What We Do
Threshold serves individuals, couples, and groups. Here are some of our specializations.
Transpersonal Counseling
Transpersonal Counseling is rooted in the notion that who we are as human beings boils down to more than just our physical bodies and our rational minds. Consciousness is both subtle and broad, encompassing the individual conscious mind, the depths of the personal unconscious, as well as the breadth of what Carl Jung referred to as the collective (or transpersonal) unconscious. It means that we are linked to everyone and everything around us. In relation to the larger world of consciousness, our human experiences take on a different aspect, cast anew with perspective and purpose. Our essential nature is one of connectedness, wisdom, and vitality. It is evident in our instinctual striving toward greater knowledge, integration, wholeness, and self-actualization.
Despite the fact of this transcendent reality, human life necessarily entails suffering and struggle, and the luminous quality of the spirit is often obscured by layers of heartache, loss, disappointment, and the many small deaths we each endure in life. Painful and challenging experiences, though, offer possibilities for deeper learning and self-development. In many cases, coming to grips with our struggles can lead to greater self-knowledge and empowerment. Further, many other experiences in our lives reflect, quietly or not so quietly, that there is more going on in the world and within ourselves than can be easily seen or measured, and that greater vision, insight, and empowerment are close-at-hand and barely obscured. Transpersonal experiences - peak, creative, spiritual, ecstatic, visionary, unitive, etc - are powerful windows into all levels of consciousness. Transpersonal counselors pay special attention to these sorts of experiences as they can aid us in remembering who we are and reconnecting to a larger picture of our lives.
The spark of consciousness that lives within and extends beyond ourselves is the deepest ground of individuate being. We are more than what we seem to be. It is the job of the transpersonal counselor to help clients part the veils obscuring their own brightness, and to support them manifesting ever more of the vitality of their essential selves; to hold all aspects of the person - body, mind and spirit in service of their health, thriving, and further development.
Somatic-Focused Therapy
Sonja specializes in somatic-focused therapy. This form of counseling is a body-centered therapy that considers the mind-body (psyche-soma) connection and uses both traditional psychotherapy approaches in conjunction with body-centered therapies for a holistic approach to self-knowledge and healing. Sonja integrates talk therapy with mind-body exercises to help resolve intra- and interpersonal tension that negatively affect physical and emotional well-being. Her somatic-focused approach considers the differences of how physical and emotional experiences present themselves within the context of an individual's unique situation. This can be a profoundly effective modality for individuals who have completed years of talk therapy and are seeking next level growth, for individuals who have difficulty articulating their feelings, for those who find it difficult to discuss their wounding and trauma, for diverse individuals who are navigating the needs and expectations of more than one culture, and couples who seek to deepen their connection and understanding of each other.
Dream Analysis
Adam specializes in dream analysis. Dreams come to us as coded messages, in service of health and wholeness. They reflect our conscious and unconscious selves, and are a universal transpersonal experience offering to us the wisdom of the collective. Dreams are a powerful tool for self-knowledge that we all possess, and they are jet-fuel for the journey of conscious self-development. Because they emerge organically from us - unfiltered and unguarded - dreams are transparently honest and tap into our deepest knowingness, often beyond that with which we credit ourselves. Working with the symbolic content of our dreams, we can unlock the mysteries of self. All of them, nightmares included, hide treasure within. Adam’s practice of dream analysis, or “dreamwork” is rooted in Jungian Depth Psychology. Adam has practiced dreamwork for over 10 years, and is a certified dream worker, having trained with the late Reverend Jeremy Taylor - a luminary on the subject and co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams - through his Marin Institute of Projective Dreamwork.
Intersectionality Counseling
Intersectionality is a term coined and developed by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw in her Critical Race Theory work. It describes how each person is affected by the multiple layers of our identities, whether we personally acknowledge those aspects or not. Each of us has a diverse identity that we embody both consciously and unconsciously. Intersectionality describes the “intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. It is the idea that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from the components.” Our identities are comprised of aspects such as gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, religion, age, ability/disability, as well as the roles in which we serve, and the ways that we individually express. One common mistake about intersectionality counseling is that it serves only those who are negatively impacted or marginalized by society. Even those who occupy positions of privilege benefit from an intersectional perspective.
Ecotherapy
Ecotherapy is a specialized form of counseling that taps experientially into the unique and invaluable qualities of the natural world to aid in the process of counseling. Nature has an inherently healing quality. Merely being in a natural setting tends to invite us into experiences of awareness, presence, contemplation, and beauty. There is consciousness-expanding wisdom to be found there, and at the outer reaches, peak and transpersonal experiences that can brightly illuminate our lives. The metaphors of our waking life come into focus in the presence of simple teachers in nature. The context reminds us of our essential belonging in the world, and offers perspective on the concerns of our manifest life. As when looking into the starry cosmos, we are reminded both of the infinitesimal quality of our existence, and the grandeur of the world of which we are a part. The lens of Ecotherapy assumes that the natural world tells us important things about who we are, and that counseling can be powerfully augmented if conducted in this setting.
Group Counseling
Group counseling is a powerful and effective modality for healing relational wounds and normalizing difficult individual experiences within the context of other's experiences. It is also an opportunity to learn new ways of communicating and relating to others in a way that is not available to a person in real world experiences. Currently there are not any groups available, but both Sonja and Adam are responsive to requests for group counseling. Contact Sonja to inquire about women's groups which focus on social anxiety and social perfectionism, BIPOC and biracial women's experiences, and groups that focus on balancing professional growth with personal development. Contact Adam to inquire about men's groups and dream groups. Both Adam and Sonja can facilitate groups that have already been establish e.g. work groups, social groups, interest-based groups. They also maintain client lists for future group formations.
Spiritual Guidance
Adam specializes in spiritual guidance. Spiritual guidance is not associated with any particular form of religion, nor necessarily any faith-based beliefs at all. It is a modality distinct from traditional counseling too. The focus here is not on solving emotional or psychological problems, but on facilitating the thriving and expansion of the human spirit - the cultivation of spiritual awareness; facilitation of consciousness development; support during experiences of transition, initiation, and spiritual emergence; reaching toward deeper meaning and integration between subtle and manifest realities. These goals are approached from the unique perspective that there are 3 significant participating presences - guide, traveler, and Spirit - taking the exchange beyond that of rational dialogue to hold a larger sense of consciousness within each participant and in the unfoldment of the process.