About Catherine

Catherine Taye Slattery

Certified Rolfer® and Rolf Movement Practitioner

Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Experience and Approach

I’m a Rolfer with over 25 years of experience working with the accumulation of pain, tension, injury, stress, bracing, and compensation in people’s bodies. My training and experience give me refined soft-tissue skills—the ability to locate, assess, and mobilize long-held patterns of tension in the body—as well as expertise in working with how different parts of the body relate to and organize around one another as patterns.

Clients often describe my work as deeply satisfying. Many express relief that long-held, important tensions are finally receiving the contact they’ve needed, and relief in experiencing real shifts in longstanding patterns. They enjoy their sessions and look forward to being on my table.

Through years of working with people’s soft-tissue limitations, I came to see that in some cases it’s also important to work more directly with the nervous system—the part of the body that is actively generating tension in the first place. My training in Somatic Experiencing supports this dimension of my work.

My Path to Rolfing

I first came to Rolfing over 30 years ago for the same reason many of my clients do: I didn’t feel good in my body. I lived with headaches, TMJ tension, knee pain, and chronic back discomfort. Yoga increased my awareness, yet all I seemed to find was more tension. I longed for ease, flexibility, and relief.

A series of Rolfing sessions helped resolve my physical pain and, unexpectedly, made me a much better dancer. Even more importantly, it transformed my relationship with my body. Before Rolfing, I consistently—though unknowingly—ignored and overrode my body’s needs. Rolfing was the beginning of a responsive and trusting relationship with my body.

Movement and Influences

Movement has always been central to my life and my work, and I’m especially interested in how it supports both the structural integrity of the body and the lived experience of being human. I love dance and have studied many forms, with modern dance as my deepest passion.

Other influences include Gaga Movement Language and attachment-based horsemanship with Duey Freeman, as well as a range of body-based practices—including meditation, yoga, and conscious or therapeutic movement—that view the body, injury, emotional life, relationships, illness, and personal patterns as interconnected parts of the healing process.

Training

I hold a bachelor’s degree in life sciences and fine arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. I trained at the Rolf Institute in Colorado and Brazil, graduating as a Certified Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner in 2001, and completed Somatic Experiencing training in 2024. I continue learning through regular personal sessions, case consultations, and ongoing study in bodywork, movement, and nervous system work.