Frequently Asked Questions
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Ida Rolf said “there is no such thing as painful Rolfing or painless Rolfing, there is just doing the work.” If it’s painless it often isn’t reaching the restricted layers that need to be released to create systemic structural change.
Dr. Rolf viewed the body and mind as a unified being. She expressed that what the client labels as pain during a session is the nervous system’s reluctance to let go of a long held pattern. That resistance to change in attempt to hold onto the old structure is what people experience as pain. The intensity of the work is equal to the level of the body’s resistance. The pain however isn’t being created by the practitioner. It is actually the rapid release of pain held in the body in the form of shortened tissues being lengthened that is misinterpreted as pain going into the system, where as it is actually pain leaving the system. When the person stops resisting the sensation and breathes into it the feeling of pain usually transforms into a sense of release and integration. It is also worth noting that more body aware individuals generally describe the experience as “good pain” denoting the active release of restrictions from the body.
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Massage aims to relax the body by releasing accumulated stress from the muscles and nervous system. Structural Integration aims to change the fascial structure of the body to improve musculoskeletal alignment so the muscles relax from not having to work as hard to support and balance the body.
Chiropractic aims to reset the neurological patterns that control the movement of the joints to improve range of motion and relieve neurological signals that tighten the muscles, and distort the alignment of highly specific bony relationships. Structural Integration realigns the bones by adjusting the tension of the fabric that holds the bones in place and it relaxes the muscles by balancing the tone of the fabric that shapes the structure and density of the muscles, also releasing neurological tension and guarding that is stored in the fascia in the process. Opening up the fascial guarding that encapsulates the joints sets the stage for more effective and permanent chiropractic treatment as the connective tissue becomes more balanced it stops pulling the bones out of alignment and adjustments hold long term.
Physical Therapy aims to restore function of muscles, bones and the nervous system through precision guided exercises. It also tends to be more focused on a specific area of treatment. Structural Integration removes imbalances that distort the alignment of the muscles and bones, and it teaches the body new neurological patterns through subtle movement cues built into the process to awaken core muscles so the body can develop a new more efficient style of movement and better core support for long term change. This removal of dysfunctional patterns before implementing new patterns sets the stage for more effective physical therapy.
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Structural integration is designed as a process to systematically restructure the fabric which holds the muscles and bones in place. In addition this fabric (fascia) is highly innervated and is believed to hold psychological and emotional patterns that have crystalized into its structure over years and years of the person’s life. This amounts to a great deal of physical, emotional and psychological transformation to shift the entire mind body ecosystem into a more resilient and harmonious state. This process would be outright traumatic if you tried to complete it all at once. Imagine getting 10 different surgeries at once or doing 50 hours of psychotherapy straight in one session. The transformative potential of this work is where the value lies, but to completely reorganize the body is a process which must be completed layer by layer and region by region. In this way after every session the body can focus on rebuilding and integrating the changes over the following days until it is time to continue into the next phase of the process. The 10 sessions are not a strict recipe. On rare occasions someone may only need 7 or more often others may need 13 sessions, but the average is 10 for a typical person. The 10 sessions are divided into three phases, sessions 1-3 are aimed at releasing superficial structures – referred to as extrinsic or sleeve layers. Sessions 4-7 are aimed at organizing the core or intrinsic layers of the myofascial system. The final sessions, 8-10 are aimed at integrating the nervous system with fascial planes which sweep across multiple joints and connect the bony structure head to toe creating an integrated whole. This entire process continues as the fascia of the body is softened from a more rigid state to a more liquid state it is then repatterned by an enhanced awareness of the body’s relationship with gravity so that it recrystalizes into a new form over the 6-12 months following the 10 sessions that can result in a lifelong change of structural and neurological patterns.
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I had a client once whose father bought her a ten session package for about her 23rd birthday. She told me she believed her father had been so impressed by the results of the 10 sessions of Structural Integration that he named her “Ida” after Dr. Ida Rolf. He had received the 10 series in his early 20’s and she told me about 4 decades had passed and he still had not felt the need to do another session since.
After the ten sessions some people find it helpful to do maintenance depending on their lifestyle, this can range from a few sessions a year to multiple sessions a month for extremely active professional athletes.
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Most people wear their underwear or short length athletic clothing.
For men, boxer briefs or running shorts are ideal.
For women, a bralette and short length yoga shorts are ideal. Avoid sports bras if possible as the compression makes them hard to work around. Regular bras are typically okay.
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Yes! You can pay with a health savings account or flexible spending account.