An Interview with Esther Gokhale – The Posture Guru

Esther Gokhale (GO-clay) has been involved in integrative therapies all her life. As a young girl growing up in India, she helped her mother, a nurse, treat abandoned babies waiting to be adopted. This early interest in healing led her to study biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton and, later, acupuncture at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine.

After experiencing crippling back pain during her first pregnancy and unsuccessful back surgery, Gokhale began her lifelong crusade to vanquish back pain. Her studies at the Aplomb® Institute in Paris and years of research in Brazil, India, Portugal and elsewhere led her to develop the Gokhale Method, a unique, systematic approach to help people find their bodies’ way back to pain-free living.

Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, has sold over 300,000 copies and has been translated into ten languages. In 2010, Gokhale hosted the nationally-televised program Back Pain: The Primal Posture™ Solution (available on DVD and streaming). The Gokhale Method continues to grow as dozens of qualified teachers, each personally trained by Gokhale, now teach the method worldwide.

Gokhale has taught at corporations such as Google, IDEO, and Facebook, presented at conferences including TEDx(Stanford) and Ancestral Health Symposium, consulted for the trainers of the SF 49ers and several Stanford sports teams, and conducted workshops for physician groups at Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, PAMF, and UCSF. The New York Times gave Esther the title «The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley» in 2013. Read Esther Gokhale’s interview for CEOWORLD magazine.

Q: How did you decide to specialize in back pain treatment? 

Esther Gokhale: Like many people who develop a passion, I came at this the hard way. When I was nine months pregnant with my first child, I herniated my L5-S1 disc and suffered horribly with sciatic pain. At first I hoped it would resolve, as many people suggested it would, after the birth of my baby. But in fact, the pain got steadily worse, in spite of me trying all sorts of treatments, conventional and alternative.

Some of these gave me temporary relief, but within hours I would be back to having agonizing pain, the feeling of having an ice pick in my left buttock, and shooting sensations down to my big toe. I couldn’t carry my baby or even a cooking pot without extra pain, and I couldn’t sleep through the night. I didn’t want to take pain medication because I was nursing my baby, so I would just wake up every couple of hours with back spasms that I would resolve by walking around the block a few times.

This was no way to live, and I opted for a laminectomy-discectomy which gave me relief. To my disappointment, in spite of following all the guidelines on exercises to a «T», I re-herniated the same L5-S1 disc a year later, and was then offered another surgery. Instead, I cast an even wider net to find a better way out of this horrendous situation.

The approaches that resonated for me were the ones that recalled a principle I had been exposed to early in life, growing up in India. My Dutch mother, married to my Indian father, was very admiring of many things she observed around her in India. She would regularly point things out that impressed her to her four children – the way the vegetable vendors carried huge loads on their head all day with no stress, the way our sweeper spent hours on her haunches cleaning our home, the way people in the fields bend over their crops all day without any sign of wear.

The approaches that resonated for me were the ones that suggest a different way of using the body, rather than providing yet another intervention to make up for the body’s ineptitude. I had already tried almost every intervention out there, including surgery, and was still suffering. It was beyond disappointing – how could my body, which had always been so healthy and served me so well, fail me so profoundly? It didn’t make sense. This is how I embarked on looking more deeply for a solution to my perplexing, puzzling pain.

When I solved the puzzle for myself (I haven’t had any back pain – or back ache, or back twinge, for over 35 years, and I went on to have two more children without any problem), I realized that the solution generalizes. Millions of people stand to benefit from understanding how human backs actually stack, and how to restore the back and body’s natural architecture and natural ways of moving. This represents a breakthrough for solving the #1 cause for global disability!

Additionally, the pathway I’ve created is simple, surprisingly quick to learn, and highly effective. Just everyday movements for back improvements – small tweaks for big results.

Q: You were referred to as the «posture guru of Silicon Valley». Why do you think the Gokhale method became so popular in Silicon Valley?  
 
Esther Gokhale: I credit physicians for our popularity wherever we have it. Physicians see the serious back pain cases, and patients follow their recommendations. It takes a while to win the trust and respect of the physician community, as it should. But having practiced in Silicon Valley for decades now, we not only get physician referrals, but large numbers of physicians attend our classes themselves.

Until COVID threw a wrench in the gears, I was also getting invited to teach at physician retreats, informational lunches, and physician continuing education courses. We really worked our way up the rungs of inclusion in the physician community.

I see this progression in other towns too – at first we see people who learn about us from friends, but after a while the physicians learn about how effective this is and begin coming to classes themselves and referring their families and patients to us. Some of the physicians in Silicon Valley are concierge physicians who have referred their VIP clientele to us, so we’ve developed quite a wide-spread reputation for being special.

Additionally, the Gokhale Method is particularly well-suited for Silicon Valley professionals. These folks tend to be busy, so they appreciate that the Method doesn’t require them to take time out of their day to do special exercises – instead, every step becomes a rep (for the glutes); every bend becomes a stretch (for the hamstrings) – skillfully executed «life exercises» become the mainstay of satisfying our exercise needs. Silicon Valley professionals are also usually logically inclined, so they appreciate that there is no mumbo-jumbo in our methodology – it all makes logical sense.

Q: What are some of the main insights that you discovered in more non-traditional societies, helping you write your new book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back?  

Esther Gokhale: The most important insight is that there are relatively pain-free populations in the world, and that what distinguishes these populations is that they have retained natural body architecture and natural ways of moving.

We in modern industrial societies, by contrast, have forgotten how to be in our bodies, and spend most of our day in configurations that pinch our nerves, wear our joints, and weaken our muscles.

Some of the body characteristics that non-traditional societies still have, and that we have lost, include a «J-spine» (I coined this phrase to differentiate it from the misguided modern paradigm of an S-spine), posteriorly-placed shoulders, trouble-free feet with the body’s weight mainly over the heels, and elegant gait that provides the posterior chain (glutes, calves, foot muscles) with the exercise it needs and other muscles (psoas, calves) with the stretch they need.

The great news is that we can relearn these natural movements and positions simply, often even easily. It needs no special equipment, no dedicated time, or ongoing treatments.

Q: What are the common issues you see with CEO’s who work long hours at a desk and what advice do you have for them? 

Esther Gokhale: Modern CEO’s tend to know that they need to exercise, but they don’t always know that healthy movement and body architecture outside of exercise time are also important for longevity, focus, and energy level. The wonderful thing the Gokhale Method offers busy CEO’s is tweaks in everyday positions and movements so that they stretch and strengthen as they work! This gives CEO’s a huge boost in productivity while garnering side benefits like a more commanding appearance, a calmer presence, and more.

Q: Can anyone benefit from the Gokhale Method? 

Esther Gokhale: Anyone and everyone can benefit from this foundational method. Who wouldn’t benefit from sitting, standing, bending, walking, lifting, and even lying down in ways that improve their anatomy, physiology, and even our mental health? Especially since most people’s posture and movement patterns, and also their ways of “fixing” these do more harm than good.

Q: You have Gokhale Method practitioners in various locations—what does that community look like? 

Esther Gokhale: These teachers are very dedicated. They get training every month and meet in person every year. They also often talk about their jobs in our teacher chat. They all began as students of the method, and were profoundly impressed by the scope and effectiveness of the techniques. They are impassioned to pass on to students the kind of results they experienced themselves.

It is extremely gratifying to have a community of like-minded, caring professionals who are keen on growing their knowledge base and sharing things they discover with the other teachers. Our in-person meetings are particularly warm and wonderful.

Q: How do you balance running your practice, being an author, etc. 

Esther Gokhale: When I began, I wore numerous hats – I directed our software developer in India (often at 5 am!), I arranged teacher continuing ed weekends solo, I personally responded to every teacher challenge that cropped up, I troubleshot supply chain issues for our products, I spoke with the lawyers about our various contracts, etc. Happily, over the years, the company has gathered a very capable, enthusiastic, and loyal team of staff members who increasingly have taken over my original tasks. This frees me up to explore new terrain, which has been wonderful.