Kairos Institute

Charles paints in the colorist style that he evolved from his initial training in England at Tobias School of Art & Therapy. His paintings can be found in private collections in North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Charles owns and operates Lazure Custom Wall Designs, a mural and decorative painting business specializing in Lazure, a unique European glazing finish that creates healing inner environments. Charles teaches fine art classes and offers Lazure and painting workshops worldwide.

Monica Talaya Amstutz completed the Dorion School of Anthroposophical Music Therapy (AMT) in 2005, after her training as a Certified Music Practitioner. Since then, she has worked as an AMT with different populations, age groups and in varied settings, most consistently in the Camphill Communities. She also teaches the lyre to children (from 5 years old onward) and adults in groups and individually.

Monica has given presentations about AMT and has lead courses and workshops for early childhood teachers and parents of young children about the importance of the ‘mood of the fifth’, providing an in-depth experience and understanding of the different stages of a child’s musical development and needs. She wishes to inspire parents for and teaches the singing of lullabies.
Earlier in her life she trained to be a kindergarten- and later a special education teacher and raised her own five children.

Christine teaches Communication Studies at her local college and at a nearby university and travels to conferences, Waldorf schools, teacher trainings, and Christian Communities  throughout the world to teach sacred speech and drama and lead groups in a variety of themes. Christine leads meditations online, sacred speech workshops and serves on local and national boards and councils to continue her passion for fostering the art of community, exploring the
many paths of this ‘art of the future’ – as Rudolf Steiner called it. This art of community is her companion – alongside her longtime passion of discovery in the sacred realm of the Word and has led her through literature, linguistics, speech arts and communication studies for self discovery and shared healing.

Over the course of the last 30 years, Carsten has lived and worked with children, youth, and adults with developmental disabilities in Camphill communities in Scotland, England, and the United States. In true Camphill style, he has tried his hand at almost everything. He has carried responsibilities as a houseparent, workshop leader, teacher, administrator, counselor and therapist. Carsten holds a Bachelor of Arts in the Art of Eurythmy and holds a diploma in Eurythmy Therapy.

He currently lives at Camphill Special School where his overall responsibility and focus over the past ten years has become more directed towards the medical and therapeutic field. He serves the community as Director of Medical and Therapeutic Services, is a licensed EMT and are currently pursuing a nursing degree.

Carsten is a faculty member in the Camphill Academy (Curative Education) and adjunct faculty member of Transdisciplinary Healing Education Program, Antioch University. A motto he lives by is that in life we find a true path of learning and he continues to be a therapist at heart, where the listening ear is at the core.

Maria is presently the therapeutic eurythmist for the School of Eurythmy, Spring Valley, NY. She taught eurythmy for forty years in Waldorf schools, a charter school, and a home-school program. Maria met anthroposophy in Maseru, Lesotho, when she was a class teacher in an English-medium preparatory school. Currently she is the editor of the newsletters for the Eurythmy Association of North America and the Association of Therapeutic Eurythmy in North America.

Director of Kairos Institute. Director of Transdisciplinary Studies of Healing Education, Antioch University New England. Director of Professional Development at the Center for Anthroposophy, art therapist and painter.

Karine Munk Finser was born on the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark, and later lived in Belgium, France, Switzerland and England before finding her home in the United States. Karine is an art therapist with a diploma from the Medical Section, Goetheanum. She ran the Center for Anthroposophy’s Renewal Courses for 21 years while being employed as a faculty member at Antioch University New England. In 2014, she began the Transdisciplinary Studies in Healing Education program (TSHE)

Director of Building Bridges and Waldorf Leadership Development programs, founding trustee of CfA, Director of Waldorf Programs at Antioch University New England, post doctoral certification in Management Development, Harvard, author of 14 books, including Organizational Integrity and Leadership Development.

Laura Geilen teaches movement and games, circus arts, Spacial Dynamics® and clowning to adults, kids and special needs populations. She is drawn to teaching circus arts as they naturally and playfully provide a variety of challenges necessary for healthy child development. Seeing children grow in skill, self-confidence, social and spatial awareness is what has motivated her to offer camps and classes continually over the last 20 years. She enjoys bringing all people a renewed experience of their creativity, authenticity and aliveness through the transformative power of play.

Connie is a consultant to Waldorf schools in the eastern U.S., conducting workshops, observations, and classwide screenings. For several years she has been a co-director of the Educational Support Program offered by the Association for a Healing Education and she mentors Learning Support teachers. Connie holds a Waldorf teacher certification from Antioch University New England, a Waldorf Remedial certification from AHE, a Masters in Special Education from Lesley University and a B.A. in psychology from Connecticut College.

Connie formerly worked as the Educational Support teacher at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne,Vermont; before that she was a Resource teacher in public schools. In addition to her current work teaching and mentoring, she has a private practice doing Extra Lesson with children and adolescents in Vermont. Her three children attended Waldorf schools in Vermont from Kindergarten through eighth grade.

Martha Loving Orgain, MFA Art Institute of Chicago – Artist, Educator and Astrologer

Martha trained at Emerald Foundation, Den Haag, The Netherlands in methods developed by Liane Collot d’Herbois. She has worked with Goethe’s fairy tale since 1994, in private practice, in Waldorf Schools and other institutions across the USA. Currently Artist-in-Residence at Christian Community in the DC metro area, Martha is creating Star Chart Talismans™ working with drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, astrology, gemstones, and weaving in the word. She is the author of In Deepening Silence, a soon-to-be published book on the spiritual aspects of color. Website: www.lovingcolor.org

Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna trained as a paediatrician with neonatology as her specialty. She started her career with new born babies in intensive care and had a successful private neonatal intensive unit for more than 15 years. During this period, she met Anthroposophy through Waldorf education and later became the co-founder and president of the Anthroposophical Medical Society, in India. She developed an interest in helping children with autism from a metabolic and sensory perspective based on Rudolf Steiner’s indications and runs a curative center for special needs children in Hyderabad, South India. She was one of the pioneer parents and founder member for the Abhaya Waldorf School in Hyderabad. Lakshmi has worked for many years as a school physician as well as traveling the length and breadth of India regularly teaching and inspiring new centers, clinics and schools working out of Anthroposophy. Since 2007 she has worked extensively in Australia as a lecturer and health educator, particularly within school communities. Well regarded across multiple geographies for her integrated approach, her presentations are engaging and heart-warming.

Presenter, Founder of Parzival School & Emergency Pedagogy

Author of Educating Traumatized Children, Bernd Ruf is the founder of the worldwide Emergency Pedagogy crisis intervention center, based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Skilled teams are sent out to help traumatized children in places of the strife of war, or ecological disasters.

Debra Spitulnik is an adjunct professor of Creative Speech at Antioch University New England, and faculty member for the Center for Anthroposophy. As a core faculty member of Kairos Institute she leads the training in artistic and healing Speech and Drama. Debra has led the development of pedagogical speech and believes that Creative Speech brings healing and nourishment to the soul and empowers the voice. She infuses all her classes with three decades of her unique experiences as a class teacher, subject teacher and speech teacher. She teaches speech, drama, storytelling, and curriculum to teachers nationwide.

Goetheanum Diploma in the arts of Speech and Drama., PerformInternational; M.Ed., Waldorf Education, Antioch University New England; B.S. Elementary and Special Education, Syracuse University.

Juliane Weeks has taught at a public school in Berlin, Germany, before becoming a class teacher at the Karl Schubert Schule, a Waldorf School for children with special needs. After her move to the United States, she founded and directed an Early Childhood program in Concord, Mass while raising her own four children. With the move of the family to southern NH, she became involved in the care of adults with developmental challenges. Along with her social therapeutic work, her special interest in healing music led her to pursue a training to become a Certified Music Practitioner (CMT) and later on a music therapist with a diploma in anthroposophic music therapy. Since then she has served a wide range of individuals of all ages and abilities in many different settings, Clinics, Waldorf Schools, Life Sharing Communities, the Therapeutic Community Inner Fire and others. In addition to her therapeutic work, she has offered workshops, lead singing groups and music courses within the Camphill Academy, in Early Childhood trainings at Sophia’s Hearth, during Renewal summer courses and introduced Music and Healing as a part of the Healing Education program (MEd) at Antioch University.