Administration
The administrators introduce themselves below.- Home
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Who We Are
Introduction
Rudolf Steiner set a new course for understanding the human psyche in a series of lectures in 1909, 1910, and 1911. He added insights to this framework here and there in many other of his five thousand lectures up to his death in 1925. His style was to give hints on a topic—and he did so about education (resulting in the Waldorf School movement, 1500 schools worldwide), agriculture (resulting in biodynamic agriculture, with thousands of acres re-enlivening soil and nutrition), movement (pedagogical, therapeutic and performance “eurythmy”: schools located in many countries), medicine. Professionals in each of these areas have developed Steiner’s hints further. For psychology, major contributions have come from Bernard Lievegood, Karl Koenig, Robert Sardello, Ad and Henreitte Dekkers, Dennis Klocek, James Dyson, William Bento, and others.
In 1997 William Bento, Ph.D., presented at the psychotherapy conference of the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, Switzerland. From this initial connection with the international community, Dr. Bento became a founding member of the International Federation for Anthroposophic Psychotherapy Associations. He began to gather a faculty to teach anthroposophic psychology, initially a series of summer workshops, including the Psychosophy Circle, then a formal training originally envisioned as a master’s degree program. This diverse and committed faculty designed the present three-year (nine seminar) program, and has taken two cohorts of twenty students each through the first three-year programs. William Bento passed over the threshold in June 2015.
Core Faculty
James A. Dyson, M.D., M.A.
Roberta R. Nelson, Ph.D., L.P.C.C., L.A.C.
EMDR Practitioner
Psychosynthesis Trainer
Faculty Chair: Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP)
Roberta brings the fruits of her heart, thought, and will forces to conversations with others. Schooling in counseling, human development, and the transpersonal, or spiritual, psychologies of psychosynthesis and anthroposophy have contributed to her personal and professional development. She has a doctorate degree in Counselor Education from North Dakota State University. A doctorate in Counselor Education qualifies her to supervise, educate, and counsel. In addition, Roberta is dual licensed as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) as well as a Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC) in the state of North Dakota. Besides the above credentials and licensures, but not limited to, Roberta has been trained in following modalities:
• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR);
• Non-violent Communication (NVC);
• Beyond Trauma attributed to Stephanie Covington;
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy;
• Psychodrama;
• And, the spiritual or transpersonal psychology introduced by Roberto Assagioli known as Psychosynthsis.
Dr. Nelson has been employed at a residential treatment facility journeying alongside men and women who have co-occurring diagnoses starting in February of 2008. She resigned in October of 2015 taking a position as core faculty for Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP).
From Roberta: When asked about my professional involvement, I often say that I specialize in spiritual psychology. The enthusiastic listener’s reply is notable and revealing. Almost always the listener takes-off disclosing an extraordinary experience viewed as a spiritual episode. While these so-called “weird” events are invaluable and even life changing, I wonder if the listeners know that there is much more to spiritual psychology than having and sharing amazing stories. The psycho-spiritual psychology of Anthroposophy reveals a profound vision of what it means to be a human being. It is a vision that I longed for throughout my mainstream academic activities spanning from a bachelor’s degree through a doctoral degree. While being invaluable, none of these pursuits exposed the heights, depths, and widths of human makeup and development except for Anthroposophy.
Adjunct Faculty
Alan Thewless
Alan Thewless was born in the North of England and through his childhood and youth developed a close kinship with the natural landscapes of Britain, especially its mountains. He studied Fine Art in Sheffield and Liverpool, and Education in Leicester. He studied Waldorf Education in London with Dr. Brian Masters and became a Waldorf teacher in 1984. Alan carries to the present day a deep involvement in education as a healing art. In 2002 he moved to the USA to study Therapeutic Education at Camphill Special School, Beaver Run and also to complete his studies in the Psychosophy Seminar with James Dyson, MD and William Bento, PhD. Alan is presently a faculty member of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology.
Alan has been a student of Astrosophy for over 30 years and regularly writes and gives courses, lectures and personal consultations on this subject internationally. He also has a deep interest in the therapeutic properties of music and for many years he has been crafting new musical instruments for children and adults, available through Tir-anna Musical Instruments. For nearly 20 years Alan has been involved in the work of the Eckersley Shakespeare Trust, which is devoted to research into the numerical and geometrical structure of Shakespeare’s Plays since this background came to light through the work of the late Sylvia Eckersley. Alan lectures and gives workshops on this subject in England, USA and China and teaches curative education, Astrosophy, Waldorf Education and Anthroposphy in several areas of the world.
Karen Derreumaux
Gillian Schoemaker
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and trained in Interior Design at the Mackintosh School of Art, Gillian has been active within the Camphill Movement for many years and completed the Eurythmy training in the Camphill Ringwood/Botton School.
In 1997, she joined Camphill Special Schools (a.k.a. “Beaver Run”) in Glenmoore, PA, where she is eurythmy teacher, therapist and mentor, and also a teacher of eurythmy and of esoteric studies in the Camphill Academy Training Course in Curative Education.
Gillian has been engaged since 1997 with Psychosophy conferences, and later the Anthroposophic Psychology seminars, bringing eurythmy as an integral part of the coursework. She teaches eurythmy annually at the Summer School of the Philosophy Department of the University of Athens, Greece, and adds Taiwan and the Philippines to the places where she leads courses in Anthroposophy and aspects of eurythmy and education for developmental disabilities.
Starting in 2002, Gillian organizes and leads small groups in Odyssey Journeys to the sacred places of Greece, Egypt, Italy, Ireland and Scotland.
Guest Presenter
David Tresemer, Ph.D.
Founder
William Bento, Ph.D.
(Founder, Deceased)
The founder of this initiative, crossed the threshold on June 5, 2015, just before his 64th birthday. He had created many different relationships with many clients as a psychologist, a mentor, and one who consulted the workings of the heavens (astrosophy — astro, star — Sophia, wisdom). In the late 1990’s, with James Dyson, he organized a series of seminars on the East coast on anthroposophic psychology. This became a four-year intensive, three seminars a year, with a committed group of people. It evolved into the Psychosophy Circle which continues to meet annually. At the same time, in Boulder, Colorado, he created working relationships with the StarFire Research Group, who applied intelligent astrology to individuals and world events. At the same time, he nurtured the development of psychology at Rudolf Steiner College, where he worked for several years.
He presented at an international congress on psychotherapy in Dornach, Switzerland, in 1997, creating links with the Dekkers. He was a founding member of IFAPA. He taught seminars in Brazil.
He wrote Lifting the Veil of Mental Illness, contributed to Signs in the Heavens: A Message for Our Time, contributed to The Counselor … As If Soul and Spirit Matter. Every year, many would await his Holy Nights Journal that tracked those important nights between December 24 and January 7, helping many find insights into the year past and the year to come. His final achievement was the establishment of the foundation of AAP, for which he gathered an excellent faculty who continue to offer this program in the United States. His legacy continues to inspire AAP.
Read an obituary of William Bento’s life by Ad Dekkers and Henriette Dekkers-Appel.
Administration
Michele Guarino
Business Manager
Michele Guarino is the Owner and Founder of A Second Office, LLC. Michele brings 37 years of experience supporting top-level executives in the corporate, legal, real estate, financial, leadership, and software start-up markets.
She has held such positions as Paralegal, Executive Assistant to C-Level and other top level executives, Office Manager, Facilities Manager, and Supervisor. Her responsibilities encompass: Executive Assistance/Management, Office Management, Operating Systems and Procedures, Project Management and Administration, Licensing Agreements and Compliance Processes, Contract Initiation and Management, Right-Hand Support for Mergers and Acquisitions, IPO Process, Employee Supervision and Training, HR Administration, Liaison with Board Members and C-Level Executives, Maintaining Corporate Records, and other related areas too numerous and diverse to list here.
Michele is a National Federation of Business and Professional Women Clubs (NFBPWC) leader. Since 2010, she has volunteered for this international organization and served in various roles, including: President, Board of Director, President-Elect, VP of Marketing, Communications Chair, VP of Technology, Strategy Team Leader, Social Media Chair, Webmistress, Recording Secretary, and Grant Review Committee.
AAP Logo
Although in our courses we teach about three-fold ways of understanding the human being, also seven-fold (and four and twelve), the AAP logo has five swirls of energy, out of respect for the orbits of Venus—how Venus appears from the earth in an eight-year period forms a perfect pentagram:
We are also moved by the teaching diagrams of Leonardo da Vinci:
| and those by Agrippa von Nettesheim:
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How to Engage