Kairos Institute · Emergency Pedagogy

Module 7: Disaster, Healing Communities, and Animals

Addressing major natural and human-made disasters through healing communities and animal-assisted therapy interventions

Two days online with Bernd Ruf, who founded the emergency pedagogy crisis intervention centre in Karlsruhe and has spent decades sending teams to children in war zones and disaster areas. This module looks at what catastrophes do to people, and at what actually helps afterward. It is one of twelve modules building toward the EPWB Diploma in international crisis intervention.

Postponed

This module will not take place on September 18–19, 2026

Bernd Ruf has been called to lead an emergency pedagogy intervention in Colombia following the earthquake, so the September module cannot go ahead as scheduled. A new date will be announced for January or February 2027.

Registration is closed for now. If you are already registered, the Kairos Institute will be in touch with you directly — you do not need to do anything.

Questions can go to Lisl Hofer, Manager of the Kairos Institute, at lisl@centerforanthroposophy.org.

What the module covers

Floods, earthquakes, fires, explosions: catastrophes of very different kinds produce strikingly similar traumatic effects on children, young people, and adults. This module examines that common ground, and then turns to the work of recovery.

Healing communities are the foundation of that work, and much of the two days is given to how they form and how they hold people through collective trauma. The final seminar takes up the healing potential of animal-assisted therapy in supporting trauma-informed pedagogy.

What the two days cover

The module is taught over two days. Session times will be published with the new date.

Major Incidents
Pandemic and collective trauma: grief, hypervigilance
Healing community: foundational approaches to overcoming collective trauma
Animal-assisted therapy interventions: nonjudgmental companionship, emotional attunement, predictability, immediate feedback, physical grounding
Closing plenary session

Bernd Ruf

Founder, Parzival School & Emergency Pedagogy

Bernd Ruf is the founder of the worldwide emergency pedagogy crisis intervention centre based in Karlsruhe, Germany, from which skilled teams are sent to help traumatised children in places of war and ecological disaster. He is the author of Educating Traumatized Children.

Certificates

There are two, and they are separate things.

No cost

Certificate of Completion

Issued by the Center for Anthroposophy

$45

Module 7 Certificate

Issued by Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders

The EPWB certificate is one of twelve modules that build toward the full EPWB Diploma in international crisis intervention.

It is optional and costs $45. If you would like one, request it and include your date of birth. Certificates are ordered from EPWB after the module has been taught, and invoiced to you afterward.

Module 7 is part of the Kairos Institute’s Emergency Pedagogy series with Bernd Ruf. Questions about the module, or about a certificate, can go to Lisl Hofer at lisl@centerforanthroposophy.org.

Emergency Pedagogy Module 7 with Bernd Ruf