Kairos Institute · Emergency Pedagogy
Module 7: Disaster, Healing Communities, and Animals
Addressing major natural and human-made disasters through healing communities and animal-assisted therapy interventions
Two days online with Bernd Ruf, who founded the emergency pedagogy crisis intervention centre in Karlsruhe and has spent decades sending teams to children in war zones and disaster areas. This module looks at what catastrophes do to people, and at what actually helps afterward. It is one of twelve modules building toward the EPWB Diploma in international crisis intervention.
Friday and Saturday, January 15–16, 2027
Online by Zoom · Tuition $350 · EPWB certificate $45 (optional)
See registration detailsThe two days
- Friday January 15, 2027 3:00 – 4:30 PM EST
- Saturday January 16, 2027 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST
All times are Eastern Standard Time.
What the module covers
From catastrophe to recovery
Floods, earthquakes, fires, explosions: catastrophes of very different kinds produce strikingly similar traumatic effects on children, young people, and adults. This module examines that common ground, and then turns to the work of recovery.
Healing communities are the foundation of that work, and much of the two days is given to how they form and how they hold people through collective trauma. The final seminar takes up the healing potential of animal-assisted therapy in supporting trauma-informed pedagogy.
Founder, Parzival School & Emergency Pedagogy
Bernd Ruf
Bernd Ruf is the founder of the worldwide emergency pedagogy crisis intervention centre based in Karlsruhe, Germany, from which skilled teams are sent to help traumatised children in places of war and ecological disaster. He is the author of Educating Traumatized Children.
Certificates
There are two, and they are separate things.
- Certificate of Completion, issued by the Center for Anthroposophy. No cost.
- Module 7 Certificate, issued by Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders, $45. It is one of twelve modules that build toward the full EPWB Diploma in international crisis intervention. Add it when you register; tuition discounts do not apply to it. The Kairos team will request your date of birth separately and order the certificate from EPWB after the module has been taught.
Module 7 is part of the Kairos Institute’s Emergency Pedagogy series with Bernd Ruf. Questions about the module, or about a certificate, can go to Lisl Hofer, Manager of the Kairos Institute, at [email protected].