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 in the planning stages for an intervention in Texas from October7-13 to serve the July 4th flood victims.
Please help us make it happen, and donate to Kairos Crisis Interventions using our secure online form.
Donations are gratefully accepted to support the Kairos students scholarship fund.
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
Course Description:
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
Course Description:
How can we work with and distinguish between what Rudolf Steiner called karmic obligation, karmic fulfillment and karmic sacrifice? How can these insights help us understand our personal destiny and tasks in life?
These two sessions will be a continuation of previous karma studies through Kairos, yet new participants are also warmly welcome!
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).
Laurie Clark
Laurie Clark has had the privilege of being a Waldorf early educator since 1978. She incorporates her therapeutic training into all aspects of her teaching. The deep question of how to meet the child of today and explore their needs in practical applications lies at the heart of her work. Laurie has been studying and collecting the drawings of children for the last four decades and is in continuous research through observation and constant engagement with the young child. She also mentors teachers, is a teacher trainer and conference presenter. She has co-authored two books with Nancy Blanning on therapeutic movement for young children.
Currently, Laurie is joyously working with her daughter, Clair, who is a Waldorf teacher as well, offering a program called Songbirds, an outdoor home program for two- to four-year-olds.
Seminars
Studios
Studio for Cohort ’22 only
Reserved for fulltime Kairos students.
Studios with Karine Munk Finser and sometimes Tonya Stoddard (click for dates)
Sundays, 1:30 – 4:30 PM EST:
02/01
02/08 — joined by Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘25)
02/15 — joined by Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘25)
02/22
03/08 — joined by Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘25)
03/15
03/22
Studios with Chuck Andrade (click for dates)
Sundays, 1:30 – 4:30 PM EST:
01/11
01/18
01/25
The Light and Dark of the Mind with Chuck Andrade
Course Description
The movement of color is the breathing of the soul. The movement of light into darkness is the discernment of the mind as it understands the will that displays its intention.
Working with the landscape format as a template, students will learn to use tints, tones, and shades, and to work with light, medium, and dark values as they envision the beauty of the world around us.
Through guided exercises in light placement on the paper, various times of day and soul moods will emerge, heightening students’ awareness of their environment.
If time and progress permit, exercises of a more imaginative nature will end the course.
Cohort 2022 + 2025 - Studios Gillian David, and Animal Assisted Therapy Cohort
Reserved for full-time Kairos students. (fee included in the year round tuition)
Studio for Cohort ’25 only
ColorWorks with Chuck Andrade is strongly recommended but optional - Four 3 hour sessions at reduced fee of $350 for all who are fully enrolled students
Studios with Chuck Andrade (click for dates)
Sundays, 1:30 – 4:30 PM EST:
01/11
01/18
01/25
Required Courses
Studios with Karine Munk Finser and sometimes Tonya Stoddard (click for dates)
Days and times vary.
Sunday 02/08: Studio with Karine Munk Finser and Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘22)
1:30 – 4:30 PM EST
Saturday 02/14: Studio with Karine Munk Finser
3:00 – 6:00 PM EST
Sunday 02/15: Studio with Karine Munk Finser and Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘22)
3:00 – 6:00 PM EST
Sunday 03/08: Studio with Karine Munk Finser and Tonya Stoddard (with Cohort ‘22)
3:00 – 6:00 PM EST
Saturday 03/14: Studio with Karine Munk Finser
3:00 – 6:00 PM EST
Saturday 03/21: Studio with Karine Munk Finser
3:00 – 6:00 PM EST
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.
