This work involves integration of the whole person. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a very personal journey as it educates and liberates, correcting posture, tension, and imbalance in your body, while simultaneously evoking new possibilities and a sense of well being and uprightness.
Structural Integration works with connective tissue called fascia, which envelopes each muscle, organ, bone, and nerve. This facial tissue is like a non-stop, contiguous 3D web throughout the whole body.
The downside is that because fascia is a highly adaptable and plastic-like medium, it can shorten and harden with stress, accidents, traumas and emotional pains. The body then has no option but to breath, move, and Be... in these inhibiting patterns 24/7.
The good news is that because fascia is so adaptable, these strain patterns can be significantly relieved, revealing newfound space and options.
As your practitioner I’ll gently and slowly apply direct pressure while calling for small, precise movements, asking you to breathe into restricted areas in your body, and, as these fascial patterns that no longer serve you release, things that were stuck begin to glide, stiff joints begin to move, breath is freed, and your body, as a result, feels taller and lighter.
An integrated body feels balanced and supported—
Rolfing is named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf, biochemist and scientist. Although Dr. Rolf’s work was widely influenced by Hatha Yoga, Osteopathy and other healing and personal-potential modalities, she always presented her work in a down-to-earth manner saying, “Gravity is the Therapist.”
Dr. Rolf’s teaching emphasized the concept of an intentional line relating the realm of material particles, of basic physics, to the non-material world of energy fields. Thus, personal alignment around and within this Line implies alignment and integration on all levels of the Being: mind, body, and spirit.
Dr. Rolf’s understanding of how one’s experience of Being is anchored in the human structure and gravitational field came in part from her experience and knowledge as a biochemist. Believing the body is the personality, Dr. Rolf purported there is no such thing as aberrant psychology, just perverted physiology. She was also known to tease the academic crowd saying, although their lofty theories were fine, she preferred something she could put her elbow into.