Rolfing Therapy

Dr. Ida Rolf’s Legacy: The Birth and Global Expansion of Rolfing Structural Integration

Dr Ida Rolf was the founder of Rolfing Structural Integration®

Born in the Bronx in 1896, Rolf went on to earn a PhD in Biochemistry from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and work as a research scientist in New York.

While studying in Switzerland during the following years, Dr Rolf became increasingly dissatisfied with the limitations of the medicine of her time. Determined to find solution to her and her family’s health problems, she explored many forms of alternative healing including osteopathy, chiropractic, the Alexander Technique and yoga.

Her experiences led her to conclude that the body functions best when the bony segments are in proper alignment, and that lasting improvement and an overall sense of wellbeing could be brought about by taking into account the effects of gravity on our structure.

She brought these insights together in the system of structural integration which is now known as Rolfing. Founded after her death in 1979, the Rolfing Institute of Structural Integration has shared her work across the world.

Today, there are over 2000 certified Rolfers and Rolf Movement® Practitioners worldwide.

Enhancing Your Body’s Potential – The Transformative Journey of Rolfing Structural Integration®

Rolfing can greatly improve your body’s alignment, posture and capacity for movement by releasing accumulated tensions and strains through a 10-session process called ‘the recipe’.

Each session begins with a body reading to see how you habitually stand, walk, sit and move in everyday or sport activities and how you breathe. Treatment is a blend of hands-on manipulation and movement education.

The Rolfing practitioner is a partner in the healing/learning process. Rather than imposing their own ideas on an unaware recipient, a good Rolfer will bring the needed changes into awareness by discussing what is going on.

After the session, they might prescribe certain exercises to be done, which could simply be to notice certain changes in your bodily experience, or to be aware in such-and-such a way when performing certain movement. For example, to feel how your sit-bones support you when sitting at your desk. The benefits from Rolfing can thus include a far greater sense of one’s own body, the way we move and hold ourselves.

Those of us who have to stand or sit in one position for long periods in our jobs can be prone to Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI), also known as Upper Limb Work-Related Disorders. These can be very difficult to diagnose, let alone treat using conventional methods. Rolfing is one way that can be very effective in treating these types of problems.

If you feel you have “poor posture”, then you have already taken the first step – identifying the problem! Simply trying to sit up straight, as we’ve been told to do all our lives, doesn’t seem to help. If the fascia get “stuck” in one position instead of being flexible as they should be, this can result in chronic postural misalignment. It takes a trained eye to see which layers of fascia need work.

Perhaps you simply want to rediscover ease of movement. Moving our bodies easily and painlessly is really our birthright, and there’s no reason why we should give it up just because we are getting older. Those who rely on their physical performance to do their job or for a hobby will also readily appreciate the gains in mobility and awareness that can be had with Rolfing.

The ‘ten steps’ or ‘recipe’ is part of what makes Rolfing so different and effective.

Each hour-long session focuses on one aspect of the body and prepares it to move on to the next one. The ten steps gives practitioner and client a framework for covering all important areas of the body. After the ten steps, clients can continue to take Rolfing sessions on an ad-hoc basis to maintain healthy movement in the face of life’s pressures.

1) The first session aims to ‘free the breath’, creating space between the ribs and pelvis so that the body has the opportunity to breath optimally.

2) The second session is concerned with the use of the legs and feet and how to achieve maximum stability as we walk and stand.

3) The third session works on the sides of the body to integrate the ribcage, waist and back.

4) The fourth session is concerned with the inside legs and pelvic floor, beginning a phase of work which deals with the core of the body.

5) Session five works with the front of the body, freeing deeper pelvic and abdominal restrictions which can inhibit movement.

6) In session six we work on the spine to increase mobility and rotation and improve its relation with the pelvis and hamstrings.

7) The seventh session releases tensions in the shoulders, neck and skull to balance the head on the spine. By working on the mouth and nose, we also release tension in the face.

8) Session eight is devoted to work on the areas most resistant to integration with the whole body in either the upper body and arms or the lower body and legs.

9) Session nine continues the work of the previous session, helping to integrate the body and achieve its ideal posture and functioning.

10) The tenth session works on the whole body in an integrative way to bring together the learning and changes of the previous nine sessions.