our collective well-being begins with personal well-being—and what we heal, create, and bring forward matters.
Here you can explore my writing mentorship, Inner Path mentoring, workshops and retreats, along with free writings and resources. Each offers a different doorway into the same deeper work: becoming more fully present to your life, your creative voice, and the wisdom already within you.
Discover the compassion and courage within you. Drink from the deep well of your inner wisdom.
It is from this place that we find our truest path—and create what is ours to bring into the world.
Ready to explore the possibilities? Contact me for a free 20-minute consultation.

Writer as Shaman
An Online Writing Retreat
November 13–15, 2026

The Writer as Shaman understands that everything that shows up on our path—beautiful or difficult, ordinary or mysterious—is material. We give ourselves permission to live symbolically. We listen differently. We enter into conversation with the natural world, the inner world, our dreams, memories, images, myths, and the unexpected things that arrive on the page.

A Welcome Message For You

Click To Buy From My Online Bookshop

To browse my whole collection click here
"Stop asking for the lamp to be put in your hand.
pick it up, and fill it with your own oil.
it is the stuff of you that’s meant to burn."  –  Rebecca Cecchini, Wisconsin poet
(this and more of Rebecca's poems found in The Clue of The Red Thread)
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Writing Help

Books
Counseling & Mentoring


An endorsement from His Holiness the Dalai Lama (an excerpt from The Thundering Years):
“Because the very purpose of life is to be happy, it is important to discover what will actually give us the greatest satisfaction. Everything we experience, whether it is enjoyable or not, affects either our minds or our bodies. Generally, it is our minds that have the greatest influence over whether we are happy or not. Our minds register everything that happens to us, no matter how small. As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are unable to use our creative potential, we lose one of the basic characteristics of a human being. In order to find mental stability and peace, the mind itself can be trained. We can cultivate positive attitudes like kindness and compassion, tolerance and contentment. Julie describes many ways to create peace and happiness, some on your own and some with your friends." 
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, July 1995, for "The Thundering Years"

An endorsement from Parker J Palmer, author of A Hidden Wholeness and Healing the Heart of Democracy : 
“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.” (Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to)

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