What if beauty is not just an aesthetic experience, but a pathway to healing? In this Spirit & Study session, Rev. Lisa j. Winston explores the role of beauty in spiritual care — and how any creative endeavor can become a sacred practice. Drawing on her own decades-long healing from a near-death-experience, Lisa shares how she cultivates a creative, healing ministry and spiritual direction practice. Participants will explore how beauty — encountered in nature, art, music, writing, gardening, and everyday life — can open the heart and draw us closer to the sacred. Whether you are supporting others in their healing or tending your own interior life, this session offers practical reflection and an invitation to see your creative life as spiritual practice.

Rev. Lisa j. Winston is a spiritual director, contemplative photographer, and ordained minister whose ministry is rooted in the healing power of beauty and the sacred arts. Her path has led her through hospital chaplaincy, mystery school, seminary, and life at an ashram — a circuitous journey that ultimately brought her home to what she calls “caring for the soul through creative, sacred, healing arts.” Lisa draws on lineages including Zen contemplative seeing, Aghor Yoga, Kabbalah, and Usui Reiki energy and crystal healing, bringing a richly interfaith perspective to her work with seekers, caregivers, and those navigating spiritual transformation. She is particularly called to walk alongside those who are spiritually curious or wounded, those facing life-limiting illness, and those integrating near-death or spiritually transformative experiences. Lisa holds that nature heals, beauty heals, and that creative practice — in any form — can be a doorway to the divine.