In 1958, B.K.S. Iyengar told a Frenchwoman named Noelle Perez to walk behind the women in the Indian marketplace. He said when her shadow began to look like theirs she would have learned something.
Noelle took this guidance seriously, ultimately developing AplombŪ, an approach to natural alignment. With a background in yoga, she traveled the world studying movement in populations with healthy muscles and joints.
Esther Gokhale, who had qualified as an acupuncturist, traveled to France
to study Aplomb® with Noelle.
She was motivated by her own back problems and those of her patients, and
sought a better solution than the conventional and alternative back pain
treatments commonly available. Over the course of five years, she earned
her Aplomb® Certification, and
was deeply inspired by the anthropologically-based method it provided. But
she sought a more scientifically-based approach to the theory, practice,
and delivery of posture re-education. In addition, she wanted a method that
could be taught efficiently, and support people in both sedentary and active
lifestyles.
She conducted her own research at home and abroad in cultures with a low incidence of back pain—Europe,
Asia, Africa, and South America. Read parts of her travel log, written from her experiences of
observing, photographing, filming, and interviewing people without back pain, joint pain, or
muscle pain.
In 1996-97, Esther Gokhale was a Research Associate in the Stanford University School of Medicine,
where she conducted observational studies on posture among Stanford medical personnel. In August
1997, she presented her findings at a Grand Rounds in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford.
Esther’s research and 15 years of clinical experience ultimately gave rise to the Gokhale
MethodSM.
