Registration is now open! We hope you will join us on February 15-17, 2026 for Emergency Pedagogy for Everyday Trauma with keynote speaker, Bernd Ruf.
Northern California Waldorf Teachers Conference
Emergency Pedagogy for Everyday Trauma:
How Emergency Pedagogy May Be Integrated into Our Teaching and Educational Structures to Support Today’s Children
With Keynote Speaker, Bernd Ruf
Sunday, February 15 – Tuesday, February 17, 2026 | 9am-3:30pm
Contemporary life in California and in the rest of the developed world has become increasingly engaged in nerve sense-based work and activities through digital technology. We have become more sedentary, using our bodies less and undermining the health that comes from the integration of body, heart, and mind. Through online platforms, we are exposed daily to apps and algorithms that manipulate us emotionally and physiologically, reducing our ability to focus and to have mastery over our own minds and feelings. In many ways, the amazing advances and discoveries of our time are having overwhelming and compromising effects on human well-being. These effects are being absorbed by children, accumulating into a kind of everyday trauma.
As Waldorf teachers, our work evolves and changes in relation to the environment around us. Children entering our classrooms are expressing the conditions of modern life, making it crucial to adjust our educational practices to meet them where they are and to find ways of guiding them in a more positive direction. Bernd will share his many years of experience in helping children traumatized by war and natural disasters, demonstrating how the principles and practices of emergency pedagogy may be useful in contemporary Waldorf teaching and school life.
Bernd Ruf Bernd Ruf completed his training as a secondary school teacher in German and History at the University of Mannheim and as a special needs school teacher at the PH, as well as further training as a Waldorf teacher at the Free University of Stuttgart. He is a co-founder of the Free Waldorf School Karlsruhe, where he also taught for 20 years. He subsequently co-founded the independent pedagogical Parzival Competence Center for Education, Support, and Counseling, and has been its principal since 2003. From 1993 to 2007, he was a member of the Federal Executive Board of the Association of Free Waldorf Schools in Germany. From 1993 to the present, he has been a member of the International Conference of Waldorf Schools. From 1987 to 2021, he was the executive director of the aid organization, Friends of Rudolf Steiner’s Educational Art, with a focus on volunteer services. Since then he has been CEO of Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders – Germany and Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders – International. (Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders – International is the umbrella organization for emergency pedagogy in 35 countries.) As part of this work, he founded and led emergency educational crisis interventions in war and disaster regions in 2006. He subsequently led missions in Lebanon, China, and Haiti, among others. He is head of the emergency education clinic at the Parzival Competence Center in Karlsruhe. From 2007 to 2012, he was a member of the advisory board of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Bernd is a renowned speaker activity at home and abroad on a wide range of topics, including emergency education, psychotraumatology, intensive education, Kaspar Hauser, and Waldorf education.
Conference Fee: $275
Bernd will lecture in German and be translated into English by Ida Oberman.
Please note that this is an in-person event only. A discount is available for group signups.
A Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training conference held at:
San Francisco Waldorf High School
470 West Portal Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127
Sunday/Monday Conference Schedule
9:00am-9:30am
9:30am-11am
11:00am-11:30am
11:30am-1:00pm
1:00pm-2:00pm
2:00pm-3:30pm
3:30pm
Singing with Christiaan Boele
Lecture with Bernd Ruf
Snack Break
Workshops
Lunch Break
Lecture, Q&A with Bernd Ruf
Closing of the Day
Tuesday Conference Schedule
9:00am-2:00pm
2:00pm-2:30pm
2:30pm-3:30pm
3:30pm
Same as Above
Workshop/Discussion Group Sharing
Closing Lecture, Q&A with Bernd Ruf
Closing of the Conference
Important Information
Coffee, tea, and snacks will be served, but please provide your own lunches.
There are numerous cafes and restaurants nearby.
Information about parking, restaurant options, and accommodations will be available.
Northern California Waldorf Teachers Conference 2026 Workshops
“Cultivating Inner Balance” with Catalina de Luna
“Stable and competent teachers are required to work with traumatized children.” -Bernd Ruf. Inner balance is the foundation for those in positions of service. Let’s do some self-inventory and explore the different artistic modalities of emergency pedagogy including drawing, painting, and modeling as hygienic and nourishing practices to cultivate inner balance.
Catalina de Luna has been an educator for over 30 years. Reaching a deeper understanding of life has been the inspiration for her journey. Her intention is to support individuals of all ages to discover and unfold their capacities in the process of human becoming, developing inner balance, in freedom and peace. Catalina holds a BA in Law, a MEd in Waldorf Education, and a MA in Transpersonal Arts Counseling from Tobias School of Arts and Anthroposophical Therapies in England. She is a member of the USA Emergency Pedagogy team.
“Eurythmy” with Karen Gallagher
“To will my thinking is freedom; to think into my will is love.” -Rudolf Steiner. Within the context of emergency pedagogy, Karen will offer ways for the individual to take up a daily eurythmy practice that can provide the means for that which our souls seek: calm inner space, willed thinking, thinking willing. Discovering how to tap into this conversation with one’s Higher Self is what we will work with. The goal will be to establish an individualized daily eurythmy regimen that one can practice immediately and easily.
Karen Gallagher graduated from Eurythmy Spring Valley, New York, and obtained a bachelor’s degree through the eurythmy school in Oslo, Norway. In addition to eurythmy, she has 28 years of classroom experience in a variety of subjects, including Spanish, choir, theater, and life skills. Karen currently resides in Point Richmond, California and serves part-time on the faculty at Marin Waldorf School and Wildcat Canyon Community School. For ten years, she supported the Waldorf teacher training program at the Center for Anthroposophical Development in Cuernavaca, Mexico and is now a member of the BACWTT faculty.
“Emergency Pedagogy and the Healing Dynamics of Speech” with Christine Burke
Bringing artistry, breath, and rhythm in spoken word through a sacred tending to the qualities and mysteries of sounds, we can activate the natural healing forces in children who experience trauma.
Christine Burke currently teaches Communication Studies at Ventura College and Logodynamics/The Arts of Speech privately, in groups, at workshops, trainings, and here at BACWTT. Her passion for words began at a young age and has led to and through theater and English literature, a degree in Linguistics, Waldorf teaching in the US and Sweden, Rudolf and Marie Steiner’s “Sprak Gestaltung,” the Michael Chekhov approach to acting, and an MA in Communication Studies focusing on Communication Education, Classical, and Performance Studies.
“Giving Voice to Ourselves – Singing Course (Also for Non-Singers!)” with Christiaan Boele
Teachers rely on their voice as their main tool. Just as staying in shape requires physical exercise, musicians must learn and practice their instrument. But how much time do you spend caring for and maintaining your voice so that it can express and carry your thoughts, feelings, and intentions? In our course, we will do simple exercises and explore how singing can support physical and mental well-being, as well as serve as a source of inspiration. Singing has been central to cultural life for thousands of years, yet today we increasingly lose our connection to our own voice. Let’s help change that by giving voice to ourselves!
Christiaan Boele has devoted his life to Uncovering the Voice. He began his studies with Jurgen Shriefer (who carried on the School of Uncovering the Voice directly from Valborg Werbeck) at age eighteen. Originally from the Netherlands, Christiaan has been a leading teacher of this impulse for forty years and has brought his courses to the United States, Finland, Germany, France, and throughout Europe. He also leads a touring ensemble and continues to perform as a soloist. In 1987, he moved to Finland and soon afterwards started his own singing school. In 1998, he taught in CA and from there on established his training in CA, which has been consistently ongoing for over twenty-five years.
“Outside In – Inside Out” with Maureen Curran Turtletaub
Learn how the natural world offers the opportunity to experience universal forces that begin before birth and shape and form us as sentient beings. The current times bring about an acceleration of time and space, leading to everyday trauma. Re-bonding with the natural world lends opportunities to re-step our pace, which has far reaching effects on our body, soul, and spirit.
A Steiner teacher for over forty years, Maureen Curran Turtletaub created Second Nature Studies based in the San Juan Islands. It is dedicated to the research and development of a pedagogy that is informed by domesticated and wild nature. Building a healing rapport with the natural environment brings harmony and healing to all sentient beings in these troubled times.
“Helping Young Children Thrive in an Overwhelming World” with Kate Hammond
In this Spacial Dynamics® workshop, we will explore ways that we can support children under the age of 7 years through movement. We will consider archetypal movements including the primitive reflexes and how to help children through age-appropriate movement experiences. Wear clothing you can move freely in.
Kate Hammond is a Waldorf graduate and has a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Applied Linguistics. She graduated from Emerson College with a certificate in Waldorf Teacher Training specializing in Early Childhood Education in 2002, and has taught kindergarten, preschool, parent and child classes, and infants. She has a special interest in the very young child and how movement plays a central role in lifelong wellness and learning. On the weekends, she teaches for LifeWays North America and Waldorf teacher training courses. She has been a lifelong student of Anthroposophy and is a Spacial Dynamics® trainer.
“Sphere, Solid, and Section: Geometry for Middle and High School” with Marisha Plotnik
Our lived experience of three-dimensional space is often simplified to two-dimensional objects for the classroom. But the geometry of solids offers a healing experience for our students, enabling them to ground their thinking in their own three dimensions of movement. This workshop will explore the geometry of spheres, solids, and sections
Marisha Plotnik has been engaged with Waldorf education as a student, teacher, administrator, and adult educator, including teaching at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City and at the Center for Anthroposophy’s Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program. Marisha is now Co-Director of The Nature Institute located in Ghent, New York, expanding her research and teaching in phenomena-based, human-centered natural sciences.
“Rhythmic Sand Sculpture, Form Drawing, and Clay Sculpture” with Kenneth Smith
Explore the effects of these sculptural activities in relation to engaging the sense of touch. Through the “window” of the hands, we have an access point to the inner life that can calm the nervous system and stimulate the life forces. Ken will share activities he has developed over the past four years in the Healing Through Art and Healing Power of Art programs and how these can be used in the classroom.
Kenneth Smith is the Director of BACWTT. Since 2014, he has been leading and teaching the 3-year Teacher Training program and Foundation Studies program. In 2022, he co-founded the Healing Through Art program and the Healing Power of Art online program. Ken is a graduate of Emerson College in England. After the Foundation Year in 1988, he graduated from the Visual Arts and Sculpture Program in 1993. After teaching in Waldorf Schools, he was the Course Leader of the Visual Arts and Sculpture Course for 8 years.
“Clay Sculpture Therapy, Introduction to Clay Field” with Matthew Eveleigh, LCAT, LPC and Andrea Vander Pluym
Clay field is a touch-based therapy for addressing trauma and developmental setbacks in children and adults. It is entirely process-oriented, and uses a shallow box filled with clay that becomes a miniature world in which the hands are invited to explore, create safety, and find solutions. This workshop, while not a clay-field training, will serve as an introduction and include related exercises to illustrate the principles involved.
On the third day, workshop attendees will explore ways to bring the clay field into the school setting, practical considerations, and how the modality can be understood in the context of child development and the threefold and fourfold human.
Matt Eveleigh, LPC, LCAT, is an Art Therapist who utilizes clay field therapy with psychiatric patients, as well as with children in private practice. He trained with Cornelia Elbrecht, at the Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy in Australia.
Andrea Vander Pluym was a founding board president of Berkeley Rose Waldorf School, and taught as a grades teacher for over 15 years. She has authored three self-help books for young adults, including the bestseller “Respect,” which has been translated in numerous languages. Most recently, she completed the Healing Through Art training and her certification as a Clay Field Therapist. She has brought this work to schools and at her private therapeutic arts practice in Bodega, California.
“Emergency Pedagogy in the United States and the Founding of the Community School for Creative Education in Oakland” with Ida Oberman and Monique Brinson
Learn about how emergency pedagogy is at the heart of the founding impulses at the country’s first urban intercultural public Waldorf school and the efforts to bring Waldorf education back to its social justice roots; mirroring its early history of serving the children of inner-city Stuttgart. Hear about the practical experiences of creating and running one of the most diverse schools and a public Waldorf school in one of the most diverse cities in the nation.
Ida Oberman is an English learner and immigrant, Dutch born and German educated. After Waldorf School in Tübingen Germany and her Waldorf teacher training in Stuttgart she earned a BA from Swarthmore College and a PhD from Stanford. After a decade of teaching in New York City, US, and serving as education program officer of the Hewlett Foundation, she joined a community-based organization, Faith in Action East Bay, to work with parents, community leaders and fellow educators. In 2010, she founded the country’s first intercultural public Waldorf school, the Community School for Creative Education, where she served as Executive Director until her retirement in 2023.
Monique Brinson is the Founding CEO/Head of Cultivation of EnCompass Four Corners School, Camp, Institute, & Center. She is a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) with an Ed.M., in Education Leadership. Her first Master’s in education was in teaching from Boston University-Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. She majored in Sociology and minored in Black Studies. She has 22 years of experience as an urban and suburban school administrator in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as Oakland, Santa Monica, and Pleasant Hill, California, in systems ranging from large school districts, to charter, and most recently, a small independent school. From 2017—2020 she served as Community School for Creative Education principal. She received her Waldorf training from the Mills College Graduate School of Education and is currently continuing her studies at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training (BACWTT).
