Elsa Gindler (19 June 1885 – 8 January 1961) was a somatic bodywork pioneer in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, teacher of gymnastik, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer (who, in turn, had been a student of

Genevieve Stebbins Genevieve Stebbins (March 7, 1857 – September 21, 1934) was an American author, teacher of her system of Harmonic Gymnastics and performer of the Delsarte system of expression. She published four books and was the founder of the New York Schoo ...

). From her personal experience of recovering from tuberculosis (it is said by concentrating on breathing only with her healthy lung and resting the diseased lung), Gindler originated a school of movement education, in close collaboration with

Heinrich Jacoby Heinrich Jacoby (1889–1964), originally a musician, was a German educator whose teaching was based on developing sensitivity and awareness. His collaboration with his colleague Elsa Gindler (1885–1961), whom he met in 1924 in Berlin, pl ...

. What Gindler had called ''Arbeit am Menschen'' (work on the human being) emphasised self-observation and growing understanding of one's individual physically related condition. Simple actions such as sitting, standing, and walking were explored, as well as other everyday movements. This became one of the bases of

body psychotherapy Body psychotherapy, also called body-oriented psychotherapy, is an approach to psychotherapy which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich who develope ...

since many of the most influential body psychotherapists studied with her or "Sensory Awareness" with

Charlotte Selver Charlotte Selver (April 4, 1901 in Ruhrort (Duisburg), Germany – August 22, 2003 in Muir Beach, California; née ''Wittgenstein'') was a German music educator. The central point of Charlotte Selver's work was "experience through the senses". ...

at the

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential ...

around 1962. During the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-period of Germany, Gindler used these investigations and experimental exercises with her students to covertly help people who were persecuted by the regime.

Students and Collaborators

Gindler's collaborators included * Emmi Pikler *

(whose students included

Moshe Feldenkrais Moses ( el, Μωϋσῆς),from Latin and Greek Moishe ( yi, משה),from Yiddish Moshe ( he, מֹשֶׁה),from Modern Hebrew or Movses (Armenian: Մովսես) from Armenian is a male given name, after the biblical figure Moses. According to ...

) Several of Gindler's students went on to become influential teachers themselves: * Elsa Lindenberg (partner of

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...

) *

Laura Perls Laura Perls (née ''Lore Posner''; 15 August 1905 in Pforzheim – 13 July 1990 in Pforzheim) was a noted German-born psychologist and psychotherapist who helped establish the Gestalt school of psychotherapy. She was the wife of Friedrich (Fre ...

(wife of

Fritz Perls Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he devel ...

and co-creator of

Gestalt Therapy Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, ...

) *

(

Sensory Awareness Charlotte Selver (April 4, 1901 in Ruhrort (Duisburg), Germany – August 22, 2003 in Muir Beach, California; née ''Wittgenstein'') was a German music educator. The central point of Charlotte Selver's work was "experience through the senses". ...

) * Carola Speads (Physical Re-Education)Carola Speads (1978). "Ways to Better Breathing." Healing Arts Press, Rochester. VT. https://books.google.com/books?id=6raSuDun7wcC (

Berta Bobath Berta Bobath, MBE (December 5, 1907 – January 20, 1991) was a German physiotherapist who created a method of rehabilitation and therapy known as the Bobath concept in 1948. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy believe "it is the most popular ...

)

Bobath concept The Bobath concept is an approach to neurological rehabilitation that is applied in patient assessment and treatment (such as with adults after stroke or children with cerebral palsy). The goal of applying the Bobath concept is to promote motor ...

* Gertrud Heller * Lily Ehrenfried (Methode Ehrenfried / Gymnastique Holistique) * Clare Fenichel * Sophie Ludwig (1901–1997) * Ruth Matter (1904–1995) Gindler's student

emigrated to the United States in 1938, and later became one of the first teachers at

where she would frequently credit Gindler. Through Selver's

workshops at Esalen and elsewhere, Gindler's work indirectly influenced most of the

somatic Somatic may refer to: * Somatic (biology), referring to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells ** Somatic cell, a non-gametic cell in a multicellular organism * Somatic nervous system, the portion of the vertebrate nervous sys ...

teachers in the United States.

Sources

*History of

*German Wikipedia article on Elsa Gindler (translation requested)

References

External links

in German:
Swiss Association for Elsa Gindler/Heinrich JacobyJacoby/Gindler Foundation GermanyWays of Development, German Association working on pedagogy following Gindler/JacobyRuth Matter Foundation
in English:
Emmi Pikler, The Emmi Pikler Institute US-websiteSensory Awareness Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gindler, Elsa Body psychotherapy 1885 births 1961 deaths People from Berlin Somatic therapists