Reflections on Being a Gokhale Method Teacher

For more than 15 years, Clare Chapman has been a beloved Gokhale Method teacher, helping students restore comfort, confidence, and resilience in their bodies. As Clare enters a new chapter of life and returns more fully to her lifelong love of art, she has kindly shared these reflections on her journey with the Gokhale Method. While we will miss her daily presence as a teacher and colleague, we are grateful that she remains a treasured friend, mentor, and member of our community. —Esther

It was 2010 and I felt miserable. It was the first week of a long-awaited summer holiday from teaching Art History, Art, and Photography in an international school in the UK, but the weather delivered yet another cold, wet, July morning.

It started with 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

For many years I had also been a yoga teacher, and a few months earlier, one of my students, Lorna, had lent me a book. She was aware of my keen interest in therapeutic approaches to back pain, and as a friend of Esther Gokhale’s mother, she'd been given a copy of Esther's recently released book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, which she then shared with me.

Little did I know back in 2010 that I would later assist with the new 2025 edition of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.

I had read many books on the subject of back pain—including several self-help manuals that promised solutions but did not deliver for my recurring issues. So when I saw the title, I more or less dismissed the book out of hand. Weeks passed, and I began to feel bad about not having returned it. Reluctantly, I opened the pages, hoping to find something positive to feed back in appreciation of Lorna's kindness.

Just by reading the introduction, I was hooked. My initial cynicism evaporated as Esther eloquently and logically disarmed all the myths and misconceptions we harbour about back pain. Through the eight lessons in the book I finally understood what I needed to do differently to get out of pain, and why. Within a few weeks my back felt safer, and its spasms, which had afflicted me for over two decades, began to subside.

We all need a clear understanding of what makes for a pain-free body. Here I am modelling for the blog post Posture Workouts in a Swimming Pool.

As I looked through the rain lashing the glass doors to the soggy garden, I recalled that Esther Gokhale taught her method in sunny California. I checked my bank account. There was enough to fly out to San Francisco to take her Gokhale® Foundations course in Palo Alto—the only way to learn the method at that time. I saw the prospect of escaping both my back pain and the bad weather!

Let’s go—to San Francisco!

The Foundations course was intense, compounded by jet lag and my fear that the challenges of travel and a course might provoke a disabling back spasm. But I knew from the very first Friday night session that I was in the hands of a truly gifted and inspirational teacher. 

I had experienced a lot of exercise and treatment modalities over the years, yet this educational approach to musculoskeletal health cut through with a logic and universality that had been missing. It had none of the cultural overlay, dogma, fashions, or contrived theories about how our bodies should exercise or be that have wreaked such confusion, distortion, and pain. 

Instead, I found an approach based on direct anthropological observation and research, advocating the tried and tested posture and movement that humanity has used worldwide for tens of thousands of years.

Esther helps a student to roll her shoulder back to a healthier, posterior position. 

Taking it back home

I quickly aspired not only to learn to restore my body to its natural comfort and resilience, but also to teach this body wisdom back home. I returned to the US six months later to work with Esther and learn to be a Gokhale Method teacher. From the outset, we trained alongside her classes, learning not only how to best impart information, but to guide students with our hands and with our hearts. Within a year I was qualified to teach back in the UK, alongside my friend John Carter (who retired last year). Going forward, my good colleague and friend Julie Johnson plans to teach both group and one-to-one Foundations courses in the UK. 

Of course, nowadays you can take the in-person Foundations course as part of a city or country break in many places around the world. And if travel is not on your agenda, the online Gokhale® Elements course offers one-to-one coaching and scheduling convenience. In my experience, the most important thing is not which course you take, but that you take it. Invest in yourself and discover this transformational teaching. It’s been one of the best life decisions I’ve made, and the vast majority of our students say the same.

I’m really delighted with the improvement in my posture. I am noticing that my back feels straighter, stronger, and healthier. I think the benefits are filtering into other systems and even helping to improve my mental health… Thank you, Clare, Esther, and all the team. 

Madeleine, UK

One of my most memorable teaching recollections is of a student who for decades had been unable to lie down to sleep without pain. After learning stretchlying on the back she told me that not only did she now enjoy many hours of rejuvenating sleep, but that she has also freed herself from recurring nightmares. The benefits of this approach can be unpredictable, and profound.

Guiding a student to use her rib anchor and a Gokhale® Head Cushion in relaxed, upright glidewalking. 

The end of one chapter, the beginning of another…

This blog is my last piece of writing in my role as an editorial associate. As I type, I am once again looking out on summer rain, this time splashing patterns against the loft windows. It has been my Gokhale Method teaching and writing space, and it is where I will soon dive back into my lifelong connection with art and painting.

Lilies, sketch by Clare Chapman, 2025

I leave with deep gratitude for the companionship, knowledge, and personal growth I’ve experienced these past 16 years immersed in the Gokhale Method. I have lived these years to my mid-sixties in a more robust, comfortable, and pain-free body than I had in my twenties, thirties and forties. It's been a privilege to take this journey, led by Esther and shared with wonderful colleagues and students. As an ongoing member of the Gokhale® Active community, I move into a new chapter, happy that this is not a final “goodbye” but “au revoir”.

Celebrating camaraderie at one of the annual teachers’ weekends. Öhringen, Germany, 2024. I’m fourth from the right.

Best next step

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