Kairos Institute
Healing in a World of Need
KAIROS LINKS
New Art Therapy Cohort begins in September 2025
Art Therapy Training Program Overview
In a world filled with tremendous soul struggle, where the demands on both young and old often lead to overwhelm, mental health crises, and PTSD, the Kairos Institute at the Center for Anthroposophy offers a beacon of hope. Founded by Karine Munk Finser, the institute is dedicated to addressing suffering in the world by providing professional training in healing artistic therapies and Emergency Pedagogy.
This part-time program takes place online and over 2 one week-long residencies each year. The training lasts approximately four years depending on experience* (see below).
If desired, completion of the training may lead to a diploma from the Medical Section, iARTe, at the Goetheanum.
Our students form a supportive community as they embark on a multi-year journey together. During this time, they develop skills to strengthen resilience and self-healing capacities for themselves and others. The program consists of two residencies per year, complemented by artistic studios and online classes.
One of the core aspects of the Kairos curriculum is Artistic Therapies. As a cooperative member of iARTe, students at Kairos work towards earning a Diploma from the Medical Section at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. The artistic therapies offered include painting, clay, and drawing, which are designed to promote healing and self-discovery.
Options
iARTe diploma students must register for all classes and studios.
Those not pursuing the iARTe diploma register for all classes without studios
Register for selective online courses or Summer Residency. (Spring Residency is reserved for iARTe track students)
Faculty
Our faculty is representative of the global community of anthroposophical doctors, trauma specialists, psychologists, artists, and therapists. Our goal is to prepare students for the unique challenges posed by both individual and collective trauma. Our training will focus on the transformative role of healing educators and therapists across the whole life span: children, adolescents, and adults.
Who should register?
Anyone wishing to become an art therapist
care group leaders
educators
special educators
school leaders
Camphill workers
and others in the healing professions.
*Program scope and length
Length of study depends on individual student’s iArte Competencies:
- fulfillment of class participation, online and in residencies,
- supervised field work with groups, individual children, adolescence and adults.
- supervised clinical experience with doctor, nurse practitioner or other accepted professional health practitioner
life experience credits
For questions and more info on our programs, contact Karine today!
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 Offerings for Full-time Students 2025-2026
Courses
Sunday 9/14 at 1:30 – 3:30 PM EST
Orland Bishop
Orland Bishop is the founder and director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, where he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland’s work in healing and human development is framed by an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies, primarily those of South and West Africa.
Tuesdays, September 23 & October 14 at 7:30 – 9:30 PM EST
- Children from Violent Homes, 9/23
- Children Suffering from Sexual Abuse, 10/14
Jinsook Song
Dr. Jinsook Song is a licensed marriage and family therapist and an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) approved supervisor. She joined AUNE as the Director of the clinical training for CFT MA and PhD programs in 2021 after previously serving as an adjunct instructor and supervisor. Dr. Song received her master’s in Music Therapy from New York University and PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from AUNE. She brings many years of clinical experiences working with children, adults and older adults in school settings, integrated primary care settings, a community mental health agency and private practice. Her clinical and research interest areas are medical family therapy, trauma informed therapy, intergenerational trauma, child-parent psychotherapy, use of creativity in trauma work, community engagement in treatment, multicultural and feminist issues, cultural identity, supervision, and strengthening family relationships. She serves on the educational committee for NHAMFT.
Tuesdays, September 30, October 7 & 28 at 7:30 – 9:30 PM EST
- Cosmic and Earthly, Chapters 1 & 2; 9/30
- Blood and Nerve, Chapters 5 & 6; 10/7
- Point and Periphery, Chapters 3 & 4; 10/28
Note: These sessions are studios, not lectures
Patricia Gans, MD
Patricia Gans, MD, graduated from UC Davis with the highest honors and the department's special honors for research in cell biology. She then graduated with honors from UC San Francisco School of Medicine and continued her residency in the Bay Area, where she trained in Anthroposophic medicine in Switzerland. During a sabbatical, Dr Gans completed Psychosynthesis Counseling Certification, including courses in guided imagery. She then co-created The Pleiades Center, an Anthroposophic Medical Clinic in Sebastopol, CA, which also offers therapeutic eurythmy, speech, music, and rhythmical massage.
Dr Gans worked full-time for one year as a Waldorf Preschool assistant and later as a kindergarten assistant giving her invaluable experience with the Waldorf approach to early childhood education and development. She completed the Waldorf Teacher Training Foundation year. She acted as an ASL interpreter for Deaf teachers in the Waldorf teacher training, Nurturing Arts training, and participating in the first Kolisko conference. She worked as a School Doctor for Summerfield Waldorf School and, more recently, Waldorf School of the Roaring Fork in Carbondale, CO. She taught Anthroposophic medicine courses for the Center for Renewal of Education teacher training and has given many lectures for various faculty, charter schools and parent education groups.
Dr Gans has a special interest in children with special needs, especially deafness. She is fluent in American Sign Language. She is a founder and board member of the Trillium Deaf Program and has been involved with many initiatives attempting to bring Waldorf pedagogical ideology to the Deaf community and access Waldorf education, pedagogy, and biodynamic farming for Deaf children.
Dr Gans also has the American Board of Integrated and Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and Advanced Wilderness Expedition Provider (AWEP) Certifications. She enjoyed practicing Wilderness emergency medicine as needed while sailing remote islands of the South Pacific for ten years and as a remote Lighthouse Keeper in Alaska. She is now located high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and continues to offer anthroposophic medicine consultations.
Tuesdays, November 4, 11, & 18 at 7:30 – 9:30 PM EST
Through rich archetypal pictures, stories can show us how to deal with fear and trauma, take care of one another, and heal one another.
In this workshop, Gleice da Silva will share her experience of restoring balance through writing and telling healing stories to those in need of care of the soul.
Gleice da Silva
Gleice is a curative educator with a passion for travel, stories, people, dance, and anthroposophy. She lived and taught at The Camphill School (Beaver Run) in Pennsylvania for 12 years and now lives and works at Camphill Communities California as a resident coworker, a member of the Camphill Academy core faculty, as well as a lecturer and advocate for healing stories.She has a BA in Biology from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, a diploma in Curative Education through the Camphill Academy, and an M.Ed. in Healing Education from Antioch University New England.
Exploring Karma: Obligation, Fulfillment & Sacrifice
Understanding Destiny Through the Lens of Rudolf Steiner
Tuesday & Wednesday December 9 & 10 at 7:30 – 9:30 PM EST
What if the challenges and relationships in your life weren’t random—but carried deeper meaning? In this two-part course, we’ll dive into Rudolf Steiner’s profound insights into karmic obligation, karmic fulfillment, and karmic sacrifice, exploring how each can shape the unfolding of our life path.
Together, we’ll reflect on questions such as:
- How can we recognize the difference between a karmic debt and a karmic gift?
- In what ways do sacrifice and service connect with our personal destiny?
- What are the signs that we’re fulfilling—or resisting—our life tasks?
These sessions continue the evolving karma studies offered through Kairos, but new participants are warmly welcomed. Whether you're deepening an ongoing inquiry or stepping into this work for the first time, you'll find a space for reflection, insight, and shared exploration.
Torin Finser
Torin M Finser, PhD, has served Waldorf education for over four decades, as class teacher and faculty chair at the Berkshire Waldorf School, director of teacher education at Antioch University, General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society and a founder of the Center for Anthroposophy. His innovative efforts led to many new programs, including most recently Building Bridges and Waldorf Leadership Development.
He is the author of 15 books, the most recent: Listening to our Teachers - Advocacy through Research (2024). Some of his other books have been translated into Portugese, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Spanish, and next year School as a Journey will appear in Greek. Torin and Karine are now enjoying nine grandchildren.
Every Wednesday from 10/8 through 11/19 at 7:30 – 9:30 PM EST
Patrick Stolfo, M.A.
Patrick has taught and mentored in numerous Waldorf schools and adult education centers across North America since 1981. As a long time faculty member at Hawthorne Valley School in New York, he has taught in grades 5 through 12, primarily in the sculptural arts and the History of Art and Architecture. He has filled various school leadership positions, including high school faculty chair. Since 2004 Patrick has been a co-director and instructor at the Alkion Center for Waldorf Teacher Education at Hawthorne Valley. As a freelance sculptor and graphic artist, his artwork has been commissioned and/or shown in NY, MA, CA, England, and Sweden.
CfA teaching: Waldorf high school teacher education (sculpture, high school arts and art history seminars, mentoring).
Seminars
Studios
Cohort 2022 - Studios with Karine Munk Finser
Cohort 2022 + 2025 - Studios Gillian David, and Animal Assisted Therapy Cohort
(fee included in the year round tuition)
Cohort 2025 - Studios with Karine Munk Finser or Nikki Shoneman
Keynote Peter Selg: Celebrating 100 Years of Curative Education
Online 1:30-3:30 EST
Peter Selg studied medicine in Witten-Herdecke, Zurich, and Berlin and, until 2000, worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke Hospital in Germany.
Dr. Selg is director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy (Arlesheim, Switzerland), professor of medicine at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany), and co-leader of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum. He is the author of numerous books on Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, medical ethics, and the development of culture and consciousness.
9/29 Dr. Patricia Gans
An Overview of Anthroposophical Medicine: Healing the Whole Human Being
Online 1:30-3:30 EST
Patricia Gans, MD, graduated from UC Davis with the highest honors and the department's special honors for research in cell biology. She then graduated with honors from UC San Francisco School of Medicine and continued her residency in the Bay Area, where she trained in Anthroposophic medicine in Switzerland. During a sabbatical, Dr Gans completed Psychosynthesis Counseling Certification, including courses in guided imagery. She then co-created The Pleiades Center, an Anthroposophic Medical Clinic in Sebastopol, CA, which also offers therapeutic eurythmy, speech, music, and rhythmical massage.
Dr Gans worked full-time for one year as a Waldorf Preschool assistant and later as a kindergarten assistant giving her invaluable experience with the Waldorf approach to early childhood education and development. She completed the Waldorf Teacher Training Foundation year. She acted as an ASL interpreter for Deaf teachers in the Waldorf teacher training, Nurturing Arts training, and participating in the first Kolisko conference. She worked as a School Doctor for Summerfield Waldorf School and, more recently, Waldorf School of the Roaring Fork in Carbondale, CO. She taught Anthroposophic medicine courses for the Center for Renewal of Education teacher training and has given many lectures for various faculty, charter schools and parent education groups.
Dr Gans has a special interest in children with special needs, especially deafness. She is fluent in American Sign Language. She is a founder and board member of the Trillium Deaf Program and has been involved with many initiatives attempting to bring Waldorf pedagogical ideology to the Deaf community and access Waldorf education, pedagogy, and biodynamic farming for Deaf children.
Dr Gans also has the American Board of Integrated and Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and Advanced Wilderness Expedition Provider (AWEP) Certifications. She enjoyed practicing Wilderness emergency medicine as needed while sailing remote islands of the South Pacific for ten years and as a remote Lighthouse Keeper in Alaska. She is now located high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and continues to offer anthroposophic medicine consultations.
10/2 Tonya Stoddard
Whose Bodies Are They? The Role of Transference and Countertransference in Art Therapy
When a therapist and client meet, it is more than a meeting of two people; it is a union of two souls. In this session, we will explore how the therapist's biography intersects with the client's biography and how this can become either a tool for the healing process or an instrument for antipathy. It is here that we begin to grow our consciousness of how our bodies interact with each other and engage our I in the therapeutic process.
10/9 Self-care in the Therapeutic Encounter
As therapists, we are drawn to supporting others in their healing process. What we often put lower on our priority list is taking care of ourselves! This session will explore ways in which we can identify in consciousness our own need to for care and protection and the effects of not attending to our needs in the therapeutic encounter. We will delve into different techniques that can support our ways of maintaining health as we support others on their journey.
10/16 The New Human Landscape in Therapy
We have witnessed a change in how human beings relate to each other in our lifetime due to the increase in technology, medications, parenting styles, and theories of child development. This has created an unprecedented landscape in which the therapist must find new ways to map out the paths of supporting clients. In this session, we will consider different forms of therapeutic work to support human beings in today’s world.
10/23 Who Am I as a therapist?
As an aspiring therapist, it is sometimes difficult to know who we are as a therapist. In this interactive session, we will look at our core beliefs about ourselves and how they inform our engagement with our clients during the therapeutic encounter. Questions such as, “Why did I choose art therapy?” or “How does anthroposophy guide my understanding of myself and human development?” will guide us on this journey. Exercises will be given that will enhance our ability to continue this exploration of ourselves as we recognize that we are ever-evolving human beings.
Tonya Stoddard, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Master’s in Social Work and completed the Anthroposophic Psychology program. Tonya has over 20 years of experience working in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma County. She has worked psychotherapeutically with diverse populations and issues, including children and adolescents in both nonprofit and private practice settings. Currently, Tonya works as an Education Support Specialist at The Waldorf School of Tampa Bay in Tampa, FL. Tonya continues to work in private practice and collaboratively with the healing arts community. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Healing through Art program in California, a faculty member of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology, and serving on the Leadership Team of the Anthroposophic Health Association.
Reserved for Kairos Art Therapy students.
Online 1:30-3:30: for Kairos Students
With Jennifer Fox
Biography and Social Arts
The Great Mysteries of Comings and Goings: Sculpting our Destiny Vessel
Dates:
11/3 The Journey Toward Loving -part 1
11/10 The Journey Toward Loving- part 2
11/17 The Journey Toward Loving- part 3
12/8 Class Presentations 6:30-9:30pm EST
12/11 Class Presentations 6:30-9:30 EST
The longing to be seen and heard in our whole reality has arisen in every human being since the beginning of the 20th C. And will grow increasingly urgent.
Rudolf Steiner
The Journey Towards Loving: Biography Life Cycles exploration held within the Circle of Social Art
When you practice self-knowledge, you can behold what the starry heaven bestowed upon you between death and new birth- the best and finest powers of your soul.
Rudolf Steiner
Biography and Social Art allow us to explore and witness our lives within the community. Through individual reflective work, we open our life stories through imagination, writing, life charting, and various artistic expressions. In the safe container of small group sharing and important conversations, we find genuine interest in ourselves and the other. We are open to more clarity of our unique destiny. Our time together can change how we see and connect to all those in our lives - our children, students, parents, and colleagues - for it gives us a larger framework for the development of the whole human being.
This longing to understand our lives is a part of the human experience. Biography work gives us new understandings through the power of sharing and listening to life stories in a space of mutual trust. In addition to the social artistry of speaking and listening consciously together, we have the images and thoughts that Rudolf Steiner gave regarding the life cycles from birth to death and our journey between earthly life and rebirth. Each seven-year phase and 21-year cycles have archetypal missions for the body, soul, and spirit. Seeing our experiences in these contexts opens us to our life’s themes and patterns. It connects us to the evolution not only of our own life but of all humanity and, hence, provides the foundations for courageous service in the world. We can learn to bear witness to ourselves and the other through sacred encounters.
Many wise ones over the centuries have likened our life journey to a pilgrimage—each step taken boldly, with doubt and trepidation, or with hope, but oftentimes with “unknowing.” Come join us as we venture to “start close in,” as David Whyte encourages. We will create a foundation of love upon which to take the next step together.
December
Online 7:30-9:30
Torin Finser
12/4 Karma Studies: The Language of the Cosmos
12/18 Karma Studies: The Language of the Cosmos
Torin Finser
Torin M Finser, PhD, has served Waldorf education for over four decades, as class teacher and faculty chair at the Berkshire Waldorf School, director of teacher education at Antioch University, General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society and a founder of the Center for Anthroposophy. His innovative efforts led to many new programs, including most recently Building Bridges and Waldorf Leadership Development.
He is the author of 15 books, the most recent: Listening to our Teachers - Advocacy through Research (2024). Some of his other books have been translated into Portugese, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Spanish, and next year School as a Journey will appear in Greek. Torin and Karine are now enjoying nine grandchildren.
Mary Stewart Adams
Awakening Spirit Knowledge of the Incarnation Biography
3/12
3/19
The path of an individual’s incarnation is written in the stars, and while starry worlds and planetary forces do not compel human activity, they bear witness to the soul’s intentions. These intentions are cultivated by the soul together with the beings of the spiritual world between death and rebirth.
Is it possible to discern these intentions?
To seek an answer to this question, we will explore: the world views ascribed to the fixed stars of the zodiac; the soul moods expressed through the planetary rhythms; and the destiny forces articulated through the gateway of the Moon sphere, at an individual’s conception, through the cycle of human gestation, and in the cycle of the year.
In this work we take as our guiding inspiration these words from Rudolf Steiner:
“The more abundantly the harmony of the cosmos fills the soul, the more peace and harmony there will be on the earth.”
“Such is the writing of the stars, by our own deeds inscribed into the cosmic spaces.”
“The stars spoke once to man.
It is world destiny they are silent now…”
Mary Stewart Adams
Mary Stuart Adams is the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America.
Mary is a Star Lore Historian and host of the weekly public radio program and podcast The Storyteller’s Night Sky. She published her first book The Star Tales of Mother Goose ~ For Those Who Seek the Secret Language in the Stars, in 2021. As a member of the School for Spiritual Science, Mary combines her extensive knowledge of ancient mythologies with the research and ideas of contemporary astronomy to offer unique perspectives concerning the astrosophy, or star wisdom, of our era. As a global advocate for starry skies, Mary led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011, which later led to the State of Michigan protecting 35,000 acres of state land for its natural darkness. She is the mother of four, with three grandchildren.
Kairos Institute: Overview of Topics covered in a 4-year training in Art Therapy with a strong focus on Painting therapy, based on Liane Collot d’Herbois (Hauschka introduced)
Clay and Drawing as supportive Artistic Therapies.
Leadership and Faculty
An international faculty of experts contributes to making Kairos a vibrant learning community. It is a soul school where all are welcomed into a living process dedicated to healing. Through careful training in the artistic process, we aim to nurture empathy and compassion, enabling human beings to become medicine for one another.
Karine Munk Finser
Director
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.
