Why Rolfing?
Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.
In Dr. Rolf’s words, from her article in Confinia Psychiatrica, 1973, she writes:
“When the physical body gets into difficulties, trouble spreads to the whole man. It affects his consciousness and he calls it stress. Many approaches, physical and psychological, have been used by men in their efforts to escape- drugs and massage among the oldest of these. What is the first requirement to relieve this stress? What are the principles defining stress in man? In the new approach to the physical man called Structural Integration, absence of stress is seen as balanced function- the balance of the body within the filed of Gravity. This is a new definition; stress is imbalance, visible as the inappropriate position of body components in space. The technique of Structural Integration (tradmarked as ‘Rolfing’) is basically twofold: by manipualtion, the soft tissue is brought toward its normal (anatomically efficient) position: calling for what we consider appropriate movement then allows permanent through new patterns of movement: reciprocally, new patterns of movement are made possible by the new organization.”
Plasticity: physical adaptability…
Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf really discovered a fundamental foundation for the human being’s well being: we are changeable, plastic if you will, and if our body has become shortened and out of alignment over time due to accidents, injury, illness, stress, fear and trauma, poor lifestyle, misuse and abuse, it can also be brought back toward the norm with expert assistance.
Her important contribution…
One of the other important contributions Dr. Rolf’s life long work has provided is that of a way to manage and release stress that is being carried as tension or flexion (tissue shortening) in our body. When we are overwhlemed by life events, we will either be able to digest and assimilate them, or we will not. If we cannot, that stress will be held as tension and non-adaptability in our body and nervous system. In other words, when we feel threatened and find ourselves in this fight or flight mode, a condition which causes us to experience what is called arousal, we will lose our ability to adapt. We have limits as to what we can and cannot adapt to.
Fight or Flight…
This arousal state, a state of survival alert, does not always resolve itself in humans like is does in the animals kingdom. In the animal kingdom, when the deer perceives threat, all its reserves go into mobilizing it against that threat. This means the deer that was relaxed and gently foraging, will flee the threat. When it perceives no more threat, it will not deny, rationalize, or any number of defense mechanisms that human’s use to deal with the aftermath of a threat, but it will shake the stress from its body, and return to a calm, relaxed state. We Westerners have all but lost that survival ability to allow nature to release the overload and thus we carry it around within until it can be resolved.
Freeing our body from the past…
When we are overwhelmed by stress (today called trauma), we loose energy and that energy loss produces changes in our organism. Dr. Rolf discovered that the energy loss affects the connective tissues of the body which produce metabolic changes. When connective tissue is stressed, it shortens and eventually can rotate the bones and thus cause mobility issues, as all movement demands appropriate balance in the joints. Her work in cancer research at Rockefeller Institute in New York, as well her studies in anatomy and physiology, Osteopathic medicine (bone doctors), yoga (science of maintaining appropriate length and joint space and overall health in the human body), and the movement schools of the early part of this century prepared her for what would become the Rolfing method of Structural Integration.
She understood that humans are born into the gravitational field and saw that over time, the body can loose its verticality, or in other words it’s uprightness. When this uprightness is lost to a certain degree, much more energy is needed to live our lives. You cannot imagine the difference one experiences when the body’s verticality is improved. Dr. Rolf’s logo above says it all. The boy on the left is out of alignment with Gravity; the boy on the right is supported by Gravity. His spine is erect without him having to ‘hold’ himself upright. Because connective tissue (fascia) is plastic, it can be re-organized to allow the major segments of the body to improve their efficient relationship with one another.
Dr. Rolf made some analogies about Rolfing which might help you better understand why hundreds of thousands of individuals have been ‘Rolfed’ and have in turn sent their family, friends, and neighbors and colleagues to us for assistance. She talked about going to Macy’s in New York City (she was raised in The Bronx) and buying many items, all packed in different boxes. So when you are ready to leave, you need to find a way to package all these different boxes (think body segments like head, torso, abdomen, pelvis, legs) into one, unified package so that you can venture out into the crowds and on onto the subway to go home. Otherwise, without a unified organization, you are likely to drop them the first time you bump into something or someone.
(c) David Delaney, 2008. This website is a copyright of David Delaney. No part may be used without the authors written permission.
(c) Rolfing, 2009. Rolfing is a trademark of the Rolf Institute. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
