Structural Integration and Rolf Movement Integration invite positive change into your body. Offered as a series of unique sessions, we seek to deepen your sense of well-being through gradual and balanced release of habitual tension and to expand your options for movement by broadening your perceptive field.
If you are seeking change, you are likely dealing with discomfort; or, at the very least, curiosity is nibbling at you. This work offers some time and tools to explore where mechanical issues of structure and limitations of awareness are inhibiting your potential. Reduced pain, increased adaptability, and an embodied sense of self are our ultimate goals.
Sometimes all we need to facilitate change is a little attention, given through physical or verbal contact in the right places. Pressure, movement and appropriate cues can bring awareness and animation into places where we were otherwise unconscious or strained.
At other times, the restriction is bound in the unwitting need to contain unpleasant feelings—physical, sensory, or emotional—and we can offer support to help make those feelings more tolerable, so that your body can let go.
The hands-on work is usually done with the client in their underwear and starts and ends with a postural analysis. You will be on a treatment table much of the time, but we will also work in the seated position and sometimes standing. Sessions are usually between 60-75 minutes.
We recommend that you set up Structural Integration as a series of three sessions to begin with. At that point, if you are getting what you need, seven more sessions completes the classic series. A weekly pace is ideal, but not absolutely necessary. At the end of ten sessions, we will generally suggest that you let your body continue to process for six months without further structural intervention. If you are craving more, a few Rolf Movement Integration® sessions would allow us some time to refine the functional aspects of integration.
Our work together is a collaboration, a dynamic learning process. As such, we like to work within your tolerance for the occasional discomfort that comes with change. You are always welcome to request a lighter touch or a little space when you need it, and we cultivate sensitivity in that regard.
Please check our blog for video links to help you visualize the work and for some tips for personal comfort and care during a series of Structural Integration. Also there, my original Client Handbook, which goes into much greater detail.
For the Movement work, here are a couple of Ida Rolf’s classic recommendations for freeing the pelvic and shoulder girdles, as drawn by the lovely and talented Ellen Forney:
Dr. Rolf’s Leg Repatterning Excercise
Dr. Rolf’s Arm Repatterning Exercise (1 of 2)
Dr. Rolf’s Arm Repatterning Exercise (2 of 2)