Anne Hoff: As we planned a theme around Practice Building for this issue, I felt it was important to discuss education. As much as it?s crucial to attend to business ? our websites, networking, marketing ? it is also important to continue to develop professionally, and there?s many ways that can directly or indirectly impact the growth and success of our practices. Karin, you take a lot of continuing education (CE) classes, and you also organize many classes for the Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) community in the Portland area. What are your thoughts on this?

Karin Edwards Wagner: Well, first I?d like to say that learning can happen every day in our practices, by being good scientists and observing which interventions worked, researching our questions, and simply paying attention while we are working. Classes are just one tool for learning. I definitely don?t take classes for the purpose of Practice Building, but rather as a natural outgrowth of my learning addiction. Potential clients often resonate with that professional curiosity and commitment to excellence. They interpret it to mean that if you don?t have all the answers, you will engage deeply with the process of learning about their particular case. It?s likely to be a better investment than working with a practitioner who is brilliant but bored.

AH: Absolutely! I think classes make for fresh energy for our work, and clients sense that. As far as Practice Building, you can work that implicitly or explicitly. Implicitly, you just trust that the expansion of your skills will draw in more people who can benefit from what you learn. I?ve taken three workshops in the past year, and while I can?t say it?s strictly cause and effect, I have definitely seen a boost in my client load over that period. To work it explicitly, you can put out a newsletter or write a blog post where you mention that you have taken a class and now have new skills in a particular field. Or you can contact a past client and say, ?I?ve learned something that I think might help with your issue, would you like to come in and try a session?? I tend to go more the implicit route, though I do sometime mention in a blog post something I?ve added to my skill set. What do you do?

KW: I do mention shiny new skills in my email newsletter to my client list, but only if I have capacity to handle the extra sessions that inevitably result. This is a great strategy for creating an opportunity to practice the class material. I often manage to book the week following a class with at least ten clients who are really excited about experiencing the new information. I do sometimes specifically reach out to past clients who might find it relevant. Since this is motivated by a genuine desire to help, people seem to find it thoughtful rather than pushy. Also, I post a list of all of the classes I?ve taken on my website, so potential clients can see how my knowledge base matches up to their needs.

AH: You mention booking the week following class to directly apply the material. I know that was the case when you came to Seattle to study John De Mahy?s lumbar-pelvic algorithm, that you had clients with pelvic issues lined up for your return. Do you tell clients ahead of time that you are about to take a class on a certain topic?

KW: In that case it was easy, because half of my clients have back or pelvic pain, so I scheduled those people for that week and everyone else had to wait a week ? although I used the algorithm to check all of them too.

AH: I think John DeMahy?s class is a good example of one type of CE: a very nutsand- bolts class with specific assessment and treatment skills that hone our ability to help with particular issues. I find that when clients get quick results to their presenting issues ? particularly when those issues are gnarly and have not been met with success from other modalities ? then they are quite likely to talk about it and refer their friends. So this type of CE class can really boost word-of-mouth referrals, once you are comfortable with the skill set. The material we learn in our basic Rolfing training, and of course taking someone through the Ten Series, can often solve clients? presenting issues, but it may take longer, or we may not get the results we would like. The very specific knowledge we get from these practical classes makes our work very efficient and enhances our ability to explain to clients exactly what is going on.

KW: Yes, those nuts-and-bolts classes probably have a more immediate impact on Practice Building, while other classes are about long-term skill development such as quality of touch, presence, how to strategize our work, and so on. This is more ?the art of Rolfing [SI],? and it encompasses everything that makes our work special and different from other modalities. While some classes have this art as their entire focus, others offer both nuts-and-bolts and more far-reaching skill sets. I?d say that?s true about Sharon Wheeler?s scar class, if only because it is intrinsic to how she thinks and works, and if you are watching and listening to her, there?s a lot to learn on that meta level. Ironically, I?d also say it was true for me with Jon Martine?s neurofascial classes, because learning to sense and work with the neural net was the catalyst for me to be able to jump to a more sophisticated quality of touch. It?s important not to get too content with the immediately satisfying tool improvements, but also to be pushing ourselves to grow in a larger sense.

AH: I would put the advanced Rolfing and Rolf Movement® trainings in that second category of ?the art of Rolfing [SI].? Although students may come home with a lot of very specific tools, to my mind these longer certification programs function as not just another layer of training, but as a new integration of our work at a higher octave of understanding and embodiment. And of course they are, on a very simplistic level, a practice-building step also because there are many clients who will choose a Certified Advanced Rolfer over a Certified Rolfer, or a dual-trained Rolfer / Rolf Movement practitioner over someone with just a structural background. I think we are blessed that the Rolf Institute® offers these trainings. In some cases they are virtually the only opportunity to study with senior faculty who have evolved this work beyond Ida Rolf?s legacy in a way that expands our domain while still keeping it uniquely Rolfing SI. What?s ahead on your CE agenda? I?m taking Sharon Wheeler?s cranial class and organizing John DeMahy?s return to Seattle to teach his cervical algorithm.

KW: I?m digging in for a fresh tissue dissection class with Jeff Burch and Todd Garcia, as well as the fifth and final class in Jeff?s Visceral Manipulation for Structural Integrators series. I hope to do another visceral class with Liz Gaggini when the time is right. And I?m excited to be hosting Lael Keen in January 2014 for her transformative Rolfing [SI] and Trauma class, based on the work of Peter Levine. Portlanders are also looking forward to Ron Murray?s fourth class, to be scheduled for 2014.

AH: Thanks for your time, Karin, and for all the organizing you do. It?s wonderful to have all these classes available in Portland!

<i>Anne Hoff has a Rolfing practice in Seattle, Washington, and has begun to organize Rolfing CE classes there. Contact her at anne@ wholebodyintegration.com to be added to the mailing list for classes. Karin Edwards Wagner keeps a list of SI practitioners who like to take classes in Portland, Oregon, and you may email her at [email protected].</i>The Relationship of Continuing Education and Practice Building