Judith Aston-Linderoth

Shonnie Carson

Shonnie Carson: My first question for you, Judith, is how and when did you meet Dr. Rolf?

Judith Aston-Linderoth: I had had two rather serious car accidents in 1966 and 1967. In one of them I was braking and someone going more than fifty miles per hour rear-ended me. This left me in a great deal of pain and flexed over. I was teaching movement, dance, and fitness at a college, and I was also doing classes on the weekends in La Jolla at Kiros. It was kind of like a New Age, Esalen-type center and Fritz Perls and various people were also doing workshops there. I became the ‘movement lady’ on the weekends, and so I was asked to do the movement for Fritz Perls’ workshop. One of the leaders there, Dr. Tom Munson, was a psychiatrist and he got me involved in his work assisting his patients to understand what was happening in their bodies and therefore how they could listen to their bodies to make sense of what was going on. Dr. Munson said, “I know you are still having a lot of pain from this accident and no one seems to be able to help you. I’ve heard of a white witch named Dr. Ida Rolf. She’s going to be coming to Esalen to teach a class this spring [1968] and I think you should see her.”

So off I went to Esalen. Dr. Rolf was working down at the baths in a little room doing her sessions but she has no cancellations. So every time she opens the door I’m sitting on the stairs and she says, “Not you again,” and I say, “Well I’m just waiting until you have a cancellation.” Then the day goes on and the next day I’m there also. She opens her door and says, “Listen, be here tomorrow at two o’clock and I can see you.”

Ida had done her homework about me somehow. Maybe she had asked people who is this strange person sitting on my doorstep, because when I had this first appointment with Dr. Rolf (and Dr. Rolf did all of my Series, by the way, which was a treat) she said, “I understand you design movement programs,” and I (hesitatingly) said, “Yes” (like how did she know that and why?). And she said, “Well I wonder if you could create a movement program for my work?” I said, “Really?” and she said, “Yes, structural integration.” I said sure, because one of the things about me is that this whole life I’ve always looked at things in a certain, evidently creative way and I’m always trying to create something that makes things better, faster or more efficient in some way. That’s what I had been doing for the college. They asked me to create a movement program for athletes, and for the theater department, and for the students, music department, etc., and so I did.

SC: Did she ask during the first session or after or during your ten sessions?

JAL: This is during the first session. Dr. Rolf always got to the point. So the first session was truly amazing. I had been to all these doctors and the last one said, “Well I think really you should see a psychologist because I think your pain might be there.” I’m thinking, “Well I’m really miserable. I am co-leading workshops with a psychiatrist and he’s the one who led me to Dr. Rolf.” In the first session as she worked, and I’m a wuss when it comes to pain, it hurt. But as soon as she stopped it didn’t, and I could feel the difference immediately, immediately! It was like whoa, this is amazing! Then she’d do more and oh my goodness, some of the pain is reduced! And then more work and then even more of the pain was gone. This was interspersed with Dr. Rolf saying, “Well, I’d have to train you.”

SC: So you have some understanding of what we are doing [we are both laughing at this point].

JAL: I said, “Oh, uh huh, ok.” In designing previous movement programs, I would just go and watch them perform or play golf or whatever it was they were doing, and I could see, because of my mathematical tendencies, common denominators between what they were doing, and what their coaches were saying they weren’t doing, and I’d quickly start to design the movement. So this was a new thing that she had to train me. She said, “You’re too small, you’ll never make it in the field, but I need to train you so you know what to do.” And I said, “Oh . . . Okay.”

The reason I will never forget this happened in the first session is because I had plans to go to Europe in a few weeks and I was pretty excited because it would be my first time. She said, “The class starts in mid-June, and I said, “Oh Dr. Rolf, I won’t be able to come, perhaps another class. I am going to Europe and I am so excited!” She said, “No, the class starts June 12th.” I said, “No, no, Dr. Rolf, I’ve been really planning this a long time and I don’t know that I could change it.” She said, “CHANGE IT!” [we are both laughing again] and I knew I had to change it, so I did and I was there. That was my first experience with Dr. Rolf. SC: How old were you when you met her?

JAL: In my mid twenties.

SC: And your background was in?

JAL: My background was in quite a few things, all to do with movement. I had a BA and master’s from UCLA in dance education and fitness/physical education. My aptitudes were mainly anything to do with math and abstract thinking. When I was in high school I assisted with a class teaching blind students so I learned Braille, and the teacher asked me what I wanted to do. I said be a flight attendant. [We are both laughing again.] The teacher said “No – why?” I said because I wanted to travel. She said “You can travel anytime, what’s the matter with you, your aptitudes are all in math, you could be an engineer!” And I said, “They have lady engineers?” [laughter] So that’s where I was in 1959 – “They have lady engineers?”

SC: [laughing] Yep, I can relate.

JAL: I immediately went to school and started studying the new math, which was like playing games for me. But then I got into dance and movement more and my teacher at the time told me I should really think about going to UCLA dance department. So I did. I met Juana de Laban, Alma Hawkins, all these amazing teachers. My thesis in 1965 was about movement as communication, be it dance or everyday movement or stillness. I was fascinated with how people expressed the same emotion depending on their culture.

So when I started teaching at the college in 1963 I became fascinated with movement, all aspects, then communication, then teaching, observing how people taught. I was intrigued to find that the secondary education degree I received was not so helpful. My techniques of explanation, demonstration, intimidation were not working. I observed this idea that people don’t learn on the ‘no’ – they learn to freeze on the ‘no’. They don’t take it in. So in 1964 I changed my whole teaching around to teach people on the ‘yes’ and I saw fantastic results. All of these things led me to work with this psychiatrist with his patients about movement, communication, and emotion and that’s where I was.

SC: And then you met Miss Ida.

JAL: And then I met Miss Ida.

SC: I am interested in your observations about her work. What was your experience of the work when you received it from her and when you went through training? How did that feed into all of these perceptions of movement that you’ve been telling me about?

JAL: Well, Dr. Rolf often taught on the ‘no’. [Begins some funny imitations of Ida and we are both laughing.] “What’s the matter with you man? No don’t do that! Line up – who’s got the worst pelvis? Ok, trainees pick – who has the worst pelvis? I will give a session to them.” I was an auditor. Ed Maupin was in that class, Will Johnson . . . It was in the ‘Big House’ at Big Sur. I learned I saw bodies differently from her. Dr. Rolf knew the musculature, the anatomy, and I saw the space. She saw in terms of anatomy and I see in terms of space. When I would say I saw a pelvic tilt on the left she would say, “Yes, that’s right, it’s a tight psoas, why don’t you just say that?”

I also had another role in that first training. I became Dr. Rolf’s ‘Girl Friday’. I got her groceries, drove to Carmel to drop off and pick up her cleaning, ran errands, kept her schedule, etc., and then between I audited. I say that because at the time I wasn’t really a very gracious Girl Friday. I had never had that role and I think I would be much better at it now with life’s lessons. I also loved Dr. Rolf and I very much wanted to help her in any way I could, but some of those tasks felt like they were taking me away from what was important. But, never fear, I connected Rosemary Feitis to Dr. Rolf! SC: [laughing] Well now there’s an interesting little factoid I was not aware of!

JAL: [laughing] Early on, Rosemary used to tease me once in a while and say, “I’m not sure I’m happy that you got me into this.” Rosemary really changed things.

SC: When did you find Rosemary?

JAL: In 1971. I taught the first class in a house she was renting, and I introduced them. She was such a gift to Dr. Rolf, their brilliant minds together and what they could achieve. I’m sure one of the disappointments that Dr. Rolf had with me was that I didn’t know enough about the world of music, books, people, etc. or the latest artists in classical music, and you know Rosemary would know all of those things. Dr. Rolf and I actually had a very strong bond and I would be a source of entertainment for her. I like to laugh and create humor and she had this wonderful laugh that just changed the energy of the room to the most wonderful thing ever.

SC: With my nature I’d be making every effort to elicit that and I bet you were too.

JAL: Yes, yes. The next training was not until February in Los Angeles. What happened on the last day of that first class, she waited until everyone left then she walked out to the car with me and she said, “I’m not going to take you on.” WHAT! And she said, “No, you’re just too small, it won’t work.” And I said in my sarcastic way, “You didn’t know this two days ago or last week or six weeks ago?” She said, ”I’ve decided now.” And I said, “Well you’re wrong.” So in the next six months I managed to gain about ten pounds, I went to massage school, and then I was teaching massage at the college, and I became the person who would sign off on Rolfers to complete their massage requirement. I heard she was coming to LA in November 1968. So I walked in to the motel, there were quite a few people around her, and I walked in with my best Rolf ‘Line’ and my Rolf walk with full payment in a check.

SC: Yep, there it is! [We are both laughing because she is doing this wonderful demonstration of something I used to see everyone in the Institute do back then, which was a rather stiff walk with elbows out, knees straight forward, etc.]

JAL: I handed her my check. This is what she used to do when you finally would get to her, somebody would pester her and pester her. If it turned to ‘yes’, this is how she said it: “Okay, Okay, Okay!” So I said, “I take that as a yes.” She said, ”Yes,” so I said, “Okay I’ll see you in February.”

JAL: The training happened at a hotel right there on Sunset by UCLA in February 1969. Emmett [Hutchins] audited that class. She didn’t tell me before, but when I got there she told me that I would do my private sessions (with clients) in another room under the supervision of Dorothy Nolte. She said Dorothy specialized in working with small women and children. On the last day of class she said to me privately, “You know Dorothy has a movement program, perhaps you should do that.” Well I had no idea where this was coming from and I said, “Oh is this a new program?” She said, “Oh no, no, she’s been doing it for years.”

I went to work with Dorothy, we became pretty good friends, and I think I had two sessions with her. Then I called Dr. Rolf and said, “It’s beautiful work [I think it was called Structural Awareness] but it’s not at all what I have in mind. So you need to tell me what you want. I want to create a program of movement forms that will teach people how to take care of themselves, so they can apply it to their running, their yoga, their fitness, and use it in whatever task they want to do. It’s going to apply to all of their life. It’s going to teach them ways to use the body in everyday living. So just let me know now, yes or no.” Significant pause, then she said “Okay, okay, okay.” I said, “What does that mean?” She said “Okay, go create.”

As I was putting the program together in either late 1970 or early 1971, Dr. Rolf was going to be in the same vicinity and she came to watch me work with students. I showed her how I had taken her movements and integrated them into things that were being used, like pelvic tilt forward and backward, arm movements, thumbs up thumbs down, etc., which I think may have come from Dr. Rolf’s study of Mensendieck work. I created a rather extensive program and in 1971 I trained ten people in that first ten-day class. This created the movement education department for Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI), and as the head of that, I became a board member. Emmett Hutchins and Peter Melchior were training with Dr. Rolf at that time to eventually solo teach the structural trainings.

SC: Can you remember who the students were?

JAL: Sharon Wheeler, Gael Rosewood, Marya Melchior, Faith Hornbacher, Elisa Lodge, Annie McCoombs, Lynn Johnson, Bill Williams, and Douglas Wallace. Others who did the movement certification before I left were Richard Schultz, Heather Wing, Megan James, Elissa Johnson, Mary Bond, Richard Wheeler, Joseph Heller, Linda Krier, Elizabeth McIver, Lynn Blake, Roger Pierce, and many others. By teaching all the movement certifications and teaching movement classes for all Rolf practitioners, I probably had the opportunity to work with three hundred students. I do remember that when I asked Dr. Rolf about her interest in my class she said, “Well, I realize that it will give the wives of the Rolfers something to do and it will promote the work.” What! I remember thinking, “Oh, Dr. Rolf, that is not what this is meant to be, this is so much more than that.” But maybe that’s why she said yes. I don’t know, but it showed the attitudes of that era.

SC: When I moved to Boulder in 1972 I was in the process of finishing my Ten Series with Emmett and I had several sessions with the two of you together.

JAL: Yes, I remember you from then.

SC: I was trying very hard to finish all my requirements for training. I wanted to make sure they couldn’t turn me down for anything. The movement person I worked with was Marya Melchior and I remember those things you are describing, the arm rotations with the thumb and the small finger, the head rotations, and a series of leg and foot movements that actually changed my entire structure.

JAL: Many people told me how useful it was. I saw that you had to individualize the work for each person and I have taken great pride in being able to teach people about teaching. So as soon as I finished the first class, I was busy changing it to the next piece, and it grew from one week to eight weeks. I’m so glad Dr. Rolf brought fascia to everyone’s attention. I am better at seeing and questioning how fascia can be tugging on everything. Dr. Rolf said, “You should teach seeing.” I agreed. I could teach people how to see body relationships and then how to use their body mechanics for doing the work. I created a four-day class, Movement Analysis, and I traveled around from 1971 to 1977 teaching these classes, they were required in the training. There were times when Ida and I were teaching in the same location and I would assist if she was doing a training class, so I was involved with several of the trainings.

One of the things that pleased me the most was that in the Big Sur house early on, probably 1972, she was sitting next to me in class watching sessions and she plopped her hand in my lap. I started working on her hands and fingers, she had very strong arthritis, which is why her work didn’t hurt the same way. She was having everyone use straight fingers, 90-degree pressing in, to do the work, and her fingers, because of the arthritis, couldn’t do that. So through the years her work became more ‘round’, which was good. Here’s the piece I wanted to mention. She asked me to stay after class and work with her and I did a whole session on her. Well, I was so honored. I think I did a number of sessions on her when we were in the same location like Florida, New Jersey, some of the other places. I didn’t see her regularly. Her son Dick was the person she saw for regular work and I think Emmett later on. I remember one time she gave me a check and I really didn’t want to cash it because I just wanted to frame it [laughing], but I needed the money so I cashed it. She did give a nice photograph of her to me inscribed “To Judith Aston – spirit of movement” (see Figure 1). That was very special to me.

Figure 1: Ida Rolf’s gift to Judith Aston.

SC: What a nice thing.

JAL: As I was doing this work between 1971 and 1976, I was having all these ideas about working with people and their bodies. I began to discover if I could get [practitioners] to incline their bodies [so they] were more angled instead of perpendicular in the work, the tissue would open more easily. I started bringing in all these ideas. The ideas were very well received for the most part because the client experienced less pain and the practitioners less wear on their body, particularly their fingers and knuckles. There were jokes from practitioners saying, “Do I have to give a rebate because I don’t feel like I’m working as hard. Are the clients getting their money’s worth?” I said, “No rebates, I think it is being more effective.” I was discovering all of these things about getting to point A by going into the body just an inch and going in a circuitous route to go through what I now understand is fascia. I figured out a way to spiral through tissue to get to bone. I could work the periosteum. But people wouldn’t think they were getting deep work because it didn’t hurt as much. I felt because I was working on Ida surely she would have said if she didn’t like what I was doing. But maybe she thought I just couldn’t get it, I didn’t weigh enough, and she’d just let me be. Perhaps the idea she had early on that you had to really dig to make a change would no longer be as relevant to her now, but they were theories at the time.

SC: When did you decide to go out on your own and why? I think that is what you are coming up to now.

JAL: Yep, that’s where we are. I had created certain movement designs, for example that would be useful for the legs, arms, etc., and those were taught. But I kept finding that as I looked at the individual I needed to tailor the movement for that particular body and its specific issues. If someone came in who did white-water kayaking, I would listen to what he did and how he used his body and develop a specific movement for him. Or if a woman had a hysterectomy or C-section, I discovered later that perhaps the surgeon being right-handed or left-handed would affect how the incision was made and how the different layers were sutured together and they would have some extra tissue that was tucked under, etc. I would have to address those specifics with different spiraling moves at different layers to affect the patterns accurately. I would share these discoveries with the next class, and the work kept expanding.

SC: As it should be.

JAL: As it should be. I was teaching people, for example, my discovery that I don’t believe the 90-degree plumb line is accurate to the Earth – I’m sorry Dr. Rolf, I know it’s a medical model as well. I deducted that if we are aligned and centered over the malleolus, and that is at 90 degrees, then that would center our weight over the back half of the foot. My quick wit made me think that maybe we were supposed to have an aft foot, and maybe this is the problem. But if we change the plumb line to run through the front of the ankle hinge and use a slightly open stance, then this would distribute the weight of the body more evenly through the front and back of the foot. I should point out that Dr. Rolf’s cueing for alignment was to stand with your feet close and straight ahead, knees soft, waistline back, chest forward and up, elbows facing out to the sides, chin in and top of the head up.

I began to change the position to a more open stance. When your weight comes slightly forward of the malleolus and centers on the whole foot, you feel less torsion in the tissue particularly around the hips to lower legs. Rolfers would say to me “Heresy! You are actually in danger of getting in trouble now, Judith.” And I would say, “Well, just try it and you will feel the difference. Stand and put your feet close together, facing straight forward, centrally aligned over the malleoli and transfer your weight from one leg to the other, and then do the same thing with the feet in a slightly more open stance and you can feel the weight comes forward and the difference in the tissue around the upper and lower leg.”

My ideas started expanding like crazy: the way I thought, the way I taught, and exercised. It started changing everything. When I added the idea that the body is supposed to be asymmetrical, well now I was in even bigger trouble. In 1974 I had a session with a young boy who had drowned in a pool, was rescued, but lived within his stiffened body until he was five years old. When I looked at him I immediately saw negative (blank) space behind his neck, on one side, etc. So I ran to get blankets and pillows and I used them to support those spaces. He relaxed somewhat and blinked his eyes as if to thank me. [Then] I started to work and I tried my Rolfing work, stretching, pulling, static contraction, on and on. I tried everything I knew and I felt like he was just getting tighter. I decided to form my hand to match his contracted hand and just listen. As I listened I could feel the tissue start to unwind, and I would follow and it would release, and when I stopped his hand and arm were slightly more open. Again he did the eye blinking, perhaps to say yes. I hoped it was an indication it was helping. It felt as though we were communicating, and we had a wonderful session together with a lot of change.

Sometime later walking by the water in Tiburon looking all about, I stepped into a hole and sprained my ankle. It felt like a bad one. So I tried the above techniques on myself, to honor what is, to match it, and unwind it by going in reverse of the injury sequence. I realized by working with the functional pattern through movement, it changed and neutralized significantly, leaving me with the actual injury instead of the reaction to the injury. It was manageable and I walked home.

By 1975-1976, I was making a distinction between functional holding patterns and structural holding patterns. Functional holding patterns are more easily changed through movement, rest, meditation, etc. Structural holding patterns needed handson work to release rather quickly. But in teaching, I was working with people who had not had the Ten Series, and both the students and I could see how much they changed by releasing the functional holding patterns. Why not do that at the beginning of the session so the Rolfer knows exactly what is left in the structural holding pattern that needs to be released? I started exploring asymmetrical spiraling as a way of negotiating balance between functional and structural patterns. I remember Dr. Rolf said to me, “Don’t have the people you train work with anyone until they have done the ten-session series.” People were getting nervous for me.

SC: Because you were flying in the face of current thinking?

JAL: Well, probably. I was not hiding. I was sharing my explorations and discoveries as they came along. In 1976 I organized a rafting trip on the Colorado River with sixteen Rolfers, and the first night I laid down on my little mat with my pillow and I couldn’t sleep because I was so uncomfortable. The next night I took all the clothes out of my backpack and used them to fill in all the empty spaces as pillows for my neck, shoulders, etc. and I slept like a baby. I realized this might be happening with clients when they were on the table. Instead of being supported on their side or on their stomach, they were in lying in certain compromised positions that added stress to their bodies. This had me working on positional tension instead of their true body tension. I began to use pillows with clients to support them in their available neutral while they were getting work. So I start teaching this to others and people were appreciating the information. I also developed some pillow designs for people to specifically use for body supports. In 1977 Dr. Rolf had an advanced training for the faculty and someone said (I realize now they were just pushing me), “Judith, show Ida your body supports.” I said, “Later,” and Dr. Rolf said, “Yes, show me.” So I took a deep breath and thought, well here goes.

SC: Into the breach.

JAL: Yes, into the cauldron [rolls her eyes]. I started demonstrating and talking about my thinking and techniques. I’m watching her and she was looking more and more tense, with a very hard expression. The angle of her head was changing and her triple Taurus was about to charge. She said, “You stop that! You stop that now! Stop pampering the client! I’m telling you if it’s not hurting [causing pain], you’re not getting it!” End of story. That was it. When she said that, I was shocked that I had missed that bottom line as I had found a way to work so deeply and it didn’t have to hurt.

JAL: In 1977 or early 1978, evidently an article came out that I believe was connected to the Humanistic Psychology organization. I say this because I don’t exactly know, but I think there may have been a connection as earlier that year I was invited to be a speaker at the Humanistic Psychology convention. I never saw the article. It evidently said something like “Judith Aston, an originating genius, has created soft Rolfing [SI].” The reason I know about it is that I was a board member of the Rolf Institute and head of the movement department, and suddenly the board was having meetings without me and I was called in. The head of the board said to me, “We are all originating geniuses, why are you getting this attention?” I said, “I know nothing about this, I had nothing to do with this. What are you accusing me of?” The head of the board [assumed I had been interviewed, which was not the case]. It was evident that these people gathered at this board meeting because of the article [that I had nothing to do with]. One of the board members said, “Well show us what you do and we’ll tell you if it works.” I said, “Oh you guys, I know in advance you are not going to like my answer, I would have to train you for you to be able to evaluate it, and I don’t think this will happen.” It deteriorated from there. There were many tears and many meetings called in the background.

SC: So did you just resign and walk away?

JAL: So here’s the thing. I had no plan to move out on my own. That hadn’t occurred to me. It was done for me. Dr. Rolf hadn’t asked me to change her work, so I had to look at that. Through the spiraling work I was making it less compressive and less painful, but that was not her request. Recently, a Rolfer wondered if because of her biochemistry background she had an idea that you had to sustain pushing in order to ‘melt’ tissue and change the chemistry of it, and that’s the first time I thought about that viewpoint. It was a harsh reality for me that it was what she wanted me to do, because I was getting such fantastic results with this other way of working. Being small I learned how to use movement and leverage (mine and theirs) to work as deeply as was needed.

SC: With this work you were doing, you were able to get good change as with Rolfing work, that could be demonstrated photographically? And the results were sustainable?

JAL: Yes, not only were they sustainable, but with the movement work they could continue to improve on their own. I was also getting a lot of positive feedback from clients and practitioners about the changes. Depending on what layer is adhered, you may have something else surface next, so it is an ongoing process.

SC: Yes, I understand that. So now here you are swimming in the world outside of the Institute JAL: Yes, it was ugly.

SC: I have no doubt. Was there some movement to try to discredit your work?

JAL: Yes, and me. A member who was very angry with me sent a letter that should have been personal to me, with many negative destructive statements, and the Rolf organization decided to mail it out. It was very traumatizing. I had to get an attorney and file a suit for slander with a request to retract statements that were being published.

SC: That’s unfortunate. One of the most important questions, at least for me, is what have you learned from that? I think that things like that don’t just happen randomly, there’s a lesson there.

JAL: Always. Always, always. Being alienated from Ida was painful. The ‘boys club’ of the board members were speaking for her and I felt that she was put in a position of not being able to communicate with me or support me even if she wanted to. I realized later that perhaps she realized she was coming to the end of her time here and needed to make her organization stronger before she was no longer in charge. I realized that after all that had happened, I was creating too much stress for the Rolf organization. For myself, I felt limited to create within the current model of the Rolf paradigm, and if I changed one more thing, it would be a different paradigm.

SC: Was part of the lesson that you had to be independent and stand on your own with your work?

JAL: Well yes. I called her after it all happened and [said] I was sorry it had turned out this way. She said, “Judith, the world is certainly big enough for both of us.” I thanked her. But because I was made out to be such an awful person, creating too much upset for Dr. Rolf, I didn’t make contact again. When Jim Asher caught up with me in 2007, he said, “You know, Ida used to talk about you a lot when she was near her death.” I said, “What? Why didn’t you call me?” He said, “Well I thought you weren’t speaking to her.” I said that a wall had been created by the actions of the board and I didn’t feel I could contact her. I would have flown to New Jersey to be with her. It was so sad for me because I loved her so much.

SC: What came next for you?

JAL: From 1976 on I was teaching Aston Patterning®, teaching people from all different kinds of professions. I would help them learn to ‘see’ and palpate, and I developed a system of notation I called ‘body mapping.’ I had many rewarding classes with Rolfers. After I left [the Rolf Institute], the movement people I had trained regrouped and formed Rolf Movement. It was a big lesson for me. I realized I just needed to take a leap of faith and follow what was coming to me. I suddenly felt like someone had taken this cement hat off my head and I couldn’t stop my creativity. I was inventing products like shoes, chairs, all kinds of things to help people. By 1983, I had 175 [inventions] I presented to a patent attorney, and he said, “Well I have good news and bad news. I believe you have discovered a law of nature. The bad news is it is really difficult to patent.”

SC: My very last question is what are you most passionate about now?

JAL: One of the guidelines for my life has been to listen to things that invite my interest or my skill to help others. Lately the surgeries and mutilation I’m seeing, particularly with women and breast surgery, has sparked me to create a program that will be taught online. Our non-profit is applying for a grants right now to fund the design and filming. Most cancer survivors do not know how much they can reclaim and recover their bodies when they do movement, and even better with bodywork. They usually have some physical therapy after surgery. But one needs to be able to work with the three-dimensional body – I have written and spoken about my theory of viewing the body in a ‘360 by 360 degree perspective’ – not just the linear view of it. So I’m very excited about this project. I have seen the results from the pilot program. I have about twenty-five projects on my list to get done, so I am winding down my teaching and traveling in order to do that. I’m most grateful for the curiosity and skills I have been given and the ability to help people in this life. I have always had such appreciation for Dr. Rolf introducing me to the magic of the body, for helping me to heal, and giving me a lifetime of inspiration and ways to help others. Thank you, Shonnie, for your interest and for asking me to share my history within the Rolf history.

SC: Well, Judith, I am most grateful for this wonderful time I’ve had with you sharing history, and I think this is a wonderful place to end this interview. Thank you so very much.

Judith Aston-Linderoth is widely recognized as a pioneer in the art and science of kinetics for her discovery of the Aston® paradigm and consequent development of Aston® Kinetics. Aston Kinetics is an educational system of movement, bodywork, fitness, and ergonomics that aims to treat each person’s body as unique and customizes the work to match. Rather than enforcing physical symmetry, Aston Kinetics seeks to recognize which asymmetries are natural to a person’s body and how to maximize their use. Early in her career, from 1963 to 1972, Aston taught movement, physical education, and dance for performing artists and athletes at Long Beach Community College. In 1968, at the request of Dr. Ida Rolf, she developed the movement education program for Rolfing SI and taught this program for nearly a decade. Aston is an author and inventor of an array of ergonomic products and movement programs. She continues to teach Aston Kinetics training and certification courses. For more information, visit astonkinetics.com or contact Aston Kinetics at [email protected].

Shonnie Carson, RN, BS, ANP, BCSI, Certified Advanced Rolfer was trained at the Rolf Institute in 1981. She has studied with most of Ida’s original teachers/students. She had a full-time practice in Seattle, Washington for twenty-four years and now practices in Phoenix, Arizona. She has served as a member of the Rolf Institute’s Law and Legislation Committee, a member of the IASI Board of Directors, and Vice-Chair of the Certification Board for Structural Integration. She can be contacted at [email protected] or www.mybodyworks.com.Spirit of Movement[:pb]Spirit of Movement[:]