When storyteller Joy Swartley Sawatzky speaks, her voice transports the listener to the time and place of the story, and everything else falls away. Her belief that stories are the window to the soul has led her to tell stories that delight the listener, while leading them to discover their own story. Even the simplest story can carry layers of meaning.

Joy tells stories in retreat settings for women and for couples, as well as a guest speaker in various settings. She also tells stories to residents in the various levels of care in retirement communities. Joy’s education and experience have provided her with a breadth of life experience, and a wealth of stories. Joy lives in eastern Pennsylvania, USA.

Joy has been in love with stories since she was a child. She could always be found with a book, or in later years, engrossed in a movie. It was while she was developing a health program in Haiti in the early 1980s that she began to see the full value of using stories to educate and communicate. Since that time, she has used stories in almost every setting in which she found herself. Joy’s life journey has taken her to live in 7 states and countries, and through 8 career changes–all seemingly in preparation for this work of storytelling. She has used stories to entertain, educate, inspire, encourage, remember, supervise, train, and most importantly to create sacred space where the listener is invited to see new possibilities for themselves - such as a life of fulfilling work, meaningful relationships, personal power, and grounded spiritual life.

Joy believes that a well told story delights the soul and promotes healing by cracking the heart open at the most unexpected times, in the gentlest of ways. She uses all kinds of stories: true stories, folk tales, parables, biblical story, personal story, sacred story and humor - all to lead the listener into discovering the possibility and potential for their own lives.

Along with a voice that reaches out to engage the listener in any story she tells, the skills that Joy brings to storytelling are an intuitive sense of timing and the ability to sense where the audience is at and choose stories that help them tap into their own story. This has been particularly effective in retreat settings.

Currently in the process of completing a three year Apprenticeship in Sacred Storytelling with Robert Bela Wilhelm, Joy has also studied storytelling under well know storyteller and author of children’s books, Barbara Baumgartner, as well as training with Elizabeth Ellis and Doug Lipman - both nationally known storytellers and mentors. Joy has used her gift of storytelling while working as a nurse, chaplain, pastor, and as a manager in a continuing care retirement community of over 800 residents.

You can read about Joy's journey as a storyteller in DreamSeeker Magazine: Voices From the Soul, Winter 2004, Vol. 4, No. 1.

What People Are Saying About Joy's Retreats and Programs for Adults

What People Are Saying About Joy's Programs in Retirement Communities

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