By Joanna Miller
Published December 2025
One might say that my placement at St. John’s Kitchen began by wonderful happenstance, while others might attribute a more Divine intervention to it. As a pastor in Waterloo Region, I had been asked by TWC to help lead memorial services and I was grateful to be able to be able to help them in that way. Somehow, we made the jump from memorials to my upcoming need to find a placement…
You see, in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic I decided to go back to school. My job wasn’t necessarily at risk, but I had an inkling that the pandemic would hasten the changes that were already occurring in both church and society. So, I decided to learn how to be a therapist to compliment the work I was already doing. And thus began four years of part-time, post-graduate studies.
As a result, in May of 2024, I began a year-long clinical placement at The Working Centre. A practicum placement is a requirement for the master’s degree with a specialty in spiritual care and psychotherapy from Martin Luther University College (or “Luther” as we call it, affiliated with Wilfrid Laurier). Most of my peers became intern therapists at agencies around southwestern Ontario, where they had scheduled, standard length appointments with clients who had sought out therapy. My placement was different.
Thanks to the willingness of TWC to try something new, professors who saw the potential, and my clinical supervisor who was game for outside-the-box learning opportunities, this placement unfolded before me. We were all excited about the possibility of bringing access to psychotherapeutic care within closer reach of our community members.
In the beginning, I spent all my time at St. John’s Kitchen; first, serving coffee to get to know the community and later, milling about the dining room as I sat with folks and engaged them in conversation. As my placement progressed, I also spent time working within one of TWC’s housing projects.
At first, my job was to be present, to get to know folks, to become a face they recognized. In time, as people began to trust me, I developed relationships with community members who would seek me out to give me updates, to check in, to continue conversations we had begun previously. Some of those conversations developed into scheduled appointments where we met as therapist and client.
I can hardly express the richness of this experience for me. It was the most profound honour to hear people’s stories; to be trusted to listen as they recounted their pain and joy, their trials and achievements. I heard stories of heartache and frustration, stories of hope and resilience. Time and time again, I reflected back to people their strength and resilience. It is inspiring that people can be so strong and heartbreaking that they have need to be.
One of the unexpected gifts of my time with TWC was the relationships I built with staff members. The staff who serve at St. John’s Kitchen are among the most wonderful humans I have encountered. They have the most beautiful hearts. They model so many traits I aspire to – compassion, humility, gentleness, grace. They are courageous, often running toward situations that most of us would run from. Perhaps most of all, they are deeply committed; they understand their work to be a gift and a privilege. I cannot fully articulate the respect and admiration I have for these folk – they taught me so much when they had no idea I was watching.
I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to have done my practicum placement in this way. First, to be able to provide this service to folks for whom access to therapy is difficult is meaningful and important. Making an appointment with a therapist can be a daunting process for those of us with all kinds of privilege and supports, it is even harder for those with extra barriers and challenges. Even more, I was grateful for the learning I did, for the relationships I found there, and for the ways my heart was touched.
While there is not currently another Luther practicum student at TWC, I hope that my placement is the beginning of something bigger and better. I hope that through this process we all learned something about what is possible; that my school learned about the value of creative placements that serve the community in meaningful ways and that TWC found affirmation in their willingness to try a new thing.
I offer my deepest and most heartfelt thanks to everyone who made my placement possible, but mostly… to the folks who sat down with me, who shared pieces of themselves and their stories with me. I will be forever grateful for your courage and trust. Know that I continue to carry you all in my heart.
