I was fortunate to find the STAR program... What years of therapy and medication could not achieve was realized in just a short time at STAR.
-1995 graduate
My STAR experience saved my life. Each experience was unique, each was invaluable, each touched me where I needed to be touched. I will be forever grateful for all that everyone did and for what I learned.
- 1995 graduate, 1 year after STAR
At STAR I saw miracles. I saw people, not the least of whom was myself, re-emerging into joyful life. If you want to reattach to the loving powers you were born with, do STAR.
-1995 graduate
Nope—best thing in my life happened at STAR—found me.
- 2000 graduate, 1 year after STAR
STAR was a pivotal, life-changing experience. Its ongoing effects are still being felt... was the “spring board” for more courageous work. I will always be grateful I was guided, encouraged to go!
- 1994 graduate, 1 year after STAR
Everyday I am learning more about myself and understanding myself and my "stuff" better. I'm impressed at how well I'm handling adult situations like an adult and able to set better boundaries and take care of myself. I still have a long way to go in my recovery process, yet the shifts are taking place and for this I am very grateful. I also find that I have a new sense of compassion for people, finally understanding that peoples' "stuff" is not about me and most likely comes from a wounded place. It keeps me grounded and able to handle situations much healthier than I have in the past. Thank you STAR!
– 2004 graduate, two months after STAR
I am now able to look at situations much more clearly. I am amazed at myself for how I behaved recently during some stressful and insane family situations. It was great and I am proud of myself for using what I learned at STAR.
- 2004 graduate, 1 year after STAR
I would highly recommend this program to anyone. It was extremely helpful for me. I found a sense of peace and it helped me to slow everything down in my life. I laid a lot of my old demons down.
- 2001 graduate, 1 year after STAR
I feel like STAR literally saved my life. I just couldn’t figure out why I was so unhappy and stuck. STAR got me reconnected to me – not the me that I created to survive, but the real me. STAR amazingly created a safe place where I could...shed the incredible paralyzing fear that had taken over and ruled my life. The love and support of Barbara and the STAR staff was what enabled me to do this. STAR amazingly creates the family environment under which all children are able to grow and thrive. STAR also gave me a wonderful family that I can call on and who can call on me. I always wanted to be loved for who I was – warts and all – and STAR gave me that, and most importantly, STAR taught me how to love myself.
– 1996 graduate
It was the most love I have ever felt in one place. The readers gave me all of 200% of their time & gifts. The facets of the program were interesting, innovative, & right on.
– 2008 graduate
STAR has turned my inner feelings about me, life in general, and family responsibilities 360 degrees! I profess to all that will listen—it is the greatest gift anyone could ever give themselves—regardless of their status in life—everyone could benefit from it! STAR has made such a major impact on my life—I carry its treasures in my heart 24/7.
- 1997 graduate, 1 year after STAR
STAR has given me a new lease on life. I am looking forward to new experiences and I have the tools to work with. Life for me will be a new beginning.
– 2008 graduate
This program has changed my life. As far as I am concerned, these 8 days saved me in many ways. God bless all who give and do so much to make this happen, you are all angels. My mind right now is on a euphoric high from all the love & energy that found me. If it wasn’t for STAR I would have derailed, you have put me back on track to living the happy life I deserve to live Thank you.
– 2008 graduate
STAR opened me up to see that I do have within me the capability to be happy and free. For the first time in my life, I experienced that. It has been a struggle since STAR, but the struggle is not the same hopeless struggle as before. I have seen and felt my true radiant self; that is what helps me when I get caught by the “old stuff” again.
- 2000 graduate, 1 year after STAR
I had very high expectations, but STAR exceeded them by far. The staff, participants, everything was just The Best? I feel I can now live rather than just survive and suffer in silence. It allowed me to drop down and really listen to the wisdom with in me.
– 2008 graduate
I’m just very thankful I was led to STAR and had the fortune to participate in it. It was an extraordinary experience. It changed my life, possibly saved it.
- 2003 graduate, 1 year after STAR
I first heard of STAR from my daughter Ashley. During the summer of 2006, I decided to attend myself—both to understand my daughter's experience as well as to face the reality of my aging parents' imminent deaths (Both died within months of my STAR stay). I discovered, however, that often our emotional turmoil is delayed and it was two years later that I faced the full impact of that loss of love and focus they had provided. But this discovery is what is important. While even STAR could not prevent the ensuing impact of pain, it most importantly provided me with the tools to cope through the journey of pain. Today I am free to (as the storyteller of Beowulf so aptly put it) "Winter into Wisdom." Through the lessons learned, the tools provided, and the love given—I feel balanced and grounded once more. I thank my daughter Ashley, the Director Barbara, and all of the extraordinary staff at STAR for making this quality of life so real and possible.
-Ginny, 3 ½ years after STAR
STAR enabled me to create a firm foundation. This has not only allowed me to solidly support what I’d already built as a life, but to add levels I would not otherwise have reached.
- 2000 graduate, 1 year after STAR
It was beyond words. The experience was life changing, very spiritual & healing.
– 2008 graduate
I have had a great shift in my thinking and in my body. It might have saved my life. Before I came to STAR, I was flat lining, since being here, I’ve been resuscitated and come back to life!
– 2008 graduate
I thought life would be perfect when I returned from STAR. It actually got worse before it got better, but I knew how to move forward. It got worse because I had changed, but my environment had not. Now I live in a new city, with a wonderful partner, no drama, and when a bump in the road appears, I know I can make it over. I truly believe STAR saved my life and showed me how to start a better one.
- 2000 graduate, 1 year after STAR
I have changed and healed incredibly over the past many years. I had done much therapy prior to STAR, but I feel like STAR was the beginning of my truly deep healing as well as the beginning of my spiritual process and journeying. I am deeply grateful.
- 1987 graduate, 1 year after STAR
It saved my life. It was the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.
– 2008 graduate