About Joy

Joy Kahn Harter, MS | Grief and Mental Health Counselor | Certified End of Life Specialist | Holistic Practitioner | Elder Care Consultant

I am an elder care professional who has worked with elders and their families since 1995. I have a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Kenyon College and my master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Indiana University.

My professional capacities include 15 years as Executive Director at a retirement community in Bloomington, Indiana, and 12 years as a Social Services Director and Admission Coordinator for a nursing facility in Bloomington. I obtained my Indiana Health Facility Administrator’s license in 2003. In 2020, I expanded on my capacity to serve others by becoming a certified Death Doula and Conscious Dying Coach (also referred to as an End of Life Specialist), receiving my training from the Conscious Dying Institute out of Boulder, CO. Prior to my Conscious Dying Institute training, I completed my Reiki III Master Practitioner training in June 2019 with Christine Eartheart, founder of Joy Potential. I have always followed my curiosity and interest in energy healing and how such work would integrate and supplement my own professional and personal practice. Gratefully, I am able and available to incorporate Reiki energy healing practices, relaxation and breathing methods, sound healing techniques, guided meditations, and mindful stress reduction into my work when such practices will be of benefit and are amenable to the client. I completed Level 1 Foundations of Integral Sound Healing with multiple instruments training through Sound Healing Academy in September 2023.

I have been a member of the Bloomington Rotary Club since 2006 and served as President of our club in 2014-2015. I am a proud Rotarian, believing in giving back to one’s local and global community, and living the Rotary International philosophy of Service Above Self. I served as President the board of the Area 10 Agency on Aging from 2017-2023 and currently serve on the board of the Limestone Post Digital Magazine. I am a past member of the Dementia Friendly Bloomington Public Spaces committee and have completed training as a Dementia Friendly Business and Community Trainer. I serve as a volunteer co-host/facilitator for Living With Loss Circles through healingcirclesglobal.org, a nonprofit organization offering online healing communities to anyone interested in participating. Healing Circles Global is a program of Commonweal, a four-star Charity Navigator nonprofit entity. I facilitate monthly “Conversations with Joy” at the Endwright East Active Living Community Center that focus on issues related to end of life, aging, grief, and loss. These conversations take place on the last Wednesday of the month at 1pm in the Endwright East location inside the College Mall. I facilitate a grief/living with loss support group (which is open to the public) at Meadowood Retirement Community on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 2pm.

I was born and raised in Woodstock, New York, which exposed me to a lot of peace, love and music at a very early age and ingrained creativity and self-expression into my being. I have played piano since I was eight years old and spent a summer at the Boston University Tanglewood Music Institute in the Berkshires when I was 17. I fully believe in the power of music, sound, and vibration to help align, harmonize, and balance our bodies from the inside out.

When my younger sister Hilary and I were 11 and 14, our parents took us to a meditation center in Saugerties, NY where we all learned Transcendental Meditation. I didn’t stick with meditating as a teenager but as an adult I returned to the practice. I meditate every morning, along with doing yoga and sound healing techniques in order to ground and center myself for the day. I have a great appreciation for all forms of art and myself enjoy playing with watercolors, pencil drawing, and acrylic rock painting! I also create what I call “funky” art from an enormous seashell collection I have amassed over many years of vacations on the east coast and in Florida. I am an avid reader and knitter, and I am a photography enthusiast who loves to be outdoors capturing nature’s beauty and wonder. Click on Gallery of Clouds or The Wonder of Nature to see some of my favorite photographs. I thoroughly enjoy writing and the power of the creative writing process and have kept a journal since I was 13. Click on My Death Dream to read an entry from September 2007.

I can assuredly say that I live and breathe my authentic and “joyful” truth and that my joyous self follows me wherever I go!