The word liminal comes from the Latin root word limen, which means “boundary or threshold.” It is the in-between time when, psychologically speaking, you are no longer who you were but you are not yet who you are to become, as if you are standing in a doorway or a long, dark tunnel or on a pathway between two phases of your life. It is a time of transition, a crossroads, when you must choose which path to take to continue on your life journey. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell writes that the hero’s journey begins with a Call to Adventure,
…whether small or great, and no matter what the stage or grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration—a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand.
Whether you intentionally or unintentionally “walk through a door” and experience change in your life, perhaps through your work, family, community, health, belief system, or a significant relationship, you may awaken to find yourself “in a dark forest,” a symbolic description of the unknown and a time and metaphoric place of danger, where there are no clearly marked signs or roads. “When we enter a forest phase in our lives,” writes Jean Shinoda Bolen, in Crossing to Avalon: A Woman’s Midlife Pilgrimage,
…we enter a period of wandering and a time of potential soul growth. In the forest it is possible to reconnect with our own innate nature, to meet what we have kept in the shadows and what we have been kept from knowing or acknowledging about ourselves, or the personal and patriarchal world we inhabit. Here it is possible to find what we have been cut off from, to “re-member” a once vital aspect of ourselves. We may uncover a wellspring of creativity that has been hidden for decades.
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While the “in the forest” time is a labyrinth experience, it is not clearly marked as in the labyrinth at Chartres. The pattern of entering, getting to the center, and coming out is, however, a map of the psychological process: shedding, finding, and integrating. Going into the forest requires us to let go of our old ways and identities; we shed defenses, ingrained habits, and attitudes, which opens us up to new possibilities and depth. We find what really matters to us and can reach the core or center of meaning in ourselves, which is the center of the labyrinth, and then we have the task of integrating this into what we do with our lives when we emerge. Only after we make it out, do we know how it has changed us, what we shed and left behind, and what we gave birth to, found, or recovered there.
Liminal Journeys
believes that individuals contain all the wisdom they need to heal themselves
and transform their lives. Liminal
Journeys serves to empower individuals by providing them with professional
guidance and a safe space to cross over the limen,
or threshold, and enter the inner realms to connect with their sacred center. Liminal Journeys provides the tools to navigate the pathways to transformation & healing. Through hypnotherapy, massage therapy, Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), dreamwork, astrology, various classes and workshops, retreats and pilgrimages, individuals are able to access their inner wisdom. Liminal Journeys is founded on the principle that awakening to one’s Self and expressing one’s unique inner power will not only bring about individual fulfillment, it will also transform the world and create a more balanced humankind and healthier Earth.
When we heal ourselves, others are healed. When we nurture our dreams, we give birth to the dreams of humankind. When we walk as loving aspects of the Earth Mother, we become fertile, life-giving Mothers of the Creative Force. When we honor our bodies, our health, and our emotional needs, we make space for our dreams to come into being. When we speak the truth from our healed hearts, we allow life abundant to continue on our Mother Planet.
Jamie Sams, The Thirteen Original Clan Mothers
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After working in the travel industry for 6 years, Kathie decided to return to the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, to earn her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. While at university she combined her love of travel with her studies, and went on a semester abroad independent research trip to the United Kingdom. The research trip, or pilgrimage, as Kathie soon realized, would change the course of her life and be the seed for Liminal Journeys. As a result of her mystical experiences abroad, she changed the topic of her research from criminal profiling to the transformational effects of women's travels.
After returning to the United States and completing her paper and undergraduate degree, Kathie searched on the Internet for a holistic graduate program that would embrace the spiritual aspects of human experience. To her surprise, she discovered such a program at the Graduate School for Holistic Studies at JFKU, in Pleasant Hill, CA, and moved there from the Wisconsin/Minnesota area, in 2000, to earn a Master's of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology and a Certificate in Dream Studies.
Transpersonal psychology encompasses the traditional psychological principles and techniques of psychoanalytic, behavioral and humanistic psychologies, but expands the human experience beyond what is traditionally viewed as normal and healthy and within the conventional limitations of space and time to include the study of transpersonal experiences — states of consciousness, identity, spiritual growth, body-mind relationships and transformation.
In 2006, Kathie also completed 312 hours of training in hypnotherapy and 36 hours of training in energy therapy at HCH, in Lafayette, CA. HCH is registered with the California Bureau of Private and Postsecondary and Vocational Education, the International Board of Regression Therapy, the Professional Board of Hypnotherapy, the California Board of Registered Nurses and the California Board of Behavior Science. Kathie's training at HCH was comprehensive and multi-dimensional, and included Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Neuro-linguistic Programming and many transpersonal modalities of healing through altered states of consciousness. Her education also included 12 hours of advanced past-life training and 6 months of a supervised clinical internship. Kathie is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist (CCHT) and Reiki Master-Teacher (RMT).
In 2008, Kathie returned to her place of birth, and became certified in Integrative (Swedish) Massage, hot stone massage and aromatherapy through the St. Croix Center for the Healing Arts, in Hudson, WI. She now includes these services in her private practice, which is located in the quaint St. Croix River city of Stillwater, the birthplace of Minnesota.
Kathie enjoys working one-on-one with individuals who are interested in and open to self-exploration and growth, transformation and healing. She feels deeply fulfilled when assisting others to connect with their inner wisdom and access their highest potential on their life journeys. Kathie specializes in major life transitions, personal development, life-purpose, self-confidence, self-esteem, anxiety, stress, fear, phobias, grief and spirit releasement. Her clients describe her approach as gentle and effective.
Kathie is always open and grounded in pure love and has profound support for her clients.
~Diane H., client
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