In Loving Memory of Sarah Kathryn Shelton
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Sarah Kathryn Shelton, age 46, of New Orleans, LA, on December 30, 2025 after 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. Born on January 2, 1979, in San Jose, California, she was the daughter of Ronald and Candes Shelton. Sarah grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana before moving to New Orleans at the age of 18, where she spent the next 27 years of her life. New Orleans was her true home.
Sarah graduated from the University of New Orleans with a degree in Philosophy. She later earned a Master’s in Counseling from Loyola University in New Orleans and dedicated the following ten years to training in Jungian psychoanalysis, completing her training in May 2025. For eighteen years, her gift and calling were in helping others gain a deeper understanding of themselves. The title of her thesis for analytic graduation was “Dreaming in Clay: An Experience of an Emergent Process” in which she interwove her personal life experience, her clinical experiences, and her process of artistic ceramics. Her analytic interests included emergent process and the linking of philosophical ideas with Analytical Psychology and psychoanalysis. She was a voracious reader, reading and synthesizing from a wide variety of sources. She was respected and admired by her friends, colleagues, patients, and instructors. Everyone who knew her anticipated Sarah making significant contributions to the field of Jungian psychoanalysis.
A natural artist, Sarah had a passion for painting, music, gardening, and, more recently, pottery. In her final months, her love for ceramics brought her immense comfort and joy.
She is survived by her partner, Mark Winborn; her parents, Ronald and Candes; and her three brothers, Andrew (Adrianne), Phillip (Caroline), and Max (Jennifer), her former husband Shane Lief, and her two dogs, Mae and Kevin. Sarah ’s curiosity and her remarkable ability to put others at ease will be deeply missed by all who knew her.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to The Louisiana Garden Club Federation, the Louisiana Beekeepers Association and The Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts.