The Sufi book of wisdom says that nothing benefits the heart more than a spiritual retreat.This Emergence Retreat was a gathering that indeed nourished the spirit.
The five-day conference retreat took form from an impulse to deepen the therapeutic spiritual impulse of the Practitioner — to meet the need of practitioners experiencing isolation, fatigue and dissatisfaction with the increasingly materialistic trend in their profession. It’s theme was Emergence: the act of appearing, illustrating a threshold event where something moves from one state to another as the result of an initiation experience. It was all about renewing inspiration for a more conscious approach to health, illness and healing.
It was curated to inspire, and to deepen one’s living knowledge of the therapeutic gesture, therapeutic intuition, and the future healing impulse of medicine — to be absorbed in the nurturance and renewal of Self, and to connect, cultivate and strengthen relationships in community with colleagues who support one’s own healing practice and service.
From the environment, setting, food and daily rhythm, to the lectures, presentations, nature-based immersive workshops, silent contemplative practices, therapeutic treatments and rich gathering of humans from near and far, this was a wonderful, expansive and therapeutic experience.
Our Anthroposophic Naturopaths Retreat conference commenced with a Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country led by local resident, practitioner and retreat participant Rob Lamb, as we gathered around a fire at Gymea, on Bundjalung Nation, in Uki, Northern NSW.
On the first evening we welcomed our esteemed keynote speaker, Dr Michaela Glöckler, from Dornach, Switzerland. Michaela spoke to the delegate practitioners on the destiny of healing for the future work of the prescriber.
The daily schedule of our conference retreat was meticulously structured to create natural pauses for rest, reflection and assimilation amid such stimulating and enriching activities. The evenings allowed for quiet personal space to prepare oneself for nurturance, rest and sleep.
Each day began and ended with guided meditation led by Irmhild Kleinhenz. Gathered in silence by the warm glow of the fire, these anthroposophic healing meditations were precious shared practices.
The retreat location was nestled in lush rainforest, rich with diverse plants, trees, birds and wildlife, and a quietude conducive to our guided workshops and practice in plant phenomenology and nature walks — immersed in observation and understanding of the relationships and forces within all living beings.
Deeply restorative and therapeutic foot oilings were received by all participants, in a silent space of warmth, reverence and restoration.
We were nourished with delicious, locally grown, biodynamic, organic produce and passionately prepared meals. The food sustained our practices and our deepening, and the sharing of meals became wonderful gatherings for cultivating relationship, connection and community.
We were equipped with treats, remedies and loving generosity in our participant goodie bags, provided by organisations who honoured our initiative — and inspired and fulfilled by the extensive onsite pop-up bookstore, which satiated our curiosity and yearning to deepen further.
We experienced tone in movement through daily experiential social eurythmy sessions facilitated by Jan Baker-Finch, revealing the intricacies of human behaviour and how we move, serve and function socially and organisationally as a healthy, functional dynamic.
Practitioners, therapists, educators, eurythmists, doctors and nurses gathered — in person and via livestream from afar — for presentations on imagination, inspiration and intuition as diagnostic methodology; new ways of working with healing forces and bringing new consciousness into the health professions; functional morphology and the understanding of the human constitution; and the ancient living intelligence of Ayurveda and its insights into anthroposophic naturopathic healing practice. Irmhild Kleinhenz crystallised our theme, speaking to Emergence and metamorphosis as a leitmotif for the future of healing work.
There was fun, laughter and tender shared moments, along with some mighty talent on stage at our spontaneous variety performance on our last evening together.
The emergence of healing communities as key to our future, healing-impulse-based service as practitioners was a resounding invitation — and this was certainly the pulse of our gathering.
By Dipika Delmenico