Therapy and Traumatology: Schooling Courage  

By Karine Munk Finser

We recently completed a course with Laurie Clark on children’s drawings, culminating in a profound encounter with artwork created by children who have lived through war. Their images carried weight, echoes of experiences too great for words, yet Laurie gently guided us to look beyond the heaviness, to seek the quiet presence of luminosity within them.

She reminded us that even in the most shadowed expressions, there can be glimmers of light, small, steadfast indications of life, resilience, and becoming. Our task, she said, is not only to witness what is difficult, but to help kindle enthusiasm and awaken light, especially when a child is moving through a challenging inner soul landscape.

I recently worked with a nine-year-old child during a series of diagnostic free paintings. As is customary, he was given the full spectrum—twelve to fourteen colors—yet each time he chose to cover the page in a deep violet-black, as though night itself had settled onto the paper. The darkness came again in the second exercise, dense and enveloping. And yet, quietly, almost hesitantly, a small glow appeared: a tender patch of yellow light, off to the left, like something trying to be born.

I turned the painting and said, “Look… a star is shining in the night. Who is there on the earth to receive its light?”

“A cat,” he said.

And so the cat came into being, seated beneath the star, gazing upward. Golden light streamed down over its head, and a trace of that brightness found its way into the earth below. When we finished, I said, “And the cat heard that the music coming from the star was the cat’s very own music.”

In the following session, something shifted. The child took up a large brush and began laying down wide, flowing washes of magenta, again and again, letting the color move freely, almost as if feeling his way into his own body through the gesture. The color held him, gathered him, like a quiet night that was no longer empty but alive. From these movements, large magenta flower petals emerged.

He was also given blue and brown. The cat appeared again, now slightly left of center, but no longer still; its paws were outstretched, lifted in motion. Opposite, on the right, a winged being took form, an angel, reaching toward the cat. Both figures hovered, their feet no longer bound to the ground, suspended in a shared space between earth and sky. The moment came when they met, when their hands and paws touched.

Then the boy spoke: “The star took the cat up, and it woke up inside the star, with the angel… and they were inside a flower. The angel said, ‘Come dance with me.’The cat said, ‘I can’t, I don’t know how.’The angel said, ‘Try.’

And the angel took him by the paws… and they danced, and danced, inside the flower.”

How courageous are our children who have come to us in these times. It is courage in human encounter that we strive to develop as our students in art therapy train over four years, well supported by studios, seminars, and many with medical content. Our doctors, whom we are so grateful to, are: Dr. Michaela Gloeckler, Dr. Patricia Gans, Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna, and Dr. James Dyson. Tonya Stoddard, LCSW, has offered us tremendous support in understanding the layered emotional background to case studies.

Courage is at the heart of our efforts. Courage that is born from the night, just as the cat in the story, who had to go all the way to his star to find his full capacities. At night, when our will is awake, and inspired by the spirit, we receive what we need to help others.

A whole team of Kairos Traumatology-trained students and our wonderful colleagues, who together form Emergency Pedagogy without Borders, USA, joined for several crisis interventions: Asheville, Los Angeles, and sites in Texas. The latest crisis intervention was to help support a school that suffered a tragedy. Bernd Ruf was our teacher and leader in all these interventions. Bernd taught both parents and teachers in trauma education and in healing methods in acute trauma situations. We consider him a noble sun-knight. Team leaders have been Alicia D’Urso, Coordinators for Asheville, Nikki Shoneman, and for LA, Chistine Burke, and our own Mary Spalding for the last interventions. Every team member is integral to an intervention.

When so many helpers arrive at a place where the effects of trauma are visible, with the intention to encounter suffering, sadness, grief, shock, and the reality of the ‘I’ forces withdrawing, goodness and human warmth can support the soul’s luminosity. Enthusiasm can enkindle warmth in cheeks and joy in hearts. Through movement, song, painting, drawing, clay, and gathering as a whole community, the living dance between earth and heaven can stir renewed courage.

Please discover our upcoming Summer Modules with Bernd Ruf: All are Welcome! July 5-10

Preparing for Acute Trauma and Helping the Healer: Inner Preparation.  Morning Lectures. Artistic Therapies in the afternoon. Ending with Daily Q and A with Bernd Ruf.

In addition, we are offering two modules online with Bernd Ruf.

Module 6: May 22 – 23, 2026

Module 7: September 18-19, 2026

For more information and to register please visit our website