By Karine Munk Finser

In the opening fall seminar of the Kairos Institute, entitled “Trauma in America: I Am Here,” Orland Bishop reminded us that even though a person may be very unwell, there comes a moment when that person returns to a moment of wholeness, of being fully well. We need to develop capacities to become awake in such moments so as to offer our full attention: We are touching on the potent mystery “I am here.” Healing always happens in that new space, which exists between us where miracles can take place. Healing is connected to the miraculous, to the beautiful, and to the true. Orland’s course on “Trauma in America: I Am Here” is therefore foundational to our new Kairos training as we seek to cultivate the inner stance of the healer.

Developing Artistic Therapies and Speech and Drama to Build upon Foundations of the Artistic Process

When is someone truly well? Developing capacities to sketch the light in nature and observe color between light and darkness are connected to observing someone’s wholeness, and to helping their inner resilience grow stronger through an objective artistic process. Learning to awaken to our own speech and uniting our words with the deeper aspects of our intentional will offer a foundation for listening to others.

Both of these trainings in artistic therapies––Painting, Drawing, and Clay, on the one hand, and Speech and Drama, on the other––develop capacities that address the whole lifespan.

We’re Off!

CfA’s Kairos Institute was inaugurated during the first week of July with a week-long program in Wilton, NH, featuring the first unit of Bernd Ruf’s Emergency Pedagogy: Psycho-traumatology I, accompanied by afternoon singing with Jason Child and trauma preventative therapies led by Carsten Callesen, Maria ver Eecke, Connie Helms, Laura Geilen, Juliane Weeks, Monica Talaya, Debbie Spitulnik, and Karine Munk Finser.

Jan Lade, with the help of Kairos Manager Lisl Hofer, created the following short film of our festive opening week. Click here to watch and listen. 

With this first residency behind us, the Kairos program has switched into the fall online core courses and two studio trainings:

• Training in Artistic Therapies: Painting, Drawing, and Clay, led by Karine Munk Finser and colleagues. The fall studio, entitled Foundations to Healing, will be carried by Charles Andrade. For those with extensive artistic schooling background, advanced studio sessions will be carried by Karine Munk Finser
• Training in Speech and Drama, led by Debbie Spitulnik and colleagues. The fall studio Foundations to Speech will be carried by Debbie Spitulnik and Christina Burke.
• Bernd Ruf and Education without Borders will be offering all 12 units for training in Emergency Pedagogy. Residencies take place during the summer, and a few online units are in the planning as well.

Friends of Kairos are welcome to sign up for one or several of these courses to support their own professional practices. Registration for any of these options can be found on the Kairos page of CfA’s website. Click here. 

Courses do not have to be taken in the sequence they are scheduled. Those who missed the summer session, for instance, can still join during the current school year, and will be helped in catching up what they may have missed. After summer 2023, however, the training programs will no longer admit students mid-stream. The online fall courses and the residencies in Emergency Pedagogy, however, will remain open to Friends of Kairos.

Those who have already taken an Emergency Pedagogy class are welcome to join those who are interested in domestic and international crisis intervention with special focus on trauma. To become a member of the Emergency Pedagogy Round Table, contact CfA Administrator Milan Daler (milan@centerforanthroposophy.org) to receive the link along with the names and emails of the members in this password-protected group. The format of this Round Table is a discussion forum with leaders to guide the conversations.

Artistic Trainings: Working towards an iARTe Diploma

The two options of training in the arts share certain core courses, in accordance with the recommendations and guidance of iARTe, to support students with pathways to apply for an iARTe international standard diploma, offered by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. Core courses are supplemented with studio sessions to help develop capacities in artistic therapies or in speech and drama. This means that those interested in working towards a diploma from iARTe need to take both core courses and studio in a given semester.

Students who have already undertaken equivalent training (i.e., teacher education, TSHE, or other specialized trainings) will be able to use former work to help fulfill the required iARTe synchronous and asynchronous hours. In concert with iARTe requirements, a full training requires an average of three years, depending on previously completed studies. Students will receive individual study plans.

Fall courses and studio sessions will be held online, whereas the spring and summer sessions will involve one-week residencies; in addition, an online studio will be offered during the spring semester. The summer residency will build upon last summer’s training in trauma and Emergency Pedagogy.

Emergency Pedagogy Training

Bernd Ruf will return to Wilton next summer––Sunday, July 2, to Friday, July 7, 2023––in order to offer “Psycho-traumatology II” as part of his ongoing training in crisis intervention. Kairos students will take four of these summer residencies in all, specifically those that most address the needs of educators and therapists. Students in this program who wish to become leaders and participants in domestic and international crisis intervention will be able to take all 12 units of Bernd Ruf’s Emergency Pedagogy training. Some of these sessions may be online to make it possible to earn credit for all 12 units within a shorter timeframe.

We are grateful to our fall faculty for offering artistic foundation and guidance for healing practices: Debbie Spitulnik, Charles Andrade, Orland Bishop, Gleice da Silva, Torin Finser, Geoff Norris, Karine Munk Finser, and Lakshmi Prasanna. Our Kairos Manager is Lisl Hofer, and our Study Plan Coordinator is Karin Meadows. 

Click here to visit our website for more information.

Images from the In-person Week
July 3-8, 2022, in Wilton, NH 

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Afternoon Singing with Jason Child

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Artistic Therapy Training: Painting
with Karine Munk Finser

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Speech and Drama Training with Debbie Spitulnik

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Eurythmy Therapy
Led by Carsten Callesen and Maria ver Eecke

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Trauma Preventative Therapies with
Connie Helms and Laura Geilen