Rolfing® Structural Integration

is a form of bodywork that focuses on the interconnectivity of the body and seeks to bring one’s body into the best alignment.

Most of us experience pain or discomfort in our bodies, either chronically or from time to time. Sometimes it starts with an injury. Often we do the same actions over and over again, putting strain on specific parts of our bodies and underutilizing others. We also exhibit certain postures based on how we feel about ourselves and the world around us.

Considering all the life experiences that shaped our bodies into their current expression, Rolfers™ use hands-on contact with the multiple layers of inter-connective tissue (aka Fascia) to introduce new freedom and ease into our clients structures.

We help align our clients’ bodies in gravity and by-so-doing our clients may be able to move more easily, feel less tense, experience less/no more pain, look taller, and at times even need a bigger sized shoe.

One aspect of Rolfing SI that speaks to its effectiveness (especially if you go for the Rolfing ten-series™) is its limited nature. Rolfing SI is not an every week for the rest of your life approach; we seek to inspire and create change, which often resolves the original issue or complaint. That said, when we are in discomfort due to a habitual movement, like sitting at a desk typing or lifting up our arms using scissors as a hairdresser, one would need to also integrate new postures and body awareness to not slip back into the same patterns that caused the discomfort in the first place.

Fascia contains 6-10 times more nerve endings than muscles and is largely responsible for holding our body’s shape. When you manipulate the body’s fascia, you can create lasting change.

The 10-series™ overview

As a way to pass Dr. Ida Rolf’s insights and approach to others, she refined and formulated her work into what is now called the 10-series.

The 10-series is an ordered and systematic progression of 10 Rolfing® sessions (hours) that address different areas and functions of the body. One can separate these 10 sessions into 3 groups: Sessions 1-3 are the adaptive sessions, sessions 4-7 are the core, and sessions 8-10 are integrative. The order of these sessions was thoughtfully arranged to start at the surface and introduce change, dive deep into the core, and finish up by integrating all the “pieces” into a cohesive whole.

Layers of meaning, intention, and insight are embodied within the 10-series and at the end of my training to become a Rolfer™, my professors impressed that I would continue to learn more than they could teach in our allotted time together through simply offering the 10-series.

The progression of sessions follows as such: Session 1: the diaphram. Session 2: the foot and lower leg. Session 3: the side line of the body. Session 4: the mid-line of the legs. Session 5: the deep core and psoas. Session 6: the back line. Session 7: head and neck. Sessions 8 & 9: integrating upper or lower body. Session 10: tying it all together through the superficial fascia.

I highly recommend the 10-series to any potential client wanting to experience the genius of Dr. Ida Rolf’s work.

Why Get the 10-series™?

As I mentioned previously, receiving Rolfing® SI doesn’t have to be a once a week for the rest of your life experience. Ideally you get the 10-series, experience change, and then go live your life with more freedom and alignment in your structure.

How can this be??… two things come to the top of my head: 1) the quality of contact performed in a Rolfing session and 2) how the progression of the 10-series allows your body to make and integrate change.

I’ll start by explaining the type of contact: slow, steady pressure aimed at the fascia. This slow moving pressure allows the fascia to make changes in its tension patterns. Fascia research is ongoing, but my current understanding points toward the nervous system and its connection to fascia. Without trying to write a scientific paper right now, I’ll describe my understanding in layman’s terms.

Fundamentally, we want to feel safe and our nervous systems are constantly assessing whether we are safe or not. Fascia, being the highly innervated connective tissue that connects every part of our bodies, is constantly responding to input from the central nervous system (CNS) as well as sending that information back up the chain.

When we do the same movement over and over again, we get better and better at performing that motion. Our bodies might even respond to the stimulus by laying down more collagen fibers in the fascia, helping to make that line of tension stronger and more stream lined to that particular motion. If we, as bodyworkers or massage therapists, came in and tried to quickly lengthen that line of tension by rubbing it vigorously we would most likely meet resistance. Our client’s nervous system would not register safety and would continue to hold the tension that it deemed necessary to complete life’s tasks in the first place.

Conversely, steady pressure that moves at the rate in which the fascia responds (which is typically quite slow) does register to the CNS as safe. This type of contact gives the nervous system time to respond to the new stimulus and adjust how much tension the operating system says to hold in any given area. Basically it’s like we are saying to the CNS “here, look. You don’t have to stay clenched and short. It’s OK for you to lengthen and try something new.”

As complex human beings, our nervous systems don’t only take cues from physical stimuli, but to the degree in which physical contact does initiate change and increase awareness, the Rolfing® contact does just that.

In addition to thoughtful contact, the sessions throughout the 10-series build upon each other. Just like you wouldn’t start framing a house before pouring the foundation, we don’t just address the psoas before introducing more adaptability and balance in the body’s foundation either. To do so could cause the body to feel unstable and any change that happened unsustainable. The body then would most likely go right back to the way it was before.

The progression of the 10-series sets our bodies up to make and integrate lasting change.

addressing the Rumors

Rolfing® Structural Integration has a reputation for being painful, and it earned it. Early practitioners were taught to apply A LOT of pressure and, as I’m sure your aware, some areas of the body are pretty sensitive to pressure (like the calves).

We also are willing to make contact with places other massage practices say to avoid. For example, Session 4 indirectly works with the pelvic floor by making contact with the hamstring and adductor attachment sites of the ischial tuberosity (aka sits bones) and inferior pubic ramus respectively.

These two aspects of Rolfing® SI have created some buzz among the people who have heard of it.

First I will speak to the pressure used in a Rolfing session; Different practitioners utilize different amounts of pressure. In light of research discoveries on fascia in recent years, the Rolf Institute™ has adjusted the recommended pressure to use during a session. I was taught to listen to my client and use the amount of pressure it takes to feel the fascia moving, which often registers to the client as a “hurts so good” sensation. That said, some practitioners got a lot of benefit out of receiving the heavy-handed work given from early practitioners and thus also give heavy-handed sessions.

Different strokes for different folks. As we Rolfers™ grow in number, I suggest you find the practitioner whose contact works for you. Do keep in mind that sometimes more mechanical pressure exerted on the fascia is what is needed to for it to change; the sensation of the pressure may be confronting but it does not need to be unbearable.

As for where we make contact on the body, we were trained in anatomy and how to safely and respectfully address these sensitive areas. Specifically I am referring to the adductors, ischial tuberosity (sits bones), inferior pubic ramus (specifically the end closest to the ischial tuberosity), pubic symphysis, the sacrotuberous and sacrospinous ligaments, the psoas and iliacus muscles, the anterior neck, and inside of the mouth and nose. To be clear, we do not work directly on the pelvic floor.

Aware that different life experiences create all sorts of dispositions, I always communicate with my clients about the territory of the up-coming sessions and omit working on anything that will make my clients feel uncomfortable. Even still, It’s been my experience that my clients feel safe and do not refuse any aspect of the Rolfing 10-series™, even if having my (gloved) finger in their nose wasn’t their first thought of what they’d like me to work on.