AbouT STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

Structural Integration was developed in the 1950’s by Dr. Ida P. Rolf as a way to balance and realign the body. Dr. Rolf, a biochemist by training, began studying the fascia, or connective tissue, and found that addressing this tissue in a systematic, holistic way can positively affect the entire body. Because this tissue surrounds everything in the body and holds us together, it has a great impact on how we experience movement and posture. Over years of experimentation, she developed a series that addresses underlying causes of tension and pain through manual work with the fascia.

Dr. Ida Rolf named her work Structural Integration, but as often happens, the nickname “Rolfing” stuck and so most people know her work by that name. Some of her students went on to form their own schools and brands of Structural Integration — SOMA, Hellerwork, Anatomy Trains, Structural Medicine — to name a few. Many of us, including myself, belong to the International Association of Structural Integrators or IASI, where we are united in bringing the work forward to help folks find the balance and organization they so crave in their body. I received my original training at the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute in Boulder, CO and continue to broaden my understanding of the work through continuing education and experience working with my clients.

When Ida Rolf was teaching her work at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, it was a very ripe time in the world. It was during the 1960’s when the Human Potential Movement was at its peak. Therapies such a primal scream, re-birthing, and Gestalt were being explored, and the general idea was that if you were not having a cathartic, shock-your-bones experience, not much was happening. Dr. Rolf’s work fell in step with this cultural movement and was practiced in a manner that was heavy-handed and INTENSE. The direct and personal stories I have heard from this time are often shocking and, like all things in their nascency, the work had potential to mature. Truly beautiful work was being done at this time, and people were having life-changing experiences, but it was not without its own brand of suffering.

Since that rich and revolutionary time of the 1960’s, there has been a healthy amount of growing up in this field of work. Scientists have begun to study fascia, (though it is still largely mysterious!) Rolfers cross-pollinated with cranio-sacral and visceral practitioners as well as osteopaths. Folks started to really look at the nervous system and how it is intricately linked and woven together with the fascia. It became clear that intense, catharsis-based bodywork, in which a client is wincing or bracing from pain activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight). This is not the place where systemic change occurs. Slow, collaborative, titrated work creates the condition for the parasympathetic nervous system to integrate change and create new patterning. And THIS is what we are after!

Structural Integration (SI) practitioners work hands-on with the body and engage clients on a deeper, neurological level by eliciting gentle movement. This encourages embodiment and connection to the lived experience. Through the process, clients receive re-education and training on sitting, standing, movement and relating to gravity. The work is gentle and slow and always with the intention of creating more connection and ease. Each session aims to bring the body into more organization so that moving around in our daily routine is more efficient, more free.

We all know that feeling in our body when things just don’t feel “right.” We experience this feeling as tightness, discomfort, pain, uneasiness, or perhaps a sense that things used to be easier and now … not so much! Often times, these sensations are caused by the fascia thickening and becoming more dense around areas that are injured, bound by repetitive stress or are being pulled out of alignment from the daily force of gravity. As the SI practitioner feels into these fascial layers, we use gentle pressure and movement participation from the client to help these stuck layers start to glide once again. As Ida Rolf said, the fascial layers of the body should glide together like “two silk scarves.” It is in that slipperiness and fluidity that we feel freedom of movement and postural support. Sometimes the sensation during a session can feel like tingling or warmth or a deep sigh of “ahhhhh” when a spot that has ached for years has finally been contacted in just the right way. Every client’s experience is unique. Together, client and practitioner find their way through.