What is Rolfing?
Rolfing® Structural Integration
Rolfing Structural Integration offers a combination of hands‐on bodywork and movement education. It manipulates the body’s connective tissue to rebalance the body and bring relief from chronic pain, stress, and injury. Using their fingers, hands and elbows, Rolfers slowly work through deep layers of tissue to change structural patterns in the body by transforming fascial patterns and releasing restrictions. Results can be dramatic, and the process is not necessarily painful as it has been shown to be more effective if the body is more at ease during the work.
Rolf Movement Integration offers education about one’s body, so one can recognize habitual movement patterns and learn to move with greater ease, flexibility and freedom of expression whether simply walking or performing some special activity. Professional athletes, dancers, children, business professionals, and people from all walks of life have benefited from Rolfing Structural Integration.
The Integration of Structure and Function
In Rolfing Structural Integration, the Rolfer releases these patterns through manipulation as they manifest in the client’s structure. In Rolf Movement Integration, the Rolfer helps clients become aware of their inhibiting movement patterns and teaches them how to change them. Rolfing is as concerned with how people experience and use their bodies in their daily lives as with their structural organization in gravity. This unique blend of both, the functional and structural aspects of Rolfing, is a distinctive feature of the training at RISI.
Rolfing is a holistic technique in that changes in structure can impact the whole person, physically, emotionally, and energetically. Ultimately, each client’s individual experience plays a central role in Rolfing’s transformational aspects.
Benefits of Rolfing® Structural Integration
- Alleviate chronic tension and pain
- Improved posture and overall balance
- Your body movements become fluid and more efficient
- Gain greater range of motion and flexibility
- Breathing becomes easier as breath capacity increases
- Enhance your body awareness
- Balanced tone throughout body tissues
- Enhance physical performance and prevent injury
- Reduce headaches
- Relieve stress
Photographs Courtesy of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration