Editor’s note: In January 2024, Wolf Wagner, PhD, submitted an article to Structure, Function, Integration for publication in the June 2024 issue. He wanted to honor his friend and colleague, Dr. Hans Flury (1945-2023), by publishing the notes he took during a lecture that Flury gave in 2014. Sadly, we are now publishing this article posthumously, with the blessing of his wife, Renate “Male” Mueller. MaryAnn Skillman has graciously written a few thoughts about Wolf’s legacy. His article – The High and the Low Road: A Reconstruction of a Dr. Hans Flury Lecture – follows. We extend our deepest condolences to Renata “Male” Mueller, Wolf’s wife, and all his friends and family.

Editor’s note: To celebrate the career of Rolfing® Instructor, Larry Koliha, we have a collection of writings from those who knew him well: Bethany Ward, Kevin McCoy, Brett Linder, Neal Anderson, and Russell Stolzoff. We extend our deepest condolences to Bethany Ward, Larry’s wife, his children, and all his friends and family.

Editor’s Note: To honor the legacy of Dr. Maitland, we have: (1) A reprint of “The Tao of Rolfing” by Jeffrey Maitland, PhD, originally appearing in this publication, on page 1 of the 1990 May/ June (volume 18, issue 2) when we were called Rolf Lines. (2) A collection of remembrances by colleagues: Jan H. Sultan, Michael Salveson, Peter Schwind, PhD, Pedro Prado, PhD, Tara Detwiler, and Russell Stolzoff. We extend our deepest condolences to LeeAnn Maitland, Jeff’s wife, his children, and all his extended family and friends.

ABSTRACT Holism and reductionism both play a role in the philosophical origins of healthcare. In this article, Rolfer® Alan Richardson compares the holistic nature of Dr. Ida Rolf’s work and philosophies with the reductionist methodologies of allopathic medicine.

ABSTRACT This case study is of a client who had bilateral mastectomies and then had a five-session series of Rolfing® Structural Integration, a fascial-focused therapy. The client, JD, was a thirty-nine-year-old breast cancer survivor who had had six surgeries and radiation to treat breast cancer. The treatment protocols included scar tissue release, proprioceptive mapping, and fascia release techniques in the Rolfing paradigm. Positive results were observed with regard to an increased range of motion in humeral flexion returning to a normal range, and the pain was alleviated.

ABSTRACT Elisa Jane Noel, former Board Chair of the Guild for Structural Integration, talks about her mentor, Emmett Hutchins (1934-2016), with Editor-in-Chief of Structure, Function, Integration, Lina Amy Hack.

ABSTRACT Author Briah Anson speaks about her forty-five-year career as a Certified Advanced Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner. Lina Amy Hack interviews Anson about her 2023 second edition of Rolfing®: Stories of Personal Empowerment. Anson is passionate about getting the word out to the general public about the health and vitality that people experience after having Rolf’s work. Her books feature how she has been able to support the growth and recovery of people of all ages, from infancy to older adulthood. Also, her love of animals led her to develop an expertise in working with animals of all kinds, including horses, dogs, birds (wild and domestic), and one cougar named Brent.

ABSTRACT Talking about his book Assessment and Treatment Methods for Manual Therapists (2023), Jeffrey Burch reflects on his years of studying and teaching manual therapy techniques. A lifelong learner, Burch discusses Dr. Rolf, osteopathy, and developing his manual therapy toolbox. Interviewer Jeffrey Kinnunen asks Burch to differentiate some manual therapy terms: direct/indirect, barrier, lesion, adhesion, and restriction.

ABSTRACT In this interview, Rolfing® instructor Marius Strydom presents his path to becoming the first Rolfer in South Africa and his spatial approach to the work. Strydom explains how space is subjective for each person and that Rolfers invite inquiries into their clients’ perception of space by asking about what they are specifically experiencing. Developing a broad perceptual field for both internal body space and the space around one’s body helps people stay in the present moment and have the possibility of a new body experience.

ABSTRACT In structural integration, practitioners pay attention to the client’s body orientation in space, how they move on the ground, and the qualities they have when organizing vertically in gravity. Taken all together, there is a resonance as to how a person orients to their outer world and their inner world. In this article, Jörg Ahrend-Löns describes this resonance in relationship with developmental and structural responses to gravity. He presents the postural triangle, where the foot is considered a sensory structure intimately involved in organizing a person’s structure in gravity, alongside the vestibular and visual systems. Several examples are presented. Ahrend-Löns explains how to access feeling resonance with breath and how structural integration is, in a way, translating the resonant language of the body so that clients may have more freedom of movement and a deepened sensitivity to staying in the present moment.

ABSTRACT Rolf Movement Instructor Hiroyoshi Tahata offers a method for Rolfers to bring spatial awareness and attunement into their sessions by working with ma – the empty space and time in between people. By tracking his internal sensations, Tahata describes turning the practitioner’s presence into an instrument of change for the client. Instead of focusing on taking all stiffness away from his clients with manual interventions only, Tahata writes that he prefers working towards suitable tone to help clients experience spaciousness and comfort with ma. He presents the Resonating Tensegrity Model designed by Yasushi Kajikawa and the exquisite balance that is possible when a person lives with suitable tone in their body. He presents three case studies to illustrate this practice. Working with ma offers the potential for working remotely with Rolfing clients, which is discussed. Tahata reports that tracking a stress biomarker in the client’s urine offers correlational evidence that using ma does reduce the oxidative stress of the client’s physiology.

ABSTRACT Advanced Rolfing Instructor Jan Sultan outlines his definition of gravity, informed by physicist Dr. John Archibald Wheeler and founder of Rolfing Structural Integration Dr. Ida P. Rolf. According to Sultan, Rolf would talk about the ‘Line’ as a logo of relationship as a teaching tool for practitioners to think about mass, density, and gravity. Rolf taught that humans have a tropistic urge, an innate sense to go away from the planet. Yet Sultan urges Rolfers to think beyond Newtonian terms to Wheeler’s spacetime definition of gravity, where spacetime grips mass and mass grips spacetime. This leads Sultan to inquire if the mind has mass.

ABSTRACT Jan H. Sultan offers an overview of nerve work from a structural perspective. He describes how the work of physiotherapist David S. Butler and osteopath Jean-Paul Barral, DO, has led the way to understanding the role neural connective tissue manipulation can play in facilitating recovery from many chronic pain symptoms. Sultan maps out some ideas about nerve structure, cranial nerve paths, and the ligamentous nature of some people’s neural tissue. While Jeffrey Burch is also a structuralist, his discussion focuses on giving insight into his process of treating nerves. As a well-studied manual therapy technician and author, Burch has a few thoughtful examples to consider and where to apply caution.

ABSTRACT In the first “Meet My Rolfer®” column, Lina Amy Hack interviews her Rolfer, Dean Bergstrom. They discuss Bergstrom’s practice in Terrace, British Columbia, Canada, and how he went from being a logger to a Rolfer. There was a time that Bergstrom had a Rolfing® RV where he and his wife Sue Bergstrom did a seventeen day circuit offering Rolfing sessions and Skillful Touch Massage sessions to their region of Canada. Bergstrom and Hack talk about how they met and became colleagues.

ABSTRACT Researchers Andreas Brandl, DO, and Robert Schleip, PhD, Rolfing® Instructor, discuss their 2023 peer-reviewed publication about the increase of microcirculation observed in thoracolumbar fascia after a myofascial release protocol. Study design, measurement tools, and application for manual therapy practitioners are considered.