Esther Gokhale 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 200,000 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.
Esther Gokhale lives on Stanford University campus where she raised three children with her husband Brian White, a professor in the Math Department.
Listen to the song I wrote after being inspired by my conversation with Esther and all the other Podsongs
Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:
THE GIRL WITH THE PERFECT POSTURE
VERSE
F#
Some men like big girls, some like 'em small
F#
Some men like short ones, others like 'em tall
B
Some are into bottoms, others into breasts
F#
But she's got something that's by far the best
BRIDGE
C#
She's so fine
B
Make her mine
F#
It's her spine
CHORUS
B
I'm in love with her perfect posture
E
She's like a ray in a darkened night
B
And you know that I want to get with her
E
It's so sexy how she stands up so straight
I'm in love with her perfect posture
It's like she's powered by some strength inside
That's the reason a girl was made for
That's a back that I want to ride
VERSE
While other girls cower and other girls bow
With rounded backs and heads bent low
She's like a beacon tall in the night
A bright example of how it's done right
BRIDGE
CHORUS
SOLO
VERSE
I've tried to emulate but it might be too late
I've rounded shoulders, my back isn't straight
I know that she is out of my reach
But I want to learn if she's willing to teach
BRIDGE
The way she stands
It's so grand
Please command