Vera F. Birkenbihl (1946–2011) developed a body of pedagogical practice centred on what she termed gehirngerechtes Lernen — brain-appropriate learning. Her methods, including the Analogien-Technik, stress-free learning environments, and the integration of both hemispheric modes of cognition, were built from practical observation rather than formal neuroscience. They have reached millions of practitioners in the German-speaking world and remain deeply influential in non-formal adult education. Yet Birkenbihl's framework has never been systematically integrated with empirical research from embodied cognition, structural coupling theory, or neurocybernetics. This paper, submitted on the occasion of what would have been her 80th birthday (26 April 2026), proposes precisely such an integration. Drawing on the author's prior practice-based research trilogy, we identify four structural correspondences between Birkenbihl's pedagogical methods and the autopoietic coaching model. We propose a unified framework, the Birkenbihl–Autopoietic Learning Model (BALM), for application in high-risk performance education — circus arts, aerial performance, partner acrobatics, and related domains. The model offers a theoretically grounded synthesis of Birkenbihl's lifelong contribution and recent neurocybernetic findings. It suggests that what Birkenbihl described intuitively, the autopoietic coaching framework can now explain structurally.