“In Structural Integration, we expect to give a cycle of 10 sessions. There is a reason for this. We are not dealing with local problems. We are not dealing with the kind of thing that you can say, ‘Well, I fixed that, that’s all.’ We are dealing with an intent to make a body more secure, more adequate within the field of gravity.
Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf, Founder of Rolfing® and Structural Integration
The Rolfing® 10-series
The Rolfing® 10-series was developed in the mid-twentieth century by the founder of Rolfing and Structural Integration, Dr. Ida P. Rolf. It has been codified and championed as a holistic and systematic approach for helping clients find more ease in their bodies.
Today, the 10-series is still considered the classical expression of Structural Integration, and is utilized by Rolfers and other SI practitioners around the world. On this page you'll find answers to some frequently asked questions about the 10-series, as well as a brief overview of the goals for each session.
10-Series FAQs
What is the Rolfing®
10-Series?
In the 10-series format, the practitioner takes the client through a systematic progression of 10 sessions, each designed to help the client cultivate adaptability, resiliency, and new resources for living comfortably in their body.
Each of the 10 sessions has functional and structural goals to help the client more fully experience their living body, and to find new and more comfortable ways to move and to be.
While the 10-series offers general guidelines about the region of the body to be addressed in a given session, the goals and individual considerations for each client inform how the practitioner approaches each scope of work.
What are the benefits of the 10-Series?
The main benefits inherent in the 10-series approach are (a) the structure provided by the functional goals of each session, and (b) the comprehensive nature of the full series.
Clients who move through the 10-series develop a deeper felt-sense of their bodies, learn about their movement patterns and preferences, expand their awareness of (and opportunities for) comfort, and earn a new appreciation for how their body organizes in gravity. Many report a new sense of organization and harmony in their embodied experience.
Who is the 10-Series for?
The Rolfing 10-Series is for anyone interested in investing time and energy towards improving their embodied experience.
Because this is goal-oriented work, it helps to approach the 10-series with a few ideas about what you'd like to get from the experience. This might include ideas about what you'd like to learn about your body and movement patterns, any habits you'd like to make (or break), or any new skills or resources you'd like to incorporate into your daily life.
Plan to come in for regular work as you progress through the series (one session every one or two weeks is a good pace). Also plan to leave each session with "homework" to explore on your own to help the work on the table integrate into your daily movement patterns.
Sessions 1-3
The 'Sleeve' Sessions
1
Free the breath.
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Session 1 opens up possibilities for the breath to inhabit more space in the body.
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Time on the table is focused on addressing myofascial lines and patterns of tension in the neck, shoulders, ribs, spine, diaphragm, and hips — all of which influence the breath.
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Clients learn the biomechanics of breath, practice inviting novel breath patterns to their body, explore the felt-sense of ease (vs. effort), and experience the interconnected nature of their physical form through breath.
2
Connect with ground.
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Session 2 reawakens the relationship between the body and the earth.
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Time on the table is focused on the lower body, specifically the tissues in the feet, ankles, legs, knees, and hip joints.
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This foundational work helps clients navigate their relationship with gravity and the ground reaction force — two factors that have shaped our experience as embodied creatures on this planet. Clients learn to sense into their feet and legs, and practice resourcing towards comfort in upright postures.
3
Open the side bodies.
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Session 3 is creates expansion and possibility in the side bodies. Enhancing coordination between lower and upper centers of gravity helps clients find a combined sense of steadiness and liberation in their day-to-day lives.
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Time on the table is focused on the lateral neck, shoulder girdle, thighs, outer hips, and low back.
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Clients awaken their awareness of the side bodies, begin to map the distinction between the pelvis and the thorax, practice varied movements between the hips and spine, and prepare for deeper work in sessions 4-7.
Sessions 4-7
The 'Core' Sessions
4
Awaken the midline
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Session 4 navigates the often under-mapped territory of the inner legs and pelvic floor to awaken the midline of the body.
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Time on the table is focused on the inner legs (specifically the adductors), attachments at the ischial ramus of the pelvis, and the outer hips.
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Clients are introduced to the biomechanics and felt-sense of the pelvic floor, practice inviting length to and support from the midline, and begin to explore the functional relationship between the legs, pelvis, and low back.
5
Find your center.
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Session 5 traverses into visceral territory to help clients find integration between their limbs and their central core.
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Time on the table is focused on the torso, specifically the tissues in the abdominal wall, visceral space, low back, pelvic girdle, and shoulder girdle.
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Clients experience new sensory awareness of their core space, practice activating (and relaxing) their deep hip flexor muscles, and begin to map the experience of adaptable core support from the pelvic girdle to the diaphragm.
6
Mobilize the spine.
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Session 6 addresses the entire spinal complex, from the sacrum to the cranium, as well as the structures that make up the axial complex (including the pelvis and the rib cage).
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Time on the table is focused on addressing myofascial lines and patterns of tension in the posterior chain, especially the hamstrings, posterior hips, low back, and rib cage.
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Clients learn to sense patterns of activation in the posterior chain, resourcing them for more ease and comfort in daily movements and upright postures. Any rotations or lateral curves of the spine are addressed in this session.
7
Free the head and neck.
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Session 7 is the final of the core sessions, and focuses on finding new length and lightness in the "5th limb" of the body: the head and neck.
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Time on the table is focused on myofascial lines and patterns of tension in the head and neck, with specific focus on the throat, jaws, face, and skull.
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Clients experience new ranges of motion and sensations of openness, softness, and ease in structures that are often tightly bound from stress and overuse. In doing so, clients begin to experience the head and neck as a 5th limb that helps them relate to gravity and the world around them.
Sessions 8-10
The 'Integration' Sessions
8 / 9
Structure meets function.
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Sessions 8 & 9 focus on coordinating new functional movement patterns on the table and in gravity. They are mirrors of each other, in that one of these sessions focuses on the structure and function of the upper body, and the other focuses on the lower body.
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A functional assessment dictates which girdle (upper or lower) to focus on in Session 8, and the other girdle will be the focus of Session 9. Time on the table is spent reintegrating movement from the inside out.
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Working with touch, felt sense, and proprioceptive cueing, the client strengthens their awareness and recruitment of the deep core while practicing integrated movement all the way out to the extremities. These two sessions call on skills and sensory experiences explored in Sessions 1-7.
10
Embodied wholeness.
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The culmination of the 10-series is designed to help clients feel the complete expression of their embodiment. It's the closest thing that Rolfers offer to a "full body session," in that Session 10 touches the entire body, from head to toe.
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In this session, we "zoom out" from deeper structural work to focus on the opportunity to cultivate a felt sense of resiliency and robustness in the superficial fascia. Working with the sensory mechanoreceptors in this all-encompassing connective tissue layer, clients fine tune their sense of their physical form, their sense of connection to deeper structures, and their sense of relationship with the world around them.
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Any additional "projects" that clients are interested in exploring happen as additional sessions outside of the 10-series.
Let's Get You Booked
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For clients who are new to Rolfing®, Kat is available for a free 15 minute phone consultation to discuss your needs and how Rolfing® might help. Click here to schedule a Rolfing® phone consult.