About Sara

SaraSitting_newSara L. Orem, Ph.D. is an active senior in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She has been a life-long student, completing her doctorate just before her 60th birthday in the inter-disciplinary program in Human and Organization Systems at Fielding Graduate University. Her dissertation was focused on transformative learning in interpersonal conflict, and her participants were mostly older married couples. Sara continues as instructor, student, and volunteer in the University of California Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She has taught courses in Gratitude, Mindfulness and Writing Legacy Letters.  She belongs to two active writing groups.

Her current focus is on the development and use of positive methods including Appreciative Inquiry in conversations with older adults about living our best lives as we age and change. She, Jackie Binkert, and Ann Clancy, co-authored Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change published in early 2007 by Jossey-Bass. Since its publication, Appreciative Coaching has garnered positive attention from the International Coach Federation and the Conference Board. Peggy Guest (of the Cramer Institute) and Sara collaborated on A Coach’s Guide to Asset-Based Thinking and Appreciative Coaching, published in 2009. Appreciative Coaching describes in detail the method Sara has developed for her coaching practice with women and men involved in self-started transitions. Most recently, Sara has become a regular meditator, and book club enthusiast.  Having the time and space to explore new interests such as these has been a real gift of ending full-time work.

“My intention here is to create a space where my own awarenesses of aging combine with the latest information about health, exercise and nutrition—especially for older people, and interviews with friends and experts who inspire me. I think of this as a community forum for lively, positively-focused older women and men.”