What is Rolfing®?
Named after its founder, Dr. Ida Rolf, a medical researcher and biochemist, Rolfing® Structural Integration is a form of manual therapy, much like Massage Therapy and Osteopathy. Its focus is on the reorganization of the connective tissues, called fascia, that permeate the entire body. Rolfing aims to reverse, or ease, the negative impacts that stress, injury, poor posture, bad habits and age have on our bodies.
The Rolfing Method uses slow, sustained contact which aim to initiate and influence a change in your tissue leading to reduced pain and improve function. It produces change that will make you “feel” different from within and move with more ease in your daily life. This ease and increase quality of coordination will be particularly noticeable in your physical activities. The Rolfing framework focuses on the organization and interconnectedness of the whole person, thus providing relief that is long lasting.
A concept at the heart of the Rolfing training is grasping the effect of gravity. Gravity exerts a constant influence on everything in our environment, including us. We forget that early on in our lives we all had to learn to balance and walk by learning to navigate gravity. We do it so naturally after a few years that we forget about gravity’s omnipresent pull. This balancing act is a constant interplay between bones, muscles, connective tissue and neural response. When this interplay is out of balance, the pull of gravity amplifies the imbalance. For example, poor posture or habits formed in compensation for past injuries, or surgeries can result in an accumulation of stresses and strains that exacerbate each other. This is often experienced as chronic pain. When the body loses its architectural integrity, it compensates and over-compensates so that responding to gravity’s downward drag becomes increasingly challenging for our bodies. The result is a thickening and shortening of the connective tissue (fascia) which leads to increased pain, rigidity in movement, and an overall depletion of energy. Fortunately, fascia is a highly plastic structure.
Rolfing helps reverse the effects of imbalance by gently lengthening and reshaping the fascia and by reminding the body of its capacity for balance and structural integrity. As we go along, patterns of strain are eased and the relationships between each structure in the body become more connected, coordinated and comfortable. The newfound sensation of spaciousness in your self will be expressed in the relaxed quality of your presence and the ease of your movement.
