Personal and Professional Development with a Spirtiual Dimension

Students Work

About Us

Training for Social and Spiritual Renewal

Fees

The fee for the full Social and Spiritual Renewal Training is £1440, payable as a non-refundable deposit of £50 and 5 instalments of £240 and a final payment of £190. The course fee includes material, copies, tea, coffee and snacks.

Participants can bring lunch or explore Stroud, where there are numerous local cafes.

The fee for a single seminar is £ 280. The fee for each following seminar of the six course programme will be reduced by £ 20.

Application

To apply please sent a hand written application briefly detailing: motivation, expectations, intentions and prior knowledge. Send your application with your deposit of £ 50 to:
Hibernia College Centre for Science and Art - Lansdown
Stroud Glos GL5 1BB

Main Contributors

Marah Evans was born 1952 in Canada. Graduating in 1981, she has worked as an art therapist and seminar leader over the last 20 years. In 1993 she became a course director of Hibernia College offering post- graduate training in art therapy as well as related courses. She is a registered art therapist and a member of Gloucestershire Counselling Services. Marah has been actively involved with the Renewal/Schooling Courses since 1998. She is a member of the General Section and the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science.

Karl-Heinz Finke was born in 1955 in Germany and studied Social Sciences and Psychology in Berlin. He has worked in adult education since 1988. Investigating new methods of adult education, he came into contact with the Centre for Social Development. From 1992 to 1997 he attended training in Biography Work led by Gudrun Burkhard. His intention is to facilitate understanding and development in any accessible way. Since 1997 he has contributed to the Schooling Course and has led training in Biography Work in Berlin since 1998. He is a member of the General Section and the Social Section of the School of Spiritual Science.

Guest Contributor

Michael Evans qualified as a doctor in 1972. After working in psychiatry and in anthroposophical hospitals in Germany and Switzerland he helped start Park Attwood Clinic. He now works as an NHS GP practicing anthroposophical medicine at St Luke’s Medical Centre in Stroud. Inspired by a Goethean Science research project on medicinal plants and participation in an Anthroposophical Schooling Course he has become enthusiastic about developing experiential methods of adult learning. He brings this approach to teaching on the Medical Section Mental Health Seminar, the Anthroposophical Health Studies Course at Hibernia College and a new training for Anthroposophical Doctors.

Hibernia College

Founded in 1919, we welcome students from all over Europe and the UK.

We are one of a handful of organisations offering art therapy courses.

The Themes

Meeting the World with a Developmental Attitude

"What comes to me - belongs to me" In this course we question what lies behind world phenomena, in modern life and culture. How do inner and outer worlds relate to each other? Exploring how each individual’s biography reveals a unique spiritual journey, we exercise faculties for reading life messages; encouraging each other to clarify challenges and strengths. Focussing on these we work with how to bring our true selves more effectively into everyday life.

Wednesday February 21st - Sunday February 25, 2007

Destiny in Transformation

What is the meaning of the word “destiny”? Can a western view contribute to an eastern understanding of “karma”? This theme introduces processes for developing empathy and deepening understanding of how we meet challenging events in our own characteristic ways. We consider the qualities and background of our difficult responses. Through this work blind spots can become more conscious and learning opportunities made more transparent where formerly we may only have experienced an obstacle. Content is presented concerning “the shadow” and “the double”. Historical, spiritual and personal approaches to this theme will be explored.

Wednesday May 16 - Sunday May 20, 2007

Working with Life Questions

How do we awaken to the moral and spiritual questions that touch us as individuals and that may appear repeatedly in our biographies? In this course we practise creative methods for helping ourselves and others discover and clarify pivotal individual questions. We explore the contrast between personal life themes, “world themes” and examples of “spiritual research.”

Monday, August 20 - Friday August 24, 2007

Working With Polarisation

How can we understand the meaning of evil? We will explore different spiritual and psychological perspectives; pursuing how we can work with attitudes, distortions and difficulties in the world and in ourselves. What does it mean to “meet evil and transform it from the inside”? Some say this is increasingly a need of our time. We will use a method for learning from the world around us as well as from myths illustrating distortions of beauty, truth and morality.

Wednesday, November 21 - Sunday November 25 2007

Trials, Thresholds and Initiation

How can we regain a sense of mystery and wonder amidst contemporary life? What does the expression “humanity is crossing the threshold” mean in this context? How can we stay “at the edge” of openness; enduring feelings of “not knowing” amidst the uncertainty of modern life? Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” depicts trials in earlier times as a formal initiation process. Modern consciousness has stepped beyond these formal initiations, but equivalent situations appear in everyday life. Sometimes individuals feel as if they are losing the ground from under their feet being swept away by a wave or consumed by a fiery experience. We will distinguish the distinctive nature of contemporary trials and compare these with older pictures of “fire, water or air trials.”

February 2008

Indicidual Pathways: Meaning and Spirituality in Modern Life

We will expand on how approaches to inner development have changed throughout history; also linking to our personal meetings with spirituality. Aspects of practices are contrasted; contemplation, meditation, prayer and different “exercises.” What does inner life mean to different individuals today? What are the obstacles and the supports for inner work? How can we enliven our experience of the senses and learn to use these as instruments of perception and insight? We aim to enable a deeper awareness for the individual’s spiritual biography; offering support for present and future steps.

May 2008

How do we Work?

The methods used on all courses are aimed to support the individual whilst valuing and promoting lively social and experiential learning. This includes many exercises to facilitate a richer experience of and responsiveness to life. Each of the six courses has a main theme supported by presentations, focussed conversation groups, artwork and movement. This includes indications and conversations on meditation and inner practise. We strive to incorporate diversity and inclusiveness as a positive and vital aspect of learning.

Formerly known as the "Anthroposophical Schooling Course", it has been inspired by research done by Rudolf Steiner, Bernhard Lievegoed and others.

Social and Spiritual Renewal as a Training Process

Although all seminar topics can stand by themselves, they are part of an integrated sequence and form 2 year training process. For those interested in the full training additional weekend interim meetings can be arranged to deepen the process.

Courses start at 8:45 am each day and finish at 6:15 pm; the close on all last days will be at 4 pm.