Our History

2022

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, holding in-person retreats is once again possible. STAR is thrilled to announce a return to operations and its former longtime home at Kenyon Ranch beginning in Spring 2022.

2020

Like so many businesses and organizations, STAR, too, shuttered its doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring the health and safety of both our participants and staff members has long been STAR’s number one priority.

2019

STAR is pleased to welcome Ken Ball, Ph.D., LMFT, into his new role as Clinical Director. A 1989 STAR graduate and retreat facilitator since 1996, Ken brings a deep understanding and appreciation of the STAR process into his new role.

2018

STAR announces Rancho de la Osa Guest Ranch as the new home for its retreats. Located along the Mexican Border in Sasabe, Arizona, Rancho de la Osa offers safe, nurturing, and private space for deep healing work.

2013

Barbara announces her retirement from STAR after more than 3 decades of service to the organization.

2011

STAR Founder, Barbara Findeisen receives the prestigious Thomas Verny Award for her extensive contributions to the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology. She is honored for her efforts to bring the importance of our earliest experiences to the forefront of our thinking and is recognized for her work helping countless individuals to heal their early traumatic experiences and step into their fullest potential.

2009

Admittedly on a technology avoidant, (“I prefer talking, not typing!”), Barbara finally begins to embrace technology after some convincing by STAR staff members. The Winter 2009 newsletter is the first to be sent via email, and Barbara pens her first blog, ‘Becoming Authentic.’

2005

A generous contribution to the STAR Foundation allows Barbara and her husband to purchase Kenyon Ranch in Tubac, Arizona. Designed to be a “sanctuary for people”, Kenyon Ranch hosts its first STAR Retreat beginning with the 2005 workshop season. 

1999

As a means to accommodate the busy lives of its participants, STAR shifts from 17-day program to 10-day intensive. Amazingly, the STAR process remained as a profoundly transformational experience for all who attended under the new format.

After leaving Pocket Ranch, STAR goes on the road and begins hosting retreats at sites in Arizona, Georgia, and California. A ‘traveling show,’ STAR would continue its ‘tour’ for several years before laying down roots at a new home location. “STAR can happen anywhere where people are willing to show up and do the work.”

In the mid-1980’s, STAR finds a home at Pocket Ranch in Geyserville, CA. Hundreds of participants attend both the 17 and 21-day retreats offered at Pocket Ranch over the decade STAR operates there.

1985

STAR remained as a 13-week workshop with Barbara leading groups in both California & Sweden until 1985 when it transitioned to a 21-day residential intensive retreat. The residential nature of this new format allowed for Barbara and her team to enhance and expand the process 10-fold.

1984

The STAR Foundation is a recognized 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization on March 19, 1984.

1983

Articles of Incorporation of the STAR Foundation are filed by the State of California on June 8, 1983.

1983

As an early explorer and leader of pre- and perinatal psychology, Barbara knew that in utero and birth experiences held the key to lifelong patterns for many clients. STAR begins offering its participants a means to access and begin to heal these earliest wounds and patterns.

 

1976

Impressed with the process and the clarity that it gave her, Barbara began auditing STAR shortly thereafter—one night she would audit STAR, and the next night lead her first group. Under her leadership, STAR continued to evolve as a 13-week process with meetings one night each week.

The STAR Process provides Barbara with the “missing link” for which she had been searching. A process that offers an opportunity to go beyond where traditional talk therapy could take her and her clients.