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Fiona Murray, 60 years old, UK
Completing Year 3 of the International Online Training Program.

This is the best course I have ever been on. The level of thought given not only to the content but also to the student process and adult learning principles is outstanding. We have never had a problem with the technology in 3 years of working together and the tutors go out of their way to ensure that all can participate, including people who face challenging connection problems in their part of the world. In contrast the PGCert in Clinical Hypnosis Practice I am doing online with Birmingham University at the moment is a shambles with the technology not working and the tutors unable to answer student questions during the sessions.

This course goes out of its way to meet the needs of the students in not only providing comprehensive learning packs for each module but also individual tutor access, in depth online group work and training days. The connections formed between students across the world have formed a global network of supervision and collegiate working which is leading to new initiatives such as the Association for Holistic Biography Work and new inter-vision groups. The close bonds formed between students and with group guides and tutors has led to contacts outside the formal teaching sessions and new applications of biography work to for instance, youth work and business consultancy. The online work has allowed connections to be formed in a new and deeper way which would never have happened without the online course. Initially, people were surprised that it was possible to work at relational depth using this medium but the connections which have arisen as a result of the way the work has been guided are undoubtedly real, long-lasting and profound.

Student understanding is checked with formative and summative assessments and anyone graduating from the course can feel that they do so with a thorough grounding in this line of work and with the support of an increasingly sophisticated and cutting edge group of colleagues who are making a difference in the world today.
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Fiona Murray, 60 years old, UK. Background in Waldorf teacher training/ business change consultancy/ counselling and psychotherapy. Masters and Doctoral level qualifications.

Maria Ester Samaniego, age 55, Philippines.
Graduate Cycle 1 of the International Online Training. Current Mentee.

I found the 3-Year Holistic Biography Work Certification Program during the pandemic, when life was shaken to its core and everything was uncertain. I wanted to anchor my rhythm and stabilize myself to prepare for what is yet to come.

I was immediately drawn to the philosophy, methodology, and yearly content of the program. The comprehensive study guides included reading materials with visual diagrams and video lectures that were well-researched and up to date. Case studies and Hollywood movies were included as examples to flesh out the given concepts and made the lessons digestible.

The preparation for the live sessions entailed each individual to have their own process of understanding the materials because it was the basis of a discussion that enlivened and ensouled each module. Everyone was responsible for the outcome of the sessions.

We shared our stories during the group discussions, and this helped apply and internalize what we have learned. As a culmination of all the topics, tackled and concepts applied, we had three required year-end projects that offered deeper insights every year as the concepts and tools were applied practically in a specific case.

While journeying with my colleagues for three years, I shared my life story and received theirs, all in the context of trust and confidentiality. Through meaningful conversations and with the professional guidance of our mentors, our group has created a bond that is strong enough to inspire each other to tread the path of doing biography work, in our own communities from around the world.
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Professional Background: Biographical Consultant, Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher, Extra Lesson/Learning Support Teacher, Emergency Pedagogy/Humanitarian Aid Worker, HANDLE (Holistic Approach to Neuro Development Learning Efficiency) Screener, Social Scientist (Sociology Major)

Mei-Chi Hsu, Taiwan.
Graduate Cycle 1 of Taiwan Onsite and Online Training. Current Mentee.

It is my honour to report to you how we (Taiwan Association for the Promotion of Anthroposophical Biographical Work) cooperate with Living Way Holistic Biography Work to run the three-year online training program in Mandarin.  The Study Guide, the recording of Karl’s lectures, and the online trainings are translated and interpreted into Mandarin by Ms. Hsiuping Chen and me.  Ms. Chen is the major translator and the biggest publisher of Anthroposophical books in Mandarin in Taiwan.  I myself have translated four published books and interpreted anthroposophy-related workshops or conferences like IPMT, biodynamic farming, art therapy as well as curative education and social therapy, etc. while having served as an English teacher in Waldorf schools for more than 10 years.  The quality of our translation and interpretation is acclaimed by our trainees verbally as well as in their written feedback and also praised by Ms. Zhang Li, who is one of our second-cycle trainees and the founder of the first Waldorf school in China.

In order to meet the needs of our trainees and to ensure that they would get the most out of our training, the registered trainees get the learning pack with the Study Guide and the recorded lectures in Mandarin five weeks before the online sessions.  While the trainees are studying the learning pack to prepare themselves for the online sessions, our group guides also prepare beforehand and meet four times (each lasts for two hours) to familiarize ourselves with the materials as well as the procedures of online group-work and then one of our group guides would lead a weekly study group for three times to help our trainees prepare for the upcoming module. All our group guides not only have completed the first cycle of Karl’s training in Taiwan and are certified as ITF biography consultant but also are attending the three-year mentees’ training facilitated by Karl.  In case we group guides have any questions, we can always ask Karl any time or in the one-day mentees’ training for the upcoming module.  And during the online sessions each day right after the training, there is a debriefing session for the group guides to report what happens during the group work and seek advice from Karl and Laura as well as the other group guides.  According to our trainees’ feedback, they benefit a lot from the group work especially with the assistance of our group guides.

Before and during the online sessions, trainees are encouraged to let us know their individual needs which we try our best to meet.  They are encouraged to ask questions in our Line or WeChat Group and our interpreter would translate those questions immediately for Karl, and then Karl would address those questions during the harvest time, morning echo, or focus of the day session on the same day or the next day if related.  And there is also a 30-minute timeslot for QA on the last day of online sessions and a separate evening session for QA between two modules.  Through the trainees’ questions, their voluntary sharing during morning echo and harvest session after each group work as well as their written feedback and mentees’ debriefings, I am sure Karl and Laura have a good idea of what the trainees have learned.

As Orientals, we tend to be modest.  However, I still have to speak the very truth of our Mandarin training facilitated by Karl and Laura.  Facts speak more convincingly.  With 69 trainees joined the first module of our second-cycle trainings two years ago, we still have around 60 heading toward the third- year training.   I think this achievement owes to Karl and Laura’s well-structured Study Guide with detailed procedure description of each group work and collection of very precious related readings and Karl’s 30 years of experience in delivering biography work training.  And I am also very grateful to our Taiwan team to offer high-quality interpretation/translation and our group guides’ being in the company of our trainees’ three-year journey.  If you have further questions about our training, please feel free to contact me.
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Director of Taiwan Association for the Promotion of Anthroposophical Biographical Work
BA in Foreign Languages and Literature
MEd of Counselors’ education, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

Jane Gilmer, age 69, New Zealand.
Completing Year 3 of the International Online Training Program.

As an educator with considerable experience, I write to support the online delivery of the Holistic Biographical Training.

Due to the excellent course materials and facilitation of the course, as a student, I felt contained and directed in the learning process. Moreover, being able to study with an international group of students who are now dear friends and colleagues, has been incredibly enriching and expanded my perspectives of the biographical work. To be able to work with colleagues from different socio and cultural backgrounds is an absolute advantage and has given me a deeper connection to what I believe is an emerging community working out of the Michaelic impulse.

Currently, living in New Zealand makes travel to a training venue overseas or even within New Zealand not so easy, both timewise and financially, particularly since the advent of Covid and consequent workplace changes. Because of these issues, being able to participate in the online training has meant that I have been able to undertake biographical studies. Most likely I would not have been able to had I needed to attend all the course work in person.

When I enrolled in the biography course, I was concerned that not learning face to face may mean that I didn’t experience the human exchange in the learning process that I have been used to. However, I have found that studying online has actually made me more conscious of how I respond in forum and breakout groups. My listening capacity has increased since body language is not so visible. I have learnt to listen more carefully to the space around the speaker, their intentions, tone of voice. This has been an unexpected advantage to the work. I have really appreciated this process. There seems to be the possibility of exercising more consciousness/conscious awareness in a more focussed way during the online intensives. I also notice that I think about what I want to say with more awareness before speaking, making speaking also a more conscious process. In my experience questions raised in forum have always been addressed by the facilitators in depth and with useful examples given.

I am now integrating what I have learnt in the biographical training, into my online client work, as a psychotherapist with very good results. I am truly grateful to be able to have been a student on this online training programme.
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Short Statement of my relevant background:
Dr Jane Gilmer: Diploma in Anthroposophical Speech and Drama – Harkness Studio for Speech and Drama; Ph D – Theatre and Philosophy; Advanced Diploma in Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy; Certificate in Waldorf Education; Holistic Biography training, final year.
I have been an Anthroposophist and member of the Society for nearly 50 years. I have performed as an actor, teacher, director and writer in various Steiner-based institutions internationally. I also worked for many years an Assistant Professor in a University in Singapore where I taught Anthroposophical Speech, Drama and theatre and, was Head of Department for some time where I was engaged in course development.

Meg Quinlisk, Australia.
Graduate Cycle 4 Onsite and Online Australian Training Program. Current Mentee.

I have experienced the Holistic Biography Work training program in both the pre- and post-Covid era. What I have found is that the quality of focus created in the online interactions far exceeds that of in-person groupwork. In the online setting, nearly all forms of distraction are removed. In person, yes there is an ability to read body language, but I (personally) have trouble maintaining focus on the content of an interaction when I also have much additional sensory information coming in – sounds and sights in the training room, my hunger / thirst levels, the comfort (or not) of my chair. In online groupwork, these external distractions are reduced to almost nothing – I can see the faces of each of my group mates, we are all tuned in with our headphones, and I have control over my own needs like food, water, ergonomics. I don’t find that I miss anything in the way of body language that isn’t also carried on a group members face, upper body posture, or tone of voice.

Holistic Biography Work have created and maintain a strong culture of cameras on and very limited use of the chat feature. I take this to mean that all the participants are devoting their full interest and attention to the matter being presented on the main ‘stage’. Importantly, there are no recordings made of sessions. This protects confidentiality, but also protects the space we all hold, and heightens our awareness that, apart from the here and now, there is no other possibility to have the significant meetings with others that take place during these sessions.

It is also noteworthy that meeting online enables us to meet others from widely varying cultural backgrounds, which enables an even richer exploration of what it is to be human, what seems to be individual, and what seems to be cultural. Even in a multi-cultural city like Sydney, I would generally never experience a setting where I could interact closely with people from south Asia, east Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East — all together in one group. But this happens regularly in the online Holistic Biography Work sessions. Working with some of the participants regularly for two-three years, I have developed a good collegiality with them and feel perfectly comfortable contacting them by phone or email for advice or to request a sounding board / supervision.

The course is structured so that the background material for each module is provided well in advance, allowing participants ample time to truly grapple with each subject, develop questions, and gain insights prior to the real-time meeting. I find that engaging with the study materials (especially the pre-recorded lectures) in advance gives me time to ponder, and helps me to distill questions. For me, this is far more effective than attending a lecture in person, where I have to formulate my questions on the spot. Because all of the participants are coming to the live online sessions with this preparation complete, the whole-group parts of the sessions can be used effectively to answer questions that have been raised in advance.
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Meg Quinlisk (age 50), Sydney, Australia
Tutor, Sydney Rudolf Steiner College (early childhood)
Author, Early Childhood Wisdom: a journey through the playgroup year
Independent Steiner playgroup leader 2011-2023
Member, Australian Association for Rudolf Steiner Early Childhood Education
Graduate, Waldorf Handwork Educators Teacher Training Program (2-year, fully online course)

Louise F, 40, Philippines.
Graduate Cycle 1 of the International Online Training. Current Mentee.

In seeking for a Biography Work program that would help me in my life questions, I came across in-person trainings offered in Europe and the Americas. However, given circumstances, joining such trainings would entail a need for a high amount of resources to cover for program, travel and other related costs. Their online offerings would have been an option if the schedule had been friendlier to the time zone I was in. Finally, when I stumbled upon the Living Way website and the Online Training Course in Holistic Biography Work, I felt hopeful — if the course was not offered online, it would have been almost impossible for me to join at the time of its strong calling.

Through its holistic approach, practical tools such as the study guides, the charts, lectures, resource materials and the synchronous sessions, not only has the training experience broadened and deepened my understanding of Biography Work in relation to Anthroposophy but it has also supported me in integrating Biography Work practice in my personal life and professional life. It has developed in me discipline and devotion to study a field that I would love to pursue and in freedom.
Our mentors have thoroughly prepared a comprehensive training program with up-to-date materials (including pre-program and post-program support, mentorship, continuous learning and work possibilities) that is relevant to our times and an online platform and delivery characteristic of a safe, open and conducive space for learning and interaction. Every training year, working on a biographical project brought about learning experiences that made a significant impact in my life, and served as a way to bring together all that we have been learning in the course so that in turn, these could be brought back to the world.

Interestingly, experiencing the training online opened up in me necessary skills and know-how to be able to sense into and be human in a digital world. Beyond the synchronous sessions, communication with the mentors and the fellow trainees can happen through designated online channels. It is quite interesting too that in spite of meeting people for the first time and online (with an exception of one or two), we have come to recognise and nurture the professional, friendly and even karmic connections with each other. The online gatherings of all who have been included in the different training cohorts also made me feel more in touch with the worlds — aware of my self in relation to multi-contexts and to a worldwide community of Holistic Biography Work practitioners and supporters.

Throughout the training, I have noticed in me welcome changes in the way I show up and live life for what I am here for. I feel truly grateful for having encountered Holistic Biography Work, and that through the utmost guidance of our committed mentors, Karl-Heinz Finke and Laura Summerfield, I am now beginning again to meet life with clarity, confidence, inspiration and renewed courage as I pursue a life re-viewed well and a professional path of service through Holistic Biography Work.
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Louise F, 40, Philippines

Footprints through the Labyrinth – the inner compass of Biographical work

October 2023, by Jane Gilmer and Martin Porteous

“Know Thy Self then thou shalt know the Universe and God” was the inscription over the entrance to the Temple of Apollo in ancient Greece.

This call to self-knowledge was key to the self-development that the pupils would undertake in the Temples of those times, striving to develop faculties that would eventually lead to an awakening and direct grasp of the spiritual complexities working within the human and spiritual life.

These temples have long receded from outer view, and the call “Know Thyself” can be buried under the multitude of outer concerns in the hectic barrage and demands of modern life. Yet an echo lives on perhaps in the feelings and questions that can arise when we are either guided or jolted by life into a moment of self-awareness. In such moments we try to sense how or why our life actually takes the course it does; why events, people or relationships, some surprising and pleasant, some difficult, seem to come to us or others unbidden and unexpected: and in moments of crisis how we can or should proceed.  In such times we can sense that all of this “life that has just happened to me “is actually a reflection of what I call “I” or “me”, and that this “I” is still working on, is active and is future focussed – that “this life that has happened to me “has a meaningfulness, a comprehensibility and can be consciously taken hold of.

In our modern times, older forms of mystery schools are certainly not so easy to find the new ones seem to have different forms and different gateways and an individual path of initiation through life itself can at times be sensed. One gateway can exist perhaps where groups of like-minded people meet together endeavouring to create spiritually inspired practical work; another is endeavouring to sense and penetrate into what is working in this mystery of human biography as it unfolds, and to take responsibility for this – to actively form or co-create one’s own life and development.

Developing a real and concrete relationship to our own biography can provide perspectives and tools.  From sensing our own “life-story map”, we can develop an inner-compass for the as yet unformed landscapes of our future. Indications given by Rudolf Steiner reveal that embarking on our biographical journey is itself a path of initiation. Just as a nightly review of the day’s events can gradually assist us in distinguishing the more important from the less important, so too can a biographical review. Endeavouring to consciously become aware of the map and life-journey we created for ourselves, with the assistance of spiritual beings in the life between death and rebirth, can show us a way to a more conscious life.

In this sense The Holistic Biography courses that Karl-Heinz Finke and Laura Summerfield have developed and teach online could be seen as a contemporary form of schooling in the often complex experience and mystery that is human biography. On their website https://holisticbiographywork.com the work is described in the following way: “Holistic Biography Work reflects on individual biographies of life stories against the backdrop of the archetypal journey of humanity.” They describe the underlying philosophy of holistic biographical work as: “…based on the pioneering work of Rudolf Steiner, Bernard Lievegoed, Gudrun Burkhard and Coenraad Van Houten.”

The work is developed via modules, commencing with a Foundation Course and offers the opportunity to progress through a supported and structured process as a 3-year Training program for Biographical consultancy.

Modules are taught on-line in a small group format, and supported by handbooks so that all the material worked with is both rich and easily accessible. Regular online group intensives are facilitated for each module. Where technology has aided the process of being able to participate in independent self-paced study, it has also enabled students from all over the world to work together in an unprecedented way. Modules are challenging and stimulating. Looking into one’s life intensively and objectively can be both confronting and an adventure. The light and dark of life’s experiences take on new and different meaning when a bigger picture, an image of karma and destiny, becomes spiritually meaningful. The training aims to facilitate gaining both a panoramic view of life and a deeper sensing of meaning.  This can apply to one’s own life-story and for people who might later work with as biographical consultants, supporting others in exploring their own life-journey.

Karl-Heinz and Laura describe the methodology of this work as taking a Goethean phenomenological approach as described by Steiner. The aim is to develop the capacities through which events and life questions can reveal themselves, rather than being “interpreted” or “analysed“; such as for example where the events of life are viewed using 7 year life phases that are influenced by the planets in the order that we incarnate and excarnate – Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Working with these 7 year septennials we can learn to examine patterns and rhythms, trials, thresholds and turning points. We also learn how these planetary forces, and our own relationships with them, influence and shape our personal constitutions and capacities and hence our lives. In order to benefit from the Goethean practice of observation, one learns that one needs to practice a clear objective observation of oneself as well as deep listening of the other. The purpose of these deeper observational practices is to begin to develop newer sensibilities and perceptiveness – new, more finely tuned “sensing organs”. In the latter stages of the training, modules developed out of the Anthroposophical biographical and adult learning work lead over into more advanced areas such as approaches to destiny learning and recognising karma.

The call to human beings on the old temples was “Know Thyself”. To do this one option is perhaps, as the poet David Whyte expresses it, to
“… start close in, don’t take the second step or the third,
start with the first thing close in…”

The “first thing close in” – what is closest and unique to each person – is actually their own life-story, and with it the meaning they themselves grow to see within it.  A sense can arise through Biographical work that where our individual life-stories, our incarnations, can be better understood, they can be more fully taken hold of, creating possibilities to more fruitfully contribute towards building more conscious communities and relationships of substance.

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Jane Gilmer

Born in New Zealand, Jane attended a May course at Hohepa Home School in the mid 1970’s where she worked for 2 years. Completing a certificate in Waldorf Education at Taruna College, she moved to Australia to undertake a Steiner-based Speech and Drama training. After this time she worked as an actor, writer, director and teacher of theatre, internationally touring with The Rose Theatre Company and Portal Productions performance of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Soul’s Awakening’. Completing a Doctorate in Philosophy in 2000 in Australia, she taught theatre at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, as well as several other theatre companies and Waldorf School initiatives in SE Asia for 20 years.  She trained as a psychotherapist in Australia, and now lives in New Zealand. Currently she is completing the 2^nd year of the Holistic Biography Training.

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Martin Porteous

Having originally studied Arts/Law at UNSW, Martin has been actively involved with Anthroposophy and associated work for many years. He graduated from a Steiner- based Speech and Drama training, and later worked as writer, performer, director and as teacher in adult education in Australia, England, USA and Europe for several years. He recently retired as Joint CEO of Inala in Sydney after nearly 30 years in senior management, therapy, and staff training and development roles in Steiner inspired disability work and as a member of the International Council of Social Therapy and Curative Education at the Goetheanum.

He is currently completing his 1^st year of the Holistic Biography training.

Martin and Jane graduated from the Harkness Studio for Speech and Drama in 1984.

The training with Karl-Heinz was essential for my life, and it carries me through the work with the people who come to see me for advice.
Karl-Heinz’ knowledge, his warmth and presence, his humbleness and openness, his balance between stimulating and accepting were exemplary for me.
I am happy to know him and to witness his far-sighted activities.
It is wonderful that some of the fruits of Laura’s and Karl-Heinz’ work are available as a book – the Biography Log-book – now.
April 2023
W.G. (Germany)