Podcast
Honor Your Spark
Hosted by Valerie Martin · EN
If you're a high-achiever who wants your ambition to extend beyond your professional goals and into your wellbeing and relationships— you're in the right place. I'm Valerie Martin, a Certified High Performance Coach and therapist of 12 years, and I'm obsessed with teaching and coaching folks how to cultivate Compassionate Self-Discipline. We ALL have a spark alive within us— no matter how small or dim it might feel right now. And it is our greatest purpose and greatest RESPONSIBILITY to honor it.Because when we do, we become better partners, friends, leaders, parents, creators, and family members in the interconnected web of this wild, dark, miraculous, beautiful world. 💞
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
38 | Embracing Change and Creating Space for the New
May 22, 202400:38:38Tap to summarizeAs the Honor Your Spark theme music fades out, a wave of bittersweet emotions washes over me. It's time for a change. In this episode, I'm sharing with you about a big decision I've made related to my coaching business— which includes the podcast is going on indefinite pause. This final (for now, at least) episode is all about finding the wins—especially the lessons— IN the losses, and how to know when it’s time to let something we love go... even if we've put a heck of a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and DOLLARS into it.
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37 | Exploring Neurodivergence + the Dark Side of Being an Influencer with Megan Griffith
May 7, 202400:44:04Tap to summarizeYou’ve probably heard someone in your life say something like this (or perhaps had the thought yourself): “How is it that EVERYONE all the sudden has ADHD and autism?!” Weellll that’s not exactly any more true than saying there’s “all the sudden” a bunch of trans people around, when really they’ve always been there— just more closeted since their reality was not as affirmed as it now is. (Of course we still have a very long way to go with even making the world SAFE for trans folks, let alone affirming.)
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36 | Existentialism as a Path for Truth & Growth with Dr. Sara Kuburic (AKA @millennial.therapist)
Apr 23, 202400:44:43Tap to summarizen a world that often feels disorienting with its speed and complexity, finding our true selves can sometimes seem like a search for a needle in a vast, shifting haystack. This quest for personal identity and authenticity was the focus of a deep and insightful conversation on my podcast Honor Your Spark, where I was recently joined by existential psychotherapist, consultant, writer, and columnist Dr. Sara Kuburic, also known as the Millennial Therapist. In this conversation, we explored the intricacies of human emotions and behaviors and how existentialism (and specifically, existential therapy) can offer a unique perspective on navigating life's challenges with authenticity, courage, and responsibility.
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35 | Own Your Career by Finding Your Power Mood with Sam DeMase
Apr 9, 202400:37:29Tap to summarizeThe corporate world is not exactly known for being fair to women. Even with significant progress made in recent decades, the wage gap still has women getting paid 16% less than their male counterparts (substantially worse for women of color), and women are often passed up for promotions or higher-level positions. Remember this exchange from the Barbie movie during Ken’s visit to corporate America? Ken: You guys aren't doing patriarchy very well. Corporate Bro: We're actually doing patriarchy very well [lowers voice] Corporate Bro: ... we're just better at hiding it. So when I discovered Sam DeMase through her book A Power Mood, I knew I had to invite her on the podcast. We had a fantastic conversation about the importance of self-advocacy for women in the workplace, and how they make make more strategic moves for career advancement.
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34 | Goblincore: A Deep Dive into the Aesthetic & Lifestyle with Author McKayla Coyle
Mar 26, 202400:41:06Tap to summarizeAesthetic styles like Minimalism, Grunge, Rustic, and Boho have been in the mainstream awareness for a quite a while now— and in recent years, social media has made it possible for folks to connect around more niche aesthetics like Cottagecore, Y2K, Academia, Old Money (for real), and— one of my personal favorites— Goblincore. And similarly to Minimalism, Goblincore is not just an aesthetic, but also a lifestyle. In this episode of "Honor Your Spark," I had the privilege of diving deep into the enchanting and rebellious world of Goblincore with the brilliant McKayla Coyle, an author who not only has penned a fantastic, detailed guide to Goblincore (Goblin Mode) but also lives and breathes this inclusive and anti-capitalist lifestyle.
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33 | Cultivating Resilience Through Life & Work Pivots with Jason Shen
Mar 12, 202400:46:33Tap to summarizeNavigating pivots is a necessary skill set in all areas of life— especially in our careers, whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur. In the case of Jason Shen, who pivoted from Silicon Valley entrepreneur to Facebook employee to executive coach, resilience becomes the name of the game. In fact, in his first startup, Jason says of his team: "We didn't run out of money— we ran out of resilience." As he continued to see how critical resilience was for navigating both personal and professional pivots, he became passionate about understanding it deeply. The more he thought, learned, and researched about resilience, Jason started to understand it not just as one skill or trait, but as a set of skills that can be cultivated.
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32 | Why Micro Activism is the Most Powerful Way to Make an Impact with Omkari Williams
Feb 27, 202400:47:20Tap to summarizeThe idea of being an “activist” can feel incredibly daunting. Since not a single person can ~save the world~ even if activism is their full-time job, it doesn’t take much to start feeling that creeping sense of “Why bother?”. Omkari Williams is here to tell you why we should still bother— and how we can think of activism in a way that actually fits into our lives for the long haul.
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31 | The Power of Becoming ‘Body Aware’ with Erica Hornthal
Feb 13, 202400:56:20Tap to summarizeOur modern world is paradoxical in many ways, one being this: people will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on books, courses, coaching, and therapy to become more self-aware— and yet, our technology and pace of living can cause us to be anything BUT aware. Instead, we often find ourselves on autopilot, seldom relying on critical thinking or reflecting deeply on our internal experience
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30 | Healing from Narcissistic Abuse + The Dark Side of the Coaching Industry with Angela Gentile
Jan 30, 202400:47:34Tap to summarizeAnyone who hasn’t been through some kind of substantial hardship yet has no business being a therapist or coach. There— I said it. No, your therapist/coach doesn’t need to have gone through the same experiences you have; but if they haven’t even set foot inside the school of hard knocks, how the hell are they supposed to have the perspective to help their clients navigate suffering? In this episode of the podcast, Angela Gentile, public school teacher turned professional hypewoman and speaker, shares how her own experiences have shaped both who she is as a person and as a coach and catalyst with her clients.
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29 | Ella Magers on Expanding Compassion for Self and ALL Beings
Jan 16, 202400:59:05Tap to summarizeIt ain't my business to tell anyone how to eat or live their lives, but hey— it's my podcast, so I sure as hell am gonna tell you what I think. 😜 In all seriousness, I haven’t talked much at all about veganism or animal advocacy in the Bad Bitch Therapist world yet. In the past, I actually had a whole separate “Val the Vegan Therapist” website and vegan podcast, and while I’m still just as passionate about veganism today, I just realized that was not a thing that I wanted to do as a full-out additional brand / business.
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