Milena Kowarik (CH) a student of the Mental Health Seminar course here at Emerson writes on her impressions:

“I have been attending the Mental Health Seminar at Emerson College since November 2021. This three year CPD (Continued Professional Development) course in 12 modules enables participants to dive into the world of the human soul in its connection to the body, the spirit and the environment in which the human being has decided to incarnate.

The seminar is fruitful for people from very diverse professional backgrounds. Current participants are teachers, artists, art therapists, psychotherapists, medical doctors, and social therapists from Camphill or similar communities. The course offers an introduction to the field of mental health as well as a deepening, through many different subjects and activities, so anyone can really benefit.

Not to exaggerate – but it’s the best course I have ever done! No other training, course or school has captivated my ongoing attention and thirst to learn more than this one.

Apart from the so-called theory – starting with presentations on early childhood and development towards adulthood, as well as on the different disorders and illnesses – the course offers many different ways of learning. Through observation exercises, mask and theatre work, eurythmy, small group work and inter-vision groups, the content is being moved and digested in many ways. In doing so, we are encouraged to always relate the content to our own biography and work.

The medical knowledge of two experienced medical doctors allows a deep understanding of the different conditions and so-called disorders. It becomes clear how the physical development goes hand in hand with the soul’s development.

Case studies, brought by psychotherapists, counsellors and the doctors, enliven the ‚theory’ in accessible and deeply touching ways. The improvisation work with theatre and masks, facilitated by an expert in psychodrama, helps us to embody the content. His experience, based on many years of working in a prison, gives art and its transformative force tangible meaning.

The Emerson College campus offers a perfect environment for this intense work, allowing wonderful walks to digest the content.

I appreciated that the faculty offer a variety of different approaches. They come from different professional backgrounds but are united through Anthroposophy. They thus create a new and deeper understanding of conventional approaches without dismissing them, rather integrating and transforming them into a view of the human being that encompasses soul and spirit as well as the dimension of karma and destiny.

Throughout the course we are introduced to ever-deeper layers of Anthroposophy. Starting with the elements, temperaments and the seven life processes, we then work with the planets and their influence on biographical stages of development as well as on the journey after death. Lastly, we come to a deeper understanding of the relationship of the zodiac to the twelve senses as well as personality disorders.
I see this course and its work as essential for the future of our anthroposophical movement and what it can offer to the world. The thresholds we encounter in daily life and which confront all of us, whether we are anthroposophists or not, and which Rudolf Steiner addresses through the inner path and the Class lessons, confronts us in our time with mental illness, biographical and societal challenges, and personality disorders. To understand the significance of these different forms of threshold experiences and their expression in social life, and how to meet them, can only bring healing and new impulses to our society. “

Another round of the course starts in February 2025 and applications are now being taken. Click here for more information on the modules and the content.

This article first appeared in Anthroposophical Society in Ireland’s summer newsletter and is reproduced here with kind permission.