Kairos Institute
Healing in a World of Need
KAIROS LINKS
Animal-Assisted Therapy Course, Fall 2025
Program Description
Our brothers and sisters of the animal kingdom share this Earth with us and live in deep relationship to the natural world which is their home. Their heightened senses are attuned to the subtle changes in their environment and the outer and inner movements of those around them. Some animals live closer to human beings, in homes and on farms, and there the human-animal bond can become a mutual source of joy, comfort, and kinship.
In schools teachers are seeing an increase in the number of children and young people who need regular breaks from academic work, who struggle to be fully present in their physical bodies, and who find social encounters challenging.
Many children are naturally drawn to animals, wishing to be close to them and to care for them. As interest in animal-assisted therapy has been growing, its potential to support children is increasingly recognized.
The core of this program is to provide ways of supporting children with various needs through interactions with animals.
Kairos Seminars
Participants on the Animal Therapy Track will join some of the relevant general Kairos online courses offered during the upcoming Fall term:
- Sunday, September 14: Convocation
- Tuesdays, September 23 (Children from Violent Homes) & October 14 (Children Suffering from Sexual Abuse) both are presented by Jinsook Song
- Tuesdays, September 30, October 7 & 28 on Curative Education with Dr. Patricia Gans
- Tuesday and Wednesday, December 9 & 10 on Karma Studies with Torin Finser
Seminars Throughout the Course
Participants will also have their own seminars which will focus on a variety of relevant topics including:
- The Role of Animals in Rudolf Steiner’s Evolutionary Cosmology
- The Human-Animal Bond from an Anthroposophical perspective
- Fourfold Human Being in Relation to Animals: What do we have in common?
- Children and Animals: what draws them to each other?
- Studies of different animal species
- Non-clinical therapeutic approaches for working with animals and children
- The therapeutic potential and possibilities for working with animals
Seminar Dates: subject to change
Mondays, 7:30 – 9pm (online):
- September 22
- October 20
- November 10
- November 17
- December 1
- December 15
Residencies
In-person residencies will take place in the Spring and in July and will include field trips to visit working professionals to learn about their work with the animals in their care and with the clients who come to them.
Potential Spring residency dates: April 20 9:00 AM to Thursday April 23, 5PM EST
For questions and more info about this program, contact Brian today!
Brian Jacques
Program Director
For general questions about Kairos Institute, contact Karen Munk Finser.
Karine Munk Finser
Director
Emergency Pedagogy without Borders:
Our Kairos Team is joining Team California to help in the fire-ravaged areas in LA: February 8-13.
Please help us make it happen, and donate to Kairos Crisis Interventions using our secure online form.
Kairos Emergency Pedagogy without Borders Team USA in Action
Our Kairos Team, USA, was founded in the summer of 2024. In October, we all met in Asheville under the direction of Bernd Ruf and Alicia D’Urso for our first crisis intervention. We felt called to respond to the wreckage and chaos from the severe storm and flooding that hit North Carolina. Our intervention was successful, thanks to the strong leadership who guided us to become a strong and focused team and to the vast experience of the pedagogues and therapists who formed the sixteen-person team. In addition, we had strong support on the ground from our local coordinator and others who helped us: Sola, School of Living Arts gave us housing and much more, Asheville Waldorf School provided a daily site for students and community members, and we ventured to Shanonoa and Black Mountain where met community members at the Peri Social House. Some of us visited the LatinX community. We returned home grateful for all we had learned and deeply moved by all the human encounters we had experienced—a huge thank you to Bernd Ruf and Alicia D’Urso.
February 8-13, 2025:
Second Crisis intervention under the direction and guidance of Bernd Ruf, Alicia D’Urso, and Renaldo Nascimento Team Kairos will join Team California, who is leading this Los Angeles crisis intervention. We will offer our support to children in the community who are suffering from devastating loss, grief, and trauma after the destructive fires. Natalia Picasso from Team Kairos will submit a report after we return home. We hope to align our two Teams under Team USA for this critical crisis intervention.
