Rolfing Structural Integration
Rolfing® Structural Integration is deeply effective hands-on soft tissue work and movement education. Through a series of sessions, we work with your body's inborn tendencies and your compensatory patterns around accidents, sports and work, repetitive movement, trauma, modern sedentary life, etc. In your Rolfing sessions, we'll work together to open, soften, lengthen and balance soft tissue restrictions throughout your body.
Every body has tremendous capacity for change. I feel it under my hands every day. I skillfully make contact, and bodies shift and change...hard places soften, dormant places engage, and the body experiences and organizes differently. Rolfing relies on this fundamental health and intelligence in the body, in everyone's body.
What are the results of Rolfing? You can expect to experience some combination of less pain, less tension, better posture, more flexibility, more body awareness, ease of movement, and more access to calm, clear, optimistic mental and emotional states.
Rolfing includes your whole body. You have a seamless web of connective tissue (fascia) throughout your body, and this web is an important part of your body's adaptions to the events and actions of your life. Trouble in a specific area is usually part of a pattern that involves the whole body. As a Rolfer, I work with the patterns of connectedness throughout your entire body.
Our bodies have great reasons for doing what they do. Bodies are constantly adapting. They cope with life's injuries, shocks and losses, with chairs and restrictive footwear, not enough movement, lots of screen time, and high everyday stress levels. Tension is one of your body's tools for support and protection, and your body uses it wisely. Bodies are brilliantly adaptive, and Rolfing works WITH your body's adaptive genius to help you find more comfort and functionality.
While we work toward more ease and comfort in your body, it's important to remember that our bodies haven't failed. They aren't "doing it wrong." Our bodies are wildly successful, even when pains and problems are present.
Rolfing includes your whole self. Rolfing helps connect you to yourself in a a very deep way, helping you digest and understand experiences, and align with your true needs and larger sense of purpose.
Some things that Rolfing isn't:
Rolfing isn't the last thing you will ever need to do. Lifelong, we all have the responsibility to actively prioritize and act to uphold the integrity of our bodies, with regular varied movement and ongoing self-care.
Rolfing is not a painful massage. I hesitate to introduce this, since many people haven't heard this about Rolfing. But occasionally someone will tell me that they put off coming in for a session because of worry about Rolfing being painful or rough. They are usually pleasantly surprised at how great it feels, and they wish they'd come in sooner.
So for people like this, I'll say: Rolfing does not need to be a painful experience. The reputation of Rolfing as painful stems from its early years. It was the 70's, intensity was in vogue, and people were trying to, as one early practitioner told me, "get as much done in an hour as Dr Rolf did". Every old timer I've talked to about this details a personal and collective journey of refinement around what actually helps people change.
Some bodies, or places in someone's body, may have more intense sensations when we make contact. That's not something to simply tolerate! This is something to skillfully work with. Some people come to bodywork with a sense that more pressure = more change, and that part of their job is to try and tolerate the maximum sensations possible. But we've learned that people's bodies change more, and the changes are more stable, when we give the body an experience that it likes and genuinely wants to receive.
Those words make sense to most people, but the "more is better" belief can run very deep. Not uncommonly, a (conscious or unconscious) preference to try and tolerate too much shows up on the table. It's cultural, I think, and also a measure of how much the person wants help or change. But real help comes from finding the right contact. Ida Rolf was a genius bodyworker not because she was forceful, but because she was a master at making the contact that was needed.
The texture of your tissue won't always tell me what it feels like for you, so your feedback is very important! You'll need to tell me if it starts to get intense, so I can refine what I'm doing. As a Rolfer, I am trying to help with the body's patterns of bracing and protectiveness. It doesn't make sense to give the body an experience to brace against and protect itself from.
I use a spectrum of touch that includes strong and steady contact, and I bring patience, sensitivity and curiosity to my touch. I am sincerely interested in what it's like for your body, in life, and during the session. I listen for the tissue response to my touch and make subtle adjustments to speed and pressure--and this makes a huge difference in how its feels. I can't emphasize this enough. If I do Rolfing to you without listening and adjusting, it won't feel good. But when I listen and respond to the tissue, and listen and respond the the feedback you give me, Rolfing feels wonderful! And is wonderfully effective.
Some details about receiving the work:
A traditional Rolfing experience is 10-15 sessions that thoroughly address your entire body. This works great for a lot of people, and is frequently how I work with people. Occasionally, people get what they need with handful of sessions, or even a single session. This is less common, but it does happen. And some people do more than 15 sessions. Many people get occasional tuneups after their initial series. and some even settle in to regular, ongoing sessions. So really, you can do as few or as many sessions as you wish, and we can figure this out as we work together. If you want a traditional Rolfing experience, think 10-15 sessions. Age, height, and medical/surgical complexity can increase the number of sessions someone needs in their initial series.
Every Rolfing session is different and the process is cumulative. Over time, the sessions can add up to create significant and lasting changes. You should be able to tell early on (within 1-3 sessions) if Rolfing is a good fit for you.
For most of each session you will be lying on the table, but sometimes you will be sitting or walking. During the session, I like to be able to see your body and have access to your skin. Women can wear bra and underwear or shorts and a tank top. Men should wear a comfortable pair of gym shorts.
Please reschedule if you have a cold or any other illness, even if mild. It is a strain on your body to receive a session when your immune system is working with an illness, and I don't want to get sick too!
