2021 - Colourful variety of eurythmy therapy /Eurythmietherapie
Every two months we present eurythmy therapy work from different countries and areas and give glimpses of some of the many applications found for eurythmy therapy.
Today we start from the birthplace of eurythmy therapy; Welcome to Switzerland.
- Greetings from the leadership of the Medical Section of the General Anthroposophical Society
- Video from Switzerland on 100 years of eurythmy therapy
- Impulses for the future from an archive project by Norman Kingeter and Rob Schapink
Greetings from the Medical Section
This year we are celebrating the 100th birthday of eurythmy therapy, looking with gratitude at the developments that have taken place and grasping future-oriented impulses for this healing art of anthroposophic medicine that has developed from eurythmy.
Eurythmy therapy connects with the spiritual forces from which the body is formed and carries them into the life organisation of the human being. In embryology, the form and substance world of the human body develops. These are processes that have come to rest, that is, movements that „coagulate“ into its substance and form. Comprehensive wisdom connections work in these body-forming movements and lead to its sub¬stance-filled form. If we not only observe these movements, i.e. crossings, spiral movements, final curves, invaginations, touches, breathing processes, but feel them and give them voice, the sounds of human language develop. In the formation of the body, these sound qualities are active as silent language in an ordering and plastic way. The body is formed by the world-word that was in the beginning. In eurythmy therapy we draw on this creative activity in relation to the pathological changes wrought by the illness. The essence of the sound resonates through the eurythmy movement and is imprinted as a health bringing force in the life organisation and body formation of the human being. In this way, the human being stimulates and supports his or her own healing powers.
May the new century of eurythmy therapy lead to further development and unfolding in this sense, deep¬ening the cooperation of the therapeutic professions and promote its practical effectiveness for patients and its scientific evaluation.
January 2021
Matthias Girke and Georg Soldner
Video from Switzerland on 100 years of eurythmy therapy
We celebrate the centinary of our therapy method EURYTHMY THERAPY and present our short film from Switzerland…
… where you can train to become a state-approved complementary therapist with the method of eurythmy therapy!
Impulses for the future from an archive project
By Norman Kingeter and Rob Schapink, Arlesheim Clinic, in cooperation with the Ita Wegman Archive and the Alanus University of Applied Sciences.
Like every being, every organism, a profession also develops and evolves. After 100 years it is a wonderful moment to look with joy and attention at how eurythmy therapy has grown in the meantime.
From the seed, the root and the trunk, many branches and twigs have developed. Many approaches have emerged, all of which place the impulse for healing at the centre.
If we want to look at the germ and the root, the path leads us to the Ita Wegman Archives in Arlesheim. Here we find a large part of the documentation from the origin and early days of eurythmy therapy. These are the case histories from the years 1921 - 1924, as well as various patient documentations. These documents show how the doctors Hilma Walter and Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt in particular noted down and implemented Rudolf Steiner's instructions. Many of the phonetic sequences known today can be found here in their original context. The documented courses of therapy are also informative and provide interesting details about the explanations and the temporal course.
The eurythmy therapy course, in which the basis for this therapy was laid, has been published and is accessible to everyone. However, only fragmentary publications exist so far for the case histories. For the teaching and research of eurythmy therapy, this documentation of illnesses forms an extremely important basis and should therefore be published as comprehensively as possible.
Rudolf Steiner's treatment proposals are thereby classified and contextualised. Some things can be rethought, understood and practised in this way. From September 2021, this documentation will be available to all eurythmy therapists in book form.
