ABSTRACT The discovery of Piezo channels, mechanosensitive proteins that transduce physical pressure into cellular signals, formally validated the relationship between touch and proprioception. It is now clear that the manual therapist’s touch directly engages the same mechanosensitive pathways that mediate spatial awareness. For structural integration, this finding holds special significance, as it establishes proprioception as equal in importance to structure and movement. This new scientific understanding reveals how proprioception in structural integration through touch, combined with body-wide spatial awareness, forms a powerful combination. Given the complexity of spatial processing in relation to balance, systematic spatial awareness training may help optimize balance. To that end, the novel concept of propriosphere is introduced as a three-dimensional visual model around a client to establish spatial reference points for sensing balance. The author also develops the concept of propriosomatics, exercises and movements specifically aimed at improving proprioception. Using balance as the fundamental organizing principle, the Rolfing® Ten Series thus becomes a progression of spatial and neurological information that transforms postural organization, movement patterns, and sensory awareness.

ABSTRACT The notes taken by Byron Gentry in a class with Ida Rolf circa 1955 give a bird’s-eye view into the evolution of the Rolfing ten-session series (or ‘Recipe’) and the thinking of Dr. Rolf. Archivist Jeff Linn discusses the ‘Gentry Notes’ as the first historical documents that can be relied on in explaining the development of structural integration (SI) as opposed to what might be called hearsay evidence previously.

ABSTRACT We present a transcription of what are among the earliest available notes detailing Ida Rolf’s ten-session series, as she taught it in the mid-1950s under the name of Postural Integrity and as preserved by Byron Gentry, DC, an early student. The notes were re-typed for clarity, with introductory comments added and an image from the archival originals. Rolf and Gentry became great friends, and over the years shared a regular and voluminous correspondence. We include a scan of a letter Rolf wrote to Gentry, less for content than as a document of their friendship and mutual regard.

ABSTRACT This serves as an introduction to and commentary on the significance of the next article, “Fascial Tissue Research in Sports Medicine: From Molecules to Tissue Adaptation, Injury and Diagnostics: Consensus Statement.”

Author’s Note: This article is the second part of “The Art of Rolfing SI and The Art of Sculpture” which appeared in the March 2017 issue. In 1978, when I was thirty years old, I was in therapy (art therapy) and received the Ten Series. Almost immediately, my orientation changed from being an intellectual and a scholar to being a physical laborer, doing construction and furniture moving but also art and sculpture. In light of the theme of this issue, “Rolfing SI, Psyche, and Consciousness,” I decided to reduce my personal viewpoint from this article so that elements of transformation that I underwent might be understood more analytically and objectively. My personal aim is to understand what happened to me almost forty years ago and my hope is that this approach will illuminate for the reader the fascinating and mysterious relationship between SI and psychological growth. The artwork included is meant not to illustrate any of the ideas discussed but simply to record a personal journey and to evoke a feeling.