Rolfing® Structural Integration

What is Rolfing® Structural Integration ?

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The main modality I use is Rolfing® Structural Integration, which I love for a lot of reasons, mainly because at its core Structural Integration is about integration, holism, and transformation. It has the potential to fertilize and nurture whatever seeds of change have been planted in a person and to help those seeds flower and flourish. I just love that! Dr. Ida P. Rolf was the first person we know of who, beginning in the 1950s, believed bodies could change way, and that belief is baked into Structural Integration. In Rolfing, we address the relationships between how we feel in our bodies and in our hearts and minds, between our injuries and our postural and walking patterns, between our beliefs and our physical shapes, between our bodies and our environment. 

More specifically, Structural Integration is a hands-on bodywork and movement reeducation intended to create greater ease, improve posture, decrease pain and discomfort, speed recovery from injuries. It addresses the underlying causes of dysfunction by working on the strain patterns that occur throughout the entire body, not just on the symptoms of chronic pain and the tension those patterns produce. By doing so it supports healthy movement, function, and an integrated relationship with oneself and with gravity.


These whole body strain patterns are caused by general stress and tension, by how we've compensated for injuries, and by repetitive strains due to work habits or sports, chronic emotional states, and chronic emotional patterns, as well as by the strains of everyday life and activities. In Rolfing, we work with the relationships that are manifesting at all times between ourselves and the world around us, including the gravitational field. 


Structual Integration, as I practice it, has foundational principle that guide my work. One Principle that we need better support and adaptability in order to make changes. We also need to be more integrated with ourselves and our environment in order to thrive. Because of another Rolfing principle—holism—when we make changes in any area of our Being or our lives, transformation everywhere almost always follows. In order to honor holism, and because it makes for a very effective treatment, I usually incorporate into my Rolfing visceral and neural mobilization, movement, and breath awareness.

In a session, I assess the range of motion available in joints and limbs, observe walking patterns and posture, and then work the muscles, fascia, ligaments, and joints to create more length, increased range of motion, and improved posture and flexibility. This relieves or eliminates aches and pains, and balances the whole body with gravity and with itself. Because of the inherent relationship to holism, I often move gently and seamlessly between working the myofascial system, viscera (organs), nerves, joints, bones, and blood vessels, and movement integration.


I recommend receiving some stand-alone Rolfing Movement ® Integration lessons to help support the structural transformations by changing movement patterns that can contribute to our aches and pains. (link to RMI page?)


My hope is to support my clients in making the changes they are ready for in their bodies, hearts, minds, emotions, outlook, posture … anywhere and everywhere. There is an intrinsic relationship between how our body feels and how we feel psychologically and emotionally, and Rolfing is the doorway I offer into that whole Being transformation, whatever that looks like for each individual.


People of all ages and levels of health come for Rolfing® when they are ready for support in the next phase of their life, whether that means getting out of chronic pain, recovering from injury, standing up straighter, or moving out of a stagnant place in their life and developing greater self-awareness. 


Although not required, most people begin with the Basic 10 Series (aka the 10 series) because of its efficiency in thoroughly working the entire body in a holistic and effective manner. The 10 series gets at the root causes of the strain patterns and provides a foundation for increased ease and mobility and decreased strain and pain. During a 10 series, the entire body is helped to have a better relationship with itself and with gravity as gradual integration of the parts into a more cohesive and mobile whole occurs. Each session has foundational principles that underlie the work, as well as specific intentions that are both broad and detailed. 


Everyone’s 10 series is unique, as it is based on that person’s particular needs at the moment.


For those who don’t want to commit to a 10 series, or have already done one and want to keep progressing into a more harmonious relationship with themselves and with gravity, I use the same principles and assessments to guide my work. Structural Integration is a science, deeply grounded in anatomy, physiology, and movement studies, and it is also an art, created by the relationship between me and my clients that determines what unfolds in each session. Keeping your goals in mind, my experience, training, and education give me the background and skills to hold the big picture of what the progression of the series needs to look like in order for your goals to be met. I adapt each session to what I perceive will most help us accomplish your goals, then continue with advanced work afterward as needed. The work is kept at a depth that creates sensations of ease, release, expansion, and lengthening. 

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Please click this link to read more about each individual session in the 10 series: https://www.rolf.org/ten_series.php. 


Rolfing® Structural Integration is a registered service mark that may be used only by graduates in good standing of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute, and only those graduates can legally call themselves Rolfers®. Since Dr. Rolf’s death in 1979, the field of Structural Integration has grown to include graduates of many other schools, many of which are accredited by the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI). These accredited schools, and their graduates, carry on her legacy of reorganizing and reintegrating the human body with itself and with gravity. 

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What to Expect in a Rolfing® Session

We will talk about your intentions and the reasons for your visit, as well as any concerns you may have. We’ll go over your health history, including what you feel is working well in your body, as well as injuries and areas that are troubling you. I will do some assessments of you standing and walking, perhaps have you move your arms and legs or head as I watch for what is moving well and notice any restrictions. The session will mostly happen with you on the treatment table wearing appropriate Rolfing attire, which ideally will be shorts, underwear, bra, or swimsuit, or fully clothed if that is the most comfortable for you.


I will use my hands and forearms to gently work your muscles, fascia, joints, blood vessels, viscera (organs), tendons, and ligaments. I might ask you to move gently as I work in an area, or to get up and move around to see how the work is settling, or do some movement education. It is generally an interactive session and will be most effective when you participate in helping your body learn to move differently as you increase awareness of your habitual movements, positions, and patterns. 


The pressure is kept at a depth that allows you to relax and breathe deeply, letting the work be both effective and pleasurable. I am always willing to adjust the pressure to better meet your needs. Sessions last between 60 and 70 minutes and might include some movement assessments and suggestions to help you move more comfortably and easily through your life.

What Does Rolfing® Structural Integration Help With?

• Chronic and acute pain anywhere in the body.

• Recovery from, and preparation for, surgery.

• Reducing tension and stress, especially in the back, neck, and shoulders.

• Compromised posture such as feeling hunched forward with difficulty standing up straight.

• General feeling of “stuckness” and wanting help moving forward in life.

• Repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.

• Sport injuries, especially ones that are not healing as quickly as expected.

• Increasing the ability to breathe deeply and more fully.

• Improving digestion, headaches, plantar fasciitis, strained muscles, TMJ.

• Supporting easier and more efficient walking, sitting, and moving.

• Recovering from a TBI, whiplash, accidents, and falls.

• Supporting the recovery from frozen shoulder, tendonitis, bursitis, and other inflammatory conditions.

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History of Dr. Rolf and Rolfing® Structural Integration 

Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf, PhD (1896-1979), the creator of Structural Integration, was the first person we know of to believe that it is possible for manual therapy—touch—to change bodies and bring them into a more harmonious relationship with gravity. Prior to Dr. Rolf, the common understanding was that (for instance) a person who was flat-footed would always be flat-footed, and that nothing could change this.

She believed, based on her education, research, and experience, that, “The body is a plastic medium,” meaning that its shape and form are not permanent or preordained by genetics … bodies can change from receiving manual manipulation, especially of the fascia connective tissue. She was the first person who understood that the doorway to changing how we move through life is the body, and that improving our relationship to gravity by working the fascia can improve all aspects of our health and well-being.


Dr. Rolf was a visionary, born in the Bronx, N.Y., on May 19, 1896. An only child, she graduated from Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia University, in 1916. She was in the Mathematics Club, German Club, Vice President of the class of 1916, a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association, was the alternate for the Graduate Fellowship while working at the Rockefeller Foundation, Business Manager of the Barnard Bulletin, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received Departmental Honors in Chemistry at graduation.


While working on her doctorate, she was the first woman to hold a position as a research scientist (in organic chemistry) at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. She earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1920 (the same year in which women got the right to vote). Her dissertation was titled “Three Contributions of the Chemistry of the Unsaturated Phosphatides.” She became an associate professor at Columbia, and over the next 12 years published many research papers on biochemical compounds, mostly on the chemistry of lipids

Dr. Rolf married Walter Demmerle, an electrical engineer, in 1921. They had two children: Richard, born in 1932, and Alan, in 1933. Walter died in 1947 when she was 50, leaving her with 13- and 14-year-old boys to support and put through college.


She had left the Rockefeller Institute in 1927 and gone to Europe to study mathematics and physics at the Swiss Technical University in Zurich, biochemistry in Paris, and homeopathic medicine in Geneva. She also studied osteopathy, chiropractic, yoga, Alexander Technique, and the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski.


There is not a lot of information available about her early clients, but her son, Richard, was born with a muscle condition that created a lot of spasticity and instability, and it is assumed that she worked on him, given her studies in muscles and stretching, movement and homeopathy. There is one recorded story of her working on her husband after he sustained an injury while they were hunting in the deep woods of Alberta and he sprained his ankle. He said, “Well, why don’t you fix it?” He was able to walk out of the woods after her treatment.


Sometime in the late 1930s she needed a piano teacher for her children, but the teacher she wanted had an arm injury that made teaching impossible. Dr. Rolf worked on her using what she’d learned in studying yoga, manual manipulation and movement techniques so she could teach music again. After helping the music teacher enough that she could teach again, the teacher referred friends and family and Dr. Rolf began to work on more people and was able to develop the principles and understandings that would become Rolfing Structural Integration. By the 1940s she was working in a Manhattan apartment with people seeking help for their problems. She called her work Structural Integration and devoted the next 30 years to developing her technique and training program.

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Dr. Rolf studied bodies and the various pathways to reestablishing a better alignment in gravity from a wide variety of schools of thought. She continued to follow her early interest in osteopathic manipulation and attended at least one class with William Sutherland, the originator of cranial osteopathy. She maintained a long friendship with the cranial osteopath Isabel Biddle, as well as attended regular informal studies with a blind osteopath who lived down the street while she was raising her kids. She studied Physiosynthesis, a system of exercise intended to improve biomechanics, with its inventor, osteopath Amy Cochran, DO. She also studied the works of osteopaths Kenneth Little and John Wrenham. 


“In addition to the fundamental osteopathic notions that optimizing human   biomechanics confers broad health benefits and that restoring motility to the joints would improve fluid flow through the body, thus promoting “natural healing,” Rolf also absorbed the insight that the myofascial network—“the organ of form”—was a key determinant of bony alignment, posture, and movement.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162380/#B13


Dr. Rolf also studied the possibilities for improved health that movement practices could offer, so in addition to becoming familiar with the work of FM Alexander (founder of the Alexander Technique), she was a long term practitioner of hatha yoga, studying under tantric yogi Pierre Bernard (Peter Coon aka The Big Oom). She also had an interest in metaphysics, and in the 1950’s while working in England, she took the opportunity to study the work of the Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff.


Dr. Rolf also had an interest in better understanding how we perceive the world around us, which led her to study Alfred Korzybski's theory of General Semantics. He believed that linear cause and effect models are inadequate to explain living phenomena. He coined the phrase “the map is not the territory”, meaning that theory is no substitute for what we learn through experience. He also taught that the colloidal components of connective tissue may be the medium through which local stimuli might be transmitted more globally, which Dr. Rolf expanded upon with her understanding that fascia can be the medium of change in our entire bodies.


She studied the work of Buckminster Fuller, learning about tensegrity and applying it to human bodies and was also familiar with the somatic psychotherapy of Wilhelm Reich, who taught that “chronic patterns of muscular tension can store negative emotions, thereby perpetuating the influence of those emotions on the individual personality.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162380/#B13


Dr. Rolf was interested in what science could offer to explain the results she and other structural integrators were seeing with their clients. To this end, in 1977, she collaborated with the Movement Lab at UCLA where Dr. Valerie Hunt studied students who were going through a Rolfing Basic 10 series. It was found that after their series, their movements got much easier and more efficient. There was also less “background noise or static at body areas.” 


She was also interested in studying the psychological and energetic effects of SI and had renowned clairvoyant, Rosalyn Bruyere, come to the Movement Lab to observe the clients.


While she observed, the clients were also hooked up to bio electric sensors and Kirlian photography, and Rosalyn Bruyere, the sensors and the photography all showed that changes happened: colors and energy of the chakras changed, and they developed a more coherent energy field around the clients.


https://bodymindspiritguide.com/ida-rolfs-vision-secret-life-fascia-part-2/

Since those early studies, Dr. Rolf’s early insight as to the importance of fascia has become widely accepted. Fascia is now recognized as a pivotal player in the health and well being of many, if not all, systems in the body. For more information, here are links to the the Rolf Research Foundation: https://rolfresearchfoundation.org/resources/structural-integration-library


And the Fascial Research Society:

https://www.fasciaresearchsociety.org/about_fascia.php

As a result of the myriad fields of studies and interests Dr. Rolf pursued, starting in the 1950s she developed the Basic 10 Series Rolfing protocol as a way to get the greatest sustainable change in her clients. Over time as she refined her touch and assessments in working with fascia, she deepened her understanding of the role gravity plays in the aches, pains, injuries, and strains of aging that most people experience.


She hoped to find committed students who would take on her vision among osteopaths, MDs or chiropractors, but they saw her work as tools to be added to their existing toolkit rather than as a fundamentally different paradigm that prioritized the importance of gravity and fascia. In her words, “We are after nothing less than the integration of the human body with the gravitational field of the earth.” 


She taught her first official class in the U.S. in 1958 in Los Angeles and in 1964 was invited by Fritz Perls to teach at the Esalen Institute. It was at Esalen through the 1960s that she found students who were the most receptive to her vision of integration and transformation by improving our relationship to gravity through the medium of the fascia. It became clear to her in the early 1970s that it was time to create her own school. After several psychics told her Boulder would be a great place to do this, she went there with some of her instructors and started the Guild for Structural Integration. 

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Dr. Rolf died in 1979 at the age of 82 of rectal cancer. She frequently stated that she would rather be remembered for her life’s work than for her life’s story, and in her honor, Structural Integrators all over the world celebrate her birthday by holding free children's clinics. As of 2023, there are 12 schools of Structural Integration worldwide who are accredited through the International Association of Structural Integrators and thousands of practitioners carrying on her work.


In addition to Dr. Rolf’s book, Rolfing: Reestablishing the Natural Alignment and Structural Integration of the Human Body for Vitality and Well-Being, many other books have been written about Rolfing, as well as collections of her lectures and also personal remembrances from her early students and teachers.

 Quotes from Dr. Rolf 


“This is the gospel of Rolfing: When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.”


“… no situation exists in a human which a psychologist would diagnose as a feeling of insecurity or inadequacy unless it is accompanied by a physical situation which bears witness to the fact that the gravitational support is inadequate.”


“Do not fix bodies. Put order into the body and the body will fix itself.”


“We are not truly upright, we are only on our way to being upright. This is a metaphysical consideration. One of the jobs of a Rolfer is to speed that process along. We want to get a man out of the place where gravity is his enemy. We want to get him into the place where gravity reinforces him and is a friend, a nourishing force.”


“Rolfers make a life study of relating bodies and their fields to the earth and its gravity field, and we so organize the body that the gravity field can reinforce the body’s energy field. This is our primary concept.”


“I am dealing with problems in the body where there is never just one cause. I’d like you to have more reality on the circular processes that do not act in the body but that are the body. The body process is not linear, it is circular; always, it is circular. One thing goes awry, and its effects go on and on and on and on. A body is a web, connecting everything with everything else.”


“Some individuals may perceive their losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in their back, others as the unflattering contour of their body, others as constant fatigue, yet others as an unrelentingly threatening environment. Those over forty may call it old age. And yet all these signals may be pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored: they are off balance, they are at war with gravity.”


“This is an important concept: that practitioners are integrating something; we are not restoring something. This puts us in a different class from all other therapists that I know of. It takes us out of the domain designated by the word “therapy,” and puts us in the domain designated by the word “education.” It puts our thinking into education: how can we use these ideas behind Structural Integration? How do we put a body together so that it’s a unit, an acting, energy-efficient unit? One of the differences between Structural Integration Practitioners and practitioners of medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, etc., is that the latter are all relieving symptoms. They make no effort to put together elements into a more efficient energy system.”


“It is very easy to change a body from one random pattern to another. It is not so easy to put order into a body.”


“Knowledge of anatomy is our primary way of conveying what we see and do, so others may learn. Total mastery of anatomy does not allow you to see. See the body first, then go to the anatomy book.”


“The basic structure of a body is the fascial structuring, not the bones. The bones act as spanners for the muscles, and they hold the plastic sheets of fascia in position so they can function.”


"Structure is the subject and substance of this book. It is a road map for a way of seeing which has led to the technique called Structural Integration. The system, like its name, underscores the need for patterned order in the human body. It is a physical method for producing better human functioning by aligning units of the body. Invariably, in matter, appropriate order is more economical of energy than disorder. Therefore, as man becomes aware of himself as a more patterned structure, he feels himself revitalized. He no longer wastes his vital capital. Comprehensive recognition of human structure includes not only the physical person but also, eventually, the psychological personality—behavior, attitudes, and capacities. A structural pattern exists; work in Structural Integration is not so much creating this pattern as uncovering it.”

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