Social Therapy Working Group, May 2026 in Sweden
This year, the Social Therapy Working Group of the Section accepted our colleague Sara Siegers’ invitation to visit Sweden. We stayed in Järna and, over the period of five days, visited several facilities in the surroundings of Järna.
Report by Sebastian Schöning and Sonja Zausch
Photos: private source
By visiting various community centers and workshops and talking with colleagues on site, we had the incredibly valuable opportunity to experience the state of social therapy work in Sweden. We visited Solåkrabyn, Norrbyvälle, and Ensjöholm. Through our conversations with local colleagues, we also gained insight into the Swedish social system and how anthroposophical work and social therapy find ways to support people within it.
In our working group, we bring together the various regional focuses of our work. But to truly understand the situation, it is absolutely essential to be physically present on site. Every country has developed its own unique social system, and social therapy evolves alongside it.
In Sweden, we encountered a social welfare system that is very strongly focused on individuality. For example, there are no shared communities where people who need assistance live together with staff members. In Sweden, every person who needs assistance is entitled to a 40-square-meter apartment with a kitchen, a bathroom, and two rooms.
We saw transformed communities in Sweden. A house that, before 1994, provided just one room each for 8 to 10 people now has four apartments under one roof.
Next year, we will accept our colleague Paulamaria Blaxland-de Lange's invitation to visit England.
Current members of the working group are: Paulamaria Blaxland-de Lange, Sara Colonna, Evert Hoefman, Adrian Langer, Jan-Henrik Schöndorf, Udo Pfeil, Sara Siegers, Zsuzsa Sóo, and Sonja Zausch from the section’s leadership team.
New members working in the field of inclusive community-based social work with adults are very welcome.
Contact: sonja.zausch@goetheanum.ch
