Structural Integration by Ida Rolf, is not the most mild type of bodywork.
It’s not meant to be…
Evolution
The ten sessions are intended to help clients to find better alignment in relationship to gravity. Not only in standing or quiet poses, but also in movement. The idea is to help people find more fluidity, flexibility and range of motion through effective touch and thorough manipulation.
One thing that is important to address, is that this type of work often gets labeled as being uncomfortable. With Ida Rolf’s work- in most cases, as pain is sometimes encountered and touched, clients will feel things that have been avoided. It’s natural for people to compensate when they have injuries or emotional patterns holding them out of alignment. As such, as things open, deeper sensations do occur. However, if a professional and respectful dialogue is kept, the session can weather the storm with proper care and efficient contact. With healthy touch, the work can go slowly at the client’s rate and comfort level. During and after the sessions, clients will often be surprised at how they can feel grounded into their bodies and the earth both energetically and physically in a whole new way.
One of the biggest considerations when deciding if Structural Integration is right for you, is to ask yourself if you are looking for a pleasurable massage session or a more long-term and holistic approach. Some clients enjoy light touch effleurage massage. It can feel warm, invigorating and healing. On the opposite side of the spectrum though, the Ida Rolf Structural Integration type of work focuses on the ability to work deeper without working harder. A good Structural Integration Therapist will apply pressure to touch into the different levels of the fascial web to help you unwind and lengthen dysfunctional patterns. The fascia softens and hydrates allowing time to awaken and integrate.
Without question, at Lighten Up Therapies, our goal is to help you to achieve your goals for your health and wellbeing.
If you would like a free 15 minute telephone consultation with Sharon Hartnett LMT, please give her a call at: (740) 966-5153
When muscles are stuck in either over-contracted or over-stretched positions, you’ll often find reduced functioning in that area of the body.
In order to find the best treatment to reduce this type of strain and help nourish overworked muscles, look to supporting healthy fascia through modalities such as: Structural Integration, Craniosacral Therapy or exercises like Yamuna Ball Rolling or Feldenkrais. Through fascial manipulation and mindful movement, it is very possible to restore full body movement. By reopening the adhesions in the tissue, one is able to to restore fluid flow and help the nervous system to enliven, as well as correct the misalignment which helped contribute to that pull.
Finding Healthy Structure through Balance
This adhesion gives you a good view of deformed fascia. As people get older, lifetime stresses often play a significant factor in how we relate within and to our environments. Accidents, illnesses, repetitive motion, and stress can all take us all off kilter. The resulting tension patterns take us out of effortless motion and tend to create pain over time. Fortunately, for us, the fascia is able to self correct through a practitioner’s or proper exercise of gentle pushes and pulls of this continuous fabric of life. Whether you go to a Fascial Bodyworker, or choose to check into using tools such as the balls, Melt Tube,or instructional movement DVDS, it is easy to improve your health by lengthening and unwinding rotations and twists. As the tissues unfold and lubricate, there is more space for movement and nourishment to organs, muscles, and bones. And- we all want to feel our best, right?
The first thing to do to stabilize and balance the body is to find a therapist who will help bring self awareness to you about your fascial body. Learning mindfulness with the body is pivotal in taking responsibility for one’s health. Many people are not familiar with the web-like fasical system and do not know how important it is in regards to postural balance. Yet once a conscious relationship is awakened, you’ll be surprised how simple it is to gain more flexibility and energy. It’s a shame that this system has not been investigated more thoroughly in the past as it is a life altering element of health and wellness. Getting yourself educated by experienced people and good literature will ultimately help you stay in charge for your own life. Take some time to read about all the new finding regarding the role of fascia in the field of wellness. A good place to start is: https://www.theiasi.net/new-to-structural-integration-
Once you have found the best bodyworker for you, make sure that there is educational dialogue. Each person develops in his/her own unique way. It is valuable to share the type of touch that works best for you even with the most experienced therapist. If you have any previous trauma, whether physical, emotional or whatever… please let us know because the best sessions are where there is respect for boundaries and good listening. Sometimes it is the case that the body will allow one in, but repetitive thought patterns and the emotion energy behind that can bring about strong resistance and responses in other levels of consciousness. The whole of a person must be addressed for deep healing and respect of the process and this holistic model is the key to success. The fascia is a continuous web of connective tissue that is responsible for posture. Whatever history you bring into the session will begin to unravel as the whole body changes, and organically many different experiences unfold.
On a personal note, I like to ask my clients not to work out very hard while going through a ten series. Often muscles building can lead to overuse and weaknesses that may be unconscious or imbalanced. It is beneficial to allow the 10 weeks to be dedicated to feeling the body open and lengthen naturally. Personally, I also like to advise clients to use rollers and balls to work each day to keep the fascia hydrated, layered and softer. By the time the client feels a 10 series from the superficial work to the deeper layers and such, he/she (if they have been mindful of their bodies), will feel a dramatic shift into freer mobility, increased energy and integration.
Fascial work originally was brought to attention by Ida Rolf. Since her time, there are now many wonderful graduated practitioners across the globe from schools such as the Institute for Structural Integration,The Rolf Institute,The Upledger Institute, Tom Meyers School and more. The research that is being done is exciting and coming more into the mainstream of the medical community. In my own Private Practice,I have seen people who have lived with years of pain, release and find themselves feeling freer and happier than in previous years. It is always a pleasure to see my clients walking away with more essence and vitality in their step.
Fascial work is so exciting because it can help so many people to feel more deeply and alive. If you have any questions, please call Sharon Hartnett LMT for a free 15 phone consultation.
I know that most people don’t even know what fascia is…
That’s why I have been talking about fascia on my blog here and also in Florida www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com. There is so much new information coming out about the importance of fascia and how much the quality of its health determines how we are feeling and living.
If you haven’t ever had a visual of this living tissue, I have found a great youtube clip that I would like to share here:
Fascia may not look like much to you, but this material is what enables you to support your bodies in everything that you do. This continuous fabric of life envelops all the organs, bones, muscles and allows communication and nourishment so that we can exist. This is very exciting that we are now looking closer at and understanding the importance of fascia in our everyday living.
Sharon Hartnett LMT, CST
(740) 966-5153 in Columbus Ohio
Certified Advanced Craniosacral Therapist integrating Structural Integration and CST to help you feel aligned on every level!
Lately, fascia is being touted as the new integrative approach to massage and bodywork. I am so happy to hear this news as Dr. Ida Rolf developed her work in organizing the human body back in the 1920’s, and it’s finally getting the notice it so much deserves. Since that earlier time, students who had studied with her over the years, trained, interpreted and opened various schools enabling this work to spread and improve healing for those fortunate enough to find this approach to evolutionary change. If you google, you can find the Institute for Structural Integration, The Rolf Institute, The Guild for Structural Integration the anatomy trains work by Tom Myers, and some new curriculums popping up with Massage Schools everywhere. Even more exciting, the valuable benefits of healthy fascia as experienced through Structural Integration, Craniosacral Therapy, and Myofascial Therapy is now being backed by scientists and clinicians alike. It’s thrilling for us Fascial workers who have been doing this work for years that fascia is now being recognized as a holistic system that can improve your life when optimized for efficiency. It’s time to discover and understand the potential of health and wellbeing within the global web of connective tissue.
So now do you want to know more about Fascia?
Fascia has been part of our body’s since the beginning of humankind. It has been the glue that holds us and connects us together. It is made of extracellular matrix containing: collagen fibers which contribute to structure, elastin which provides elasticity and ground matter which allow transport of material. Without it, we would be a pool of bones, and dried up parts lying randomly on the ground.
So why is it that we are just beginning to learn about it now?
Living with a healthy fascial relationship within the human body
While fascia is the living stuff that sets our three dimensional shape and form, it is not easy to see with its transparent silvery quality. For the most part, it has been dismissed as a major player in our health system until now. Fortunately, in the last 80 years, the word has gradually gotten out by manual workers that layering, spreading, balancing, and lengthening the connective tissue improves the overall sense of health. When it is in a restful state, the fascia stays hydrated, able to use its elements of viscosity, plasticity and elasticity to give us a strong yet bouncy movement throughout the body. It also nurtures the muscle spindle firing, and enhance nerve ending firing. The internal wisdom of the human body has distributed the fascial tissue with the correct amount of characteristics to keep us organized and functioning fairly well into our later years.
So What Does This Mean For You?
It means that not only is there experiential testimonials to the benefits of fascial work, but if you research on google, you will also see that the medical field is learning and verifying the positive results that clients have been feeling for years. In my practice I have helped many hundred of people by listening to the intelligence of their fascial body. With Dr. Ida Rolf’s teachings, many of my clients have completed the original 10 sessions. They walk away with a lighter, springier step as the pain disappears. For clients who are more interested in gentle touch, I tend to focus on the Craniosacral Therapy side of things. But along with working with this semi-hydraulic system, it is also necessary and practical to work with the fascial diaphragms and restricted areas as well. It is through the softer manipulation of tissue that chronic pain and dysfunction release easiest. If you are interested in finding more freedom in your movement and a spark in your spirit, check out fascial work by a certified massage therapist in your area. You’ll be happy with the results!
For more questions, Sharon Hartnett LMT offers a free 15 minute phone consultation to those in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Lately I have been getting calls asking if Structural Integration (SI) work is the same thing as Rolfing®.
So in order to clarify this, I have decided to write a short post on the subject. I hope this helps.
The Rolf Institute for Structural Integration
The Rolf Institute® blossomed as Dr. Rolf’s students began to branch out her work into the community and eventually throughout world. The original pioneers of this work called themselves, “Rolfers®”. The school and all its teachers did a great thing in expanding her education and healing work outward.
As with most types of bodywork however, the work began to evolve and different practitioners created their own new approaches to her foundational template. The next generation of Structural Integration Therapist. Thus, the spread of this craft based on fascial work sprouted new wings and took off in different directions.
Currently, there are many schools, some who keep with the original 10 series as Dr. Ida Rolf taught, and others with different formulas. These new practitioners call themselves “Structural Integration” Therapists because they attended the newer schools Also, the “Rolf®” name belongs to the Institute. But- what is similar is that all Structural Integration is originated from the original 10 series. The goal is to create better structural alignment and functioning and ease of movement for the clients.
Ida Rolf’s teaching
She found much success in this Structural Integration work because of the its wonderful ability to re-organize the connective tissues in the body which envelopes and contains all the working muscles, organs and just about everything within. Dr. Rolf established her 10 series “recipe” to be the foundation of this work to address the body from a superficial level to down deep in the core of the body. By focusing on a certain area of the body each session, the body learned how to let go of certain dysfunctional patterns from one week to the other, until they whole body began to relate to itself in a very new way without the habitual stresses from before. This is the whole of integration.
At Lighten Up Therapies in Columbus Ohio and Johnstown, Sharon Hartnett practices Structural Alignment with the basic 10 series as originally taught by Dr. Ida Rolf. She works with the same idea of moving from superficial to deeper, but now with a lighter touch. Communication is key with an ongoing dialogue to make sure the client is comfortable and able to move through the changes well. Connective Tissue massage (fascial work) is beneficial too and may be requested also in hourly sessions. It’s also helpful for people who want to continue their manual therapy on a regular basis.
There are different schools out there and “fascial” work seems to have taken root and is now being taught in regular massage schools. If you are interested though in the “original” series, make sure you ask to see if the work is the same. There are many Structural Integration Practitioners such as Sharon who have not veered off the original intent and have helped clients discover positive change. Dr. Ida Rolf created her work a certain way based on years of experience with great results. The recipe works!
Wishing you the best of finding the best Structural Integration Therapist for you in your area
* This is based on my opinion after conversations with other Structural Integrations who have studied at a variety of schools. If there are other opinions, please add to my blog.
