Rhythmical Massage Therapy Association of North America
Summer 2014 Newsletter
I seek within
The working of creative forces,
The life of creative powers.
Earth’s gravity is telling me
Through the word of my feet,
Air’s wafting forms are telling me
Through the singing of my hands,
And Heaven’s light is telling me
Through the sensing of my head,
How the great World in the Human Being
Speaks, sings and senses.
Steiner gave this some months before his death to eurythmists and we used this version in our RMT Training in May
Rhythmical Massage therapy (RMT) for the future
Letter from the president
A blessed St John’s tide to all of you!
As we near the unfolding of the full light (longest day in the year), my thoughts go to the future. In Nature
there will come the time of the harvest of summer’s gift of warmth. And for humanity, what will the future
bring?
In considering the future of Rhythmical Massage therapy and its role for humanity, the following images
unfold before my mind’s eye.
Many busy Rhythmical Massage therapists:
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Working with children, teachers and parents of every Waldorf School
Working hand in hand with anthroposophically trained physicians and therapists
Being there for our elders at the transitions in their lives
Supporting patients with the different illnesses and conditions of our time
Sharing their gifts of healing in many conventional medical settings
And more
Looking back 50 years, only a few forward-thinking people might have guessed how tremendously
important Waldorf education would one day become. Who could have foreseen the pressures placed on
our children to perform standardized tests, and to turn away from their imaginative play at a Kindergarten
age in order to become academically competitive?
Waldorf education now provides a haven for parents who would like to keep their children balanced and
healthy.
With this example in mind, I’m urged to call attention, to this life supporting therapy and its potential
benefits it can have for the future of humanity. We need Rhythmical Massage Therapy (RMT), to help
our children deal with their impacted nervous systems, their sleep disorders, allergies, depressions,
anxieties and increasing difficulties they are experiencing in trying to incarnate-integrate properly into the
world.
Like Waldorf education, RMT is deep, multi-layered, and based on Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science. The
massage works with the principles and processes of life, not mechanically. Many of the movements
remind us of flowing water, waves, the heartbeat or breathing.
These fundamental movements can give a sense of ‘being human’ back to a client who is undergoing
chemotherapy, they can calm a nervous system frayed by stress, integrate and enliven parts of the body
that may have become sluggish, stiff or fluid-filled, and they can help us find a way back to our true self.
RMT is not a cure-all and requires work and patience as do other effective therapies, but it surely has
significance for the role it can play in helping us find the way back to true humanity, balance and our
rightful place in the world as we advance toward healing and freedom.
From my own practice I have observed one type of condition where the efficacy of Rhythmical Massage
therapy is significant—the area of trauma and abuse. RMT is especially suited here, particularly when it
works hand and hand with additional talk therapies. What often may not be reached with words can be
met through the right kind of touch, addressing layers where the traumas and patterns are being held,
whilst giving support to the client’s inner core. Bringing movement back to areas that have been ‘frozen’
in the body and soul.
Hippocrates had said that there is no better means to allow the soul to feel well in the body than through
active and passive movement.
A whole new active movement, which is based on the same principle, is the therapeutic Eurythmy, whereas a
new passive movement can be derived from the principles of Rhythmical Massage Therapy. It is especially
important today that such movements are done on the body, so that the ill person finds the way for her higher
members to actively orient themselves anew in the body, so that she will win anew mastery over the body*.
(*From an article written by Margarethe Hauschka found in the book by Husemann-Wolff: Das Bild des
Menschen als Grundlage der Heilkunst Band II. 2. Halbband. (Translated by Marlies Schade)
Realizing the importance of RMT for the future, the Rhythmical Massage therapy Association of North
America has sponsored an initiative to enable a therapist training to be re-established here in North
America. With joy we are happy to report that this training began in May at Rudolf Steiner College in
Fair Oaks, CA.
Our 3-year program will continue in late October of this year. In order to allow a number of new students
to still join us, a 3-day make-up class will take place prior to the October session. No further applicants
will be accepted beyond October 2014.
Please, let people who might be interested in the RMT training know, that they can still join us!
We hope that in the near future many more communities will be able to experience this valuable work.
Warm summer greetings
Marlies Schade
Visit our website for more information about Rhythmical Massage therapy and the therapist-training program:
rhythmicalmassagetherapynorthamerica.org.
HEALING THE WOUND
PAAM/AAMTA/CAMA BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 12-15,2014 TORONTO
Article by Marei Blitz
Setting the stage for this event was one of the coldest winters in many years. A fresh snowfall
delayed planes, however all 120 participants from many different therapeutic disciplines arrived
safely for a conference rich in it’s variety of speakers, workshops, artistic presentations and
nourishment.
The theme of the conference “Healing the Wound” was opened with a lecture by Guis van der Bie,
MD.
He presented “the healing process” as a four-stage event, the balance in each having to be
established between 2 pathological conditions:
Stage one
Stage two
Hemostasis
Restoring coherence
Inflammation Digesting the trauma
An activity of the Ego
An activity of the Astral Body
Stage three Proliferation
Growth process
Stage four
Finding a new form/ Integration An activity of the Physical Body
Maturation
An activity of the Etheric Body
The Organ of Repair is responsible for the healing process. It is a process in “Statu Nascendi”,
obeying organic laws, which has a dynamic pattern and structure in time, emerging from the etheric
space and triggered by an event. It has a morphogenetic capacity; any form required can be created.
EACH THERAPEUTIC DISCIPLINE SHOULD FIND ITS’ OWN AND SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTION TO THIS
PROCESS.
This requires:
Seeing “the wound” and a need for healing
Understanding the developmental challenge
Experiencing a biographic integration
Imagination
Inspiration
Intuition
The six other speakers were invited to elaborate the theme in lectures and workshops.
 Peter Gruenewald,MD- “Adaptive Resilience”, managing stress and enhancing performance.
 Marjolein Schulthess-Roozen,MD- “The healing process in Psychiatry”
 Kenneth McAlister, MD- “Exploring the roots of illness in light of the Meditation; “see in thy
soul…”(Young Doctors Course)
 Norman Kingeter, CE-“ Digesting Traumatic Experiences with supportive Therapeutic
Eurythmy”
 Jef Saunders, Biographic Counselor-Demonstrated a patient’s journey through the stages of
healing via an artistic process.
 Charlotte Allmer, Rhythmical Massage Therapist and teacher, MSC Health Sciences, Ita
Wegman Academy, Graz, Austria, presented “The healing space- creating a space for contact.
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Each evening we were treated to a carefully built up visual presentation of the four Ethers
in the Butterfly Form as formulated by Marjorie Spock and performed by The Northern Star
Eurythmy Group. Seven paths laid out in the archetypal Seven Star we follow the workings
of the four ethers and their transformations through the human form, a truly beautiful and
living dynamic.
Charlotte Allmer invited us to enter into an experience of this etheric space as perceived in the
color exercise observing an image of a green shape surrounded by yellow and the counter image
that appears when faced with a white surface afterwards.
The especially significant forms of the circle and five pointed star as representing the sun like ego
being of man placed into the cosmos can be found in the architecture of Chartres and the
Geotheanum.
In man the mathematical representation of the limbs reveals how the etheric forces stream through
the ego organization of man. In the palms of the hands is imprinted the five pointed star whereby
man is able to change the earth.
The Therapist must create a circle of warm and open interest around the patient, observe and
welcome whatever comes as a response.
The Therapist must heed the lawfulness of the quality of touch as:
The right touch
At the right place
= That will heal
At the right time
With the right measure
Review of the principles behind External Applications as it applies to the Fourfold being of Man and
the Four Elements and their properties.
 The lemniscate in the polarity of upper man as upbuilding activity and lower man as
breakdown activity.
 The movement of warmth from the center of man’s body in the daytime towards the
periphery at night.
 External applications as supportive of the night processes of digestion and the formation
of the after image.
In her workshops Charlotte demonstrated how hand gesture and placement on the body could
invigorate the activity and permeation of warmth throughout the body.
Another sequence of hand positions would stimulate the digestive activity; the abdominal sounds
could be heard through a special stethoscope.
In conclusion I think this was a successful conference for networking across the professions and
highlighting the potential of consolidated team working to capture the many layers and
complexities of support needed to resolve crisis to a stage of integration and new possibilities.
News from AAMTA
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Report by Marlies Schade
Next Bi annual conference will be in the San Francisco Bay area in the summer of 2016. For
this conference there is a wish to incorporate the biodynamic community, which is very strong in
Northern California. David Gershan is the contact person. David Gershan
<dgershan@sbcglobal.net> If you have information relative to the 2016 AAMTA/PAAM
conference, he would be glad to hear.
AAMTA membership renewal is due in July,
Due to the extra work for our volunteers membership coordinator and extra the cost it takes to have a
continues update, we at the AAMTA board decided to have two known dates when the membership
directory will get updated. Dues played after August 15th will most likely not make it into the September
update.
New updated dates are September 1th and March 1th
AAMTA will update the therapist directory.
The Newest AAMTA daughter organization is the new singing organization and there are more
wishing to join.
The AAMTA board was divided into a working board and a full board that includes the liaisons
from the different daughter organizations. I am the liaison for RMTA for now. There will be three full
board meetings a year
Additional meetings where the daughter organizations can help each other with their experiences and
insights in a particular area will be created. This way not everyone has to reinvent the wheel.
At the AAMTA board retreat in Toronto, we spoke about AAMTA being the heart for all the other
daughter organizations. It is not about power from the top down organization, but rather in service of
the daughter organizations and the whole anthroposophical medical work. As AAMTA is listening out,
how to serve its members best, we too can asked ourselves how we can serve AAMTA. Together we
are strong and we can inspire each other.
Your interest and support is greatly appreciated
"A certain form of illness occurs when the spirit or the soul presses too far into the organism, so that
the self-healing process can either not arise at all or only slowly.
Therefore, one must seek the causes of illness in the activity of soul and spirit. And healing must
consist in releasing the soul or spiritual element from the physical organization.
This is one kind of illness. There is another. The ego organization and astral body may be prevented
from making the loose connection with bodily nature which is the condition for independent feeling,
thinking, and willing in ordinary life."
-Fundamentals of Therapy: Chapter 2 by Rudolf Steiner, and Ita Wegman-
RMTA Conference, October 2013
A Journey Through The Digestive System
Report by Elisabeth Schlieben Pisila, RMT
Each year brings a homecoming in Spring Valley, NY when Rhythmic Massage therapists from across the
country meet for the RMTA Conference under the guidance of Aoine Landweer-Cooke. It is a privilege to
study with a teacher so knowledgeable and experienced. While working our way through the digestive
process, we spoke about and practiced aspects of treatment for such conditions as irritable bowel
syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, colitis, obesity, anorexia, bulimia, Crohn's, and ulcers.
Dr. Karnow presented the digestive system as a whole and then focused on Crohn's and ulcerated colitis
in the context of the 4-fold and 3-fold human picture of the human being.
How do we determine treatment for the specific individual with a given condition? Which organs are
involved? What are we affecting when we massage arms versus legs, centripetal versus centrifugal in
movement direction, the front versus the back of the leg, calves or thighs, the head? These were some
aspects to be considered.
The opportunity to actually experience what had been discussed during the conference by giving each
other treatments is both the best method for true comprehension as well as a boon for the therapists to
receive this caring treatment. The consciously directed hand movements in their fluid, warm, rhythmic,
breathing, dynamic motion, have a clearly discernible effect.
The annual RMTA meeting centered on a major accomplishment, the planned opening of the Rhythmical
Massage Therapy Training of North America at the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA on May 9th,
2014. For information contact marliesschade@gmail.com or Margaret Kerndt (971) 409-7524.
Refresher workshop with Aoine Landweer-Cooke
Sponsored by the RMTA UK and by Eire
On the theme of “Qualities of Rhythm”
You are warmly invited to a hands on workshop at St. Luke's Medical Centre, Stroud UK
As usual participants will be able to bring their own questions and concerns.
Aoine wrote a little additional note for us here in North America:
These are days with discussions, lots of practice and case studies, working with RMT sequences and focus on
individual movement gestures; also addressing RMT related questions and concerns. Last year the theme was
intentionality to quality of touch, this year we will focus on Intentionality and awareness to Rhythm.
Dates and times: Friday August 22nd at 9 am to Tuesday August 26th at 12 noon
Cost: 280 euro
Please contact: Linda Aylward lindaaylward@hotmail.co.uk or
Aoine: info@aoinelandweer-cooke.com