Therapeutic Eurythmy

with Maria Ver Eecke and Carsten Callesen

Trauma can tend to have a dual effect on a person(s). In one polarity it leans towards a gesture of condensing, of hardening, becoming fixed and entrapped.

In the other polarity it may lean towards a gesture of dissolving, of loosening, becoming lost from the world. Though this, the breath of life has come to a still point, in a gesture of holding on for survival.

Either of them tends to happen in an instant when traumatic events meet a person and often take on permanency and the gesture of breath has been lost.

During this course we will, though the Healing Art of Eurythmy, explore gestures that can enable and support a person to regain the ability to re-breathe back into life and assist in re-connecting to the world as they journey through the path of healing from trauma.

The aim of this course will be to discover basic exercises that arise out of the Healing Art of Eurythmy as a transformative transdisciplinary approach that can be utilized as supportive tools in a hygienic sense, for those who support healing from trauma in various settings.

 In this course we will:

  • Explore and discover the space in-between as a tool for assessment
  • Explore and discover the space in-between as a healing modality
  • Develop basic Eurythmy based exercise that promotes breathing and movement out of the life giving etheric forces.
  • Discover the Eurythmy that lies in everyday gesture
  • Discover ways to transform Eurythmy based exercises into a transdisciplinary approach

Portrait of Maria Veer-EeckeMaria Ver Eecke 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.

Over the course of the last 30 years, Carsten Callesen 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 UniversityA 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.