Hello!

I’m Andrea Johnson! I am a certified spiritual director based out of Princeton, NJ and am accepting new directees for both in-person and virtual sessions. Finding someone to trust with the deep inner-workings of your life can be intimidating. My hope is that you will find that I am a person worthy of that trust. I have lots of experience – academically, professionally and personally– that will ensure you are in good hands!

The word “academic” isn’t exactly the first word that I would think of to describe myself, yet somehow I have spent eleven of the last twenty years as a student in higher education and certification programs. In the early 2000s I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work from The Ohio State University and am currently licensed in Ohio as a Licensed Independent Social Worker. In 2018 I embarked on a new journey at Princeton Theological Seminary where I earned a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education and Formation. Following graduation from seminary I spent two years in training for spiritual direction through Sustainable Faith from which I am now a certified spiritual director!

From the time I was little, I knew that I wanted to be a social worker. There was never a doubt in my mind. And that’s what I did for nine years. I worked mostly in case management for medically frail older adults and veterans. What I loved most about my job was having the ability to sit and listen to life stories–the good, the bad, the ugly- and to see the joy others experienced just simply from being heard. I had no reason to change course other than in 2015 I began to have a sense that God was preparing me for something else; certain that social work was a helpful stepping-stone to whatever God had in store for me. I would eventually be called to be part of a church-planting team in Princeton, which is ultimately how I found myself in seminary. It was there where I learned about and participated in spiritual direction. I knew instantly that this was what God had planned for my life. Not only was spiritual direction a critical tool for my own spiritual deepening, but it also created space for a journey of self-discovery and healing. As I began offering spiritual direction to others, I realized that I am still doing what I loved most about social work, which is listening to people’s stories, yet on a deeper level as we take time to discover God’s presence in the midst of those stories.

Despite the experience I’ve had academically and professionally, there’s really no better training ground for this work than life itself. I am a wife and a mom of three young kids-two of whom are twins! I wholeheartedly understand the paradox of parenting being both the greatest joy and one of the most difficult things you can do in this life. I have personal experience with the pain and grief of losing loved ones to both chronic illness and sudden death; having felt the loving, compassionate care from God in those moments. I have lived in the chaos of loving someone through an addiction and seeing the joy and freedom that comes through God’s deliverance and mental health care. I know the highs and lows of church planting, experiencing the overwhelming assurance of God’s plan for our lives, only for it to not turn out the way we hoped and dreamed. I know deep, meaningful community and the searing loneliness of isolation. I’ve felt God’s loving presence as close as my skin and experienced God’s abundant faithfulness and blessings, yet have also wondered if God was actually just a maniacal God who was waiting to deliver retribution at the slightest sign of disobedience. I’ve experienced the joy and excitement of saying “yes” to God when invited to a big and daring change, and the sad curiosity at what would have been had I not said “no.”

All of these ups and downs of life, and more, are topics that I have been able to address with my own spiritual director for which my relationship with God-and myself- have greatly benefited. It would be an honor and a privilege to walk with you on your journey; the highs, the lows, and the in between.