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Trauma Therapy & Post-traumatic Growth

Becoming a global citizen awake to trauma


Experienced clinicians and researchers
demonstrate different approaches to trauma therapy. People in the field present a wealth of proven exercises for post-traumatic growth.

If you yourself are affected by trauma and suffer from it, the lectures and workshops will teach you what is necessary so that you are not defeated by trauma. On the contrary you may develop positive forces and enter into post-traumatic growth. We will show you what factors play a role in trauma therapy, so that the  process of your trauma therapy can bring inner growth and even stronger self-confidence. The lectures and workshops offer you the opportunity to try out these possibilities in an open way. You will receive clear advice as well as simple and understandable tools for practical application. You will learn: to differentiate between trauma therapies; what can be achieved, what to watch out for; dangers and illusions on the path. We will show you what you can do for yourself by treating yourself and your body in new ways. Meaning in life, meaning in movement, and a mindful approach to yourself - these three things make it possible to grow from what you've been through.

For you as a physician and therapist, the easy-to-use emergency trauma exercises shown in the workshops provide a set of stabilizing elements to complement your existing therapies. Your patients will feel that they are being perceived and treated on subtle and additional levels, and will experience this as an enrichment of your services that supports their post-traumatic growth. You will receive a cognitive framework of how and for what purpose the elements are applied. Even if you have nothing to do with anthroposophical philosophy, you can easily implement the exercises in your own trauma therapy setting.

You, as a companion to a person affected by trauma, will gain a better understanding of the challenges associated with trauma, will see what your loved one is struggling with, and will be given tools to support them in walking their path and making post-traumatic growth a reality. It doesn't always have to be therapy: you can share the empowering and transformative impact of what you have learned in the conference. The practical exercises are suitable for everyday life and easy to understand, so you can show them to your loved ones, try them out and experience them together. Furthermore, you will have the videos at your disposal, where you can watch everything again in detail.

The conference is about inner potential, practical application of exercises, meditations, and the art of living to overcome trauma. Most of the speakers have an anthroposophical background, because these concepts often help when you want to understand certain things and experiences. However, no prior knowledge is required. The presenters explain in simple terms what trauma therapy is all about. Their understanding of the relationships provides fertile ground for practical exercises that support post-traumatic growth. All exercises are simple and can be done easily even with limited mobility. You can understand and apply them immediately, without previous knowledge.

You are cordially invited to become a trauma informed global citizen.

Lectures, Videos and Materials

Program & Presenters

Harald Haas

January 29, 3 p.m. GMT
What is Trauma and What is not Trauma?

  • What is the difference between simple and complex trauma?
  • Early childhood trauma.
  • Long-lasting trauma and traumatization in adulthood.
  • Trauma sequelae, their symptoms, and diagnoses.
  • What strategies do we develop to deal with trauma?

After the talk, there will be time for your questions.

Learn more about Harald Haas...

Theodor Hundhammer

January 29, 4:30 p.m. GMT

Workshop: The Four Elements Body Scan

First arrive at yourself, take time, listen. We do the Four Elements Body Scan together. Afterwards, we exchange ideas about it and repeat it again.

  • What is the difference to the Body Scan in a normal mindfulness meditation?
  • Where does this difference come from?

On our HSP page you can already try it out and download it.

Learn more about Theodor Hundhammer...

Myrtha Faltin

February 5, 3 p.m. GMT
Stabilizing Movement and Dexterity Exercises for Children

What do you do with children who have just experienced something very terrible, who you encounter in an uprooted situation, and in whose environment despair, apathy or violence have the upper hand?

Practical examples to participate and benefit from the work of stART international e.V. emergency aid for children.

Learn more about Myrtha Faltin...

Judith Kutney

February 5, 4:10 p.m.GMT
Revitalizing the Compassionate Heart

Trauma, much like grief, can be processed and integrated when it can be seen and respected for what it is: a warning system to pay attention to a significant change.

With responsible self care, time and patience new insight and authenticity may arise as a matter of the heart. Judith shares how relational curiosity and compassionate listening can lay the groundwork for this to happen.

Learn more about Judith Kutney...

Valentin Powell

February 12, 3 p.m. GMT
Body Balm 1 

Discover ways to unleash the power that lies dormant in your body. It takes very little. Very simple movements can make something resonate deep within you.

With a quiet, simple sequence of steps, with a conscious feeling into the movement of your arm: in the aftermath you will feel that it does not leave your body indifferent. We do it together and share our experiences.

Learn more about Valentin Powell...

Harald Haas

February 12, 4:10 p.m. GMT
What is Needed for Therapy to Succeed

  • Different therapies for different types of trauma, e.g. simple trauma and complex trauma.
  • Why is verbal psychotherapy therapy often not enough for trauma sequelae?
  • Why do traumatized people often have to be careful with spiritual exercises?
  • What does stabilization mean for traumatized people?

Learn more about Harald Haas...

Verena Hetzmannseder

February 19, 3 p.m. GMT
Seven Important Keys of Attention-based Movement Work

Workshop with explanations of the background of attention-based movement work. Together we explore the qualities of slowness, cautiousness and exact observation.

It is about finding one's own pace, being able to process and integrate things and to strengthen oneself mentally in small steps.

Learn more about Verena Hetzmannseder...

Evelyn Richbell
Caroline Salter

February 19, 4:10 p.m.GMT
Trauma within the Family - Moving Through Fragmentation Towards Wholeness

Evelyn and Caroline will be offering a context for the experiential process of moving through trauma. They will share their insights in bringing stability and support into families who have experienced trauma in its many and varied forms. They will be introducing practical tools to navigate lost paths to find reconnection and renewal, out of their experience of working with their Compass Rose initiative.

Learn more about Evelyn Richbell and Caroline Salter...

James Dyson

February 26, 3 p.m.

Confronting the Abyss. When the Ground Gives Way under Your Feet

Trauma displaces all footholds for our soul and therefore all therapy becomes a matter of therapeutic intuition. There is never anything absolute,  no matter how much one wishes for it.

I want to encourage us to face the threshold, the moment when the ground gives way under our feet. What does it mean for us when the three boats of our soul forces (thinking, feeling and willing) steer in different directions? Here some aspects of earthly and cosmic nourishment might be helpful.

I would like to support you and all of us to find our own way, to walk it trustfully and to grow on the way.

Learn more about James Dyson...

Valentin Powell

March 5, 3 p.m. GMT
Body Balm 2

Today we will try to strengthen and build our inner soil. Like any soil, our inner soil is multi-layered too. Mindfully we go from layer to layer, up and down, consecutively and simultaneously.

The hands, outside, show us what is happening inside. The inside responds to what our hands are doing outside. If you do this exercise regularly, it is like your soil becomes rich and can breathe again. Finally you are allowed to grow and develop in a relaxed way!

Learn more about Valentin Powell...

Iryna Bondarevych

March 5, 4:10 p.m. GMT
Stress and human wholeness

Stress can be explained with psychological, medical and physiological terms. But by understanding the stress state as a result of a violation of human integrity, one can broaden the understanding and overcome stress.

Our values and worldview are fundamental to our mental wholeness. Their gradation determines the severity of the burden in decision-making situations. By becoming aware of your own attitudes and worldviews and working with your own values, the stress burden in your life will reduce.

Learn more about Iryna Bondarevych...

Gulzaira Mamonova

March 12, 3 p.m. GMT
Encountering and transforming trauma with art

Gulzaira introduces us to the seven life processes and art therapy for trauma.

Thereafter she discusses one of the life processes in detail.

With a simple pencil drawing exercise we learn about the Saturn technique as an example.

Learn more about Gulzaira Momonova...

Harald Haas

March 12, 4:10 p.m. GMT

Post-traumatic Growth

Trauma effects in the body structure and in the soul structure

  • Stress, shame and panic
  • Dissociation and powerlessness

Extreme growth moments such as

  • Initiation
  • Near-death experiences

Growth opportunities, growth expectation. Free decision making, even in trauma.

Learn more about Harald Haas...

Tetiana Borodulkina

March 19, 3:00 pm GMT
Trying to help

Scientific research into stress reduction programmes and their mechanisms, carried out by the practising psychologist Tetiana Borodulkina, shows the fruitfulness of combining them with eurythmy.

Based on these experiences, Tetiana is seeking ways to directly help people and children affected by war with psychological help, eurythmy and form drawing in coping with stress disorders and trauma, and to foster healing. Tetiana reports on her problems, experiences, and perspectives.

Learn more about Tetiana Borodulkina...

Contribution from participants

March 19, 4:10 p.m GMT

Short contributions 10 - 15 minutes

Petra Rosenkranz tells us how many people in Cairo go through serious developmental trauma, what she observes and what she can achieve with artistic means.

Theodor Hundhammer takes up Petra's observations and explores the sense of touch through N-B-H with us.

Graham Kennish does a practical exercise with us from Goethean psychology for trauma.

Truus van der Kaaij tells us about Dabrowski and his special approach in psychotherapy, in which the phenomena of trauma can also mean developmental steps.

Myrtha Faltin

March 26, 3 p.m. GMT
Cooperation in Emergency Assistance. Stabilizing Exercises for Adults

Background and experience of international emergency aid

  • from the on-site cooperation of international teams
  • from the training of helpers and affected persons
  • from the intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange

Myrtha Faltin shows us exercises that help us as adults cope with crisis and re-stabilize ourselves. These exercises also allow us to help others.

Learn more about Myrtha Faltin...

Contribution from participants

March 26 4:10 p.m GMT

Short contributions 10 - 15 minutes

Lolita Malinina: Hedgehog Therapy

Adele Waldmann: Eurythmy Therapy for Chronic Pain Due to PTSD

Halyna Bokovets: Learning to Forgive

Alla Selikhanovich: Music Therapy As a Survival Aid

Theodor Hundhammer

April 2, 3:00 p.m. GMT

Seven-step Therapy Systems and
Their Potentials for Trauma Therapy

The number seven is a measure often used when addressing human qualities or moods. The week has seven days, and the musical scale seven notes.

Already 2500 years ago, probably the first therapeutic system, the Eight-fold Path of Buddha, was built on a sequence of seven steps, which is concluded by an eighth step like an octave.

Can we discover a few secrets in this sequence of seven which we can perhaps put to good use in trauma treatment?

Learn more about Theodor Hundhammer...

BLOG: Trauma and Post-traumatic Growth

Recent posts on this topic on the blog. Click to see more.

Myrtha Faltin Trauma Konferenz - stART international_Bewegung_gemeinsamer Schwung

What you should know about trauma....

...if you work with potentially traumatized people, live with them, or are affected yourself.

Blog-Article by Myrtha Faltin, stART international e.V. emergency aid for children©, excerpt from stART's handout for training refugee workers.

In the current global crisis, stART international e.V., based in Gröbenzell near Munich, is making its 17 years of experience in dealing with traumatized people available online.

1. What is a traumatic event?

The founders of psychotraumatology, Fischer and R…

Read more…

Blog 5 Proud Alumni Of Urban Waldorf Public  School - trauma informed pedagogy Facebook

The children are not doing well

Blog article by Mary Ruud, Milwaukee, USA

About the growing need to understand trauma-informed pedagogy.

Many children have experienced years of trauma just for attending school, feeling bullied or simply not seen for who they are, not meeting standards set by the state or their own teachers, peer pressure for relationships, drugs, and sex, and loneliness due to media overload. Do they know that school is no longer safe? For children, trauma can be any deeply stressful experience and its short…

Read more…

Blog 4 Trauma patient practicing at Lake Michigan

A Wound to the Body, Soul and Spirit - Phases of Trauma and Steps to Overcome it.

Blog article by Mary Ruud, Milwaukee, USA

Trauma has existed as long as humankind on earth.

Wars, violence and natural disasters are all part of our shared history, yet therapies for trauma only began to be developed in Western medicine in the1980’s when post-traumatic stress disorder began to be officially diagnosed. Now nearly all therapists, and teachers, have training to deal with trauma.

  • Trauma can affect whole groups of people such as in earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornados,…

Read more…

Blog 3 Trauma and Posttraumatic Growth - Yuriy Yurschenko

Pain, Light and Wisdom

Blog Article by Yuriy Yurchenko, MD

Light and Wisdom

On the subject of wisdom, Rudolf Steiner once said: "Wisdom is crystallized pain that has been overcome and transformed into its opposite." With this he points to a certain world tendency, without which no life event would be possible.

We see something similar in Goethe's famous statement about the phenomenon of color. The eminent poet metaphysically stated that "colour is the result of the deeds and suffering of light" which is forced to p…

Read more…

Posttraumatic Growth Diagram

Posttraumatic Growth: Spiritual - Emotional - Physical

Trauma therapy and post-traumatic growth

The term "post-traumatic growth" was coined by Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun [1], who have studied it both theoretically and empirically. It indicates that victims not only recover from trauma, but that it may present an opportunity for personal growth.

Although paradoxical that gain can come precisely from loss, there are numerous reports that traumatic life events can act as catalysts for post-traumatic growth.

What are the main factors…

Read more…

Sternenmagnolie

Shock, shame, doubt, and terrifying confusion

Trauma response and concomitant diseases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
(Harald Haas, MD, Speaker at the Eurythmy4you Trauma Conference on January 29, February 12, March 12, 2023.)

If we look at the internal and external, subjective and objective symptomatology that occurs in trauma (an initially incomprehensible or life-threatening situation of fright) a freezing, congealing and chilling first takes place. In the blood circulation a centralization takes place, the blood withdraws and one beco…

Read more…