Emilie Slechta Thomas began this life having had enough visions and mystical experiences to lead her mother to claim early on that she was “born old”.  Through adolescence and early adulthood she trained and developed a career in classical music and theatre, but when those visions and spiritual guidance told her that her true purpose involved healing and teaching others more directly, she knew she had better listen.  Choosing to become a spiritually oriented psychotherapist as a means to begin the journey, Emilie trained in the Integral Counseling Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She interned as a hospital chaplain, counselled severely emotionally disturbed youth and adults, and ultimately earned her clinical license as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Emilie then returned to be near her family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and almost immediately and rather synchronously found a position at the only interfaith based counseling center within a ninety mile radius. She has served there since 2006 as a psychotherapist, incorporating spiritual and consciousness aspects according to each client’s needs and wishes. During that time she has also worked as the center’s Outreach Coordinator, Training Coordinator, and currently, its Executive Director.

Emilie has taught seminars and workshops to clergy and medical professionals on topics ranging from spiritual emergency and psychospiritual development to severe mental illness. Her therapy practice specializes in working with issues such as codependency, recovery from abuse, and anxiety and depression, as well as teaching spiritual awakening tools such as mindfulness meditation, energy tapping, Hemi-Sync, The Work, and elements from the Internal Family Systems model. She is also currently a practicum student in herbalism, involving a rigorous course of study that she began in answer to the growing number of clients she has met with who prefer a more holistic approach to their wellbeing.  

Emilie has been attracted to and involved with The Monroe Institute since adolescence because of its normalizing and empirical approach to expanded states of consciousness and inner guidance. Her experiences even being on the Institute’s grounds, let alone the life changing programs she has taken, have nurtured her connection to and continued faith in her higher Self, the creativity of the Universe, and the infinite power of unconditional Love. Having personally benefited from Bob Monroe’s work for over twenty-five years as she herself explored further into her own consciousness, Emilie feels it is crucial to pass this blessing on to others and expand her service to an ever widening range of individuals looking to awaken and expand spiritually and emotionally.