Structural Integration

Created by Ida P. Rolf, PhD., the Rolf Method of Structural Integration (also known as Rolfing) is a system of bodywork and postural education that organizes the body around its vertical line.

A true visionary, Rolf based her system upon the understanding that the human body is always operating in gravity. With Structural Integration, the body gradually becomes aligned around its center and the stress of gravity is mitigated, enabling all bodily systems to function more effectively.  With this treatment, gravity actually becomes a supportive force in a well-aligned body, allowing for effortless movement and the acquisition of strength through balance.

Rolf understood that the optimal way of achieving a lasting change in the body is to address the fascial network, a web of connective tissue (fascia) that begins at the subcutaneous level and wraps around everything in our bodies – muscles, bones, organs, nerves – from surface-to-deep, and from head-to-toe. In response to injury, stress (mental, emotional or physical) and disease, this fascial network shortens, twists and sticks together. Even in the absence of such trauma, the fascia naturally shorten and become compressed over time simply because we live within the force field of gravity.

“When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then spontaneously the body heals itself.”  — Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.

SI is a holistic approach consisting of a series of 10 sessions designed to address the entire fascial structure. At the same time, it is also a teaching protocol for improving postural alignment and integrated movement.

Because we tap into the power to heal ourselves as old patterns are released through lengthening and untwisting the fascia, Structural Integration is both physically and energetically dynamic. SI is a collaborative process with regular feedback about treatment progress between practitioner and client.

During sessions, you will be invited to notice what you are feeling and may be given movement cues to breath or to lengthen a part of your body as tissue is released.

Just as important as release, SI also focuses on the need to ground positive, enduring change in the body by providing a new base of integration through which to move in the world.  This base of integration — the “Rolf” line as it is defined in SI — is instilled as the fascia is released so that we become more conscious of our neutral center: again, an axis around which to integrate our movement through the world.  The potential for positive change through SI is not only physical but also emotional and spiritual since the release of old patterns can open the way for us to be more truly present in our lives.