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Since 1980, Sally has been involved with anthroposophy and its practical application in daily life, mainly in the context of the ‘Camphill’ organization in the UK. (Camphill is an international organization that supports people with special needs, both those with learning disabilities and mental health issues, by providing a family type ‘home’ together with committed residential ‘house managers’, and staff from different countries around the world. Ideals underpinning these centres are based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner).
Sally has spent 20 years in the role of house manager; has been active in all other areas of day to day running and organization; has pioneered new ventures and has set up and co-ordinated many diverse trainings. These range from short one- week programs based on a particular theme, to ongoing one to three year courses. Sally has also lectured on many different subjects and is a well-respected teacher.
Sally has always loved painting and helping others to paint and has run classes for people with disabilities, young people from all over the world and mature age students. In 1985 she started to become interested in the therapeutic potential of working with colours and began to train with an experienced painting therapist, gradually taking over some of her work. In 1994 she came in contact with The Emerald Foundation in The Netherlands. Here she met Liane Collot d’Herbois and her teachings, which opened the way to a whole new understanding of the spiritual background of colour.
Since her graduation in 1998 she has been consistently practising this method of painting. She has gained experience working in clinics with doctors and other therapists, and is a recognised teacher of this method of painting.
In July 2001 Sally moved with her family to Australia. Sally has taught many courses on the Sunshine Coast, in Melbourne, Sydney, Coffs Harbour, Tasmania, and abroad. She also works as a Painting Therapist with children and adults both at school and in her private practice.
In 2008 she founded The Sienna Academy for painting therapy and artistic painting according to the method of Liane Collot d’Herbois.
Membership of professional bodies include:
Nederlandse Vereniging Voor Kunstzinnige Therapieen op antropopofische grondslag;
The British Anthroposophical Art Therapy Association. BAATA;
The Australian Anthroposophic Medical Association. AAMA;
Australian and New Zealand Art Therapy Association ANZATA
Dr Lakshmi Prasanna
Dr Lakshmi was trained as a paediatrician with neonatology as her speciality. 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 met Anthroposophy through Waldorf education. She was one of the pioneer parents and worked with the schools in various capacities as a parent, board member and founder member for one Waldorf school.
Dr Lakshmi worked for many years as a school physician. She started an Anthroposophic Medical Society in India and serves this organisation in the capacity of President of the society. One of the primary areas of work for this society is the organising of the International Post Graduate Medical Training (IPMT). Dr Lakshmi also runs a healing and curative centre for special needs children, called Saandeepani, which is located in the city of Hyderabad in South India.
She is presently travelling and giving her time for training workshops for parents, therapists and educators who are working with children from an anthroposophic perspective.
Dr Narelle Francis Savage
Dr Narelle has been practising as an Anthroposophic doctor - since 1999 in the Newcastle and Sydney area. Her specialty areas are paediatrics, mental health, addiction recovery, cancer care, chronic illness, dramatherapy and biography counselling. She is currently working alongside an art therapist, drama therapist and psychologist; also curative eurythmists and rhythmical/ etheric massage therapists in an anthroposophic medical practise in Sydney.
In her earlier years Narelle has worked as a nurse on leaving school (psychiatric, geriatric) and has taught in Steiner schools as a preschool and primary teacher.
Qualifications include:
B.Med., B.Med.Sc., Dip.Hom., Dip.East.Th, Taruna Teacher Training - FRACGP, AAMA, AIMA, AMAC, NZAAD
Dr Mark Sean O’Meadhra
Dr Mark grew up in Melbourne and was educated at a Marist College. After leaving school Mark studied graphic design before living a ‘bohemian lifestyle’ in the St Kilda art scene where he met his current partner Nicole. In 1989 Mark’s first child Pia was born and the family moved to South Australia so that Pia could attend the Mount Barker Waldorf School. In the early 1990’s Mark undertook a Diploma in Applied Science and began working as a paramedic on the streets of Adelaide receiving an Australian National medal for ‘diligent service in protecting human life’.
In 1998 Mark completed a Bachelor of Health Science and in 2000 Mark received formal academic status at Flinders University whilst working as a clinical lecturer in the School of Medicine. In 2001 Mark decided to become an anthroposophic doctor graduating with a Bachelor of Surgery and a Bachelor of Medicine in 2006.
Concurrent with his conventional medical studies Mark began post graduate training in anthroposophic medicine in 2004 and has spent considerable time in New Zealand training at ‘Novalis House’ with Dr David Ritchie.
In 2008 Mark completed his in-hospital training and is undertaking further anthroposophic medical studies in India and the Melbourne Therapy Centre. Following the completion of his medical training Mark plans to consult as a general practioner specializing in anthroposophic medicine.
Qualifications include:
BMBS, BHSc, DipAppSc.
Dr Paul Hutchison
Since 1976 Paul has been a Physician, graduating at Groningen University in The Netherlands. He also completed an Anthroposophic training based in Zeist. He has a general practice in The Hague. In 1982 he has also been working in the field of Painting Therapy according to the method of Liane Collot d’Hebois. In 1998 he became a founder member of The Emerald Foundation.
Since 1998 he has participated in the Research Group for Painting Therapy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. Paul is the main medical teacher for the Emerald Foundation.
Josine Hutchison – de Lanoy Meijer
Since 1976 Josine has been a Painting Therapist. She trained initially at the Wervel School in The Netherlands and then completed a further semester at The Margarethe Hauschka Schule in Boll, In West Germany. She has worked at the Husmann Clinic in Germany, the Lukas Clinic, the Ita Wegman Clinic in Switzerland and the Therapeuticum run by L.P. Walburgh Schmidt in Leiden, The Netherlands. In Autumn 1978 she began to work with Liane Collot d’Herbois.
She has worked in her husband’s practice since 1984. From 1980-1990, for 10 years, she taught the final course in Painting Therapy at the Tobias School of Art in England. Since spring 1986 she has been running courses together with her husband Paul Hutchison in the Liane Collot d’Herbois approach to Painting Therapy. These courses were taught at their home and doctor’s practice in Nassau Dillenburgstraat, in The Hague.
In 1998 she became a founder member of The Emerald Foundation. Since 1991 she has participated in the Research Group for Painting Therapy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. In 2002 the school moved to larger premises at Mesdagstraat, in The Hague. The school has existed for nearly 21 years and the fifth group of students have just started their training.
Jan Baker-Finch
New Zealand born Jan Baker-Finch completed a Masters degree in French and German before moving to France, where she first came in contact with Anthroposophy. Eventually she studied Eurythmy in Stuttgart under the tutelage of Else Klink, and for four years travelled and performed with the Eurythmeum Ensemble through Europe, South America, Russia, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and independently to Japan.
Since 1991 Jan has lived in Brisbane, Australia and taught consistently at Samford Valley Steiner School, working at a number of other schools around the country as a guest teacher. Alongside her school teaching Jan has worked for several years at the Conservatorium of Music where she teaches movement awareness and improvisation to first year students. As a performing artist she has become known in Australia and has also toured as a soloist in Japan, Switzerland, Romania, Sweden, Germany. She has performed at festivals, conferences and in concerts with acclaimed Australian musicians, and is particularly interested in the dialogue between Eurythmy and contemporary music.
In 2005 she co-directed a successful community festival night attended by 2,000 people, which integrated Eurythmy performances by children and the work of professional musicians, circus performers, opera singers, actors and visual artists. Jan is keen to continue to develop venues and avenues for opening Eurythmy as a performing art to the general public in and beyond Australia, while continuing her work as a teacher of all ages.
Hetty Sjoerd Schaafsma
Since 1958 Hetty has worked in a wide variety of therapeutic situations with children of all ages. This includes hospital, sanatorium work and homes for children with challenging behaviour. Hetty has given many courses for parents, teachers and child care staff. She trained in the art of making and playing the bamboo pipes for different ages and from 1987-1990 she trained as a music therapist at the Wervel School in Zeist, The Netherlands.
From 1989-2002 she has worked as a music therapist at Bronlaak , a private practice institute for adult people with special needs and Heimdal, a day care centre for children with special needs. In 2002 Hetty moved to Australia where she developed her music therapy practice. She has also worked at the Byron Bay Steiner School and the Rainbow Ridge Steiner School in Nimbin, making bamboo-pipes and helping teachers, where needed, with information about music following the idea's of Anthroposophy.
Brian Keats
Brian Keats grew up in Zimbabwe and is now a resident of Australia still under the southern skies. He has been compiling and producing the annual “Antipodean Astro calendar” since 1985, is a founding member of Biodynamic Agriculture Australia, and has given talks and workshops across Australia as well as in the USA Canada and Japan. His interests range from Pythagoras to weather forecasting with specialist areas in naked eye astronomy and the science of the spirit.
Publications include: Antipodean Astro Calendar; Northern Hemisphere Astro Calendar; Biodynamic Growing Guide; Moon Planting Guide; Betwixt Heaven & Earth.
Thanh Cherry
Since 1969 Thanh has worked in many different areas to do with childcare and humanitarian projects. She has worked in childcare in Rome and Italy and as a cook and relief house parent at Bridge House Home School in the UK, (a residential school for children with special needs, based on Rudolf Steiner’s educational insights). She has also worked with Vietnamese refugees as a Welfare Officer at the Sopley Reception Centre for Vietnamese Boat People and as the Deputy Principal of the Moyle Tower Reception Centre for Vietnamese Boat People, both centres in the UK and under the direction of the British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR) Thanh has done a certain amount of translation work and free lance writing and has travelled extensively throughout Africa, America, Europe, and Asia. She is the Co-writer of the book’ Of Pandas and Wandering Geese (Minerva Press, London), subsequently also published in German (Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart).
From 1997 untill the present time Thanh has been involved as an early childhood teacher trainer in various Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. This includes courses at Universities, teacher training colleges and other tertiary Institutions. Thanh has been instrumental in starting a registered charity that supports the work of the kindergarten in the grounds of the Dieu Giac Orphangae in Vietnam and also other kindergartens in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She was the initiator of the Rudolf Steiner early childhood education movement in Ho Chi Minh City. She is currently continuing with her work abroad, but also conducting ‘Train the Trainers’ workshops for professionals working with disadvantaged mothers, fathers and children, in Australia.
Thanh is a well-known and respected consultant, lecturer and writer on Early Childhood education and practices.
Qualifications include:
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.); Waldorf Teacher training, Cape Town, South Africa and Lorien Novalis School, Sydney, Australia; also completed various short international primary and kindergarten teacher training courses; Master of Education (M.Ed.).
Paul Martin
The emotional and ideological atmosphere of growing up on a dairy farm in the 60’s planted in Paul a three-fold quest: this quest involved seeking for a sustainable agricultural method, a desire for community living and a search for the spiritual in all areas of life. That same quest still drives Paul some 40 years later. As a keen organic teenage gardener in the late 60’s Paul came across the words “Bio-Dynamics” in a gardening book he was reading; these simple words became a guiding star for Paul as he set out to find and learn about this magical agricultural method. The quest for this secret has led Paul to sustainable farming and gardening methods in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and research ventures in Europe. In the early 70’s Paul uncovered the even greater mystery that lies behind Bio-dynamics -‘Anthroposophy’- A term that denotes the teachings of Austrian-born philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1871-1925).
In the late 70’s Paul found himself managing the first UK Bio-dynamic venture into Community Supported Agriculture; where the customers not only benefited from the healthy, nourishing produce and were involved socially, but also had the satisfaction of helping to keep the enterprise financially viable. During this time Paul had the unexpected pleasure of meeting adults with learning disabilities who came to work on the farm. He found this contact very exciting and stimulating. This eventually led him to Botton Village, a Camphill Community on the North Yorkshire Moors, where homes and work situations are created together with people with special needs. Here he met and married Sally, farmed Bio-dynamically, lived and worked a sustainable community life-style and pursued his love of Anthroposophy.
Paul helped pioneer a training for young Bio-dynamic farmers and taught on the Camphill Bio-dynamic Seminar for 15 years. A move to a different Camphill Centre near London brought Paul into contact with people with mental health issues, and enabled him to deepen his knowledge of the medical and therapeutic side of the work. In 2001 Paul and Sally and their youngest son, Stefan, returned to Australia, where Paul continues to work with adults with an Intellectual Disability and Acquired Brain Injury, no longer in community, but still striving to empower the clients with the recognition that the abilities that they possess are of the greatest value to the rest of society. Through his long involvement with Bio-dynamic agriculture and with people who find it difficult to express themselves, Paul has learnt to listen with empathy both to the land and to people.
Many have taken courage and seen new meaning in their life through coming into contact with Paul; and his love and skill with plants shows itself in the beautiful garden he has created at his home which is a haven of peace and stillness, where colours, etheric forces and elementals abound. Paul continually seeks to extend his knowledge of Anthroposophy and to make it available to the general community.
Rob Birse
Rob spent the first 17 years of his working life as an Electronics Technical Officer in the Telecommunications industry, before resigning in 1984 to focus on building a house and develop a small acreage property near Brisbane, with wife Loraine and two young sons. Five years prior to this, in 1979, while still living in Sydney, he attended a series of lectures given by Mr Robert Williams as an introduction to the lectures on biodynamic agriculture, which had been presented by Dr Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Mr Williams was the first person to bring the knowledge of these lectures to Australia in the 1940’s.
Already committed for a number of years to the cause of conservation and organic farming, Rob was sufficiently inspired by these lectures and the quality of the biodynamic farms (and farmers) he came into contact with, to take on as a life task, a deepening of his knowledge of biodynamic agriculture and to practically applying the method in his gardening work. Waldorf education, again based on the work of Rudolf Steiner, has been a twin passion. Rob is currently the gardener and gardening teacher at the Samford Valley Steiner School.
He returned to this role in 2007, after a break of several years. Rob’s initial involvement began in 1990 when his younger son joined the school. Wishing to share his love of gardening with the children led to Rob taking on the gardening teaching position in 1998. Motivated by a desire to assist individuals find meaning in their lives through identifying and working through the inherent “roadblocks” along the path, Rob gained a Diploma in Experiential and Creative Art Therapy from MIECAT (Melbourne Institute of Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy) and has completed the theory component of a Diploma in Holistic Counselling from Sophia College.
The knowledge gained from this training informs his approach to teaching and human relations in general – endeavouring to honour the worth of each individual. Over the last decade, Rob has given many talks on Biodynamics and after gaining a Certificate 4 in “Workplace Training and Assessment” in 2006, has run a number of one-day and two-day introductory workshops over the last two years.
Lorraine Birse
Lorraine has 21 years of experience working in a small business as company director and accountant. It was in the service industry and each day necessitated meeting and interacting with many customers and employees. Lorraine’s work also involved keeping up with changing legislation effecting small businesses and book keeping changes like GST, which brought her into communication with various government bodies. From both these areas she gained valuable inter-personal skills and insights into human nature.
Lorraine had always cherished a hope that one day she might be able to work in a more healing capacity, and finally in 1997 she was able to commence training in the area of massage therapy. She achieved her ‘certificate four’ in 1999 and diploma in 2005 in Brisbane, Australia. During this time, Lorraine studied various techniques of massage therapy.
In 2002 Lorraine began studying rhythmical massage with the school for rhythmical massage in Sydney and obtained her diploma qualification in 2005. Lorraine continues to attend post-graduate trainings twice a year for her on-going professional development. Since 2002, Lorraine has realised her dream of working therapeutically with people through the different forms of massage that she practices. She now works with an anthroposophic homeopath and has clients of all ages referred to her. Most of these have some involvement with the Steiner schools.
Lorraine is a member of the Australian anthroposphic medical association, ‘AAMA’ and the Australian Association of Massage Therapists, AAMT.
Dr. Hans Christoph Kümmell
Born in Germany; Dr Hans Christoph Kümmell, studied medicine in several universities. While he was continuing his medical studies in Tübingen, he joined a group of young doctors and students, who were studying Anthroposophy and working with the indications given by Rudolf Steiner in his medical lectures. After finishing his studies in 1963 he worked in several clinics practising general medicine, but finally specialized in internal medicine. From 1969 onwards Dr Hans Christoph worked in the newly founded Anthroposophic Clinic - Herdecke until his retirement in 2003. In 1994 he was appointed as part-time lecturer of the Witten/Herdecke University. From 2003 to 2007 he participated in the ‘International Painting Therapy Training Course’ at the Emerald Foundation, Den Haag, together with his wife Ute Braatz-Kümmell. From this time Dr Hans Christoph has given lectures to the Emerald students on anthroposophical medical subjects; and he also continues to paint.
Peter Glasby
Peter has taught Natural sciences, Outdoor Education, and Exploring Spirituality at the Mt Barker Waldorf School from 1984 to 2007, after moving there from Switzerland where he had been working as a research biologist. Since the beginning of 2011 he has been the Education Administrator for the High school of the Samford Valley Steiner School. His passion is to teach science phenomenologically and in such a way that it reveals the human being as an integral part of the world and its evolution. He shares the role of General Secretary for the Anthroposophical Society of Australia with his colleague from Samford, Jan Baker-Finch.
Earlier in his life he worked as a bio-dynamic market gardener and house parent for disabled children and adults at Warrah Village, Sydney. He co-edits a journal for the Pedagogical Section of the Anthroposophical Society of New Zealand and Australia. He is also involved in teacher training both in Australia and overseas.
He lives with his wife Rosemarie in Samford Valley, with occasional visits from their four adult children and (so far) three grand-children. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours), Diploma of Education, Certificate for Waldorf High School Teacher Training in Kassel Germany and Advanced Certificate in Bush and Mountain Leadership.
Specialist Teachers
There will be many more visiting teachers from other parts
of Australia and from abroad,
giving specialist courses during the training. |
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MAIN TEACHERS:
Sally Martin
Dr Lakshmi Prasanna
VISITING TEACHERS:
Dr Narelle Francis Savage
Dr Mark Sean O’Meadhra
Jan Baker-Finch
Hetty Sjoerd Schaafsma
Brian Keats
Thanh Cherry
Paul Martin
Rob Birse
Lorraine Birse
Dr Hans Christoph Kummell
Uta Stoll-Kuwilsky
Christina Nielsen
Peter Glasby
ADVISORY TEACHERS:
Dr Paul Hutchison
Josine Hutchison – de Lanoy Meijer
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