ABSTRACT Many Rolfers study and include other modalities in their practices, following the lead of Ida Rolf, who was deeply influenced by osteopathy and pointed some of her early students and teachers toward explorations of the cranial system. Here faculty of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute® discuss adding other modalities to our work.

Q: What are some of the other elements you bring into your Rolfing® Structural Integration work – such as craniosacral or visceral work, manual work for nerves and arteries, etc. – and do you use them in the context of a Ten Series or other Rolfing sessions, or as standalone work? At what stage of practice do you find a Rolfer® is ready to begin to train in and integrate such other modalities so that they serve the goals of Rolfing SI?

Hiroyoshi Tahata

Rolf Movement® Instructor

These questions seem to be  related  with the big question, “What is Rolfing SI?” Before sharing  my  own  trajectory of development, I would like to describe the process of developing mastery. I am reminded of the words of Sen no Rikyu, the master of Japanese tea ceremony, who said: ???? ????? ?????????????, which I translate as “Discipline – after devoting yourself to the foundational practice, do not forget the essence, even if breaking or departing from the foundational practice.” Rikyu’s words show three stages of mastery, shu, ha, and ri (based on key Chinese characters that are bold in the quote above): shu is the fundamentals; ha is breaking with tradition; and ri is parting with traditional wisdom.

When interpreting these words in terms of our practice of Rolfing SI, the first stage, shu, is to follow and practice the Ten Series ‘Recipe’ as a formula until one is established in it. The second stage, ha, is to be able to modify it with other modalities  or  taxonomies  to  suit a particular individual client. The last stage, ri, is to have full command of the Recipe, which also makes it possible to create one’s own unique way. Two things are important: 1) whatever stage the Rolfer is in, s/he must keep in mind of the Principles of Intervention that define the foundation of Rolfing SI; 2) the process of mastery requires that one not stay fixed at any given stage along the way.

Following the first (shu) stage, curiosity may lead the  practitioner  to  encounter a new teacher or new modalities. In the process of studying something new in the ha stage, you need to find what modality or taxonomy you are good at. This means staying away from boredom and keeping a fresh and inquisitive mind in our day- to-day practice. When you feel bored  with your work, it might be time to study something new or learn from a new teacher.

Early in the stage of ha, it is good to store various ‘new’ modalities and techniques in your ‘toolbox’. From this, you will identify your own orientation, and notice which techniques or taxonomies fit.  Structure  is just one taxonomy. To aim at human integration, we should be aware of the interrelationship of structure with other aspects such as function, perception, etc.–and these elements are not inherently separate from structure.

In the last stage of ri, a Rolfer is able to give creative sessions that depart from the Recipe yet are able to change the client’s structure, even if the Rolfer has not used direct structural technique. At this stage we understand that this is a nonlinear process. In the ri stage, formula or protocol does not have to be conscious, as it has become ‘built in’. To an outside observer, or a practitioner at an earlier stage, there may be no apparent connection between a session by a Rolfer at the ri level of mastery and the basic  style  of  Rolfing SI done at the shu stage. Yet for the ri practitioner, sessions done at any stage are recognized as Rolfing SI, because  the Rolfer in the ri stage understands that a ‘stage’ of mastery is not a hierarchical conscious of creativity and the uniqueness of my own work. Teaching is an impetus to deepen mastery.

I was lucky to have Carol Agneessens  as a mentor and guide on the path to becoming a Rolf Movement Instructor. Her style of mentoring was like  finding the student’s ‘seed’ and supporting it to flower, tracking with appropriate distance and timing. An instructor or mentor is a key support in helping the practitioner to transfer to their next stage. I hope that each of you will find the mentor who is the best fit for you in your path of mastery. Your own body resonance is a good indicator that tells you which modality or teacher fits you at a particular moment.

John Schewe Anatomy Instructor

I took my first craniosacral class  during  my first year of Rolfing  practice  (1988) and began to incorporate this work  into  my Rolfing sessions  right  away.  Doing just a few minutes of craniosacral work at the end of each session (along with the pelvic lift I learned at the Rolf Institute®) gave me the opportunity to develop that sensitive, intuitive style of touch that is the cornerstone of craniosacral work. I took a number of craniosacral classes over the years, and a five-day visceral class. I have never promoted myself as a craniosacral therapist, but more as Rolfer who has a pretty deft touch for doing the handful of craniosacral techniques that I have learned.

Thirty-two years into my practice, I continue to do varying amounts of craniosacral work with my clients – some more, some less – but every client gets  at least a little bit of this work. I have always done this in the context of and    to facilitate my Rolfing sessions. I fully believe that it helps their nervous systems integrate the Rolfing work that preceded it. I had one client a number  of  years ago who absolutely needed this work at the end of her Rolfing sessions. She was very sensitive and the craniosacral work allowed her nervous system to settle and allowed her to feel balanced and grounded.

When I start the craniosacral work at the end of a session with a new client, s/he will often ask what I’m doing, and I give   a quick thumbnail explanation. Some never ask. Over the years, I have had a number of clients ask me after a couple  of sessions, “Are you going to hold my head?” “Yes,” I say, “I’ll hold your head.”

Sally Klemm

Basic and Advanced Rolfing Instructor Craniosacral work has been an element of my Rolfing work from the very beginning of my training. I use it in the context of a Ten Series, other Rolfing sessions, and as standalone work. My initial somatic training thirty-five years ago was a blend of Rolfing SI and craniosacral work, and to this day they remain interwoven. At my ten-year stage of practice, I began to train in a series of tutorials such that visceral considerations are now integrated into  my Rolfing work. Although standalone sessions of visceral manipulation are less frequent in my current personal practice schedule, the organs and their influences on alignment, ease, and integration are certainly considered during interventions. Subsequent explorations in other modalities over the years serve to inform my touch as they are integrated toward the goals of Rolfing SI.

My guess is that the readiness stage to learn additional modalities is as varied as our membership. In contrast to my own dual training track of craniosacral work intertwined with my Rolfing training, Tom Wing’s story comes to mind. After training with Ida Rolf, he devoted the first five years of his practice solely to Rolfing SI within the context of the Ten Series. Over the subsequent five years, he continued to mine the depths of the Series, without adding any other modalities. Serving the goals of SI is the relevant point here, at every stage of practice. Once the goals of SI are embodied, integration will be present in any given intervention, regardless of modality or technique employed.

Raquel Motta

Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor  I studied and started using visceral manipulation in the context of the Ten Series right after I took my Rolfing training in 1998. I did not use it with all clients, and I was not so successful at integrating it. Only five years ago I started receiving visceral sessions and I resumed my studies and practice. Nowadays  I  see  so much the relationship between the viscera and breathing, and the viscera and the legs, that I have started talking more about general aspects of this during Basic Trainings so that students can understand more easily the work  with  the psoas on walking as well  as  how  the diaphragm works. I think visceral manipulation should become a part of our curriculum in Rolfing Basic Trainings.

Carol A. Agneessens

Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor Craniosacral   therapy   is   the   modality I began studying in 1982. From early Rolfing lectures, I learned of Dr. Rolf’s  interest in craniosacral therapy and the work of an osteopath named Bidell. We were given a reprinted copy of Bidell’s small book on the cranial system. It seems that Dr. Rolf directed her students toward this exploration.

The landscape of the Seventh Hour is filled in by craniosacral study. My hands have learned the interrelationships of boney segments, membranes, neural anatomy, and the value of intra-cranial spaciousness. In cases of whiplash, traumatic impact, tinnitus, brain surgery, and more, knowledge of  this  system  can become one of the most valued understandings in your ‘toolkit’.

Listen  for  a  fluid  continuity  between the cranium and sacrum when doing sacral holds (pelvic lift) or when treating vertebral fixations. Often it is  not  only the vertebral ligaments that need to be addressed but fixations and rotations within the dural tube and spinal cord.  The direct relationship between cranial and sacral movement is a valuable orientation to keep in mind when ending a Rolfing session.

Depending on a client’s need or desire,    I may schedule standalone craniosacral sessions or integrate this knowledge into a post-ten series. Within the Ten Series,  a craniosacral session may be added to the scheduled appointments depending on necessity.

Pedro Prado

Basic and Advanced Rolfing Instructor Rolf Movement Instructor

I was a clinical psychologist when I became a Rolfer. I was  fascinated  by  the somatic perspective and its entry to holism – body/mind as one  entity  and the organization of the fascial network in gravity as our target for the work. In my evolution as a practitioner, I studied and brought Somatic Experiencing® (SE) into my work. SE views trauma as anchored in the flesh – particularly in autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation – rather than in the story of the traumatic events. Understanding how the ANS communicates with other systems – physical, emotional, spiritual – helped me bridge SE into Rolfing SI, adding resources to track SI processes. For example:

• In the initial client interview, one can track the ANS  behavior  of  both oneself and the one client and actually monitor its behavior to a certain extent, helping create safety and a stable relationship that will favor the work of SI.
• The ability to track autonomic behavior – charge and discharge – as well as the ability to modulate the duration, depth, and other sensorial information present in different types of touch, is a crucial factor for making the touch portion of our work an experience that can be assimilated and integrated into the client’s system. Touch that doesn’t take the ANS  into  account  may  be interpreted unconsciously and reflexively as a threat, generating an ANS arousal response instead of  supporting   tissue   release. This would  lead  to  constriction and fixation of the pattern, often retraumatizing the person.
• At the beginning of the Rolfing process, and    also    throughout the  changes  and   transformation the client goes through along  the way, one can connect the client to pattern  recognition  –  the  meaning of their patterns – that supports a renegotiation  and  eventual  change of the connective-tissue web  in gravity. Tracking  and  working  with the ANS can add to psychobiological understanding and change, and this builds self-image and self-esteem, with corresponding ANS adaptation.
• Fixations in  the  tissue  may   be by their very nature correlated to unfinished defense responses that stay locked in the body. Knowledge of ANS functioning may help these defense responses complete during the Rolfing process, ultimately resolving dysregulation set up by traumatic experience.
• An understanding of ANS behavior also helps with work with the client’s orientation and with functional work. Fixations are also present in orientation and, as orientation is a big part of the structural organization and function, one needs to consider the ANS  to be able to fully work with orientation in terms of both functional and structural integration. With awareness and monitoring of the reregulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS, a practitioner can more fully anchor and integrate changes in the tissue.
• The polyvagal theory, a conerstone of the SE methodology, offers an interesting understanding of the social engagement process that is useful for  closure  and  integration of the Rolfing work. To what extent can the client relate to others? What is his/her experience of body safety that supports staying centered and relating?

The connection that  SE  gave  me  to  the  nervous  system  helped  me  add this dimension to my work. This is true    in whatever taxonomy of access – structural, functional, or psychobiological – we use, as well as in whatever phase  of the process we’re in, be it in a session or in a process as a whole. SE with its corresponding techniques added another dimension to the work.

Rita Geirola

Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor  I think that most of us are familiar with this inspiring definition of Rolfing from  Jeff Maitland and Jan Sultan: “Rolfing  [SI] is the philosophy, science, and art of integrating the human body structure in spacetime and gravity through myofascial manipulation and movement education.”

In my experience of working with people, for forty years now, what fascinates me and is always in the foreground is the possibility of building a deep level of communication with the client that is beyond words, and beyond technique. From this communication,  both  the  client and I can learn and develop. Or,    in other words, with the Rolfing process we (Rolfers) build a safe context in which clients can experience a more economical and efficient way to use their resources for their own well-being. For that, we need to be well prepared and creative.   In this sense, Rolfing has an immense value for me, because of the capacity to understand the body in gravity and honor the client’s subjective experience and sense of meaning.

Rolfing SI is a vision, and in this vision understanding of the fascia plays an important role,  but  fascial  manipulation is not the only medium we need to work with people. With this in mind, even when I encounter a client who  is  not  ready,  for whatever reasons, to allow tissue work, I can still accompany him/her in a process, using the Rolfing Principles of Intervention, and eventually reach another level of communication and confidence where touch becomes possible.

I was certified as a Rolfer in 1987. Before that, I used to work with the Mézières method, and this competence was a support in my Rolfing training: I was already confident in working with people through touch, and also I was used to visual body analysis, even though it was made under different criteria. It helped me, from the very beginning, to recognize, evaluate, and appreciate the changes and the general result of the intervention.

Right after my Rolfing training, I engaged in a four-year Feldenkrais Method® training (1988-1992). It was a strong and deep experience, and I could appreciate how much the two methods have in common: the genius of both  Ida  Rolf  and Moshe Feldenkrais has surely been  a gift for humanity. A side effect of this training was that it brought a deeper level of clarity in understanding the Rolfing vision and approach. I  also  learned  to be more patient and aware of how much we engage the nervous system with our presence and intervention. It  provided  me a more differentiated quality of touch; that is to say, more tools to be ready to adapt to the needs of the client, in terms of pace and intensity. Then in 1998 I certified as a Pilates instructor. Again, another language to communicate with people on a different level and accompany them in their process.

I play a lot in my practice with the different competences I have acquired, under the ‘umbrella’ of  the  Rolfing way of understanding the body in  gravity.  This allows me to break the routine, for myself and for the client. I can ‘shift gears’ when I sense it is appropriate  to provide  a different stimulus to keep the client’s nervous system awake, curious, and participatory. The goal is to meet the client at his/her level of availability in order to get improvement; to match his/her specific language to communicate efficiently and without prejudice.

I think that a new certified Rolfer needs time to explore deeply the potential  of our work, and not rush to find something to add, or something ‘better’, or a way    to avoid feeling frustrated or anxious when results are not achieved the way s/he wanted. Thinking back to my own experience, I sense that my motivation   to explore and learn has always been curiosity. I wasn’t unhappy or dissatisfied with Rolfing SI. I just wanted to become more refined and articulate in my work.

France Hatt-Arnold

Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor Over the past thirty years I have taken numerous visceral work, craniosacral work, and other  classes,  thanks  to Peter Schwind and Christoph Sommer who have sponsored the most amazing teachers through the years through the Münchner Gruppe in Munich. I find that these workshops have refined my Rolfing work considerably and helped me deal with difficult clinical situations. It is my belief that all Rolfers should have training to some degree in these levels of subtle intervention with all sorts of embedding fascia, in order to bring  clients  to  a  more harmonious way of moving and functioning as a whole.

I have clients at the beginning of a session feel how they align themselves  in gravity as I take them through pattern recognition. The remapping that occurs, for them and for me, becomes clearer when you have investigated those areas in continuing education workshops and include the finest inner components of their organism as they walk and relate to the outside world. I then do several hands on tests that allow me to feel where the main restrictions are: on the head when they stand or sit, below or above the feet and ankles when they lie down, above the umbilicus or above the pubic bone,  on the chest, at CO-C1, and/or within the cranium. When necessary I also feel each level of their lower limbs where tissue is pulled in certain directions. I often start with visceral manipulation as the ‘soft’ structures often determine patterns in the stronger structures. It is very easy to re- assess after working with some visceral pull. If we intervene in the  right  spots, our re-testing will show that the overall organism has come back to balance and that there is a free flow of energy and fluids. I also reassess the cranium and check if it has adapted to the changes    or not; if there have been injuries or significant dental work, for instance, that will require some treatment time. Then it is a question of priorities. I choose my classical Rolfing tools, and the functional objectives of the session, to accompany and bring the client into a space where s/he can move from an already more released and balanced structure. And then I make sure that the cranium can adapt, reinterpret those changes, and also move from there.

For me, workshops on ways to work with the viscera, cranial system, nerves, neuro- endocrine system, and arteries started right after my Basic Training. I took about one or two workshops per year, starting with visceral work, and slowly bringing other elements in.  Each  individual  has to determine for  him/herself  what  sort  of continuing education is needed, on  one hand for the purposes of our work, and on the other hand for nourishing our personal well-being. The Rolfing training is a short training. I trust all the values  transmitted in it, and also believe it is not enough to be at ease with some of the difficult situations we will encounter in our practices. So continuing education is a must, and it is truly a gift to study with people who have rich clinic experience and the desire and initiative to transmit it.

Bringing Other Modalities into Our Work[:]