What Did Dr. Rolf Want?
An Exchange Between Certified Advanced Rolfers(TM) Bob Schrei, Ray McCall, Jeff Maitland and Duffy Allen Regarding the Energetic Aspect of Rolfing® Structural Integration In the summer of 2007, an announcement appeared in Fascial Flashes concerning a workshop entitled “An Energetic Foundation for Rolfing” offered by Bob Schrei and Ray McCall and based on Schrei’s […]
The Living Principles of Osteopathy
In the late 1800s Andrew Taylor Still M.D. presented a unique and visionary form of medicine known today as Osteopathy. It is easy to underestimate the tremendous gift and insight Dr. Still brought to humanity. His gift was the result of profound suffering and grieving, having lost several children in succession to the likes of […]
Somatic Explorations
I have been doing hands-on structural work for twenty-five years now, first as a Rolfer and currently as an osteopathic physician. This journey would not be complete without acknowledging three people who guided me along the way. The first is my brother Michael Shea, who introduced me to Rolfing®; then, Peter Melchior, who was my […]
Rolfing SI in Its Relation to Osteopathy, Especially the Lineage of Visceral Manipulation Developed by JeanPierre Barral
In osteopathy the main aim is to find and release the “primary lesion” within an organism. This primary lesion is determined by the practitioner using a series of diagnostic tools with the aim of getting as specific as possible. Some of these diagnostic methods are: arcing, local listening, general listening and Manual Thermal Diagnosis followed […]
Pathophysiological Model for Chronic Low Back Pain Integrating Connective Tissue and Nervous System Mechanisms
[:en]<p> <img src=’https://novo.pedroprado.com.br/imgs/2007/828-1.jpg’> <p> SUMMARY Although chronic low back pain (cLBP) is increasingly recognized as a complex syndrome with multifactorial etiology, the pathogenic mechanisms leading to the development of chronic pain in this condition remain poorly understood. This article presents a new, testable pathophysiological model integrating connective tissue plasticity mechanisms with several well-developed areas of […]
Introduction to Dr. Langevin’s Research
There has been very little research in the past three decades on the relationships between connective tissue morphology and the central nervous system. Similarly, the role of fascia in musculoskeletal dynamics has been largely overlooked among back-pain scientists. The following article, by Helene Langevin, M.D. is therefore of particular interest, as it offers a model […]
Embryology: The Emergence of Function and Form
According to The New Webster’s Lexicon of the English Language, embryology is the branch of biology that is concerned with the formation of the embryo from conception through birth.2. This paper explores the science of embryology from the perspective of biodynamic craniosacral therapy (BDCST), and from the embryological research of Eric Blechschmidt. BDCST attunes to […]
Zen and the Art of Healing
[:en]It has been over twenty-five years since I asked my Zen teacher, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, “How do you heal people?” When this question arrived I had been practicing Zen for quite a while and making a living practicing a gentle, but highly effective form of manual therapy known as Rolfing°. Understandably, I was quite […]
Licensure: An Existential Dilemma
Is State licensure of Rolfing structural integration practitioners good for us? This is more than a practical question. It might be the turning point at an existential brink. To me, the answer is obvious. Not now. Not ever. No way. Granted, I assert an extreme position-perhaps because I’m a dyed-inthe-wool libertarian for whom some of […]
Ida Rolf and the Two Paradigms
The history of Ida Rolf’s early work in the field of biological chemistry, long before her creation of structural integration, has always been a very short story. A Ph.D. from Columbia, a decade of work at the Rockefeller Institute, a few papers published, and then she left the world of science, later taking a long, […]