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, Holland. 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. Also look at his website: www.embryo.nl. He now teaches his ‘Embryosophy’ in Europe and USA in institutes for Cranio¬sacral-therapy, Osteopathy, Polarity Therapy but also Prenatal Psychology and Trauma therapy and so on. Since 2009 (2nd Int. Fascia Research Congress) he contributes by his phenomenological approach to the conceptualization as to the fascia as “organ of innerness, biotensegrity and wholeness” introducing the concept of functional architecture in the so-called locomotor system as complement to the muscular anatomy.
Also look at his website: www.embryo.nl