Extracted from The Back Pain Sourcebook by Stephanie Levin-Gervasi

Dr. Mensendieck was born into 1861 to American parents in New York City. Her father, a civil engineer, traveled extensively with his family. Dr. Mensendieck was gifted both artistically and musically, and made a successful concert debut in Paris before studying sculpture. It was the awkward bodies of her models in sculpture that made her aware of the human form. With a keen eye she began observing children, men and women. She attended medical lectures on the muscles and finally quit sculpting to attend the University of Zurich to obtain her medical degree. She came to see the musculoskeletal system of the body as a remarkable machine with a marvelous capacity for adapting itself to perform perfectly the most complex movements. In Europe she lectured around the continent explaining her movements schemes for correcting the common abuses of the body. Dr. Mensendieck set up schools around Europe and in the 30's opened her first school in the United States.

The Mensendieck system works on the premises that if movements are executed in a beneficial and correct manner, that it contributes to a habitually well-functioning body. It is a unique and comprehensive approach utilizing exercise rehabilitation to address the body's needs. These include: occupational stresses, sports-related injuries, post-operative recovery, as well as chronic back and joint pains produced by bad posture and musculoskeletal diseases. Mensendieck requires no equipment. It demands motivation and perseverance to unlearn faulty postural habits that have been a part of one's life for years.