Rolfing is a transformational technology for bringing a person into whole body balance. What does that mean, whole body balance? From the time you are born, you are developing a vertical relationship with gravity, from rolling over, crawling, walking and running. Activities like having children, working at a job, hobbies, athletic endeavors, etc are also altering your body’s relationship to gravity.
Rolfing brings balance, resilience, adaptability and stability back into the world. Fascia is much like a slow moving river, developing its own tracks, eddies, and flows. The course of the river of your body can be brought back into its intended flow. Rolfing Structural Integration is the original school, founded by Dr. Ida P. Rolf, and the only school that certifies Rolfing practitioners.
Dr. Rolf referred to her work as “Structural Integration,” and her students gave it the name of “Rolfing”. The basis of the work is aligning one’s physical structure in gravity. This allows a person to be more easily supported, find more fluid movement, and gain more comfort and ease in daily activities and athletic endeavors.
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, restoring flexibility and alleviating pain.
“If you can imagine how it feels to live in a fluid, light, balanced body, free of pain, stiffness and chronic stress, at ease with yourself and Earth’s gravitational field, then you will understand the goals of Rolfing Structural Integration.” – Dr. Ida P. Rolf