![\"Pursuing](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/web-JulienNov2003-021-300x175.jpg\" "\\"C\u00c1MARA")
Starr, a former psychologist, owns just such a colorful indulgence, which, to her, represents the vitality she\u2019s finally found in life.<\/p>\n
Six years ago, \u201cI worked 80-plus hours a week,\u201d she explained. \u201cI loved helping people, but it was really draining. \u2026 Psychological work is very problem-oriented. It\u2019s focused on the problem and the symptom, and people are usually really suffering. So pain is the motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although she\u2019d studied and trained for years to earn her credentials \u2013 first completing a degree at the University of Vienna, followed by hundreds of internship hours, co-editorship of the \u201cJournal of Psychology of the Austrian Association of Psychologists\u201d and a roster of patients in Vienna \u2013 Starr knew \u201csomething was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
So she made what was for her an uncharacteristic decision \u2013 to take some time for herself. Then she hiked the Camino de Santiago, a route that runs from France to northwestern Spain through the Pyrenees mountains. It\u2019s a sojourn thousands have undertaken since the beginning of the 10th century, some for religious reasons and others just to clear their heads. And after the five-week, 500-mile trek, Starr found herself looking at life with new perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything I thought was important before I left just kind of fell away,\u201d she said. \u201cI had new priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first was to take better care of herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t continue working as I was,\u201d Starr said.<\/p>\n
The second was to focus on the present. Instead of trying to resolve clients\u2019 problems by analyzing their history, as her training in psychology had oriented her to do, she would help people pursue their passions in the present: turning the daily grind to gold.<\/p>\n
Such alchemical transformation was, in fact, occurring in Starr\u2019s own life. Because as she traversed the Camino, not only was she finding new direction, she was also finding love.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s said that love conquers all, but after moving to San Diego to marry her new paramour, Starr learned her Austrian credentials didn\u2019t qualify her to practice in the U.S. Unable to envision going back to school and re-doing thousands of internship hours, she began to grieve the loss of her profession and, coupled with the challenge of adjusting to marriage and a foreign culture, her life might easily have lost its nascent luster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I heard about life coaching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The International Coach Federation, a non-profit credentialing association, defines life coaching as \u201cpartnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.\u201d Rather than revisiting clients\u2019 past traumas, as psychologists do, life coaches are proactive and action oriented.<\/p>\n
The process is less about assessment and analysis than about learning practical tools for progress. Consequently, life coaching is \u201cfor fully functioning people, never for people dealing with psychological disorders,\u201d Starr said.<\/p>\n
The profession isn\u2019t regulated, but Starr wanted to become certified so she investigated several training institutes and found herself drawn to one that uses a \u201clife-fulfillment model,\u201d an approach that emphasizes cultivating empowerment over treating pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was what I\u2019d been missing,\u201d she said. \u201cFixing problems is one thing, but life is meant to be more than [a lack of] problems. \u2026 How to create a really fabulous life, how to feel alive, how to show up for life and be present and be inspired, that\u2019s [living].\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing a one-week, in-person training, followed by several months of tele-classes and working with a personal life coach herself, Starr developed the philosophy that now informs her approach with clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment I was willing to do something for mi <\/em>life, for me<\/em>, \u2026 I was highly rewarded. Willingness is all it takes. The only thing clients need is to be willing to look [inside] and to show up for their own life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u00ad\u00ad\u00adThe concept was new for the self-described \u201cpeace keeper.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe all have certain roles in our family,\u201d she explained, reflecting upon why it first felt so unnatural to pay attention to herself. \u201c[Growing up,] I got really good at sensing people\u2019s moods. My mom was \u2026 depressed for a long time \u2026 so I always tried [to cheer her up].\u201d<\/p>\n Starr had long felt responsible for tending her mother\u2019s feelings at the expense of her own, and she\u2019d perpetuated such caretaking in her work as a psychologist. But, ultimately, doing so had depleted her energy, and she had never learned to give herself the same consideration \u2013 a habit that required practice to begin to change.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me over a year before I could meet my own commitments to my own life coach,\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo I don\u2019t judge my clients.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, she said she encourages listening to our \u201cinner music,\u201d \u201cgetting rid of all the musts and shoulds,\u201d and \u201capproaching what we want courageously.\u201d Then, \u201cone\u2019s whole life philosophy is different, and different things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, different things have been happening for Starr ever since she began coaching. Today she offers not only one-on-one coaching but also group sessions, public speaking engagements, a radio show, a blog, a newspaper column and, as of next year, her first book, \u201cA Better Childhood at 40.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet she said since launching her coaching career she doesn\u2019t feel like she\u2019s worked a single moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one thing I really advocate. Often people\u2019s goals are very chore-oriented. And we can achieve a lot. But the point is, I don\u2019t want it to be a drag. Everything goes so much more easily if we\u2019re inspired and in charge, and OK with who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n Arriving at this point can be complex or simple, time consuming or brief, depending on the individual, Starr said. But, regardless, there is always a \u201cmagical moment\u201d when the answer reveals itself, and the client \u201ccan\u2019t be the same anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe paradox,\u201d she said, \u201cis that [the answer is] inside ourselves, but we have to go on a journey to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily, hiking 500 miles through the mountains and moving across the world isn\u2019t always necessary. Starr employs a variety of techniques, both from her training as a psychologist and as a life coach, to empower people. Among others, these include how to recognize \u201cenergy drains,\u201d be they situations, places, or people; stop downward spirals of emotion and thought; free and redirect preoccupation with the past; establish habits that culminate in reaching goals; learn to listen and hear one\u2019s self; examine recurring unease and underlying dissatisfaction; and relinquish perfectionism for progress.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my favorite suggestions is to ask people to commit to making one mistake a day,\u201d Starr said. \u201cMany people are such perfectionists, and the price is very high. \u2026 I take living a fabulous life very seriously, but it doesn\u2019t have to be a drag.\u201d<\/p>\n As Anderson opined, \u201cJust living is not enough.\u201d We also need sunshine, freedom, flowers, a sporty set of wheels \u2013 and perhaps a little Starr.<\/p>\n Business name: Sabine Starr Coaching<\/strong> \u2014A Whim and a Prayer profiles the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurs intrepid enough to put their fanciful ideas and unique talents to the test in today\u2019s volatile marketplace. If you are a local business owner and you would like to be featured in this column, contact Celene Adams at writeyourbusinessstory@gmail.com or visit writeyourbusinessstory.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Celene Adams | A Whim and a Prayer To live fully,\u201c[o]ne must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower,\u201d wrote Danish author Hans Christian Anderson \u2013 a list to which Mission Hills life coach Sabine Starr might add an Italian Racing Red Alfa Romeo.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1365,"featured_media":245797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Pursuing passion in the present: Life coach helps turn daily grind to gold","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBusiness owner: Sabine Starr<\/strong>
\nBusiness type: Life Coaching<\/strong>
\nYears in business: Six<\/strong>
\nServices: Coaching for fitness, health, weight loss; changing habits; coping with stress surrounding major life events such as marriage, job change, divorce, empty nest<\/strong>
\nMarket niche: Often works with clients experiencing life transitions or who want to learn to practice authenticity and pursue passions<\/strong>
\nBusiness philosophy: Willingness to listen to one\u2019s self and take action is all we need to lead a fabulous life.<\/strong>
\nWebsite: starrcoaching.com<\/strong><\/p>\n