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 Frequently Asked Questions
DOES ROLFING RELIEVE STRESS?
When people come to Rolfers, they frequently complain about their
high level of stress and how it affects their everyday life. They
are seeking some means of reducing their stress. Often, they have
explored allopathic means such as muscle relaxants, painkillers,
liniments, balms and other topical treatments. When these treatments
fail to achieve a satisfactory level of improvement, those still
suffering seek other forms of relief such as exercise, meditation,
yoga, visualization and chanting. They may also seek a myofascial
(neuromuscular) solution and start receiving regular massages or
some other similar soft tissue therapy. In many cases, these therapies
are good at providing transitory relief of the physical causes of
chronic stress. Those seeking a more permanent solution to the problem
are more likely to have success with Rolfing.
What most potential clients fail to understand is that Rolfing
is not a method which focuses on stress reduction. What the Rolfing
method does is create a higher level of integration in the body,
balancing and educating the body and the psyche. As the body approaches
balance, it is more comfortable in the gravitational field. As the
body becomes more comfortable, physical and emotional stress diminish.
This chain of events is a more typical sequence of events as a body
changes during the Rolfing process. Ultimately, however, the results
as experienced by the client are more important than the process.
All clients experience benefits from Rolfing, an important one for
most is that they are less stressed and more at ease in their bodies.
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WHAT ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ROLFING?
It is impossible to touch the physical body without touching the
emotional body. All individuals develop compensatory patterns, ways
of holding and defending against a variety of physical and emotional
insults to form. During the Rolfing process, we offer options and
new modes of physical expression. Resultant emotional changes are
quite common. There is a well-documented "cellular memory,"
a memory of experience stored in the tissue at a cellular level.
Touching the body will frequently help the client access these physical
memories encoded in the fascial (or connective tissue) matrix. Anecdotal
reports of major cathartic releases during Rolfing sessions are
very common and often act as an impediment to some individuals entering
into the Rolfing process. For most Rolfers, this catharsis is not
something consciously desired nor intended. Rather, the person is
approached with reverence and compassion. When emotionally charged
areas of the body have been identified by the client, or intuited
by the practitioner, they are normally accessed slowly and with
constant communication between the Rolfer and the client. Sometimes,
however, repressed memories or experiences will arise for which
the client and the Rolfer may not have any advanced warning. In
this situation, the goal of the Rolfer is to provide a safe container
for the release and take the requisite time to integrate the experience
into the physical and emotional body in a way that promotes maximum
resolution and minimal trauma to the system. Rolfer's are trained
to ease a client through such an experience but not always trained
as therapists. The nature and quality of accessing and resolution
of emotionally charged material may be the most profound portion
of a client's Rolfing experience. However, the client should not
enter the Rolfing process anticipation such a major release but
should remember that a Rolfer's actual expertise is integrating
and balancing connective tissue. The emotional component, as attractive
or dreaded as it may be, remains an ancillary aspect of the Rolfing
process and not its primary intention.
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HOW DOES ROLFING WORK?
Rolfing strives to align and balance the body’s components until the entire system is a smoothly functioning coordinated whole. For example, the legs are aligned to the hips, shoulders to rib cage, the body is positioned over the feet, and then all of these joints and related tissue is integrated to one another. A few of the many benefits people experience are reduced pain, an enhanced sense of body awareness, and improved posture.
These wonderful transformations are possible because Rolfing addresses the body’s internal system of flexible support, otherwise known as fascia. This amazing substance surrounds ever muscle fiber, encases all joints and even has a role in the nervous system. Think of the fascial system as an intricate internal guide wire network for the body. And if one set of support wires becomes tight or out of place, the excess tension may appear as nagging joint pain, muscle soreness, or a postural shift.
To correct internal misalignments, a Rolfing practitioner uses mild, direct pressure to melt or release facial holdings and allow the body to find health through the reestablishment of balance. It is currently believed that the slow, deep strokes of Rolfing stimulate intra-fascial mechanoreceptors (sensory neurons of the muscle nerve), which in turn triggers the nervous system to reduce the tension of the related muscles and fascia.
Put another way, Rolfing allows the brain and nervous system to “re-boot” areas of the body that are receiving too much electrical stimulation (chronically tight or sore muscles). And once a healthy level of muscle contraction is established, someone’s entire structure is free to express a pain free from.
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WHAT IS THE ROLFING TEN
SERIES?
The hallmark of Rolfing Structural Integration is a standardized “recipe” known as the Ten Series, the goal of which is to systematically balance and optimize both the structure (shape) and function (movement) of the entire body over the course of ten Rolfing sessions.
Each session focuses on freeing restrictions or holdings trapped in a particular region of the body. A practitioner also maintains a holistic view of the client’s entire system during each session, thus ensuring the transformational process evolves in a comfortable and harmonious way.
The Ten Series can be divided into three distinct units.
Sessions 1-3: Called the "sleeve” sessions, numbers one through three strive to loosen and balance surface layers of connective tissue. Specifically, the first session is devoted to enhancing the quality of breath with work on the arms, ribcage and diaphragm. Opening is also started along the upper leg, hamstrings, neck and spine. The second session helps give the body a stable foundation by balancing the foot and muscles of the lower leg. Number three typically involves a “side view” for an understanding of how the head, shoulder girdle, and hips are positionaly related to one another when standing under the influence of gravity. Then, the body is addressed within the context of this new vision.
Sessions 4-7: Four through seven are referred to as “core” sessions and examine terrain found between the bottom of the pelvis and top of the head. The idea of core also includes the deep tissue of the legs for its role in support. Session four begins this journey, its territory extends from the inside arch of the foot and up the leg, to the bottom of the pelvis. The fifth session is concerned with balancing surface and deep abdominal muscles to the curve of the back. Number six seeks to enlist more support and moment from the legs, pelvis and lower back, while the seventh session turns its sole attention to the neck and head.
Session 8-10: “Integration” is emphasized throughout the remaining three sessions, as eight, nine and ten provide an opportunity for the practitioner to blend previously established advancements, and ones yet to be made, into the body in a way that encourages smooth movement and natural coordination. During sessions eight and nine, the practitioner is free to decide how best to achieve this integration, as the protocol is unique for each individual. The tenth and final session is also one of integration, but more importantly, serves to inspire a sense of order and balance. Once completed, the wisdom of the Rolfing Ten Series will drive and support the body with health for years to come.
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WHAT ARE SOME BOOKS I CAN
READ TO LEARN ABOUT ROLFING?
Selected Annotated Bibliography on Rolfing:
Anson, Briah. Rolfing: Stories of Personal
Empowerment (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Press, 1998). Inspiring
and insightful accounts of the Rolfing experience as reported by
numerous former Rolfing clients.
Bond, Mary. Balancing Your Body: A
Self-Help Approach to Rolfing to Balancing the Body (Rochester,
VT: Healing Arts Press, 1993).
Cottingham, John T. Healing Through Touch (Boulder, CO, The Rolf Institute, 1985). Exploration of methods of healing going back 5,000 years.
Fahey, Brian W., PhD. The Power of
Balance: A Rolfing View of Health (Portland, OR: Metamorphous
Press, 1995). A very accessible summary of the basic Rolfing theory
and movement.
Feitus, Rosemary, ed. Remembering Ida Rolf, (Berkeley, CA, North Atlantic Books, 1996). Collection of stories from people who knew Dr. Rolf.
Maitland, Jeffrey, PhD. Spacious Body:
Explorations in Somatic Ontology (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic
Books, 1995). Philosophical consideration of embodiment, Buddhism
and the Rolfing experience.
Ida Rolf Talks about Rolfing and Physical Reality.
Rosemary Feitis, ed. . Reprinted ed.
(Boulder, CO, The Rolf Institute, 1978). A collection of quotes
on bodywork and a variety of topics of interest to Dr. Rolf.
Rolf, Ida. Rolfing: Reestablishing
the Natural Alignment and Structural Integration of the Human Body
for Vitality and Well-being. Reprinted Ed. (Rochester, VT:
Healing Arts Press, 1989). The bible of Rolfing completed late in
Dr. Rolf's long career.
Schultz, R. Louis, PhD. Out in the
Open: The Complete Male Pelvis (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic
Books, 1999). A unique look at the structural and psychological
issues involved in the male pelvis from a Rolfing perspective.
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DOES ROLFING HURT?
When most people think of Rolfing, one of the first words that come
to their mind is pain. Often, this perception is based on anecdotal
accounts of sessions performed during Rolfing's infancy, when it
tended to be often a less subtle and more intense discipline, frequently
linked to popular emotionally intense types of therapies in the
late 1960's and early 70's. Part of this reputation can be attributed
to an often-quoted complaint of Dr. Rolf during her training classes
that her students failed to work deep enough. Apparently, many assumed
that what she meant was that they needed to work harder and deeper.
However, we now realize that deep work is not necessarily synonymous
with physical intensity.
Several factors determine the level of comfort or discomfort during
a Rolfing session. One is the degree of trauma in the system; other
is how long fascial distortions have been in the client's body.
Long-term distortions create more tenacious and widespread compensatory
patterns, which may require more sustained pressure to release.
Another factor is the degree of emotional charge associated with
an area of injury or strain. Dr. Rolf made the point that during
the therapeutic process, emotional pain is often experienced when
deeply held emotional traumas and memories are brought to surface
and processed. Similarly, she reasoned, deep touch can result in
transitory experience of pain that is healing and transformative.
However, there is actually a fair amount of variation in the level
of intensity. Various practitioners feel it is appropriate to affect
the necessary level of change. It is recommended that the potential
Rolfing client speak to all Rolfers about this issue and try the
various work of practitioners, judging both the level of intensity
and the quality of the results you experience. A general guideline
for the vast majority of Rolfing clients is that the intensity experienced
is transitory, moving quickly form brief intensity to a decrease
in sensation and finally to an easing of long-standing holdings
which can prove both profound and transformative. To paraphrase
Peter Schwind, a Certified Advanced Rolfer from Munich, Germany,
"The art of Rolfing is to master a wide range of styles of
touch and know when a lighter and more intense touch is required."
Continuous communication with the client and pacing the level of
intensity are essential, profoundly effecting the client's reaction
to the transitory discomfort when seriously restricted tissue is
softened, discriminated and reintegrated.
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WHAT IS ROLFING MOVEMENT?
Towards the end of her life, Dr. Rolf felt that a movement training
component would be a valuable adjunct to her structural ten-series.
In her lifetime, Dr. Rolf collaborated with first Dorothy Nolte
and then Judith Aston to develop this aspect of Rolfing. Since Dr.
Rolf's death in 1979, others, including Jane Harrington, Heather
Starsong, Gael Ohlgren and Vivian Jaye have elevated this less familiar
style of Rolfing to a level of high art with tremendous transformative
value. Currently, approximately 25% of all Rolfers have been certified
in Rolf Movement and employ their training as a way of enriching
their work. The purpose of Rolfing Movement is to work with the
client to help her identify movement patterns that promote strain
and asymmetry in her system. Once the patterns are identified, the
Rolf Movement practitioner does not seek to change those patterns,
which have served the client well, but rather to offer more economical
solutions which promote greater balance and efficiency in the gravitational
field.
Like the structural ten-series, Rolfing Movement is taught as a
sequence of sessions devoted to specific structural and movement
themes. In a classic movement series, the first session is devoted
to exploring breathing patterns and using the breath to promote
ease and release holdings in the ribs, lungs and respiratory diaphragm.
Subsequent sessions address movement patterns in the foot, ankle
and knee joints, the hip joint, the arms and head and neck. These
sessions are normally repeated to access deeper holding patterns
and achieve higher levels of order just as structural Rolfers return
to the extremities and upper and lower girdles (the shoulder and
pelvis) in the latter sessions to more fully integrate structure
and function. Rolfing movement can be explored by clients who have
completed a structural series and can serve equally well as an autonomous
tool for achieving higher levels of self-awareness and coherence.
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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
MASSAGE AND ROLFING?
One of the most common misconceptions about Rolfing is that it is
a nothing more than a type of very deep massage. There are many
varieties of massage, which are particularly effective for loosening
tight tissue, reducing stress, detoxing the body and an increased
feeling of relaxation and well-being. Since these benefits are also
a byproduct of Rolfing, the general public experience confusion
as to the precise difference between our work and the proliferation
of effective touch modalities currently available. Ray McCall, an
Advanced Rolfer in Boulder and former student of Dr. Rolf, once
said that what Rolfers do can be summed up in three words: palpation,
discrimination and integration. We palpate, or touch the tissue,
feeling for imbalances in tissue texture, quality and temperature
to determine where we need to work. We discriminate, or separate
fascial layers that adhere and muscles that have been pulled out
of position by strain or injury. Finally, we integrate the body,
relating its segments in an improved relationship, bringing physical
balance in the gravitational field. Other soft-tissue manipulation
methods, including massage, are quite good at the first two, but
do not balance the body in gravity. As Dr. Rolf used to say: "Anyone
can take a body apart, very few know how to put it back together."
The true genius of her method is the art and science of reshaping
and reorganizing human structure according to clearly defined principles
in a systematic and consistent manner.
In addition to our skill as structural integrators, we are also
educators, a point Dr. Rolf stressed frequently in her training
classes. The role of teacher is something every Rolfer takes seriously.
In each session, Rolfers seek to impart insights to clients to increase
their awareness and understanding, to help the client make the work
we do their own. Our job is to make ourselves obsolete, by empowering
our clients to take charge of their own physical and emotional health.
Influencing the structural evolution of man on a global level was
Dr. Rolf's fondest dream.
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WHO SHOULD CONSIDER ROLFING?
According to Dr. Rolf, all bodies have some degree of disorder and
compensation in their structure; therefore she believed that everyone
should receive Rolfing structural integration. In fact, in her global
vision, she imagined a more evolved and structurally efficient human
species as a result of Rolfing. However, we realize that most potential
clients need more compelling reasons to undergo this powerful transformative
sequence of session. It is possible to divide those who come to
Rolfing into two groups.
The first and largest group who should consider Rolfing are those
who have a history of injury or trauma and notice that the effects
of their often minor injuries are beginning to interfere with their
everyday lives. In many cases these individuals have tried traditional
medical treatments or exercise to reduce or counteract the long-term
effects of old injuries with varying degrees of success. This group
might include former and current athletes, musicians, performers
or those engaged in physically demanding jobs who choose not to
accept the notion that the quality of their lives must suffer simply
because they are aging. In fact, all adults of any age who suffer
from any limiting physical discomfort can absolutely benefit from
Rolfing as long as the pains themselves are in the neuromuscular
system and not signs of a nervous disorder or a deeper pathology.
For most of us, Rolfing combined with appropriate movement therapy
and exercise offers a long-lasting solution for connective tissue
problems.
The second group are those who are on a spiritual path and who
find that their physical limitations prevent them from attaining
a higher level of spiritual or emotional peace. Frequently, many
on this path assume that the body is something to be transcended
rather than something to be honored and loved. For these individuals,
Rolfing can serve as an educational resource which allows them a
more intimate and comfortable relationship with their physical body,
which in turn allows a greater ability to experience greater serenity.
Interestingly enough, as the body transforms physically it transforms
on other planes as well, so that, while Rolfing's primary focus
is the muscular and connective tissue system, it frequently has
an even more dramatic effect in seemingly unrelated areas such as
the spiritual. Exactly how this happens is still a matter of much
debate and speculation. However, the results of the work were of
much greater importance than the how or why for Dr. Rolf. The genius
of Rolfing is that it can effect so many people in so many ways
and continue to reveal new possibilities for such a rich diversity
of individuals.
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IS ROLFING HELPFUL TO MUSICIANS?
Musicians often face a number of unique physical challenges brought
on by years of diligent practice and performing. Sometimes, even
the best musicians develop habits which lead to chronic pain, mostly
in their hands and wrists, forearms, neck and shoulders and lower
back. Rolfing and Rolfing movement can help in a number of ways.
Physical adaptations to a musician's chosen instrument, including
the voice, which often lead to discomfort and imbalance, are normalized
in a traditional Rolfing ten series. The Rolfing 10 series can be
specifically adapted to address such patterns as carpal tunnel,
chronic muscle imbalances and long-term effects of odd stances and
body position caused by the exigencies of playing a given instrument.
Musicians who have experienced the basic series have consistently
noticed profound changes in their level of physical comfort, energy
level and internal awareness. This increased freedom of movement
noticeably impacts the performer's pleasure in performing and often
leads to greater creative abilities. Another tool many Rolfers employ
is movement work. Those trained in this modality observe you in
the act of playing and call your attention to subtle ways you hold
or translate force through your body which reinforce strain patterns
that interfere with your performance. The movement teacher's intention
is not to change how you play or to inhibit your unique approach
to the instrument. Rather, they help you find creative alternatives
to stressful patterns in your current mode of performance.
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IS ROLFING SUITABLE FOR
CHILDREN?
A common misunderstanding about Rolfing is that its main value is
in correcting long-standing structural patterns. Rolfing can also
serve as a prophylactic measure to reverse potentially problematic
patterns in the young. One of the things children learn from watching
us is how we carry ourselves and they will naturally imitate their
parent's language, movement and other modes of expression. These
patterns can be seen in family photos and are as much a part of
a child's makeup as his hair color, height and predisposition to
certain hereditary illnesses. Rolfing can begin to correct patterns,
such as hip imbalances which may limit the child's development and
mobility.
Also, when children are injured from falls or minor accidents,
they may seem to be fine on the outside since the cut or bruise
healed. However, as Dr. Rolf pointed out, they are not really the
same. Minor changes have taken place in the connective tissue, in
their joints and in the muscles that were injured. Small tears or
pulls cause the tissue to thicken. Soon, muscles begin to adhere
to each other and are less able to function as discrete entities.
These changes may express themselves as a slight limp, lower energy,
a decrease in range of motion or strength. Early intervention by
a Rolfer aware of the unique needs of children can make a profound
difference in a child's awareness, comfort level and self-esteem.
The importance of receiving loving supportive touch in and of itself
is of immeasurable value to a developing child. Rolfing, however,
can accomplish so much more, creating palpable change in the child's
connective tissue matrix. We have also found that Rolfing adolescents
during and after puberty, a time of great insecurity and emotional
turmoil for most of us, besides the obvious structural benefits,
frequently has a profound effect on the developing child's awareness
and comfort in his or her rapidly changing body and mind.
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More About Rolfing:
How Rolfing Works |
History |
Rolf Movement |
Rolfing's Approach to... |
Rolfing and Massage |
Rolfing and Yoga |
Rolfing Research |
About Rolfing FAQs |
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Become a Rolfer
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