Milree Keeling, current member of the IASI Board of Directors, and Carrie Gaynor, former Board member, are serving as co-chairs of the 2012 IASI Symposium committee.

“Beauty rides on a lion. Beauty rests on necessities.
The line of beauty is the result of perfect economy. The cell of the bee is built at that angle which gives the most strength with the least wax; the bone or the quill of the bird gives the most alar strength with the least weight. ‘It is the purgation of superfluities,’
said Michel Angelo. There is not a particle to spare in natural structures.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson(1)

Emerson might be said to have been describing tensegrity in his essay on Beauty. This year’s IASI symposium is connecting practitioners, schools, and the community, finding the strength in our profession’s long lines of tension and integrity. Each one of us adds to the strength and beauty of our beloved practice of structural integration.

We know what integration feels like, looks like, and why it matters so much to our clients. We have a harder time explaining it, since it is so highly personal. It is both a state of being and an activity. It unifies body, mind, and spirit, or is the wholeness that results. Our practice of structural integration is a diverse craft. The multiple ways we understand it are like a rich tapestry, with many threads converging—integrating— to present a meaningful whole, more than the sum of its parts. The theme of the 2012 IASI Symposium is “Integrating Integration: Gathering Our Strengths.” The IASI Board and the Symposium Planning Committee envision a gathering that celebrates the depth and breadth of structural integration’s evolution and offers the opportunity to braid them into an integrated whole. We face urgent challenges that call us to come together as an integral profession.

Mainstream cultures remain largely innocent of the knowledge and benefits of structural integration, so we have the continuous task of spreading the idea far and wide. Structural integration techniques are widely used by other professionals without an integrative focus. Lawmakers and regulators readily define us as a subset of therapeutic massage. Now is the time for us to gather our strengths to meet these challenges. We have profound strengths. We have 19 recognized schools, five major branches of our central paradigm (Rolf Institute of Structural Integration® [RISI], Guild for Structural Integration [GSI], Hellerwork,® Student Osteopathic Medical Association [SOMA], and
Kinesis Myofascial Integration [KMI]), a professional organization, and a certification process. We also have a legacy of gifted teachers and practitioners, a cadre of brilliant writers and multimedia producers, and an emergent theory of how the connective tissue functions that is generating prolific, often elegant research. Best of all, we have a steady stream of students wanting to expand the availability of structural integration to people all around the world. We must stand together to use our strengths and build our place in the universe of human well-being and growth.

Using What We’ve Learned

IASI surveyed members in 2010 and learned that promoting SI as a distinct profession is most important to members. Practitioners want a truly international organization. They also want IASI to promote skills and competence in practitioners and schools. The Board wants our Symposia to move us toward these goals. We envision the IASI Symposium as a premier educational meeting for our members, educational programs, supporters, and potential students. We used these priorities to guide planning for the 2012 Symposium. We’re introducing some new things, and we’re already looking toward 2015, when the Symposium will be held in conjunction with the Fascia Research Congress.

What’s New For 2012

IASI-recognized schools will play a larger role in the 2012 Symposium. We are inviting professionals from related disciplines such as physical therapy and massage to join SI practitioners in workshops and events that highlight our professional schools. Faculty from many schools will also offer pre- and post- Congress workshops.

Within the Symposium, participants will be able to choose from a great lineup of skilled SI teachers for 3-, 6-, 12-, and 15-hour hands-on workshops, so you can learn one skill in-depth or sample a variety of topics. The workshop presenters are graduates and faculty from the Rolf Institute®, the Guild for Structural Integration, Hellerwork International, the International Professional School of Bodywork, theInstitute of Structural Medicine™, the New School of StructuralIntegration, and Kinesis Myofascial Integration. Many of the workshops associated with the Symposium will qualify for IASI Type 1 credit. Type 2 and Type 3 credit workshops will also be available, including topics particularly useful to structural integrators from related disciplines. The participant-selected workshops are all offered in addition to two great keynote presentations. Gil Hedley, well known for his dissection work that reveals the body’s internal beauty and grace, and Michael Murphy, a practitioner with 37 years of experience, will respectively offer the opening and closing keynote addresses.

In addition, vendors will have a wide selection of books, tools, and trinkets to view and sample. This is an excellent opportunity to find items that can enhance your practice.

At the 2010 Symposium, Don Hazen was spontaneously honored for his Lifetime Achievement in Structural Integration (see article on page 61 of this volume). Based on positive feedback from members, the IASI Board of Directors has decided to establish permanent recognition for outstanding careers of service in structural integration. Members will have the opportunity before the Symposium to nominate practitioners for two honors, the Lifetime Achievement Award and the SI Trailblazer Award.

One of the benefits of attending a Symposium is the opportunity to converse and collaborate with colleagues, making new connections and reinvigorating past relationships. Short presentations and roundtable discussions will be included each day to generate new conversations and new perspectives on practice, education, business, and politics. The Party will also give practitioners time to mingle, network, laugh, and relax with friends new and old. In addition to dinner and dancing, southern Californiastyle, the event will include an inspiring program as the SI Hall of Fame Awards will be presented.

On to 2015: Building for Our Future
We are very excited about this Symposium!
Despite our best efforts, we can’t achieve everything we have dreamed of this time around. We are going to maintain momentum and begin planning for the 2015 Symposium as soon as we return from San Diego. Your feedback from this Symposium will help us make the next even better. In 2015 we will converge the Symposium with the fourth Fascia Research Congress, and will focus on making the Symposium relevant and accessible to our international members. The goals are to increase our reach and build on our network to draw more participants so we can develop tracks of study with multiple ways to learn, grow, and maintain CE credits.

IASI’s mission is:

• To advance and promote the highest professional standards for structural integration
• To preserve the foundation, and support the continued evolution of the art, science, and philosophy of structural integration
• To represent the interests of structural integration professionals to the public, regulatory agencies, and other professions

The Symposium is our premier event to showcase SI to the world in support of our mission. On behalf of the IASI Board, we look forward to meeting, connecting, and speaking with members in person at
this next Symposium. YOU are the beauty and heart of SI, the profession that “knows fascia.” Please come to San Diego to grow with us!!!

Reference
1. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Beauty. The Harvard Classics. 1985. (pp. 304). Danbury, CT: Grolier Enterprises Corp.Looking Forward to the 2012 IASI Symposium[:]