Kairos Institute
Healing in a World of Need
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.
At Kairos, students form a supportive community and 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
Info here about how many years the program typically spans and perhaps a sample schedule…
Year 1
Courses
Year 2
Courses
For questions and more info on our programs, contact us today!
Studios
Studios Fall 2024
With Karine Munk Finser
September: Wednesdays
9/18: 7:30-9:30
9/25: 7:30-9:30
October: Sundays
10/20: 1:30-4:00
10/27 1:30-4:00
November: Wednesday
11/13: 7:30-9:30
December: Sunday
12/15: 1:30-4:00
Course Offerings
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.
3/30 Dr. Gans
The 4 Cardinal Organs in Normal Relation to Cosmos and Earth
Online 1:30-3:30
4/6 Dr. Gans
The Organs and Post-Traumatic Pathology
Online 1:30-3:30
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.
Reserved for Kairos Art Therapy students.
April 2025: Residency in Keene, NH. Gathering Waters Charter School
4/22-4/27
Dr. Gans, Sylvia Borau, Karine Munk Finser
Dr. Gans:
Cardinal Organs Hands-On! Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology: Meet the Organs
Sylvia Borau, Clay Therapist from Parzival Center, Karlsruhe, Germany: TBA
Karine Munk Finser:
Story Image in Charcoal and Pastel: A Study of the Cardinal Organs in Gesture and Color
May
Dr Lakshmi Prasanna 11:30-2:30 EST
5/18 The 7 Life Processes and Their Relationship to the 12 Senses
5/25 The Endocrine System
Lakshmi Prasanna, M.D.
Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna trained as a pediatrician with neonatology as her specialty. She started her career with newborn babies in intensive care and had a successful private neonatal intensive unit for more than 15 years. During this period, she discovered 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.
More information is coming soon. If you would like to learn more, please email Karine Munk Finser:
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 USA in Action
In the summer of 2024, we founded our Kairos Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders team. Little did we know that we would all meet in Asheville on October 27, 2024 as we responded to the wreckage and chaos brought on by the severe storm and flooding that hit North Carolina, USA.
