Trust in one‘s own life forces >>> New leadership team in the Medical Section at the Goetheanum

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 2 October 2023

Marion Debus, Karin Michael and Adam Blanning have taken on the leadership of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. As representatives of general practice, internal medicine, oncology, paediatrics and nursing they cover a broad range in medicine. They advocate active healthcare and the promotion of qualifications in all medical professions.

“With the growing virtualization of our life worlds the healthy development of children and young people faces great challenges today,” says Karin Michael who specializes in child and adolescent medicine. As an example, she describes the reply of an 11-year-old patient who said, “But this is the real world for me” in response to the statement that the real world should play a much more prominent part in everyday life. Adults are also affected. Adam Blan­ning, a GP, perceives that “many people feel so consumed by the offerings and demands of the outside world that they start to lose some trust in their own capacities for rhythm, change and healing.” Burnout and social isolation can be the consequences.

Together with the oncologist Marion Debus they form the new leadership team of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. The team is planning to extent the professional Care Areas created by their predecessors Matthias Girke and Georg Soldner and make them more international. The Care Areas focus on age-specific healthcare tasks and make interdisciplinary therapies in Anthroposophic Medicine available to the public via the platform anthropme­dics.org. The Care Areas encompass pregnancy, birth and early childhood, dealing with fever and infectious diseases, common forms of anxiety and depression, oncology, and palliative care. They are to be extended to include all of childhood and youth as well as questions regarding a dignified life at an advanced age. The team is also committed to healthcare aspects such as nutrition, the relationship with nature and spirituality.

The three leaders also intend to promote the specialized groups in Anthroposophic Medicine, because specialized physicians with the additional qualification in Anthroposophic Medicine are in demand, for example in the context of severe chronic disease and in dialogue with academic medicine. In addition, a hundred years after the Medical Section‘s foundation, new ways will be sought towards the spiritual deepening of all medical professions.

All three Section leaders are practising physicians. Marion Debus will continue to look after the oncology out-patients at Arlesheim Hospital in Switzerland; Karin Michael also works at the Von-Tessin Centre for Health and Education in Stuttgart, Germany; and Adam Blanning will continue working in his GP and family practice In Denver, Colorado, USA.

(2725 characters/SJ; English by Margot M. Saar)

Contact person Ariane Totzke