Dr. Ida Rolf Institute

Structure, Function, Integration Journal – Vol. 47 – Nº 1

Volume: 47

Q: In the Ten Series (the ten- session series or ‘Recipe’), Ida Rolf created both a pedagogy for Rolfing SI and a template for taking SI into clinical practice. Please  share   your  thoughts on the Ten Series as both a practitioner and an instructor. Do you use the Series strictly? Do you adapt it? Are you a heretic? What do you see as its beauties and its limitations? How do you guide students in decoding all the Series has to offer?

Pierpaola Volpones Rolfing Instructor

Rolf Movement® Instructor

My  Rolfing   education   began   when the Ten Series was simply called the ‘Recipe’. But already at that time there were at least two ‘recipes’: one for the so called ‘internal’ structure, and one for the ‘external’, following on the typology observations of Jan Sultan. Then, during my Advanced Training with Michael Salveson and Jeff Maitland, we were exposed to the nonformalistic approach: recipes disappeared and the Principles  of Intervention emerged. That was a very challenging and instructive time where I was experimenting with how to strategize sessions based on body reading and speculative images. Where do I start? What do I do next? When am I finished? On good days, cortical thinking and intuition were working together; other times they were fighting each other . . .

Then Hubert Godard brought in a very convincing explanation of why we do what we do, for instance, why we work the hamstrings in the first session of the Ten Series. The body’s relationship with gravity is the fulcrum of the whole process of the Ten Series. Hubert’s tonic function theory reveals the ‘gravity project’ for the client. The different strategies that people adopt to live in gravity are in the foreground of the Rolfing playground.  The questions of “How does this person stand and walk and breathe  according (or not according) to gravity?” and “How does fascial organization support that project?” are the basic questions to be asked and eventually answered through the work. Our task as Rolfers is to ease that relationship with  gravity,  facilitate  it, finding options to recognize and remove lesion and inhibitions. From this perspective, the ten sessions offer a clear, logical, safe container where client and Rolfer can explore habits and functions.

In my personal journey through the Rolfing world, at a certain point I was invited to assist at a Basic Training. The Godard approach was very helpful for me in explaining to students why we do what we do in our practice. The question, “How do we do what we do?” was relatively clear thanks to my practice as Rolfer, but the question, “Why do we do what we do?” is more complex the moment we discover that the Ten Series is not a ritual to be followed hour by hour.

During the project of training new Rolfers, I find that the Ten Series, with its goals and territories, is a very smart method to transfer the knowledge of Rolfing SI in its great variety of techniques, philosophy, art, and science. The Series give us a track to learn and explore. Through the session-by-session body reading, the various interventions, and evaluation of the results, we can embody, understand, and teach how to read bodies and people and work with them through the very smooth progression the Series provides, journeying from sleeve to core to integrating.

In my private practice I use all of  the tools in my toolbox. I use the Ten Series process with  some,  and  with  those  who are not available to engage to that extent or come with a very specific need  I use a more  goal-oriented  mini-series of interventions. (Those clients look to Rolfing SI to fix their symptoms, so they come and go whenever they need help.) To me, being ‘client-oriented’ means meeting the client; so if my client needs some fixing intervention, this is what I do, without losing my Rolfing/gravity-related/ holistic approach.

 

Jörg Ahrend-Löns Rolfing Instructor

It seems so simple – to put a whole world of ‘fascia-nating’ theory and ideas into a practical frame of ten sessions – and how complex it is if you really go into it! And how genius to relate simplicity with the complexity of the human body in gravity in such a way that generations of Rolfers are still using it. Why? Because the ten- session series gives orientation and structure on the one hand, and enough freedom to develop and express the individual capabilities of each practitioner on the other.

The frame is simple – a three-dimensinal body in gravity – up-down, front-back, side-to-side, and superficial and deep. The ground on the bottom, the space above – air to breath, legs to walk. Gravity. Simple. And the ability to sense, to feel with your hands and your body in gravity – creating relationship with the one you work with.

I remember Peter Melchior, in the auditing phase of my Basic Training back in 1990, expressing his perspective that he was a craftsman. It resonated in my body, and still does – this specific connection of living conditions (humankind in gravity) and art. I very often perceive this connection as a dance.

The freedom of the ten-session series allows helpful perspectives of understanding movement and its coordination, fascial anatomy and physiology, and even psychobiological phenomena. It remains the umbrella under which we integrate structure.

The ‘ingredients’ remain – the Recipe as well – but the ‘dish’ is new every day!

 

Thomas Walker Rolfing Instructor

Tom Wing was one of my  teachers  in my Basic Training in 1987. I was living in Boulder at the time, as was Tom, and I was so excited about what I was learning that at the end of my training I asked Tom if we could have lunch and talk about Rolfing SI. He, in his very kind way, said, “Practice the ‘Recipe’ for five years and then I’ll have lunch with you.” I regret that Tom   and  I  never  have  had  that lunch.

Tom was advising me to practice the Ten- Series Recipe and keep on doing so. I agree with his advice. In my experience, the Recipe fundamentals will  lead  you  to a depth that we cannot understand when we first begin our practices. It can only be revealed through experience and observation. I made 4”x6” cards detailing each session, put them under my Rolfing table, and made sure every part on my client’s body, in the territory of each session, got pink. It was a way to get started, but I’m glad I’ve moved past that!

I did keep practicing the Recipe. I learned that there was much more to it than balancing the arches or being sure every part to the territory was touched. The essence of our work is hard to understand with only the Basic Training ‘under one’s belt’.

The Recipe is amazing. It unfailingly creates change, it teaches us about connections, and it is a lifelong path that acts as a midline guide for  our  work.  The things the Recipe has  taught  me  are profound. From it I have learned that fascia is a big deal, that integration is essential, that table work is anchored by movement. I have learned what a normal (‘optimal’) body looks, moves, and feels like, and to never under estimate the value of support; recognizing how order and grounding in the legs can have a dramatic effect above. The Recipe provides me with a reliable tool to organize my work enhancing my client’s function, and it has taught me to ‘see’ movement, structure, and compensations.

I think of Rolfing SI not as a technique, but as a point of view. That point of view is that humans function optimally in a balanced relationship between polarities like heaven and earth, grounding and buoyancy. In order to help the body maintain this balance, my job is to follow the wisdom I have gained over  decades by traveling along the stepping stones of the Recipe. The Recipe helps beginners decide ‘what to do first, what to do next, and when they are done’. Every time I  have taught a Basic Training, I developed  a deeper appreciation of the Ten Series. I have often wondered if the Recipe was divinely inspired.

However, like any Recipe there are substitutions that can be used which still make the same casserole, but with rice instead of noodles. Now, I very seldom do a classic Ten Series. However, I always know where I am in relation to it. I have learned enough in thirty-two years that I don’t need to impose a fixed process on a random body. Using the lessons from the Recipe and the Rolfing Principles of Intervention, I can work with my clients   in an individual way.  The Recipe is like    a midline that organizes the way I think and proceed toward session goals. There are times, however, when a client is so disorganized that I just start a classic Ten Series because I can’t see a better way  to start. Once I get into the Series, I may vary from it and begin adapting to my client’s needs and accommodating the ability of his/her body to shift.

That said, I have continued learning all     I can about how to organize bodies and help people to be more comfortable and functional. Rolfing SI has deep roots in osteopathy. Because of this, I  look  to  the traditional osteopathic profession for inspiration and guidance. Over the past twenty years my studies of osteopathy have provided me with key information that has enriched my work and my teaching. Rolfing SI’s emphasis upon fascia comes directly from the founder of osteopathy, A.T. Still. Dr. Rolf studied with osteopaths and was in several cranial classes taught by Dr. Sutherland.

One of the key aspects I have gleaned from the traditional osteopathic writings is Dr. Sutherland’s statement that fascia and fluids constitute a seamless continuum throughout the body. One of  the principles of the osteopathic biodynamic model of craniosacral therapy is  that  fluid movements in the embryo direct and organize the emerging body. This organizing function is still active in the adult as our ‘inherent healing’ aspect, which maintains us and keeps our systems in balance throughout our lives. This organizing function is manifested through fluid movements, and these various movements can be considered the movements of life.

I’m very anatomy oriented, but now, because I have learned to modulate my touch, I’m able to work with fascia as a fluid medium (as the fluid body). When I touch, I put anatomy in the background and address the fluid body. I now look for continuity of form, shape, proportion, and flow more than following a one to ten ‘to-do’ list for addressing pieces  and territories of anatomy.  If  it  looks  like enhancing support will enhance continuity of form, and if my assessments confirm this, I am likely to start with balancing the legs, a combination of sessions two and four, and make sure there is adaptability above.

My study of osteopathy has also given me the perception of  ‘wholeness’  as  an  experience  instead  of  a  concept.    I have learned that the organizing function of wholeness continuously reorders the body through  the  function of inherent health. We, as practitioners, can synchronize with this function to increase our ability to reorganize our client’s bodies.

I  have  learned  to  perceive  the  body  as a unified whole and to support and augment its self-organizing potential. Having experienced the tremendous shifts that occur from following the lead  of the inherent health of the system, and trusting that it will only guide me toward   a higher level of organization, it becomes much harder to impose a structure, even one as successful and elegant as the Recipe, onto a body that clearly has a wise and different priority.

Recent fascial research suggests that many of the ways Rolfing SI has been taught  and   practiced   for   decades  are less effective than working more superficially, slowly, and with attention to fluid dynamics. It is just this kind of touch that allows our hands to listen to the body and that allows us to have a direct interaction with the fluids and the very fluid fascia. It is this quality of touch that allows a more expansive response  to our interventions with our clients. By working at an apparently superficial level in the torso, I may end up affecting the ribs, pleura, mediastinum, diaphragm, and twelfth rib.

Shape, proportion and flow are enhanced with this kind of  listening touch. Many more pieces of  anatomy  are connected and reintegrated into the ‘whole’ if I do not limit my thinking and touch to pieces. I sense  for  qualities  like flow, proportion, and balance. I want to see grace in movement and proportion and spaciousness in form. These experiences make it harder to be confined by adherence to the Recipe.

I use the principles, fundamentals, and touch skills of biodynamics to work anywhere on the body to help manifest the goals of Rolfing SI. Much of what      I do is informed by the Recipe. The biggest difference is how I use my hands and thinking of the body as more fluid. Working with the fluid body requires a very different touch.

I can trust the inherent health of my client’s system to determine the highest priority for his/her health in any given moment. I am able to be guided by the priorities of the client and use Rolfing principles and the Recipe as a frame. The Principles of Intervention guide my sessions, especially palintonicity/spaciousness, adaptability/ balance,  and  support/ground.  I   add   to these the importance of fluid flows, inherent motion, and connection.

I encourage practitioners to stay with the fundamentals of their work as Rolfers and learn to modulate and expand their touch skills. This can lead to perceiving self- organizing aspects of the body that are bigger and more inclusive of all aspects of our beings.

 

Raquel Motta

Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor When I learned the Ten Series twenty- three years ago, I did not leave Basic Training understanding that  the  Series  is a powerful tool to teach me how to think. I finished my training submersed in emotional content and wondering how touching the body in this particular way could wake up hidden emotions. The next step was working with the Series in my practice, and realizing how reliable it was: stick to the territory and framework of the Series and organization happens, even though I sometimes did not have a clear idea how it happened.

In time, I saw how much the way in which the sessions are organized gives the physical body the opportunity to clean  out ‘emotional stuff’. I have been learning how much the ‘stuff’ impedes us from being in the present moment and enjoying physical reality. When I became a teacher and had to deal with emotional and mental dynamics in class, I started to see how much anatomy – the ‘territories’ – is our guiding star, and how much order can emerge from the organization suggested in the Series.

Nowadays in my office I always do the Ten Series with new clients and with clients who are considering training in Rolfing SI. Sometimes I exchange a Ten Series with a colleague so I can visit the territories and deepen my understanding. Many times I do not do the Ten Series, but I still see it present as a way of thinking that comes forth in my approach.

For me, the Ten Series is a brilliant way to focus students’ attention on particular territory so that they can learn from that.

For example, in session two, the Recipe calls for us to work the anterior aspect of the leg even if the client has shortening  in the posterior aspect. Staying in the front and exploring that allows students  to discover how much work there is to differentiate the front components, what the relationship  is  between  the  front and the lateral aspect of the leg,  and  how much we are already affecting the posterior aspect by working at the medial aspect of the tibia. This reveals to me that what we may call ‘limitations’ in the Series are actually expansions in our ability to evoke order in the human structure.

 

Sally Klemm

Basic and Advanced Rolfing Instructor My thoughts on the Ten Series are essentially relational. In some ways the Series stands as my longest and most committed relationship yet! And as in any ongoing relationship; it takes on different qualities, emphasis, and nuance depending on where and with whom it occurs.

As a practitioner, the Series is ever at the background of my thinking, seeing, and strategizing for each client session. Armed with the Principles of Intervention, the taxons, and structural elements; I give myself the leeway to adapt the goals of the Series’ sessions and strategize my interventions to the particular needs of the client.

As an instructor, my thoughts tend toward the training level, specific to whether I’m instructing a Phase II or Phase III of a Basic Training, an Intermediate (CE) class, or Advanced Training. In the mid 90s when I initially embarked on teaching the Ten Series my approach was considered heretical in that I included inherent motion, movement explorations, and awareness (or presence) considerations before they  were  considered  relevant  to the Ten Series. Primarily, in my work as an instructor I encourage students to establish a relationship with the Series rather than be exclusively focused on the goals of the ten sessions. It’s an ongoing relationship that will continue to grow, deepen, and develop over time.

The relationship to the Ten  Series  occurs on more than one level as early  as Phase II:  there’s  the  first  Series  the student delivers as a practitioner; there’s the  second  (or  so)  Series  s/  he experiences from a classmate; and there’s the Series observed during Instructor   demonstrations.   In    Phase II I sense the students’ trust in their relationship to the process that allows them to proceed toward an end they  have yet to experience; whether in their hands, in themselves, or with each other. I see my task as guiding them through the ten-step terrain in such a way that they will safely make their way through this uncharted territory with confidence and care. During Phase III the level of relationship to the Series opens up to include not only the work explored as practitioners with their ten-session, ten- plus-three, and post-ten clients, but those performed by their classmates as well. In Basic Trainings I adhere more strictly to the Series, particularly during a Phase II class, slightly less so in Phase III.

Intermediate training provides a chance to deepen the relationship by delving further into the inevitable areas of uncertainty. For some, it’s a question of becoming more grounded in the anatomy, clarifying the mystery of a particular  session,  or the question of how groups of sessions  fit together. For others it might entail getting back together in community with colleagues, allowing for fresh feedback, and new input.

In Advanced Trainings, the Series is the launching pad from which we blast off and ‘level up’ to less formulistic considerations of the multidimensional being.

The beauty of the Ten Series is that it accompanies us across the spectrum wherever we go in our life journey. We begin with breath, and respiration awareness provides the continuity throughout the Series: the systematic uncovering and unleashing of the inherent wisdom of the body. The major limitation of the Series is the fact that it cannot be done all at once; it’s limited in time and space as is the clients’ ability to incorporate the work. In the greater context of their lives, our clients are with us for a very brief time, only ten to fifteen hours for an average Ten Series. It is also limited by the attention span of the client and the challenge of how to embody and incorporate the Series into daily life. And, of course, there’s the limitation of my own ability to deliver through the Series as well. Clients and practitioners alike need gradual and incremental time and experience to reveal the potential and capacity for change and transformation inherent within the Series.

 

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