An interview with Dr. Jaap van der Wal Ph.D.
Fascia isn’t just an arbitrary part of the body, fascia is a complex and vast communication network within the body that influences every aspect of our development – physical, emotional and spiritual.
Marcel and Anat interview leading fascia expert and embryologist Dr. Jaap van der Wal.
Jaap van der Wal Ph.D. is a medical doctor and till his retirement in 2012 he worked as associate professor in Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. After his medical education in 1973 he became specialized in the functional anatomy of the locomotor apparatus with (later on) emphasis on the architecture of connective tissue and fascia and its role in proprioception. Gradually he developed as teacher in Philosophy of Science and in Medical Anthropology.
“My passion however was and still is human embryology. The human body is a process, developing and functioning in time. The embryo moves and behaves in forms. It is in this area that I encountered the Goethean phenomenological approach. I apply the method of dynamic morphology to understand what we actually are doing as human beings when we are embryo. With respect I can find in the embryo cautious answers to questions as to the meaning of human existence.”
After his retirement he fully devotes his energy to Embryo in Motion, a worldwide project on teaching Embryosophy. He now teaches his ‘Embryosophy’ in Europe and USA in institutes for Craniosacral-therapy, Osteopathy, Polarity Therapy but also Prenatal Psychology and Trauma therapy and so on.