Rhythmical Einreibung (RE) is a method of gentle, therapeutic touch developed by anthroposophic nurses. One of the enormous benefits of RE is that it can be used by health care professionals in many situations where traditional forms of massage cannot be used: with acutely ill patients or patients with chronic conditions; with women who are in labour; with cancer patients who have undergone extensive treatment, and with end of life patients who would be too frail for traditional massage. There are also many ways that RE can be used outside of a traditional health care environment, for example by parents and by those caring for people with special needs.

Over the last three years, along with two other nurses, I have been exploring how complementary treatments can be used in a hospice environment to help provide end of life care. I spend eight hours per week delivering complementary therapies to in-patients, which include both RE and ‘M’ Technique, two types of ‘therapeutic touch’ techniques developed by nurses. They are both very low risk, being gentle and following a set sequence, and can be used by professionals and non-professionals in certain circumstances. 

What inspired the ‘Relational Arts & Organic Design’ course?

It began with conversations between Daniel, Nick and myself, and later others, all based at Emerson College. I had retired after 30 years of work in cardiac imaging and research in a London hospital and was wanting to try to offer back, in Emerson, some of the inspiration and ways of discovering that others, particularly John Wilkes and John Davy, had opened for me nearly forty years ago.

Why is discovery important?
I think that by far the best way to find out about the world is to gain an ability and habit of inquiring, noticing and discovering for your self. School and university may favour more directed learning towards measurable goals. But learning for exams can suppress self-directed inquiry and creativity. And, in my experience, exam learning is forgettable, whereas discovery for your self sows seeds that grow and weave into the richness of your experience.

What enables discovery?

It’s a blessing that can happen at any time, but can be helped by several factors. One is inquisitiveness and unbiased openness, free from received interpretations or assumptions but, at the same time, keeping a sense of reality and discrimination. Open-mindedness needs to be tempered by realism. Practical, hands-on experience and direct observation allow this, and can raise questions - why?, what?, how?, what else?, what if? Original discovery can begin by noticing a paradox or discrepancy... how on earth can this be the case if this is also so? It's helped on its way by active engagement and experimentation - getting stuck in - playfully, or by trying to make something work, or in attempting to recreate something through drawing, painting, modelling or describing. Discovery can also be helped though group participation, where members hear and share their different viewpoints or insights. Recognition can also dawn through formulating and pursuing a question over successive days, nights and weeks.

 At the age of 27, I found myself wrestling with my life path (quite naturally I now appreciate according to the principle of seven-year cycles) - the path I had followed so vehemently to my own spiritual, emotional and physical detriment. As I embarked on a personal quest to find my true place in the world, I took myself to a 'Change Your Life' event at Olympia in London. I came home with a bag of leaflets and flyers, one of which was from Emerson College. I remember thinking to myself, leaflet in hand - 'wow, I really must go there' and filed it away in a box for safe-keeping. Twelve years on in October 2015, several twists and turns and hands of fate later - I find myself signing a contract for the rental of the Puppetry in Ruskin House as my work-studio. 

Dorothy Marlen, course leader for Emerson College's Holistic Baby and Childcare course was recently interviewed by Early Years campaigner, Richard House.....

Participant Caroline Kelly writes about her experiences attending the Mental Health Seminars run by Dr James Dyson and Dr Michael Evans - with thanks to ASinGB for allowing us to reproduce this article here.

Spring is in the air and in the Emerson dining room we have been enjoying these delicious little muffins. You can replace dairy and flour for dairy-free and gluten free varieties to make suitable for vegan and coeliac diets.

Ian Trousdell, director of Foundation of Water, writes about Flowform®, which has been based  at Emerson College  since its invention by one of the College’s early teachers, John Wilkes, in 1970.

The Emerson Living and Learning Community is a new concept for sustainable living and social development which responds to the needs of humanity at a time when there are many concerns about the way we live together and relate to nature.

"There is a Lifeways Week held each year in midsummer at Emerson College in Forest Row, England.  I had heard that that this event really succeeds in keeping all family members engaged, and this past summer I went to see how it was staged." 

In America the word, “Lifeways,” is associated primarily with providing care for the child between infancy and three years of age, when it is not feasible for the very young child to be at home with a parent during the day.  In England the emphasis of Lifeways is the encouragement of individuals all ages from the young child to teenagers, from young and old single adults, to parents and  grandparents, to join together in the celebration of Life.  

This week the chefs at Pixton Kitchen have been testing and getting inspiration from Ottolenghi’s book Plenty More, as well as creating some new dishes.

Today’s lunch from Pixton kitchen was a delicious dish of nettle stuffed potato cakes, roasted whole carrots with squash and coconut, and a beetroot and lentil salad.

Globally there are more honey bees than other types of bee and pollinating insects, so it is the world's most important pollinator of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats.

This year's May Fair was a delightful day with plenty of beautiful weather and a whole host of wonderful visitors to the campus.  Thank you very much if you took part, either as a stall holder or simply if you joined us for the day.

Why not take a look at the video, created by one of our kitchen staff, Grace Connor.

Ai's Land Art work is placed in a field in front of the college's main building. It was created in June 2014.

 

As the wet and windy April weather gives way to May's brighter mornings, and glimpses of warmer weather to come, this delicious lasagne dish makes use of some of the first of what the kitchen garden has to offer us.