Rolfing™
Rolfing™ is a structured learning practice that teaches you how to bring your body into better alignment and balance, enhancing flexibility and movement potential.
Through guided awareness of your body's deep structures, you discover how to release tension patterns and develop improved posture and movement efficiency.
Awareness and education about postural habits often initiates positive changes in daily life.
Your body's fascia is constantly adapting in response to how you use it. When you experience physical stress or injury, your body naturally responds protectively. Sometimes this protective response creates more restriction than necessary. Through learning and practice, you can understand these patterns and develop new movement strategies for better mobility and postural awareness.
Changing old postural habits often initiates further changes in life
Fascia is constantly changing and adapting in response to demands placed on an individual’s body.
Fascia reacts to specific physical damage – to a joint for example – by producing extra material to enhance stability and support. However, it can produce more than necessary. If this happens, over time, rather than stabilizing the joint, the healing process itself can actually reduce mobility, leading to changes in body’s posture and altered patterns of movement.
What can you expect from a Rolfing session?
At the beginning of each session I will do a body reading to observe your body's structure and posture.
During the session you will be positioned on a table, sit or stand while I guide you through focused exploration of specific body areas using sensitive and precise pressure.
I will invite you to bring your attention and breathing into the areas being explored, as well as follow some guided movements. I will invite you to stand and discover how you feel, stand, move and walk differently.
What you may experience through Rolfing™
• Develop greater awareness of tension patterns and release habitual holding
• Learn to improve your alignment, posture and movement patterns
• Expand your range of motion, breathing capacity and movement awareness
• Develop a greater sense of connection and presence within your body
• Increase energy and strengthen your overall body awareness
The ten sessions
Rolfing works systematically through the body, starting with the uppermost layers of connective tissues related to the breath. Throughout the treatments, the body’s alignment, body awareness and balance improves.
As we work on your body, other issues will inevitably show up, so each session is tailored to you and your needs.
Sessions 1-3
In the initial sessions, we work on the superficial layers of the fascia, increasing elasticity in the chest, freeing up the breath, a healthier organization of the pelvis, rib cage and shoulder girdle, and a better organization of the feet and legs.
Sessions 4-7
The next sessions focus on the deeper fascial layers and the body’s organization around a vertical axis that we call “the line”.
Sessions 8-10
By the last few sessions, the body as a whole has become more flexible and the balance has improved. In the last few sessions we pay extra attention to your body awareness and movement patterns to ensure that the changes are going to last.
Where does Rolfing come from?
More than fifty years ago, Dr. Ida Rolf recognized a system in the human body – a seamless network of tissues vs. a collection of separate parts. Connective tissues, called fascia, that surround, support and penetrate all of the muscles, bones, nerves and organs.
The stress of daily activities and physical injuries can pull the body out of alignment. The fascia gradually shortens, tightens and adjusts to accommodate the misalignment. The elasticity and sliding capacity of fascia can be restored through the Rolfing touch and the body structure realigned to function with greater ease.
By introducing the impact of gravity on human health and well-being, Dr. Rolf broke new scientific ground. Modern research increasingly supports her wisdom.
Curious to learn more?