{"id":6696,"date":"2024-06-11T15:23:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/?p=6696"},"modified":"2024-06-11T15:23:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:23:06","slug":"what-is-rolfing-and-how-does-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/what-is-rolfing-and-how-does-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Rolfing and How Does It Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

New techniques are constantly being developed to help people improve their health and wellness. Staying up on these innovations can help you decide which ones to try. One that has been used by an estimated one million plus people across 38 countries is Rolfing Structural Integration. (1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

What Is Rolfing?<\/h1>\n

Rolfing is a bodywork technique used to reorganize the body\u2019s connective tissue, also known as fascia. It was developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf and is intended to help improve a person\u2019s posture<\/a>, thereby leading to healthier (and more pain-free) physical movement. (1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Fascia<\/a> is the thin tissue that holds everything in place inside our bodies. It keeps our organs, muscles, and bones where they belong, also surrounding and supporting our blood vessels and nerve fibers. While this is good from a structural standpoint, when we are stressed, our fascia tightens. This can lead to pain<\/a> and reduced range of motion. (2<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Principles of Intervention<\/h3>\n

Rolfing adheres to five principles that guide practitioners through its approach.<\/p>\n

These Principles of Intervention involve the concepts of: (3<\/a>)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Wholism. Rolfing operates under the notion that if you touch one place on the body, you can access the body as a whole. If a practitioner is working on a problem joint, for instance, they can also simultaneously work on joints a couple of connections away.<\/li>\n
  2. Palintonus. This principle involves the tension that exists within the body (and its fascia) that helps keep us upright, of which gravity plays a large role.<\/li>\n
  3. Adaptability. The principle of adaptability refers to preparing clients for intervention in a way that their bodies receive the approach, restoring it to its natural postural form.<\/li>\n
  4. Support. The basis of this principle is that you must organize (or resolve issues in) the legs first, before organizing the upper body.<\/li>\n
  5. Closure. This Rolfing principle is centered on the notion that intervention does not stop when the session stops. Instead, it is a process that leads to positive changes over time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How Rolfing Works<\/h2>\n

    Rolfing seeks to improve whole-body function by focusing on individual areas over 10 sessions, known as the Rolfing Ten Series. Each session is roughly one hour in length.<\/p>\n

    The focus of the individual sessions are: (4<\/a>)<\/p>\n