Our story
We are a trio of consultants, writers, and artists whose collective expertise draws from several decades of experience working in psychotherapy, strategic planning for business, theater performance, and writing coaching. Each member of 3W brings a very specific set of skills to our collaborations with clients. It’s a very special alchemy — we are a rock and roll team!
Collectively, we have run our own businesses for more than 50 years! We have degrees (graduate and undergraduate) in the Psychology of Creativity, Clinical Social Work, and the Arts (Literature, Music, Acting, Directing, Somatics, and Creative Writing). We also have certifications in Editing, Strategic Planning, College/Career Advising, and Organizational Leadership.
Peggy
Margaret Firestone began her career as a classically trained musician and performed professionally for many years. By the early 1970’s, fascinated by her experiences as a musician and her work with other artists, Firestone pursued her questions about the psychology of the creative process. To add to her undergraduate degrees in music and literature she studied theater directing at Tufts University; trained for two years in organizational psychology at Rutgers University and received a Master of Education from Rutgers University in the Psychology of Creativity.
She joined the public school system in the mid-1970’s and with a team of teachers, administrators and parents, Firestone co-led and designed an interdisciplinary arts and academic curriculum for high school students. Two large high schools in New Jersey adopted this program. Firestone established a teacher training manual for Johns Hopkins University. The manual designed, implemented and evaluated interdisciplinary curricula for incoming freshman at the University.
Pursuing her curiosity about the phenomenon of thought in psychological life, Firestone graduated in 1986 with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago. Elizabeth Kohut, wife and collaborator of Heinz Kohut, mentored her for two years in the clinical practice of Self Psychology and Dr. Arwind Vasavada, a Jungian analyst and co-founder of the CG Jung Institute in Evanston, mentored her for twelve years in the practice of Jungian analysis. During this apprenticeship of the psychology of mind with Vasavada, Firestone traveled between Mumbai and Chicago for intensive instruction in Indian philosophy (Sankhya, Vedanta and Yoga).
For the past 33 years, Firestone has practiced psychotherapy with private and group clients and devised her own unique method of charting processes of the unconscious. She also works with young people, emphasizing study skills, concepts in mathematics, physics, philosophy, history and writing, calling upon Shakespeare for inspiration. Her groups with adults have focused on the creative process in work and in life, often extending for weeks and years.
Nick
Nick Soper is a consultant and writing coach. From high school it was clear that Nick’s vocation would be a teacher. Learning is an adventure, he discovered, and to teach is to share a creative adventure of collaboration. We are all learners on this planet.
That philosophy inspires all of Nick’s work: seeking our hidden spark, the nascent intelligence we each possess, to uncover and cultivate it.
Nick earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with a focus in Creative Writing at Northwestern University. He studied acting and improvisation for 11 years, playing several roles in film and TV. His most recent feature film is on Prime TV. He worked for 16 years as a writing and mathematics coach, preparing students for the GRE, SAT, ACT, and ISEE, and earned a college counseling certificate through UCLA. In 2013, he launched an educational consulting practice to serve creative and arts-oriented high school students on their way to college.
He completed a two-year leadership training through cReative asyLum and a three-year strategic planning program under Peggy Firestone before partnering with her and Tere Harrison to administer cReative asyLum, Donut Think Tank, and 3W Consulting for Artists.
Tere
A graduate of Naropa University with background the physical theater training of Jerzy Grotowski, Tere empowers clients to unpack the core narrative of their vision with actionable steps to raise their unique and authentic voice in this world. With her background in Experiential Anatomy and construction of original devised performance work, Tere coaches storytelling as a refuge where creativity can thrive. Clients bring their vital story forward with physical presence, vocal strength and mental equilibrium expressed from an embodied place.
People We Follow
Aristotle, Baruch Spinoza, Will Shakespeare, James Baldwin, Walter Mosley, Albert Camus, Kate Raworth, Arthur Schopenhauer, Jiddu Krishnamurti, CG Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Bruce Lee, M. Scott Momaday, Maria Angelita Ressa, Toni Morrison, Joy Harjo — and more…