Kairos Institute: Artistic Therapies – Spring

with Angela Zhaawanongkwe Lindstrom
Sundays 1:30 -3:30 PM ET
January 21 and February 11

$200

Course Description:
Five hundred years of genocide, colonization, and forced assimilation have taken an incalculable toll on the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Shockingly high rates of chronic health conditions mixed with the effects of cultural dislocation from sacred space and the complexities of community breakdown continue to plague generations. Not only Indigenous peoples but All Beings – Human and non-Human – have been impacted, consciously or unconsciously, by these same forces. We will explore the timeline of U.S. Treaties and policies and the historical effects on Indigenous Peoples as well as settlers/colonizers including today’s society. We will examine the foundational Teachings of the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous ways of knowing, learning and sustaining health, and how a “Re-Indigenized” way of being is helping to turn the tide. We will explore what is Medicine, finding balance, and how we can begin to take actions toward, and find healing through, living in Right-Relationship with All Beings.

Bio

Angela is currently the Grades Pedagogical Director at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, where she has taught for over 20 years and organized and hosted the Regional Coast Salish Cultural Sharing for 4th graders. Angela is a citizen of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) and Cherokee Nations and taught Native American Studies and Literature for seven years at the University of Cincinnati before becoming a Waldorf teacher years ago. Angela is an advocate for the Rights of First Peoples and Mother Earth, Adoption and Childhood issues, and has been a national presenter on Native culture and spirituality, and Multicultural Women in the World. She is an accomplished artist and writer; however, her most rewarding role is that of mother to her six children, and grandmother of five.

The Twelve Senses

with Lakshmi Prasanna, M.D.:

Bio:

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.

With James Dyson, M.D.:

Sundays 1:30 – 3:00 PM ET

March 3, 10, 17, 24

$400

Course description:

In these lectures, we will address the eternal psychosomatic dilemma, namely how physical/organic constitutions influence the psychological expression of our individuality and vice-versa. We will explore the continuum of mental health, from embodied resilience to psychological and emotional distress, including the influence of social and cultural factors in child development. This will offer a general background for an appreciation of autoimmunity. The lectures will also consider the challenges facing collaboration between physicians and therapists, referencing some specific diagnoses, the types of medicine commonly used in treatment of psychological states and their possible impact on the therapeutic process. Finally, we will address some of the inner challenges involved in strengthening the Organization of Self (i.e., the I-organization), exploring what is meant by confronting the Threshold at the present time and its resulting challenges for personal development.

Bio:

Dr. James A. Dyson first trained as a medical doctor in London University and went on to study anthroposophic medicine at Emerson College, Camphill Schools, Aberdeen and in hospitals in Germany. In 1979, he co-founded Park Attwood Clinic, a residential medical facility in the UK, where he practiced for 25 years. He also worked as a school doctor, both in mainstream Waldorf Schools and schools and communities for adults and children with special needs. In 2008, he completed a five-year program in Applied Psychosynthesis at the Institute of Psychosynthesis, London, for which he was later awarded a Masters’ degree in Psychosynthesis Psychology from Middlesex University.

James has lectured over several decades in a very wide range of international anthroposophic medical and therapeutic trainings and is a regular contributor at conferences of the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, Switzerland. As a founding Faculty Member of the “Association for Anthroposophic Psychology” in the USA in 2014, he is a regular contributor to their foundation programs. This Association (AAP) currently offers three-year certificate programs in anthroposophic psychology as well as a professional certification program in anthroposophic psychotherapy. Beyond teaching commitments, James’s current practice embraces clinical mentoring and independent consulting. His aspirations lie in connecting esoteric experience with cognitive understanding, especially in relation to psychosomatic medicine, mental health and in the context of human relationship. Published in 2022 by Steiner Books, USA, Soul Size, The Eternal Psychosomatic Dilemma, contains a range of James’s lectures, essays and interviews, in which he explores the realm of soul in relationship to body and spirit.