Joan Wright did not set out to write a memoir. For decades, she was too busy living the story. After losing her twin brother, Joe, in a tragic shooting at age ten, Joan learned to survive by becoming indispensable. His death sent her on a journey of emotional pain that included several broken relationships and two divorces. She excelled in school, chose psychology in high school, and built a respected career as a clinical psychologist in New Brunswick (1993 to 2021 – until suspension), making it clear that she no longer practices as a psychologist. She worked with incarcerated youth at Kingsclear, co-authored programs like Cage Your Rage for Teens, completed a PhD on anger and attachment, and eventually founded Joan Wright & Associates, a clinic serving teens, families, and veterans with PTSD. In 2013, she also founded The MindShift Clinic, which grew from three part-time staff members to thirteen full-time staff, providing neurofeedback and biofeedback services.

Her professional success, however, hid an unexamined belief: if she was perfect, no one she loved would ever leave again. In 2014, Joan was diagnosed with breast cancer, a wake-up call that she admits she did not listen to at the time. Later, when a long term client’s complaint triggered a thirty month investigation, a hearing, and the suspension of her license, the identity she had built crumbled. Depression and the dissolution of her second marriage followed.

Joan has engaged in several forms of therapy over the last 15 years to recover her heart and soul. Through somatic therapy, bioenergetics training, psilocybin experiences in Canada, and ayahuasca ceremonies in Peru, she began rebuilding a life grounded in presence rather than infallibility. She sold the waterfront house, converted her former clinic into apartments, and thankfully now sees opportunity in everything that happened and happens to her and around her. She lives a joy filled life from the inside.

Today, Joan Wright, PhD, is no longer considered a psychologist following her suspension, and she offers consulting services. Over the past 35 years, she has developed expertise in identifying the root causes of symptoms rather than simply treating them. Through an interview process, she helps uncover core beliefs and unconscious needs that lead to suboptimal thinking, emotional, and behavioral patterns. These often stem from childhood or traumatic experiences that the mind was unable to cope with or adequately process at the time, resulting in negative emotional patterns that persist despite best efforts to change them.

Joan helps identify source events and gain understanding of how these events programmed us, so we can see that the problem is not from today, but from the past impacting today. The best interventions to change repetitive negative patterns can then be identified and implemented. She is looking forward to helping others find their way to living a more joyful and harmonious life.