Embryo in Us - Understanding Ourselves as Embryo
A four-day workshop organized by the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society and the Society for Physicians of Anthroposophic Naturopathy.
Location: Cedarwood Waldorf School, 3030 SW 2nd Ave, Portland, OR.
WORKSHOP LIMITED TO 40 PEOPLE
EARLY REGISTRATION UNTIL JUNE 29, 2017
(2 WORKSHARE SPOTS AVAILABLE Two small ($200.00) work-study grants are available--describe your need, reason for attending, AND availability before & after the workshop. Email to healthbridge@integra.net)
The course is Approved by OBNM for 26.5 Naturopathic General OR 26.5 OB CEU’s.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE AN EMBRYO? This four day workshop explores human prenatal development and will reveal that the embryo in you still exists. We did not develop out of the body (as main stream ‘brain philosophers’ nowadays seem to propagate), but we are beings of Mind, Motion and Matter (A.T. Still). “We made the body, cell by cell we made it” (Rumi). Approached in a more phenomenological way, the human embryo reveals not only who we are, but also what we are meant to be, challenging our modern reductionistic view of humans as ‘walking brains’ or bio-machines’. In a synthesis between modern scientific embryology and a holistic view of the human being, one may be able to see that the same forces that formed the body, are continuously at work throughout life. Those forces carrying the blueprint of health into manifestation: The Embryo in Us.
TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE: • Creative principles and forces that work through the human being • Understanding prenatal development: gestures of growth as human behavior and expression • Dynamics of conception, incarnation, embodiment and individuation • Dynamics of Birth. Where do we come from? • The organization of the human body in body axes and planes • Phases of embryonic development as ways of being • The macrocosm in the microcosm of bodily organization • Man and animal: Humans as adult embryos. • The whole body as psychosomatic dimension • The human body as dynamic equilibrium of polarities (Randolph Stone) with the healing power of threefoldness (Rudolf Steiner) resulting in “Man is Mind. Motion, Matter”(Andrew T. Still) • The meaning of the germ layers in the body with the meso(derm) as origin of the “fascia”: together with blood the “organ of innerness”.
A detailed description can be downloaded here.
Once your registration is complete and payment is received, class participants will receive the detailed course schedule, accommodations info, transportation info, course materials DropBox link, and any other relevant info. Visit the Forum (on site menu above) to look for Ride and Room Share info.
This course is accessible for interested health professionals: NDs, MDs, DOs, DCs, massage therapists, midwives, nurses, physical therapists, or representatives of psychosomatic & spiritual oriented therapies (such as various Anthroposophical therapies, Craniosacral therapy, Polarity or Trauma Therapy, Psychotherapy). Parents and teachers are also welcome. Prior knowledge of embryology is not required. Diagrams, illustrations & summarizing articles will be available. The lectures and discussions will be alternated with practical exercises like form drawing and bodily motions (‘eurythmy’).
For further details and booking, contact Dr. Bob Kellum at healthbridge@integra.net or 503-331-7393.
CANCELLATION POLICY: Participant’s cancellation requests must be received in writing (i.e., snailmailed or emailed, and received) BY June 29TH for a refund, less a $50.00 administrative fee. Cancellation requests received in writing after JUNE 29th and before AUGUST 15th will receive a refund less a $200.00 fee. Cancellation requests after that date will not be eligible for a refund, but another person may be substituted. Telephone cancellations cannot be honored. Until an email cancellation has been promptly acknowledged by return email, you cannot assume it has been received.
About the Presenter
Jaap van der Wal Ph.D. is a medical doctor and till his retirement in 2012 he worked as associate professor in Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, Holland. After his medical education in 1973 he became specialized in the functional anatomy of the locomotor apparatus with (later on) emphasis on the architecture of connective tissue and fascia and its role in proprioception. Gradually he developed as teacher in Philosophy of Science and in Medical Anthropology. “My passion however was and still is human embryology. The human body is a process, developing and functioning in time. The embryo moves and behaves in forms. It is in this area that I encountered the Goethean phenomenological approach. I apply the method of dynamic morphology to understand what we actually are doing as human beings when we are embryo. With respect I can find in the embryo cautious answers to questions as to the meaning of human existence." After his retirement he fully devotes his energy to Embryo in Motion, a worldwide project on teaching Embryosophy. Also look at his website: www.embryo.nl. He now teaches his ‘Embryosophy’ in Europe and USA in institutes for Craniosacral-therapy, Naturopathy, Osteopathy, Polarity Therapy but also Prenatal Psychology and Trauma therapy and so on. Also look at his website: www.embryo.nl
