What is Rolfing®?
Rolfing® is a system-wide approach to addressing postural and movement patterns in the body that can cause discomfort and dysfunction.
Our bodies are impressive adaptive systems that are constantly evolving to meet the demands of our day-to-day lives. And as these demands change, whether from daily habits like sitting at a computer or something more severe like an accident or injury, our bodies change too. Compensatory patterns can show up in our posture and movement habits in ways that might manage or mitigate one symptom while creating a cascade of new discomforts and dysfunctions elsewhere. Because the entire body is an interconnected array of responsive systems and tissues, treating the symptoms of a compensatory pattern without addressing the pattern itself will only lead to short-lived relief. As a holistic bodywork modality, Rolfing® helps to change the various patterns with which we hold our bodies and move ourselves through life. Rolfers employ deeply effective hands-on techniques to release unnecessary tension and holding patterns, and utilize innovative movement and interactive exercises with clients to facilitate improved neuromuscular coordination and to help clients find more optimal ways of moving and holding their bodies. In short, Rolfing® helps you move better so that you can feel better.
Rolfing® is a form of bodywork that works with fascial connections, utilizing soft tissue manipulation to facilitate improvements in the body’s structure and function.
Rolfing® and other Structural Integration modalities focus on fascia and fascial connections as an avenue for helping clients get out of pain, improve posture, increase range of motion, as well as recover from and prevent injury.
Here is what the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute (the certifying body for Rolfers around the world) has to say about it:
"Named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Rolfing® Structural Integration is a form of bodywork that reorganizes the connective tissues, called fascia, that permeate the entire body. More than fifty years ago, 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 and alleviating pain. Rolfing SI aims to restore flexibility, revitalize your energy and leave you feeling more comfortable in your body. Essentially, the Rolfing process enables the body to regain the natural integrity of its form, thus enhancing postural efficiency and your freedom of movement."
Of course Rolfers are impacting much more than fascia. Within the course of a session a Rolfer may target specific joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and even organs. But fascia is the constant lens through which Rolfers consider how to approach therapeutic treatment, where and why their touch may produce change in the client's body, and what success looks (and feels) like.
Rolfing® is an interactive manual therapy that involves the client working with their practitioner to build interoceptive awareness and neuromuscular coordination.
Rolfing® seeks to help the client build a deeper instrinsic awareness of their own body, develop a language for interpreting and communicating their sensory experiences, and improve neuromuscular coordination to create more resources for posture and movement. Each of these outcomes helps to increase receptiveness, precision, and resilience in the client's nervous system, which in hand can greatly enhance adaptivity and reduce pain. During the course of a Rolfing® session, clients will be asked to move their limbs and joints, direct their breath to certain areas, and activate specific muscles to help their brain and nervous system map areas of the body that might otherwise be interpreted as "blind spots." Additionally, Rolfing® clients are asked to report back on their experience, whether it be their experience of a movement, the intensity of touch, the sensitivity of a specific region, or differences experienced between sides to help build a greater set of sensory receptivity from the nervous system and to integrate a greater spectrum of sensations (beyond the pain vs. no pain binary).
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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.