One of the questions I’ve received over the years from clients that always strikes me as profoundly curious is,”Kate, have you ever had Rolfing before?”
Nowadays I call myself a Structural Integrator, but you get the idea.
And to this question, I want to respond, “Does a chef go to restaurants? Does a painter go to museums? Does a soccer player watch the World Cup? Does an actor go to the theater?”
(Hint: Yes to all of the above!)
Receiving the Rolfing 10 series was a requirement to get in to the 2nd level of training at the Rolf Institute. How could I know what I was trying to do with my client if I had not been a client myself? In fact, during the entire second phase of training, we both gave and received an entire 10 series from a classmate. Each session taught me not only what it felt like to have someone’s fingers deep in my axila, but it also taught me, hey! I could put MY fingers deep in someone’s axila! (An axila is an armpit, just FYI.)
Nowadays, I like to get a Rolfing/Structural Integration session once every month. I trade with another practitioner in town and we have a blast. We talk shop, lay our woes out on the table, ask for what we need, and trust another’s hands to meet us where we are.
These sessions leave me inspired. I get to remember what it feels like to be a client on the table, and I get to remember what it feels like to stand there in my “Rolfing outfit” and have someone’s eyes take in the whole of my body. I learn new tricks and techniques, just like a chef visiting a restaurant might get inspired by the way the vegetables are chopped into the sauce, to illicit the most robust of flavors.
So yes, I do get regular structural integration sessions and have done so since 2008 when I got in to this work. And my body thanks me for it every time the appointment reminder pops up on my calendar. Bon appetit!
