The Thresholds of Life: Supporting Transitions Through the Arts

Part of the Strengthening Immunity Series

Join us for the fourth session of the Strengthening Immunity series co-sponsored by the Foundation for Health Creation and the Anthroposophic Health Association. If you previously registered for any of the three prior sessions in the series, you do not need to register again.

To attend for free, please select the RSVP ticket option. To make a donation, please select the number of “tickets” you would like to purchase by using the ‘+’ in the ticket section below. Please be sure to enter your first and last name when registering.

Threshold experiences in modern times are often dulled and diluted. Is this because they are frightening? Or too difficult? Or out of control? The process of death, the greatest threshold experience, is often medicated with morphine or other pharmaceuticals, and 90% of the women giving birth in the United States are opting to be completely numb from the waist down when they choose to have an epidural. In this webinar, midwife Lael Stimming, therapeutic singing practitioner Giselle Whitwell, and music therapist Sheila Johns will briefly explore these threshold experiences and how we can support individuals and families through our varied beginning and end-of-life artistic disciplines.

Midwifery is often referred to as one of the oldest professions in all recorded history. Throughout the centuries, it has been held in high respect, and midwives were sought out not only for their skills with childbirth, but also for their knowledge as healers, bone setters, and ministers to those who were dying.

Threshold experiences are deeply significant in the life of each individual on earth as nodal points in the cycle of life. We will begin our webinar with a focus on birth, and we will end by turning to the process of death, which, as we will see, has similarities to what a woman goes through when giving birth.

Among the arts, music in particular has a very special and important place in our lives, because as human beings, we embody all of the elements that comprise music. Exploring life’s thresholds through the lens of therapeutic singing and music therapy will deepen our appreciation for the sacred work of the midwife throughout human history.