Conscious Choice: Rolfing

May 2000

Rolfing

Bringing the Body Back to its Natural State of Balance

by Darlene E. Paris

"Stand up straight," I remember Momma saying some twenty years ago as I staggered to the car whenever she picked me up from high school. In those days walking with my shoulders pulled forward was my mother’s clue that my adolescent world had just turned upside down. My posture revealed how I felt about getting a D on my report card, not being asked to the junior prom, and breaking up with my latest boyfriend. Conversely, when I strutted to the car with a free and easy gait, Momma knew my day had gone just fine.

I didn’t think my posture was so important back then, but as an adult my attitude about body structure has changed. I now know that a straight posture makes a difference in the way I look and feel. That’s why regardless of what’s happening in my life, I always try to hold my head high. My attempts don’t always work. In times of stress, I notice that my shoulders automatically roll forward just as they did in high school. According to practitioners who practice a method called Rolfing, my adolescent slump is a pattern they can help me change.

"People come to me and say,‘You know, I notice that I slouch, but how did I get this way?’" says Rolfer Allan Davidson, who first studied Structural Integration which later became known as Rolfing with founder Ida P. Rolf in the mid-seventies at Big Sur in San Francisco, California, and later at the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"The pattern may have been an earlier choice or reflected an earlier attitude that doesn’t fit the person anymore, but the tissue itself is stuck in that mode," explains Davidson, an advanced Rolfer who has been seeing clients in the Chicago area for more than twenty-five years.

Unhealthy body patterns such as slumping, slouching, and standing with most of your weight distributed on the inner or outer arches of your feet can break down your body’s natural structure and pull it out of alignment. Rolfing is a method that aims to bring the body back to its natural state of balance.

How Rolfing Works

Developed by biochemist Ida P. Rolf in the 1930s, Rolfing includes hands-on work, but it also has an educational component. Through breathing techniques and movement therapy it teaches individuals how to live more efficiently in their bodies, says Heidi Massa, a Rolfer who practices this form of body work in a River North office. "Rolfing is more educative than it is therapeutic," she says. "It’s not a technique, it’s a point of view."

Rolfers believe that a body that has been pulled out of balance can be reshaped and retain its natural state of alignment. The way in which a Rolfer brings the body back to balance is by using their fingertips, elbows, forearm, palms, and knuckles to manipulate the connective tissue or fascia.

Fascia is the body’s inner lining. It encases our organs, muscles, nervous system, blood vessels, and even our bones. If you’ve ever cut a piece of meat, you’ve seen fascia.

"It’s the white membrane you see when you cut chicken," says Jane Harrington, an instructor at the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The Rolfer’s goal is to free the body from any distortions found in the fascia. "Those membrane should be independent of each other," explains Harrington, "but through habitual and, often, incorrect use, the tissue will develop adhesions or knots. What we try to do as Rolfers is open those areas up again."

The Power of Gravity

Rolfers believe that if a body is properly aligned, gravity can be a friend to the body rather than a foe. "Gravity is this energy field that we’re in all the time. It’s the water in which all the fish are swimming," says Bob Kearney, a body worker who has studied Structural Therapy at the Structural Therapy Institute.

"Gravity is trying to bring us down to the ground. If we’re not straight, we’re at war with gravity. It causes our head to come forward, our upper backs to round, our shoulders to slump forward and our chest to cave in," he explains.

But when the body is in alignment, gravity will flow through us and energize us instead of pulling us down to the earth. One of the consequences of being in sync with gravity is a sense of well-being and overall good health.

What Conditions Does Rolfing Address?

Although Rolfing does not cure a specific medical condition, per se, people who suffer from chronic back, neck, joint, and shoulder pain report that they experience some relief through Rolfing. It relieves children who suffer with scoliosis and asthma, and has helped individuals with the jaw and muscular pain associated temporal mandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome. It also addresses a host of postural problems.

Starkey Laboratories, a manufacturer of hearing-aid equipment located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a case in point. This company decreased its $1.5 million compensation costs for repetitive stress injuries by 88 percent when its employees tried Rolfing.

Rolfing also is popular among athletes. They like it because they say it improves their performance and reduces the time it takes them to recuperate from injuries. Former head coach of the Chicago Bulls Phil Jackson claims to have been helped by Rolfing. Actor Levar Burton has used it, too. And pianist Leon Fleisher, who suffered a crippling hand injury, resumed his career after thirty years of not playing the piano — thanks to Rolfing.

Your First Visit with a Rolfer

When you call and make an appointment with a Rolfer, your first visit may be a consultation rather than a treatment. Since Rolfing requires active participation from the client, the practitioner will try to determine your level of commitment to the method.

He or she will also explain what Rolfing is and review the different stages of the treatment process. Heidi Massa says that she interviews all of her clients before she agrees to work with them.

"A person has to qualify for this kind of work because I’m not really doing any of the work. . .they are," she says.

The practitioner will also want to know details regarding your medical history, whether you’ve had an injury and the location of any other structural weaknesses you may be aware of.

He or she will want to examine your body. You’ll be asked to strip to your underwear so that the practitioner can look at your body’s structure.

Not long ago I called a Rolfer to discuss a pain I was experiencing on the left side of my body, which I suspected derived from my consistently carrying a bag over my right shoulder. The Rolfer, Karen Giles, who practices in Downers Grove, explained how she would examine me if I were in her office.

"I’d look at your body from head to toe and observe what your feet were doing and what your legs were doing in relation to your feet," she told me. "I’d try to determine the overall pattern of your body that’s not supporting you so that when you carry this briefcase, your body isn’t able to withstand it without experiencing some discomfort." Sometimes a Rolfer will take a picture of the client to assist them with the restructuring process.

Treatment Session

Traditional Rolfing treatments comprise ten sessions, which are designed to work gradually from the outer superficial fascia (sessions one, two, and three) to deeper layers of the fascia (sessions four, five, six, and seven), and then integration of the two (sessions eight, nine, and ten).

Before the session begins, clients are asked to remove their clothing with the exception of their underwear. The treatment occurs on a massage table and lasts about sixty to eighty minutes. Sometimes soft music is played to lighten the atmosphere. The costs of one session is about $110.

Many people think that Rolfing is a lot like deep-tissue massage. But most people who have tried Rolfing say it’s different from any other body work they’ve experienced. Some say Rolfing hurts. I say that Rolfing is a tad bit uncomfortable. The way you handle the discomfort may very well depend upon your relationship with your practitioner.

Chicago resident Tracy Napoli, thirty, for example, went to see a Rolfer for pain that she was experiencing in her upper back. When I asked her if her Rolfing sessions were painful, she described them as being very intense. "I did find them painful, but I felt well cared for in my practitioner’s hands. That’s what got me through the process," Napoli says.

Sue Seecof, publicist at the Rolf Institute, addresses the pain issue in this way: "You know how you feel when you have a tight muscle in your neck and you press into it and feel a sense of release from that pressure? Well, that’s what Rolfing feels like."

Does Rolfing Last?

People also wonder if the structural changes that occur as a result of Rolfing will last after the sessions are over. Practitioners say yes. But there are things you can do to make sure your body fully integrates these changes.

Individuals are encouraged to come back for tune-ups if they need them, or they can try Rolfing Movement Integration, an educational format that uses Ida Rolf’s principle of structural integration.

Rolfing Movement Integration sessions provide additional instruction on ways to move your body more efficiently. You can start this program during the time in which you’re receiving manual manipulations.

"The difficult part is to own the change or the new possibility," admits Allan Davidson. "We notice when we fall into our patterns. If we’re lucky, our body tells us. The old pattern is more comfortable because it’s familiar and the new pattern is just an ideal. With awareness, that new place becomes our new home."

Darlene E. Paris is the author of Healthy and Natural Living in Chicago: The Best Alternative Resources in the City and Suburbs, published by Chicago Review Press, which is available in bookstores or by calling 800-888-4741.

Resources

For additional information regarding Rolfing Structural Integration or Rolfing Movement Integration check out the Rolf Institute’s web site or call them at 800-530-8875.

Certified Rolfers in the Chicago Area

Robert Ahrens, 847-328-7174

Allan Davidson, 773-486-6857

Barbara Drummond, 847-336-3066

David Englund, 312-932-0991

Karen Giles, 630-428-0123

Jane Harrington, 800-530-8875

Heidi Massa, 312-943-5808

Donald Soule, 847-275-8825

Fran Stabosz, 708-802-0934

Structural Therapy

Structural Therapy is unique to Chicago and is currently taught at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy by certified Rolfer Allan Davidson and the school’s director, Robert King.

Structural Therapists are certified professionals and have trained in the ten-session format. For additional information on Structural Therapy call the Chicago School of Massage Therapy at 773-477-9444.

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