Our Approach

Our Approach

The Dreamgarten Difference

Our process is rooted in mindfulness to first move out of the stress cycle of burnout and into a place of balance in the mind and body.  From there, we use human-centered, design thinking methods to reframe problems and find creative ways to solve them.

Mindfulness

There’s so much more to mindfulness than yoga and meditation. Think of it as a practical tool that we can use to be fully present, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Dreamgarten uses mindfulness tools like breathing and movement to ground your people in the moment so that they are able to connect with themselves and others.

Our mindfulness approach involves:
Bringing Awareness
Mindfulness is more than just a practice. It brings caring into everything we do—and it combats the tendency of “Monkey Mind.”  It’s about moving out of the ego and all of the things we tell ourselves and into the heart and soul.
Cultivating Simple Practices with Intention

By being aware of where we are and what we’re doing, there is a scientifically-demonstrated benefit to ourselves, our loved ones, and everyone we interact with. Intention allows us to pause and move forward with care.

Sparking Innovation
Mindfulness can lead us to effective, resilient, and low-cost responses to the seemingly inflexible problems we might face. It can help move us from fight or flight reactivity to practical, thoughtful change.

We start every session with mindfulness. It’s where we begin to release thoughts of what came before or the to-do list for after the session. It’s the place where we return to ourselves.

Design Thinking

Design thinking involves finding creative solutions to problems through an iterative approach. That means, we try. We may fail. But, we always try again. While this methodology is traditionally applied to product and UX design, Dreamgarten has discovered its powerful value in everyday decision making when applied to leadership, business, career, and beyond.

Our design-thinking approach involves:

Creating Empathy

By building empathy for ourselves and others, we can come to grips with the problems we face and discover solutions that feel true to the human at the center. At Dreamgarten, we believe self-compassion is the first step toward progress.

Ideation, Innovation, and Problem Solving

It is through uncovering the needs, desires, and motivations underlying the problems we face that we make meaningful progress. First, we must open the aperture for new and novel ideas, and then narrow the aperture to make better choices.

Prototyping and Testing

By taking an iterative approach to solutioning, we can continuously test our approaches and learn more effective methods. Reframing possible solutions as experiments allows us to see there isn’t one right way to solve a problem.

This process allows us to use proven tactics to reframe problems, uncover new, and more importantly, better choices, and create human-centered solutions.

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Have a question about which offering is best for you or your group? Reach out.

Testimonials

"Sarah listened to me to understand my personal situation and challenged me (in new ways) to really think about what motivated me. That allowed me to create goals and aspirations that were personal to me and my situation. Working with Sarah has enriched my career, my life and my happiness."


Jill Jones Karnyski | Senior Manager, Accenture

"With Dreamgarten and Sarah’s approach to design thinking, we not only voiced our dreams and desires, we also created and mapped a plan to help us get there. Often, with services like these, I find it difficult to truly engage different learning styles - but this was certainly a unique approach that really met and complemented each learner."


AJA Price | founder, Notably, HER

"Working with Sarah and Dreamgarten was transformational for me. It allowed me to connect with a more authentic part of myself — to discover what I dream of doing. In a refreshing twist, she also provided tactical takeaways for how to execute next steps and move even closer to achieving that new authentic goal."


Mackenzie Carignan, PhD

"As an entrepreneur, I have had to figure so many things out for my business through trial and error. It wasn't until my involvement with Sarah and Dreamgarten that I learned I had the answers I seeked all along — I just lacked the peace of mind and inspiration to access them. Sarah provided a set of tools that helped me find my next best steps."


Kate Horner | Owner and Oracle, The Oracle's Message