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Karl-Heinz Finke
Trainer & Consultant, Holistic Biography Work
Karl is an active Trainer and Consultant in Holistic Biography Work and has completed twenty-one 3-year cycles of Training world-wide. Currently he is completing Training cycles in Germany, India, Thailand, Taiwan and Australia, whilst mentoring graduates of his Trainings in these countries to be able to continue the Training themselves. He has published several papers on Biography Work. His latest publication is the Biography Log-book, a collaboration with Laura Summerfield, his partner in life and work.
His own teachers in Biography Work have been Gudrun Burkhard, Coenraad van Houten and Helmuth ten Siethoff, and he brings an open, knowledgeable, and diverse background to his work. Karl-Heinz is widely read in Philosophy (including Anthroposophy), Humanistic Psychology and the Social Sciences, and has travelled regularly to teach students in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand, for the past 16 years.
Karl-Heinz is now offering online modules in Biography Work and works with Laura Summerfield to make BiographyWork practical and accessible world-wide. Their work together is visible on their website Holistic Biography Work.
Organising Committee
Laura Summerfield
B.A. (Hons)
M.Ed. (Steiner Ed)
Consultant, Holistic Biography Work
Laura is a full-time Consultant in Holistic Biography Work, based in Berlin and Canberra, and supports Trainings online and in the Asia-Pacific region. She is co-author with Karl-Heinz Finke of the Biography Log-book and is working on several other texts aimed at making Biography Work accessible.
For the past 13 years, she has been a Psychologist in Australia, working in private practice and as a Counsellor/Therapist in community health, early intervention, and educational settings (tertiary and secondary). Before that, she worked as a Teacher and a Careers consultant in secondary schools. She has spent 7 years working in community arts and as a performing artist, and was an active parent and community member raising 3 now adult children.
In 2007, Laura completed the 3-year Training cycle in Biography Work with Karl-Heinz, who is now her partner. At 67 years old, she is a wife, mother, and grandmother, and enjoys an active work life and fulfilling ‘final’ phase in her biography, that draws together many of the threads in her life.
Rashmi Malhotra
M.A., M.Ed.
Trainer & Consultant, Holistic Biography Work,
Psychologist & Educationist
An experienced Psychologist and Educationist, Rashmi has been working in the field of self development for the past 16 years. She has taught at various reputed schools and colleges in India like Sardar Patel, Springdales and Vasant Valley, and at SPM College and CIE, Delhi University. She has developed Life Skills manuals, authored books and articles, and has been conducting Life Skills workshops for different national and International NGO's like Aga Khan Foundation, Pathfinder, Child line India Foundation and SOS Children's Villages. She is also a lead trainer for UNICEF SBCC and positive masculinity program and has worked on projects for adolescents with UNFPA and UNICEF.
She is a trained Extra Lesson Practitioner, based on the philosophy of Anthroposophy and was running a centre for children in Gurugram. In her journey as a trainer and work with children, she realised the need to work with adults to enrich, heal and empower them.
Having gone through the 3-year journey of Biography training and experiencing the shifts in her life, she has been using Biography Work in her individual sessions and integrating it with her self-development workshops with various organisations. She is also deepening her knowledge in Biography by attending the mentoring program with Karl Heinz Finke and wants to develop her own curriculum in Biography work. She is now committed to work to spread Biography work, all ways and always.
Sandhya Durai
Consultant, Holistic Biography Work
Sandhya started her career in the practice of law and moved through two other vocations before she met Biography Work. She sought out Biography Work as a tool to make sense of her own life and to attempt to uncover her destiny. She is a certified Biography Consultant and had completed the 3-year training with Karl Finke of Living-Way. She personally experienced the healing in Biography Work and has made it her life’s mission to bring this healing to as many people as possible. She does so through one on one conversations, group therapy and workshops.
She enjoys conducting workshops which introduce the concepts of Biography Work such as the very short Introductory workshop and the 4-day Biography Foundation Course.
She is deepening her knowledge in Biography Work by reading several books, being part of the mentoring program with Karl Finke where she is learning curriculum design, running reading circles for text study and attending workshops conducted by other Biography Workers.