The Heirs of Ida Rolf

By Thomas Myers

Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf was an extraordinary person. Let’s start with that. Born in 1896, she was one of those giants of the 20th century whose life spanned the passage from horses to rocket ships, from the fountain pen to the Internet.

Known as “the face that launched a thousand elbows,” Rolf was a restless and intellectually curious person. Her formal academic gown clothed a spiritual seeker who roamed far and wide across the globe and through much of the territory of human knowledge and experience. A Ph.D. biochemist and researcher, she could have made her mark in any field she chose. Her own problems with spinal arthritis led her into the field of human structure, where her contributions are profound and lasting.

The influence of her work (which she called Structural Integration [SI], although it is still popularly known as “Rolfing”) on hands-on therapy was based on the nearly miraculous changes in both body shape and function that she and her students afforded to thousands of clients.* These results drew many massage therapists’ attention to the fascia. Today, her impact is visible in the many methods that now refer to “fascial” or “deep tissue” in their names or descriptive blurbs.

Before Rolf came on the scene in the 1960s, fascia was an unknown quantity outside medicine. Even within medicine, it was considered to be the dead stuff you scraped out of the way to get to the interesting bits. Today, the fascial net is widely recognized as “the organ of form,” as she called it, and although many people had a hand in this attitude change, Rolf’s crooked finger and stern voice were a large part of this transformation. To go back and read her original writings on connective tissue (a good exercise) is to hear a prophetic voice in the wilderness, a strong woman with a remarkable mission whose tireless efforts finally resulted in the paradigm shift she wished to see.

Even though much of the information she explained about fascia, and even a number of the techniques she pioneered, has been drawn into the mainstream of massage and bodywork, there is a core vision that remains unique to the world of SI and the schools that teach it (see box). It is this core vision that informs the articles in this series.

The remark I often get from therapists I meet on my travels — “Yeah, I do a little rolfing, too” — still sets my teeth on edge, because “a little rolfing” is not what Ida Rolf intended for SI. “A little rolfing” amounts to deep tissue work, or myofascial release, or even fascial stretching, but SI is rooted in a much larger vision: the “how” of the body unfolding — a truly alternative approach to bodily health and human development.

What all four articles in this series make clear is that the essence of SI is not the particular techniques or the depth with which they are applied. It is the system as a whole, the intention to take a body from one random (as Rolf would call it) place of balance to another more efficient, more aligned, more “authentic” (in terms of self-expression), and more integrated state of balance. It is this element — the evolution of the body’s structure described in each of these articles — that is responsible for SI’s lasting and progressive effects, not the individual techniques or the angle of approach.

In the years since Ida Rolf’s death in 1979, a number of schools, with varying links to her lineage, have developed curricula for teaching her program. Each of these schools has a different flavor — each “puts a different spin on it,” as Hellerworker Joseph Hunton puts it in Shirley Vanderbilt’s piece (“Hellerwork: Structural Integration for Body, Mind, and Spirit,” page 32) — and these differing flavors are reflected in the articles that follow. (You might also enjoy this author’s “spin” on Rolf’s recipe, which appears in the Anatomist’s Corner column on page 80.) Rolf’s work has very broad shoulders — broad enough to support the variety of ways in which her work is applied. We have seen trainings with a more spiritual intent and trainings with a more clinical bias. We find schools with a more osteopathic slant or with more of an orientation toward movement.

One of the variables among the “heirs of Ida Rolf,” highlighted herein, is the question of how psychosomatic material is handled. In both Vanderbilt’s article and Karrie Osborn’s article on Soma (Soma: From Ida Rolf’s Legacy to a New Paradigm for Structural Integration,” page 20), techniques are added into the mix specifically to handle any psychosomatic material that comes up during the sessions. (And “stuff” does come up, since your body is a perfect reflection — some would say an expression — of your feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Change the form and you change the function, and that extends to the feeling function as well.)

Others would say (this is implied in David Davis’ article [“An Open Universe: An In-depth look at Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration,” page 46], and I would argue for this point of view as well) that it is not the job of the SI practitioner to act in the role of a psychotherapist. Davis’ emphasis on the somatic expression of the spiritual journey means that SI can facilitate an increasing capacity of the body to handle its spiritual energy more completely. Increased emotional maturity naturally and simply comes along for the ride, along with many other aspects of the person.

Of course, different clients need different approaches, and there is, thank God, wide variety within the SI family. And in practice, the difference between these points of view is less than first appears.

Tracking the client’s somatic progress — which means being able to read such autonomic signs as breathing, sweating, color changes, pupil dilation, gurgling, and other subtle indications of somato-emotional release — is an essential skill for anyone involved in Rolf’s work. Her own approach to these issues was simply to be in the client’s presence, continue working, and let the client sort out his feelings on his own or with competent professional help. It was not her way to intervene with the client’s “story.” This elusive quality of “presence,” which is paramount in nearly every SI training program, allows the practitioner to be with clients in a compassionate way, to midwife them through the changes.

So whatever material comes up during the sessions needs to be handled sensitively, whether by explicit or implicit means. This “scope of practice” question within SI is thus a fluid one, and these articles show some of the range with which different practitioners and different schools are responding to this interesting and essential challenge.

As Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration becomes more widely known and practiced — and it certainly has become more popular in the last few years — more of these variations in the SI family will be aired. As all the schools work to define themselves in terms of their differences, these articles clearly show that the similarity outweighs any divergence or specialization. All show dedication to the transformational properties of human structure and the ability of Rolf’s insights and protocols as a fundamentally important new contribution to forge progress in both the art and science of human change.

* Rolfing¨ (as well as Rolfer¨) is now a legal service mark of the Rolf Institute¨, so the generic for this work is reverting to the name she gave it: Structural Integration.

The following schools offer training in Structural Integration. No claim is made here for the quality of any program named.

Chicago College of Healing Arts — www.chicagocollegeofhealingarts.com
CORE — www.coreinstitute.com
Guild for Structural Integration — www.rolfguild.org
Guild for Therapeutic Bodywork — www.guildbodywork.com
Hellerwork — www.hellerwork.com
Institute of Structural Integration — www.johnlatz.com
Institute of Structural Medicine — http://schools.naturalhealers.com/ism
International Professional School of Bodywork — www.ipsb.edu
International Zentherapy Institute— www.zentherapy.org
Kinesis Myofascial Integration — www.kmionline.net
Maitai Retreat — www.arvindpujji.com
Rolf Institute — www.rolf.org
Soma — www.thesomainstitute.com
Soma Institute of Neuromuscular Integration — www.soma-institute.org

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