CYNTHIA ALLEN WRITES:

“Treatment with Dr. Ida Rolf, June 23, 1969”
I arrived via several helping hands and strong backs in the living roan where Dr. Rolf teaches. There were about ten students there having a coffee break. They seemed an unusually open, friendly and supportive group.

Dr. Rolf looked me over and said that she was sure I could at least be lighter and move easier. She asked about the disease and the extent of it.

Dr. Rolf started working on my back while I was lying on it, this apparently being to loosen my ribs so I could breathe with my upper chest (instead of just mostly my diaphragm). I could feel it loosen and could take easier breaths. Then she worked on my pelvis, to make it rotate easier. I could feel the tension in my muscles change in the pelvic area over the hips. It was as if my hips were rotating in place. The result was that I would twist my pelvis more freely. She also manipulated inside my right pelvis which gave enough nerve excitation so that I could flex my right hip. I felt truly more than 50% committed to life.

Dr. Rolf commented that I was the opposite of the other people the class had seen, the others were held rigid externally with a soft core, while I had a strong core, but was relaxed and not cohesive externally.

As the treatment progressed, somebody observed that my body looked more like a woman’s body. As it became easier for me to move I got very happy looking and I felt that everybody was with me. I felt that I would get light enough to be able to walk reasonably easily with braces and crutches.

The whole experience left me physically tired but internally tireless – rather like taking dexadrine – but finally I relaxed, and really slept.

The next day, (June 24) my arms and shoulders were very tired. I didn’t feel I should drive on the mountain roads. I was exhausted by the time we arrived in L.A. As I mused, I could feel the feelings of clumsy ineptness and gaucheness I had felt when I was 14. I could feel how important standing was to my leaving childhood behind and taking responsibility for my self.

On June 25 I stood up and was able to balance with one crutch for three minutes (2 minutes longer than before). My legs were more relaxed. I found, too, that I could sit with my knees uncrossed and my buttocks against the back of my chair without falling over. It felt exhilarating. There were many mood swings from exhilaration to depression. I felt more sexual feelings. I felt more open, but I had to work to maintain the open feelings.

On June 26 I felt much the same but my lower back was hurting and I had to resume my usual sitting for relief. There was some moodiness and crying.

On June 27, the fourth day after the treatment I felt good until I saw a riend -then I was high with delight. The standing was still good, but my back was beginning to freeze up again.

Now, as I write this, two and one half weeks post treatment, I still have greater freedom of the pelvis, and more motion in my spine. I can stand and sit straighter, but tire easily when I try.

**Miss Allen is a paraplegic, paralyzed from the 4th thoracic vertebrae down since she was 14 years of age. She works for the L.A. County Rehabilitation Center. Paralyzed for over 20 years, she has not been able to walk for core than 10 years.

(It should be noted that Miss Allen intends to write a sequel to this report after her 10th hour of work in the Rolf method. Her practitioner, Emmett Hutchins, disclosed that after her 4th hour she walked about 20 feet and up 5 steps. Ed.)

MICHAEL MALLET WRITES,..

Before “Rolf” I approached every task with a feeling of uncontrolled urgency, and so dissipated a lot of my energy in hasty and excessive effort. I work calmly and efficiently now, the feelings of constant pressure no longer there. I no longer suffer from constant painful anxieties and worry. I move slower, drive slower (I used to speed constantly)…

As you see (my handwriting has changed). I write in a straight line horizontally … I used to write in an upward slant. This has been explained in terms of a corrected relationship to gravity. (Also) I noticed, in comparing my handwriting with samples from a year ago, that my handwriting is more contained, more patient, and more deliberate.

Of course I’m going through a period of readjustment as well as re-appraisal. I’m relearning to walk, relearning to breathe. (I used to be a “mouth breather”) Learning to breathe upward through my chest instead of through my abdomen will take some time. I sometimes forget and regress. I’m learning to sit up straight in a chair, walk erectly, etc.

This is something intangible, but I feel “healthy”. I feel as if I have a new body, a new nervous system, and a re born spirit. I feel as if my spirit has been “liberated”. I don’t know how better to state it. I don’t understand it, and I don’t know what to make of it as yet. I experience a feeling of exhuberance at this new-found freedom.Post-Impressions