Naomi Stephan, PhD

Naomi Irene Stephan, Ph.D., ASCAP

My Mottos:

Sing your own song
Stand up for what you believe in
Steadfastly express your passion
Seize the moment of excited curiosity

My Mission:

"To create a sound world through the sound of my words and my music."

My Journey:

I am a composer, musician, coach, activist and recovering professor. My three main passions are: music, political activism, and the excitement of discovery.

I was born into a musical and academically educated family of German Lutheran heritage in Bloomington, Indiana. Growing up on a college campus, I spent my early years singing, playing, and meeting people from around the world at my parent's campus parish. This background prompted me to spend almost eight years in Germany (Berlin, Nürnberg, and Düsseldorf) to experience and absorb that country's (and my own) rich musical and cultural heritage.

My professors at Indiana University and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik recognized my musical talent and predicted a great career for me in music. "Bach is Naomi's daily bread," one wrote. Nevertheless, after returning to the US, I abandoned a promising career to opt for a "safer" and more "sensible" one as a professor of German literature and language. Although I advanced on this academic path, I left behind the person I really wanted to be. Inwardly I grieved without understanding exactly why. Something was missing - but what? I started looking within to find answers to my soul's path and this search became the foundation of my Life Mission work.

In l981, I left a tenured professorship at Valparaiso University in Indiana, to search for that elusive something I hadn't yet defined. This search took me to California, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and most recently, Ojai. In the ensuing process of self-discovery, I remembered my original intent to pursue a musical career. It was a most painful realization, since I had so neglected and abandoned the muse in the past.

I reoriented my life around following this musical path and made a firm commitment to pursue a musical calling through singing, conducting and composing choral music. My compositions have not only deepened my sense of soul satisfaction, but have also gained recognition with performances throughout the United States and Europe. In June of 2004, I will be headed to Prague to accept a first place prize in choral music for the spiritual category in the Jihlava Choral Musical Festival, the largest in the Czech Republic.

My Coaching Philosophy and Process:

I believe our society, particularly our school system, in its disdain for and suppression of the arts, contributes to a great disconnect between feelings and action, with a resultant increase in violence and anomie. We all suffer from this negative influence. (What if the kids at Columbine had been playing with violins, rather than guns?)

As a result of school and societal repression, the creative part of ourselves often is denied or abandoned. Having myself buried my talents and ambition for many years, I realized I had to pursue my musical mission to feel authentic, before I could help others discover their mission. I have converted my own journey of loss and discovery into a concrete, step-by-step process to help others find their lost loves: that violin put away in the closet gathering dust, those poems still in the imagination or stuck away in a drawer, those paintings waiting to emerge from the empty canvas like Michelangelo's slave from his marble, or the novel languishing unfinished in the computer (all examples from my clients).

Life Mission Work saved my life and it can save yours.

I coach my clients to discover their buried, lost, and undiscovered talents, to recognize their soul's intention, and I coach them how to follow their passionate path, in the words of the late, great Jack Gibb. I also encourage clients to take a principled stand for their beliefs, and to spare no effort in following the true dictates of their soul's bidding.

I work with people face-to-face, but also across the globe by telephone or e-mail. I use creative exercises, the arts, astrology and other adjunct modalities to unleash the secrets of your soul, to help you gain access to your true life's purpose. (See Sue's interview of me on this web site.)

If you wish to engage me as a coach, I can teach you how to: