Rolfing is a hands on process of realigning the body in gravity. Feeling high or low, balanced or not, can depend on how we are relating to our environment and to gravity.
Rolfing intends to free up old holding patterns in the tissue and in our selves, promoting balance, grace, freedom of movement, grounding, centredness. A core feeling of who and how we are.
Rolfing is as concerned with how people use their bodies as with their structural organisation to gravity. This philosophy reflects the commitment of Rolfing to view the human system as a whole.
How Rolfing Works
By freeing up the fascia, or connective tissue, the body begins to regain it’s natural movement, balance and harmony. Connective tissue is the stuff that holds us together. It binds muscles to bones, as tendons, bones to bones as ligaments. It forms the surface layers of organs and is wrapped around and invested through all the organs, tissues and muscles of the body.
Connective tissue also manages the strain we put through the body. As that strain is unbalanced, so the tissue thickens and shortens, bracing the body to handle the effects of overuse and trauma.
Rolfing works with the connective tissue to release those holding patterns, be it an old injury site, an often repeated strain as in RSI, or an emotional holding pattern like “the weight of the world on the shoulders”. By separating muscles that have become glued together, restoring natural joint range, and reeducating movement, the body comes back towards alignment in gravity.
The Origin of Rolfing
Rolfing is an original and scientifically validated system of body restructuring and movement education. It was developed over a lifetime of study and work by Dr Ida P Rolf, beginning in the 1920’s. That development is still under way through the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Ida Rolf
Rolfing was developed by Dr. Ida P.Rolf, who received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons/ Columbia Univerity in 1920. The rest of her 83 years were dedicated to improving the structure and function of the human body, and the training of qualified practitioners in her methods of structural integration.
The Basic series
The process of Rolfing takes place through a series of ten sessions of body work and somatic education. This series is aimed at manipulating the soft tissues of the body to release long term holding patterns in that tissue, thus bringing the body back into alignment with gravity.
Rolfers don’t work just with connective tissue, they work with the rhythms of respiration and other deeper rhythms of the body. They also educate the client to new ways of using their new found freedom.
The basic series of Rolfing begins by freeing the breath and beginning to balance the pelvis. From there the work progresses, simply put , from the ground up and from the surface in.
Each session of Rolfing builds on the previous session, and prepares the way for the work to come. The first seven sessions are aimed at removing strain and restoring appropriate balance and movement in specific areas of the body, the back the legs, shoulder girdle etc, while the last three integrate organise and align the whole body.
Scientific Findings
- A change to a more intuitive, holistic, receptive way of processing information and responding
- Increased right brain activity and expanded awareness
- Greater movement efficiency, feelings of wellbeing and less fatigue
- Improved neuromusculare organization
- Significant lowering of anxiety state, due to release of emotions linked to pain patterns in the body