Named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Rolfing® Structural Integration is a form of bodywork that reorganizes the connective tissues, called fascia, that permeate the entire body.

More than fifty years ago, Dr. Rolf recognized that the body is inherently a system of seamless networks of tissues rather than a collection of separate parts. These connective tissues surround, support and penetrate all of the muscles, bones, nerves and organs. Rolfing Structural Integration works on this web-like complex of connective tissues to release, realign and balance the whole body, thus potentially resolving discomfort, reducing compensations and alleviating pain. Rolfing® SI aims to restore flexibility, revitalize your energy and leave you feeling more comfortable in your body.

Essentially, the Rolfing process enables the body to regain the natural integrity of its form, thus enhancing postural efficiency and your freedom of movement.

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What are the benefits?

 

Rolfing® Structural Integration has the ability to dramatically alter a person's posture and structure. Rolfing® SI can potentially resolve discomfort, release tension and alleviate pain. Rolfing® SI aims to restore flexibility, revitalize your energy and leave you feeling more comfortable in your body. The genius of the work rests on Dr. Rolf’s insight that the body is more at ease and functions most effectively when its structure is balanced in gravity.

Athletes, dancers, children, business professionals, and people from all walks of life have benefited from Rolfing SI. People seek Rolfing® SI as a way to ease pain and chronic stress, and improve performance in their professional and daily activities. It's estimated that more than 1 million people have received Rolfing® work.

Research has demonstrated that Rolfing® SI creates a more efficient use of the muscles, allows the body to conserve energy, and creates more economical and refined patterns of movement. Research also shows that Rolfing® SI significantly reduces chronic stress and changes in the body structure. For example, a study showed that Rolfing® SI significantly reduced the spinal curvature of subjects with lordosis (sway back); it also showed that Rolfing® SI enhances neurological functioning.

The term "Rolfing" is the nickname that many clients and practitioners give this work. It is now a registered service mark in 38 countries.

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History of Ida Rolf & Rolfing® Structural Integration

 

In 1920, Ida Pauline Rolf received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. Despite the resistance she faced as a woman in the field of science, she furthered her knowledge of the body through research in organic chemistry at the Rockefeller Institute.

Driven to find solutions to her own health problems as well as those of her two sons, she spent many years studying and experimenting with different systems of healing and manipulation.

Throughout most of her life she was intrigued with and explored many forms of alternative healing including homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic and yoga. The notion that proper alignment, physiologic function and anatomical structure are related is the basis of many of these healing methods.

Dr. Rolf agreed that the body functions best when the bony segments are in proper alignment. She added her observations that lasting improvement in alignment and an overall sense of well-being required a closer look at the effects of gravity on our bodies. She believed that the imbalances in structure placed demands on the body's pervasive network of soft tissues: muscles, fascia, tendons and ligaments, thereby creating compensations throughout the body structure.

Dr. Rolf posed this fundamental question: "What conditions must be fulfilled in order for the human body-structure to be organized and integrated in gravity so that the whole person can function in the most optimal and economical way?"

Her life's work was devoted to this investigation which led to the system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education that we now call Rolfing®. In order to pass along her work to others and to make the education process accessible, she developed an expedient series of ten sessions, which came to be known as the Ten Series.

Dr. Rolf continues to be recognized as a pioneer and leader in soft tissue manipulation and movement education.

Since her death in 1979 at the age of 83, the Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration has continued to share her work by certifying Rolfers™ and Rolf Movement®Practitioners, supporting research, and building upon her inspiration. Today, there are more than 1,950 Rolfers™ and Rolf Movement Practitioners worldwide.

"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."

~ Ida P. Rolf

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* All text above here Courtesy of the Rolf Institute®

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What is the experience of "getting Rolfed?"

 

Rolfing® is a team process in which I am your coach and therapist. Your job is to become more aware of how you use your body and refine your relationship with it to create healthier habits that work more efficiently and easily without pain. My job is to coach you into this while simultaneously doing manual fascial work to help you release old patterns of movement that are no longer useful. The learning part happens naturally, and most people really just notice the fact that it feels great to have my hands working on them for an hour and a half. 

 

The manual work is done largely on a massage table through soft or partial clothing. It is gentle yet deep work to release stuck fascia, which is connective tissue that is around and within every part of your body. This includes muscles, nerves, organs, arteries, ligaments, tendons….. everything. Although I work very deeply, I follow the speed your body wants to let go and so it does not hurt. The point is not to make you forever dependent on me, but rather to have you need me less and less and eventually perhaps not at all. It is an empowering process that Dr. Ida Rolf developed as a way to help people “reach their full human potential.”

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A few of the many benefits people have experienced from Rolfing® are reduced pain, increased flexibility, an enhanced sense of body awareness, a feeling of being taller as they feel decompressed, improved posture, increased energy for daily life or athletics, and other parts of life falling into place more easily. ​

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Photo of Dr. Rolf courtesy of David Kirk-Campbell, Certified Advanced Rolfer®​

*Color photos by Heather Thamm