The Embryo in Us - Human as Embryo

Understanding Ourselves as Embryo and How that Relates to Our Consciousness and Psychosomatic Being

A live course that was recorded in June 2021 brought to you by Jaap Van Der Wal and Kate White.

We are Mind, Motion and Matter.

The body developed out of us, not we from it.

We made the body, cell by cell we made it. (Rumi)

Come to a feast of amazing information about our earliest beginnings, and engage in the mystery of the Embryo with master teacher and storyteller, Jaap van der Wal. The Embryo in Us ~ Human as Embryo is Jaap's seminal course that will help you understand our deepest mysteries held in our bodies.

Course Contents:

Day One: The Undivided Embryo

  • The Body that we ARE
  • The Language of the Body
  • The Embryo in Us-Shaping the Body

Day Two: The Polarity Embryo

  • Life as the In-Between
  • In the Beginning, Cosmos & Chaos
  • First Week, The Angels Landing

Day Three: Threefold Embryo

  • From Vegetable to Animal Life
  • Birth - Incarnation, Creating the Inner
  • The Animate Body: Being Aware

Day Four: The Universal Embryo

  • It's All About Two and the Third
  • Human - Coming to Yourself
  • Human, The Embryo of Freedom


We will be discussing:

  • The human physical body
  • Human as a living organism
  • Human as sentient being
  • Human as aware being

Who is this course for? The course is also explicitly open to trauma therapists and bodyworkers, as well as professionals from the field of osteopathy, craniosacral therapy, yoga, Tai chi and Qiiquong, movement therapists, doctors, midwives, nurses and lay people. Everyone interested in human embryos are welcome


Videos will be available for viewing after the live course is taught. You do not have to attend live, but you will miss the personal teaching of a unique teacher who has integrated the materials of embryology, spirituality, and polarity all in one.

The best and most salient course in shape you will ever take in embryology. Jaap van der Wal, PhD, MD, presents the most comprehensive and comprehensible account of how the body shapes itself in the womb, and how that relates to our consciousness, our movement, and our psycho-emotional states. Every practitioner of ‘Spatial medicine’ – meaning all bodyworkers and movement teachers – needs this information to understand the problems and opportunities that appear in our practices every day. This 5-day intensive will change how you perceive the body, and open you up to new strategies for your clients – and even your own development. From Aristotle to da Vinci to Goethe to Blechschmidt, this is a mind-blowing tour of the embryological morphology that modern science has ignored. Jaap has the best synthesis of the changing shapes of embryology ever discovered.

Your Instructor


Jaap Van Der Wal
Jaap Van Der Wal

I am Jaap van der Wal. Officially: J. C. van der Wal, MD, PhD. I was born on the 17th of February 1947. In 1973 I graduated from medical school. After my medical training I specialized in anatomy and embryology and lectured in these disciplines at the medical schools of the universities of Utrecht and Maastricht (The Netherlands) and at various paramedical training colleges (such as for physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery), but I have also worked in medical research. As anatomist I 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 (body and motion sense). Gradually I 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. I discovered that 'the embryo' is not a past but that embryonic life is primary actuality in the body of each one of us. Since my retirement (2012) I fully devote my energy to Embryo in Motion - The Embryo in Us, a worldwide project on teaching' Embryosophy'. I now teach in Europe and USA in institutes for Craniosacral-Therapie, Osteopathy, Polarity Therapy but also for Prenatal Psychology and Trauma therapy and so on. My other main interest is still What moves us? What motivates us to move? Since 2009 I became involved in research as to function and meaning of the fascia and connective tissue in the human body. In this context I promote a 'trans-anatomical' view on fascia as a 'fabric', as architecture, the missing link in the so-called musculoskeletal system, in line with the concepts of biotensegrity. In line with my dynamic morphology of the embryo I try to present fascia also as 'organ of innerness, where soul might be dwelling'. Also look at my website: www.embryo.nl (also in English).


Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
This is a recorded course
How long do I have access to the course?
You will have 6 months to review the course.
Will I be able to download the videos?
You will not be permitted to download the videos, but the powerpoint and the embryology videos you will be able to.
Refund Policy
No refund after purchase

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