A: I very much like working with children and work with infants, children, and pre-adolescents. In my Basic Training, during the auditing phase (yes, it was during that time, the ‘Stone Age’ of Rolfing SI), Stacey Mills – our Rolfing instructor – had organized an afternoon with children of different ages, from babies to children of eight to ten years. We did not receive many guidelines about what to do with those kids; what I remember is that we basically waited for the kids to come to us. The one who approached me was autistic, so I spent some time making contact.

Later, I attended a ‘children workshop’ with Anne Koeller Wilmking, a Advanced Rolfer™, pediatrician, and homeopath. There I got a lot of information about what to do with children and, most of all, what not to do: when it was not necessary to work because it was a simple developmental pattern. For instance, for flat feet there is an easy test that shows if the child’s feet are truly flat or not. Just ask the child stand up on his toes and watch if the medial arch appears. We watched Anne work on kids during the workshop, and it was very inspiring. Recently I took a class with a Dutch osteopath, René Zweedijk, about working with babies. It was also very inspiring, even if I haven’t yet developed confidence in working with newborn babies.

But I did have the opportunity to try to put his teachings into practice; the youngest baby I worked with was a six-month-old girl. How it came about was that an old client of mine came for postpartum work, and I learned that her baby was only sleeping for very short periods, two to three hours maximum. I told her to bring the baby and that I would try my best based on what I had learned from René. The baby felt asleep in her mother’s lap during my work, and it seems she stayed quiet all day. I have not heard more from them, because they live in Belgium.

Another episode I remember very well was an eighteen-month-old boy who was walking with one foot inverted and, because of this, often stumbling. Here I used very helpful information from Anne’s teaching. Sessions were about forty minutes, with about fifteen minutes of ‘real’ work – as the child sat on the floor playing with his toys or looking at color books; as he sat in his mother’s or my lap; with me walking behind him, waiting for him to pause . . . After five or six ‘sessions’, his foot was straighter and, most important, he was not stumbling anymore.

In working with infants, I’ve always loved the way they negotiate with me and my touch, without words. The boy I just mentioned, I remember once I was working in the area of his hip rotators (meaning him sitting on my fingers for a few minutes – or seconds) – until he turned his head, looked at me, and pushed my hands away. He seemed to be saying, “It is done.” And it was done. So I’m waiting for a sign of “Yes, do it” in a smile, and respecting when the child communicates that “it’s over now” by, for example, changing position.

Working with children who have gained verbal skills has taught me a lot about their creativity; they describe how they feel with superb and concrete clarity, as in this exchange:

Me: “Do you feel any difference between this part of your thorax where I just worked compared to the other?”

Roberto: “Differences? Not at all!”

Me: “Do you have images of your thorax?”

Roberto: “Of course: this is like the sun and that like the moon.”

What I found very often with children is that even if there is a tough place in their fascial system, it rarely hurts. If they complain, I stop and change something in the QQDDD (quality, quantity, direction, depth, duration) of my touch. Or I simply work somewhere else.

I also found that working with children often requires working with the parents, particularly in the case of girls (mainly) and boys with scoliosis. Parents are worried, concerned, and they would like to see their daughter or son “straight.” On the other side, the kids receive a clear message that something is wrong within themselves, and sometimes they have a lot of confusion because they feel healthy but have to see doctors and finally meet this Rolfer who is going to change their body and they don’t really have any need for it. So I normally tell the parents that the work will ‘work’ better (or only) if the kid wants to change, and understands what to change. The kid may see that s/he has one shoulder lower than the other, but doesn’t feel crooked, and then s/he has to wear a corset for the scoliosis which pushes her or him into a weird position, so s/he resists . . . and the fight starts. I start with a few Rolfing sessions where I aim to establish rapport and work to enhance the adaptability of the child’s structure. When s/he starts to understand and embody the work, I ask the child to bring the corset. Then the work is having the client sitting in front of the mirror and moving, shaping so that the spine untwists, until he or she feels, sees, and perceives the difference between what if familiar and what is possible. Then I ask the child to put on the corset, feeling the places where it rigidly pushes the ribs or pelvis or lumbar spine. I invite the child to allow the corset’s push, without resisting, and evoke with my hands the sensation that we got before, the untwisting of the spine. With this, an armistice can take place.

Normally kids start and complete the work, but that does not mean that they receive the Ten Series. I almost never follow the ‘Recipe’ with these young clients. I tend to work where the ‘problem’ is, with my Rolfing eyes and Rolfing touch, to help gravity to flow. A couple of times it has happened that I ask a child, “Do you really want to continue? It seems to me that your mom is wasting her money and time,” because I could not see or perceive any change and/or interest in changing. There was an unspoken conflict between the child and the parents, and it was between us in the work, preventing the child from accepting the work and receiving it in his or her body to let go of a pattern.

What really touches me is when one of these individuals comes back several years later, now a young man or woman.

Sometime working with adults, it seems to me that I see and feel the memory of their childhood in the shape of the cranium, in the pattern of the breath, in the shape of the feet.

Pierpaola Volpones Rolfing Instructor Rolf Movement® Instructor

A: In most of my client intake interviews, I ask about the birth process and the mother’s health in pregnancy. Particularly, there are a few main issues that I may need to address when ‘working’ with infants: 1) birth-lie patterns / craniosacral strains; 2) breech babies, and medical intervention including cesarean births, forceps / vacuum extraction; 3) umbilical shock (including wrapping) / intestinal distress (colic). I’ll go into more detail below. For the session, I’ll most often ask the mother to lay down with the infant (supine) at her side as I work. Mother and babe are one.

Birth-lie patterns and cranial strains: There are always strains to the cranium as the fetus works her way through the birth canal. Due to the unique shape of a mother’s pelvis, the fetus’ birth-lie position, medical intervention, or hours in labor, there can be extreme cranial pressures and/ or shock to the newborn. These pressures induce a shock response in the fetal cerebrospinal fluid, cranium, and axial complex. An infant may have experienced strong compressive forces accompanied by a sense of ‘emergency’ in the birthing room. If an infant’s cranium shows strain patterns, gently work to ease the vectors of impact the cranium reveals. Understand his or her birth-lie pattern. Gently work to reshape the cranial bones and gently engage compressive force vectors, opening pathways that may be impinging on cranial nerves needed for sucking, swallowing, and orientation to sound. The vagal nerve complex and its branches need to have a clear pathway. (Compression of the occipital condyles to C1, occipital base to sphenoid, temporal bones, as well as the sacral-occipital connection through the spinal cord and vertebral column are considerations in treating infants. I feel for the midline emergence through the system from coccyx to fontanel. Often with that intention the infant’s small and responsive system realigns itself.

Umbilical shock / colic in infants: 1) An overlooked impact in infants (continuing through adulthood) is the incidence of umbilical shock. If the cord was wrapped around the fetus through pregnancy, if the environment surrounding the pregnancy was toxic due to drug or alcohol abuse, rape, or other impacts, or if the cord is cut before pulsing has eased, there may be shock to the intestinal and respiratory systems and often sleeping problems in the infant. 2) Umbilical shock is often at the root of colic and other intestinal problems continuing through adulthood. Around week five or six of embryological development, the intestinal system begins developing outside of the embryo due to the ‘lack of room’ within the abdominal area. Through a process called physiological herniation, the mid-gut loop rotates about 90 degrees counterclockwise around the axis of the superior mesenteric artery into the umbilical cord. Around week ten, the intestines return to the abdomen. I have found issues related to this process, as well as the shock of cord-cutting, to be present in many adults as well as infants. When considering the elements and goals of a traditional Fifth Hour Rolfing session, this embryological information can play a key role in understanding the dynamics of an individual’s digestive concerns.

To go into this a bit more, I’ve noticed that many adult clients have abdominal issues even though they may not identify their complaints as digestive disturbances. In palpation, I feel for tight, hard, or knotted internal structures versus an easy motility spiraling around the fulcrum of the umbilicus. There is a difference between toning of the belly musculature – transversus and obliques – and hardness of the intestinal wrappings within; these are distinct layers. Surgical scarring, adhesions from menstrual cramping or illness, issues of anorexia/bulimia, or/and other medical interventions can impact intestinal resilience over time. Umbilical shock can be an aspect of abdominal/digestive issues. This ‘shock’ to the system is not necessarily tied only to birth, but can occur from a variety of insults to the gut and respiratory system; and it is not limited to how we process food or complications from medical traumas: we are nourished or starved in our emotional relationships; we have to ‘digest’ environmental stresses. (After the 2016 U.S. election, individuals were pouring in for sessions with the complaint of feeling nauseous and overly stressed.) In these situations, recognizing the possibility of umbilical shock and integrating a depth of motility around the umbilicus seemed to address their concerns. The umbilicus is not just a physical manifestation. It is the connecting cord to our world, to our origins and ancestry. It is a potent site along the central channel and anterior midline of the body. The umbilicus functions as a fulcrum for intestinal motility. Threading through the intestinal looping is the vagus nerve, providing neural communication to the entire system. When the umbilicus is free to function as the orienting center for the intestinal track and mid-gut development, it ignites the system with potency and vitality, supporting instinctual knowing from the brain within the belly and contributing to integrated wholeness.

Breech birth, and medical interventions in the birth process: 1) Vacuum extractions have replaced earlier forceps interventions. Both are shocking to the fetus (and continue to hold cranial/neurological impact into adulthood). Emergency measures performed at birth often interrupt secure attachment and bonding of infant to mother. The oxytocin flow is often interrupted due to the drugs and pain of these interventions. In vacuum extractions, an abnormal force is placed upon the fetal cranium. The great cerebral aqueduct is sucked headward. Membranous strains from this force may prevent the aqueduct from returning to its normal position and may interfere throughout the lifetime in the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid and healthy function of the third and fourth ventricle. 2) I find that children born with C-section (cesarean) births need to complete their passage though the birth canal. This may take the form of an infant wanting to crawl through and around the mother’s legs, pressing through narrow passages, or pushing his head into physioballs or walls. Completion of the head-to-tail relationship is crucial for orientation through his lifetime. 3) Breech births produce compressive forces on the temporal bones and may lead to ear and Eustachian tube problems and hip-joint considerations.

Carol Agneesens Rolfing Instructor Rolf Movement Instructor

A: I see between two to three kids per week in my practice. I started working with children and babies in October 1971. Dr. Rolf asked three of us, Ron Thompson, Jan Davis, MD, and me to help with the children models in the class. The first kid was Ida Rolf’s model Timothy, four years old; he had cerebral palsy. After several sessions of work, his father came in with a list of twenty-seven or more things that had improved as a result of the Rolfing work. Since then, Ron, Jan, and I have all continued to support each other with difficult cases.

My most challenging baby was a three-month old, brought in by her grandmother. The baby had been two months premature and could not swallow – she was fed through a tube inserted directly into her stomach. She had been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital for about a month. After doing some upper respiratory work, I did a frontal release, then went into her mouth and, with one finger, did an upper palate and vomer release, which helped her breathing and helped to release her olfactory nerve. I then worked the tongue and gently assisted the jaw in hinging, along with the facial intermedius nerve and glossopharyngeal nerves. My thinking was that because she was unable to swallow or vomit, I needed to work to connect along her throat to ‘hook up’ the tenth cranial nerve. There is compression and decompression of the skull in a vaginal delivery, and sometimes the complex of the frontal, ethmoid, sphenoid, vomer, and maxillae doesn’t align properly after birth. I was aided greatly by studying the work of Harold Magoun, DO, as well as by A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth by D.M. Ranly. After about three sessions, the baby was able to swallow and suck and breathe normally.

I once flew out West to help a three-year-year old who woke up crying from pain. I observed that he was happy while moving but was uncomfortable when lying down. The father said his son needed cranial work, and that’s where I started. I found that the boy’s parietal and temporal bones energetically and physically pulled my left hand down toward his first rib. I discovered the root cause, which was a high first rib and tight scalene muscles, which were contributing to the tug and pull on the parietals and temporals. I did some ‘first aid’, and worked for two sessions. He has slept normally ever since, and it’s been about twenty years.

Jim Asher Advanced Rolfing Instructor (Emeritus)

A: Based on my own experience, I have never thought that one should avoid doing Rolfing work with someone in her family. (I have heard from others, however, that in some cases it is best to leave this work to others.) Training to become a Rolfer when my son was thirteen was perfect timing. He had the banana-shaped pubescent posture and I needed to practice. I also enjoyed the added benefit of being in close touch with my son, who was slowly rejecting sustained physical contact. I proceeded to do the ‘sacred’ Ten Series on him, and his posture and appearance of maturity were dramatically changed. The pictures (see Figure 1) were key for him: he could see, in these fragile years of fluctuating self-esteem, that he really did ‘look’ better.

When doing Rolfing work with family, one has to be ready for outbursts and truth-telling, and be able to avoid being drawn into the usual family triggers. My son would yell out, “Mom you are hurting me,” grab my hand, and try to stop me. It actually was great information and taught me to work in different layers better than anything else.

Since he went on to become a professional soccer player, he taught me what was needed in the legs for agility and strength. Now I understand better athletes and their drive and need for perfect and efficient movement. The ruthless honesty of family kept me clear with my own work.

I have always thought that being a Rolfer is a radical act in that it takes tremendous presence and honesty and the ability to leave one’s own needs and ego somewhere else. It is a constant practice. To work on people you love is even more of a practice in not having an agenda and in listening. It is a beautiful time of being close again to a grown son, a husband in need, and now grandchildren who constantly ask for me to do Rolfing work with them. My ten-year-old grandson has asked me at times to help him find balance in both legs when he is walking. They never say, “Give me a massage” – it is Rolfing SI that they understand.

Straying from the theme of Rolfing SI for children but keeping with the topic of Rolfing SI for one’s family, I was present for the labor and delivery of both grandchildren, working with their mother to ease sacral and low-back contractures. Providing Rolfing work to her throughout her pregnancy meant listening to where the strain was happening to keep her upright and adaptable to the growing shape of her belly and pelvis. Knowing where to avoid deep work (groin, belly, feet) and not triggering any early labor, but also being able to help get labor going, are all parts of the ability to work with pregnancy and labor. The rib cage undergoes tremendous strain and pressure. This is a great place to keep ‘letting out’ as the pregnancy progresses.

Figure 1: Valerie Berg’s son after the Second (L) and Eighth Hours (R) of the Ten Series.

And doing Rolfing work with my brother, who has ALS and is completely quadriplegic, is fascinating. I have no idea what it is doing in terms of fascia, since the motor neurons are dead and he cannot move. But the sensory neurons work, thus he can feel everything I do. His words to me are, “You have no idea how incredible it feels for you to touch me that deeply.”

I am humbled and honored to be able to look at my family’s bodies and touch deeply and quietly in a way that benefits body, mind, and spirit. It is a gift that my family has access to, and it requires that I get quiet and pay attention to them in a way that doesn’t happen often enough.

Valerie Berg Rolfing Instructor

A: I think it is important to consider that the fetus and infant experience gravity through the body and movement of the mother. This sense of gravity provides the basis for a coherent sense of self. My thoughts are inspired by studies with Hubert Godard, the work of Esther Thelen, and parenting my daughters.

Fully functional by gestational week twenty-one, our vestibular system is our most developed sense at birth. Almost instinctually, we cradle and rock infants to calm them; this also stimulates the vestibular system of both baby and caregiver. If we imagine dialogue to capture the infant’s experience when cradled and rocked, it might be, “I am okay, soothed, safe, not falling down – I am alive, secure in my environment.” This sense of safety through movement awakens an early sense of orientation and autonomic regulation, essential for the development of self and agency. Movement touches us deeply inside, and the quality of the experience matters.

Therefore, if I had to choose only one focus when working with caregiver and baby, it would be the quality of the cradling and rocking experience. To some, this movement comes very naturally – to others, not. Without awareness and intervention, we may unconsciously manifest the quality of our own early childhood experience. However, through autonomic-nervous-system regulation, gentle coaching, and encouragement, this can heal and transform. Some key areas to consider are: 1) the caregiver’s gravity center over the base of support in connection with the ground; 2) the quality of ‘listening touch’; 3) shaping the caregiver’s body to support and meet the infant’s shape; 4) an inherent calming rhythm; and 5) a sense of flowing motion and breath. A goal is for the movement to feel soothing for both caregiver and infant. A necessary pre-condition is for the practitioner to refresh his or her embodiment of ease with gravity prior to the session and to work without judgment – the entire experience and environment must be one of encouragement and acceptance. In a sense, the practitioner must cradle the caregiver who is cradling and rocking the infant.

Sessions with pregnant women and new mothers with babies offer rich opportunities for artful engagement with key dynamics of gravity, movement, and relationship. I encourage those with interest to pursue this avenue of study and application – it’s meaningful work!

Rebecca Carli Rolf Movement Instructor