Award-winning writer * Psychotherapy researcher and coach * Interfaith minister * Social activist * Former publisher
“Stephanie Dowrick’s writing and career are characterised by motifs of renewal and re-imagining..Dowrick’s work is eclectically informed and pioneering…” Felicity Plunkett, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
Reverend Stephanie Dowrick, PhD, D,Min, is a former publisher, (co-founder and first MD of The Women’s Press, London), a writer of fiction and ground-breaking, award-winning non-fiction, and a life-long social justice activist. Her newest book is the highly praised Your name is not Anxious: A very personal guide to putting anxiety in its place (July 2023).
She has been writing and teaching from a social-justice and spiritually inclusive perspective for many years, while also pursuing her original research and writing on emotional and mental wellbeing. Through her writing and teaching, and rare global perspective, she has supported hundreds of thousands of people to live life more generously, securely, and with far greater choice and insight.
Stephanie has twice been awarded Nautilus awards: in 2009, the Nautilus Silver Award in the Psychology category for Choosing Happiness: Life & Soul Essentials; in 2014, the Nautilus Grand/Gold Award for Heaven on Earth: Timeless Prayers of Wisdom and Love in the Religion/Spirituality category. In 2010, she won a COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources, USA) Award for Creative Journal Writing: The Art & Heart of Reflection. Her international non-fiction bestsellers also include Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love, Everyday Kindness, The Universal Heart, and her major international success, Intimacy & Solitude. That book, continuously in print, has been updated three times, most recently by Allen & Unwin to meet the anxiety and loneliness that came with COVID19.
Dr Dowrick combines psychological insight and training with a genuinely compassionate, grounded social analysis. Her work warrants that rare accolade: “life-changing”. Her books have been translated into many languages.
As a social commentator, she has written for multiple media outlets, including having a 10-year “Inner Life” column in Good Weekend Magazine (The Age and Sydney Morning Herald). In addition to two acclaimed adult novels, she has written two successful picture books for children and the libretto for an acclaimed short opera composed by Professor Kim Cunio. While she brings to her books the skills of an experienced creative writer, Stephanie Dowrick has unusually broad clinical experience also.
She trained in the UK in analytic psychotherapy, as well as in the psychospiritual psychology, psychosynthesis. She is strongly influenced by the ethics of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, the peace teachings of Ven Thich Nhat Hanh, and the need to understand individual experiences within a larger social and structural context. She had a small private practice for many years, and a supervision practice for psychotherapists and medical doctors. She has been an ambassador for several key health and justice non-profits and is much in demand as a speaker and workshop leader. She was ordained as an Interfaith minister at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in NYC in 2005, and from 2006-2020 she led a large post-denominational congregation in Sydney, while continuing to offer psychological and specialist supervision. Stephanie is active on social media including her public Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/StephanieDowrick.
Her writing is distinguished by its originality and compassion. She has had the rare distinction of having written five No.1 bestselling books. They include Intimacy and Solitude (updated in 2021), Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love, The Universal Heart and Choosing Happiness: Life & Soul Essentials. Other books include Everyday Kindness, Seeking the Sacred – called by Claire Scobie in the Sydney Morning Herald, “A chalice of wisdom” – plus Heaven on Earth, about which Dr Marj Britt wrote: “Stephanie Dowrick emerges as a mystical poet with a radiance of her own.” Her books for children include The Moon Shines Out of the Dark. She also wrote two acclaimed novels, Running Backwards Over Sand and Tasting Salt.
One of Stephanie’s passions is teaching writing. Books that especially express that aspect of her life include the highly successful Creative Journal Writing:The Art and Heart of Reflection, and also the widely praised In the Company of Rilke, a rare scholarly spiritual study of the work of the European poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, taking readers also into a deeper understanding of themselves – and of the unique power of poetry. (“Stephanie Dowrick’s gift is a capacity for sharing with readers her lifetime’s pleasure in poetry and the company of one of the greatest of poets.” David Malouf, poet & novelist)
Stephanie Dowrick was born in New Zealand, the second of two daughters. Both her parents were school teachers. Her mother, Mary Dowrick (nee Brisco), was a university graduate who both wrote and painted (and died in 1955). Stephanie lived in Europe from 1967-1983. She was co-founder and first Managing Director of the prestigious independent London publishing house, The Women’s Press, publishing some of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, including Alice Walker, Janet Frame, Andrea Dworkin, Lucy Goodison, Joanna Ryan, May Sarton, Michele Roberts, Susan Griffin, Lisa Alther. She has lived in Sydney, Australia, since 1983. She led the Interfaith congregation at Pitt Street Uniting Church from 2006-2017, and taught at Mana Retreat Centre from 2000-2020-1. She was for some years wellbeing presenter for Breast Cancer Network Australia, and was an Adjunct Fellow with the Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney (where she had graduated with a PhD degree in 2008). She has two adult children, and is married to Dr Paul Bauert.
