I'm Sara Avant Stover, founder of her Self Institute. I help women in spiritual leadership who've done deep inner work bring what's been growing inside them into fuller form in the world.
Most coaching teaches you strategy without addressing why you can't implement it. Most healing tends your inner world without giving you structure. I bridge this gap by integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS), over 25 years of mentoring women, and 30 years of practice in feminine spirituality.
Helping Spiritually-Oriented Women Share Their Soul's Work Effectively and Sustainably
About Sara Avant Stover
My path began long before women’s spiritual leadership became mainstream online.
I graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude. Soon after, a health scare changed the course of my life and led me to Thailand, where I lived for nearly a decade and became one of the leading yoga and spiritual teachers in Southeast Asia at that time.
When I returned to the U.S. in 2008, I published The Way of the Happy Woman, a groundbreaking book that helped spark a modern movement in women’s spirituality. Around that same time, I became one of the first women to bring this work online, blending ancient wisdom, feminine leadership, and entrepreneurship before most people had language for that integration.
Today, I’m a Level 3 Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner, trained intuitive, and author of three books. I’ve led retreats featured in The New Yorker and mentored tens of thousands of women worldwide. Over decades of devotion and reinvention, I developed the methodology I now teach, an approach that integrates inner wisdom, psychological healing, and practical business skill.
I now live in Bordeaux, France with my husband and our rescue dog, Sadie. Here, I continue supporting women to become deeply Self-led so their work becomes sustainable, meaningful, and truly theirs.
More women than ever are building lives and work around their healing gifts, spiritual depth, and soul's purpose. But most are following broken paths.
Traditional business coaching treats your business like a machine to optimize—ignoring inner work entirely. You learn strategy, but when it's time to implement, you freeze, self-sabotage, or burn out.
Spiritual approaches honor your intuition—but bypass practical fundamentals. You receive beautiful downloads, create vision boards, but can't translate any of it into a business that pays you consistently.
Neither works alone. And women are exhausted from choosing between their soul and their bank account.
I help you stop choosing.
Why This Work Matters Now
My Background
Whether we're working together in private mentoring or in the her Self CEO program, the goal is the same: work that grows with you, not in spite of you.
I believe in:
- Inner wisdom before external strategy
- Long-term transformation over quick fixes
- Congruence with your body and values
- Self-led decisions—not fear-based ones
- Root your work in the Sacred World—Partner with your higher Self and the higher Self of your work
- Cultivate harmony in your Inner World—Using IFS, identify the parts that block you and heal what’s holding you back
- Build your Outer World—Translate your inner clarity into structure, visibility, and grounded action
- Integrate all three worlds — So your spiritual integrity and real-world expression work together so you can embody your soul's work.
- Integrate all three worlds— So your spiritual integrity and real-world success work together so you can embody your soul's work.
How I Think About This Work
How I Work With Clients
Your work should come from your whole Self—not just your head, not just your heart, but the integrated wisdom of all aspects of you.
— Jennifer Louden
“What I appreciate about Sara is how giving and erudite she is. She is a generous, smart thinker and writer about women's health and I love giving her books to women of all ages.”
her Self CEO is my signature 12-week group mentorship for women ready to build the Sacred, Inner, and Outer worlds of their work in community.
Private Mentoring is the most intimate way to work with me. One-on-one sessions integrating IFS, intuitive guidance, and grounded structure, designed for wherever you are right now.
Everything I teach comes from lived experience, not theory.
I've been building, rebuilding, and refining this work for over twenty-five years. I know what it feels like when your inner life is rich but your outer world hasn't caught up. I've lived that gap, and I've found my way through it using the same approach I now bring to every woman I work with.
My work is for women ready to stop choosing between their inner lives and the outer world.
I'm not a fit if you're:
- Looking for quick-fix tactics or overnight success
- Not willing to do inner work alongside the outer work
- Feeling too stuck to take any external action
- Not ready to invest in both psychological healing and practical structure
I work best with:
- Women in spiritual leadership — healers, therapists, coaches, writers, creatives, and women building something they don't have a name for yet
- Women transitioning out of corporate careers or ready for a pivot to greater authenticity
- Sensitive, spiritually-oriented women generally in mid-life (though some are younger or older)
- Women of depth who have done a lot of inner work and want to honor their intuition, rather than external "shoulds"
Who I'm a Fit For
A Note on My Approach
What to Do Next
— Kate Northrup, Author & Entrepreneur
“Sara has managed to strike the perfect balance between hip, modern practicality, and ancient, wise woman wisdom.”
