Developed by Ludwig Koneberg, evopedagogy offers a caring, practical approach to support difficulties with learning, behaviour and stress management, in children as much as in adults.
More than 40 years ago, Ludwig Koneberg turned to the study of how the human brain works and evolves, in order to better understand the origin of learning and behavioural difficulties that were becoming more and more common.
He combined this research with insights drawn from evolutionary theory, pedagogy, philosophy, art and nature to develop the unique model of the “practical” EVOPED® pedagogy.
At the heart of evopedagogy lies the conviction that everyone carries within them natural abilities to learn, grow and regain their balance, provided they receive the right support.
Through playful, personalised exercises, Évopédagogie® brings to light the blocks that weigh on learning and behaviour, then helps to move past them. Schoolwork challenges, conflicts to ease, talents to encourage: progress is often quick to show, and parents as well as teachers find new ways to support and to talk things through.
Its seven-step model follows the major phases of a child's development and translates language into movement, to shed light on what shapes our behaviour. The movements practised in a session open new pathways in the brain, which are then consolidated at home.
In a child, everything begins with movement. From the earliest years, it weaves the brain's connections and supports a whole host of abilities: learning, perceiving the world around us, coordinating our movements, communicating, adapting to the unexpected.
So we do not learn with the head alone. We also learn with the body, through movement and through lived experience.
From life in the womb up to around three or four years old, the child passes through a series of stages. In turn, they learn to roll over, to crawl, to move on all fours, to stand up, then to move around on their own. At the same time, their perception, communication and language become more refined.
Évopédagogie® draws on these major stages of motor and brain development, which it organises into seven levels nested one within another, echoing the evolution of living things:
Each level has its own way of moving, feeling, reacting and connecting with others.
Every child moves at their own pace. Yet it can happen that a stage is passed through too quickly, only halfway, or in an unsupportive setting.
When a level stays fragile, it weakens the ones that come after it. The child, and later the adult, does have the resources within, but sometimes struggles to reach them, especially under stress.
This can show up, for example, as difficulties with concentration, learning or coordination, a lack of confidence, marked restlessness, or emotions that overflow.
This is the heart of the approach: a fragile stage can be reworked at any age.
By replaying the movements specific to each phase, we give the brain back the support it was missing to draw on what it already knows how to do.
Little by little, the blocks loosen, learning becomes possible again, and other ways of reacting appear. And talents that stress kept hidden begin to show.
Évopédagogie® does not ask you to do more. It invites you to return to the basics, through movement, to regain stability, confidence and freedom to act.
A concrete approach that helps everyone draw on their own resources.
Ludwig Koneberg begins his studies of brain function and observes the links between movement, stress and the ability to learn. He brings together neuroscience, pedagogy and evolutionary theory.
He founds the Institut für Praktische Pädagogik (IPP) and lays the foundations for passing this approach on across Europe. The EVOPED® method is formalised and the first evopedagogues are trained.
The approach grows in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. Evopedagogues support young and old in a range of settings: family, nursery, school, higher education, business or association.
Silke Gutzmann, a certified evopedagogue, brings the method to the Lake Geneva region. She supports families, adults, teachers and businesses across the Geneva area with this unique approach.
It all starts with attentive observation of movement, posture and reactions. This reading makes it possible to spot tensions, imbalances or stress patterns that influence how the person functions as a whole, far beyond what words alone can express.
The method does not stop at the visible difficulty. It seeks to identify what holds back at a deeper level: which unresolved stress, which bodily tension or which block is preventing the person from reaching their natural resources and functioning with ease.
The support relies on simple, targeted and tailor-made exercises. These exercises help release stress, restore balance and make the resources already present in the person more accessible.
The exercises can be repeated at home to reinforce the effects between sessions. This continuity strengthens the new connections and lets the person gradually regain more ease, confidence and availability in their personal, school or working life.
Blocks in thinking can be brought to light through movement, which makes it possible to remove them.
Ludwig Koneberg, founder of EVOPED®
In 1990, he founded the Institut für Praktische Pädagogik (IPP) in Munich. Today, around twenty training centres across five countries enable certified evopedagogues to support children, adults and teams in a range of settings: family, school, business, association.
Evopedagogy is for anyone who wants to better understand what is holding them back and to regain more ease, confidence and availability.