Charlotte Selver (April 4, 1901 in

Ruhrort Ruhrort () is a district in the borough of within the German city of Duisburg situated north of the confluence of the Ruhr and the Rhine, in the western part of the Ruhr area. Ruhrort has the largest river harbour in the World, with quays extendin ...

(Duisburg), Germany – August 22, 2003 in

Muir Beach Muir Beach is a census designated place (CDP), unincorporated community, and beach on the Pacific Ocean. The community is located northwest of San Francisco in western Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. Unlike many ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

; née ''Wittgenstein'') was a German music educator. The central point of Charlotte Selver's work was "experience through the senses". Charlotte Selver was convinced that the well-being of the individual, the society as a whole and even the worries about our environment depend on how far we find new confidence in organic processes. With her work, "Sensory Awareness", Charlotte Selver had a deciding influence on the "Human Potential Movement", which also came out of 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 ...

, where she taught as of 1963. Because of that, she also had influence on

Humanistic Psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force ...

and the therapies based on it. Aspects of her work, especially the conscious sensing of the body and the following of physical sensations (Sensory Awareness), flowed into many of the methods of physical work, physical therapy, physical psychotherapy and psychotherapy which still exist today.

Biography

In the 1920s, Charlotte Selver encountered

Elsa Gindler Elsa Gindler (19 June 1885 – 8 January 1961) was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany. Born in Berlin, teacher of gymnastik, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer (who, in turn, had been a student of Genevieve Stebbins). From her personal experience of ...

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 ...

, who together with the students in her courses, researched how the natural gifts of people could be developed, even at an adult age. Up until she emigrated to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1938, she studied with Elsa Gindler and the music teacher,

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 ...

, and she reestablished contact with them in the 1950s. In 1971, the "Sensory Awareness Foundation" was brought into being. Its goal is to preserve and document Charlotte Selver's life work. In 1995, the "California Institute of Integral Studies" in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

awarded her an honorary doctorate. Charlotte Selver died on August 22, 2003, at her home in Muir Beach, California, among her closest friends and students at the age of 102.

Sensory Awareness

Sensory Awareness has its origin in the work of the gymnastics and exercise teacher,

(1885–1961), and the Swiss music teacher,

(1889–1964). They never gave their 'work' a formal name. The fundamental objective of the Jacoby/Gindler approach is the development of the person (integral unfolding as development and growth to meaningful being). Charlotte Selver was Gindler's student in Berlin before she emigrated to the United States in 1938 and she introduced this work under the name of Sensory Awareness.

Influences on dance therapy and psychotherapy

Charlotte Selver touched and encouraged thousands of people in the USA, Mexico and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in her 80 years of work, among them influential personalities, such as: * Psychoanalyst

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

philosopher

Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...

and his teacher

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki , self-rendered in 1894 as "Daisetz", was a Japanese-American Buddhist monk, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, and writer. He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in s ...

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 ...

, the founder of

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Ida Rolf Ida Pauline Rolf (May 19, 1896 – March 19, 1979) was a biochemist and the creator of Structural Integration or "Rolfing", a pseudoscience, pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice. Early life and education Rolf was born in New York City ...

, the founder of

Rolfing Rolfing () is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf (1896–1979) as Structural Integration. Rolfing is marketed with unproven claims of various health benefits. It is based on Rolf's ideas about how the human body's " ...

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 ...

* Peter Levine, founder of

Somatic experiencing Somatic experiencing (SE) is a form of alternative therapy aimed at treating trauma and stressor-related disorders like PTSD. The primary goal of SE is to modify the trauma-related stress response through bottom-up processing. The Clients’ ...

* Ron Kurtz, founder of

Hakomi The Hakomi Method is a form of mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s. Approach and method The Hakomi Method is an experiential psychotherapy modality, wherein present, felt experience is used as an acce ...

therapy * Somatics teachers and practitioners including Don Hanlon Johnson, Judyth Weaver, Pat Odgen, Susan Aposhyan, Christine Cadwell, Edward Maupin and others who taught at the Esalen Institute, including teachers of Esalen Massage

Literature

* Brooks, Charles: "Erleben durch die Sinne". DtV, Munich 1991, . (Charles Brooks describes courses of his wife and colleague, Charlotte Selver. 230 pages with photographs, original English title: ''Sensory Awareness''.) * William C. Littlewood, Mary Alice Roche: ''Waking Up: The Work of Charlotte Selver''. Author House, Bloomington 2004, * Charlotte Selver: ''Every moment is a moment'' In: Deutsches Yoga-Forum, 3/2005 * ''Sensory Awareness - zur Arbeitsweise von Charlotte Selver'' In: Feldenkrais Forum, 4/2005

External links

Sensory Awareness Foundation

Jacoby/Gindler work. Sensory Awareness
''in German''

Sources

– WDR broadcast, Friday, October 14, 2005 (11:30 - 11:50, WDR 5) ''in German'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Selver, Charlotte 1901 births 2003 deaths People from Duisburg People from Muir Beach, California Somatics German emigrants to the United States