Charles Krebs’ incredible and varied career began long before Kinesiology; he obtained his PhD in Biology & Physiology from Boston University in the 1970s, at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Cape Cod. As a Marine Research Scientist, he taught in universities in the USA for 9 years before moving to Australia in 1983 to work as a Marine Scientist and Analytical Chemist. Just 6 months into his seachange, Charles had a scuba diving accident, experiencing a life-threatening cerebral-spinal bend – a nitrogen bubble was trapped in his spine, with a blood clot forming quickly around it. Within hours, Charles was paralysed from the neck down, diagnosed quadriplegic.
It was at the point of this diagnosis, still in the decompression chamber, that Charles was presented with a rare opportunity to trial a previously untested treatment. The risk was huge – within three days Charles would either have some motor function back, or his spine would die, causing his death. With the academically and athletically active life he had lived until then, Charles Krebs refused to resign himself to having no control over his life, for the rest of his life. With no time to spare, he committed to the treatment and incredibly, within a few days found he regained some movement in his upper body and arms.
Charles was then moved to a hospital, where it was determined the nerve damage was so severe he would never walk again. But Charles had other plans. He relied on his photographic memory and knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as his experience with martial arts and movement of Ch’i. By focussing on using Ch’i to contact the muscles in paralysis, slowly the connection to these muscles came back. From here he undertook several hours of physiotherapy every day, determined to regain his mobility.
Learning about how Ch’i affects and influences physiology became a huge point of interest for Charles, who then worked his way through a range of different natural therapies until he came across Kinesiology. With no expectations, Charles went through an hour or so session of this ‘weird’ modality, but after an hour and a half he found his neurology totally reorganised – he was walking completely differently already. Just 2 days later, Charles undertook his first Kinesiology class, with an insatiable desire to understand why this worked.
Over the course of a few years, Charles Krebs undertook every Kinesiology workshop and class he could access, and expanded his research and study of the energy systems used in Kinesiology. Realising fairly quickly that practitioners of Applied Kinesiology, as it was known at the time, only knew that it worked and not precisely why, he ventured out into broader sources, exploring ancient Eastern healing arts and energetic literature to gain more insight.
Soon after, Charles met Richard Utt, the founder of Applied Physiology, a powerful Kinesiology modality. It was in Richard’s classes that Charles finally received an explanation of muscle monitoring that he could understand. Richard had linked the neurological circuitry that controls muscle function with muscle monitoring to explain why the muscle ‘locks’ and ‘unlocks’ when the client is asked to do different tasks. As well as inspiring Charles to delve further into the field of Kinesiology, Richard also used Kinesiology to help eliminate 80% of Charles consistent back pain.
In 1988 Charles decided to leave his career in mainstream science and go to Tucson, Arizona to study in Richard Utt’s new, five-month Applied Physiology program at his institute. Charles embarked on a new career working fulltime providing Kinesiology treatment and teaching Kinesiology, whilst also working with Richard doing research. At the end of 1988, Charles returned to Australia and setup a clinic working mostly with children with learning problems.
Charles was working with many children who were referred to him by a child psychologist. She sent these cases to Charles because no amount of remedial work seemed to make the slightest difference to their academic performance. Using the Kinesiology techniques available at that time for learning issues, he found that 30% of these children experienced lasting improvement, while the other cases either experienced no improvement or only short term improvement. As a scientist, Charles was not satisfied with those results and began to investigate the neurology of the brain extensively looking for answers.
It was a combination of Charles’ passion for science and Kinesiology, and empathy for the sometimes debilitating experience of suffering learning difficulties, that motivated him to devote the next decade to developing LEAP. The Learning Enhancement Acupressure Program is the result of significant, intensive research into brain function and neurology, heavily incorporating the Acupressure Meridian System, in the context of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology. It is a highly effective program that emphasises the importance of energetic integration of all functional areas of the brain, and is continually evolving and expanding, as Charles continues to research and develop more detailed concepts in the field.
Charles’ desire to share Kinesiology and also bring credibility to this profound healing modality keeps him actively involved in research that shows the efficacy of Kinesiology when applied to real physiological issues. Today, Charles continues to teach throughout the globe, inspiring the thousands of LEAP Practitioners worldwide who are sharing his techniques with their clients.
Whilst Dr Charles Krebs continues to research and work with the application of Kinesiology in correcting learning difficulties, he has also gone on to author and publish several books, including “A Revolutionary Way of Thinking” (with Jenny Brown), “Nutrition for the Brain”, and co-authored the groundbreaking textbook, “Energetic Kinesiology: Practices and Principles“, with O’Neill Kinesiology College Director, Tania O’Neill McGowan.
Over 30 years ago, Charles Krebs encountered a significant trauma and change – one that fundamentally ended his life as he knew it, and almost literally ended it too. But it is this traumatic experience that Charles credits for the powerful redirection of his life; a transition into a life far more meaningful and enriching than he could’ve imagined, and that the field of Kinesiology owes a tremendous amount of progress to.
