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 For this issue, some of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute® (DIRI) faculty members share: their approach to working with hands and arms, when they encountered DIRI training regarding hands and arms, and the evolution of how they currently approach teaching hand and arm territory in the classroom.

Editor’s note: Rolfers who trained in their own language in an established region – for example, at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (RISI) in Boulder, Colorado – perhaps can’t quite fathom the additional effort many of their colleagues went through to learn the profession, whether facing the challenges of a language barrier or having to organize their own trainings. Many Rolfers practice alone here and there around the globe, but to galvanize a region to the extent that the profession is established and grows takes a massive homegrown effort and great dedication, as illustrated in this account of the development of our profession in Japan.