Each day, when I’m confronted with the reality of the work that I do and the questions of strangers who want to know what Rolling®/Structural Integration (SI) is, I have to face the obvious answer: what I do, and what we do as structural integrators, is not rocket science. We may make it sound more complex and complicated than it is, by adding dimensions of psychotherapy, energy, emotion, movement, manipulation and other elements to Ida Rolf’s teachings, but our basic essence is this: we specialize in stretching and re-structuring the body in ways that no other profession does, and our medium is connective tissue.
That is our singular claim to fame. We know every millimeter of the body’s connective tissue, from head to toe, and we manipulate it in ways that no other practitioners or bodyworkers do so that our clients can live more easily, more freely, more naturally and without pain (or as much of it) in their bodies. But I can’t stop asking: why don’t we do our work in ways that are most beneficial to our clients and most beneficial to ourselves? Why don’t we, as structural integrators, do what other professions do: keep searching for, experimenting with, and adopting new ways of doing old things such that they’re done better, more efficiently, faster, more inexpensively, with better results and more predictable outcomes?
That was the message I delivered last fall to the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI) annual meeting in Seattle, and it’s the message I bring again to the Rolling / SI community in this article. When I created the two-person Rossiter System techniques that I use and teach today, I remained true to Rolf’s concepts and teachings, but I searched for ways of moving, changing, elongating, loosening and lengthening connective tissue such that it can be done much more effectively for the client and certainly much more kindly to the bodies of Rolfers/SI practitioners themselves
– Why not use the foot instead of the more vulnerable hands, elbows, and palms?
– Why not anchor the client’s tissue in place for an even better stretch?
– Why not ask the client to move actively, constantly, consciously and purposefully…to become an integral part of the healing process instead of a passive recipient? Why not add movement to our work to achieve better, faster, deeper, more integrated results? Although Rolfers use movement cues, they are far smaller and much less involved than in most any Rossiter technique.
SI does not have to be difficult, complicated or ethereal. For our own best interests, it ought to be understandable to all and able to deliver what it promises. But when we, as Rolfers/SI practitioners, make it more difficult for ourselves to understand and explain, we in turn make our work more difficult for our clients to understand. And if, after thirty to forty years of institutional history, we still have a difficult time explaining our work to the public, what does it say about our ability to understand it ourselves? To give clarity and meaning to ourselves? To find common ground instead of constant (and often divisive or counterproductive) searching and questioning? To guide ourselves and be open-minded enough to change, adapt and recognize best practices and approaches when they present themselves? We want to see them, learn them, teach them, and ensure they’re always brought forward with teachers who see their benefits. This would be great if this could be seen across the boundaries of our work.
That’s why, early into my career, I began experimenting with the base knowledge of SI work to create other, equally effective, more powerful, and certainly quicker approaches to change and lengthen the connective tissue. The Rossiter System, at least in my opinion, removes the mystique from SI work and makes it readily available to everybody – and easier to perform by bodyworkers’ bodies.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s always a place for practitioners who look for complexities and intricacies in daily work. It’s what they’re good at. In the big-picture scheme of life, I like a balanced checkbook, but I leave the details to my wife. I like studying, teaching, and examining things beyond what they appear to be on the surface. Now that I’ve taken time to come up with an SI approach that works best for me, I love to teach and I love the simplicity of showing other people a) how easily connective tissue will change, b) how quickly connective tissue will change, and c) how easy it is to learn how to change connective tissue with a minimal base of knowledge and understanding.
When applied to the Rolling/SI community, similar principles beg to be challenged. First, we don’t have to destroy ourselves and our own bodies in order to help other people get out of pain. No other modality dings up its own practitioners like the bodywork / SI profession. In fact, there’s no reason we should wear down our own bodies in pursuit of our own professions. We know more today. We have shared more, experimented more, studied more. We can get great results in our clients without harming ourselves and without overwhelming the integrity and anatomy of our own bodies. We, perhaps more than most, should understand and embrace the fragility and resilience of the human body.
ENGAGE THE CLIENTS
Over the years, I’ve been told that I’m disrespectful to clients because I not only encourage clients to participate actively in their sessions and their recovery, I require their participation. Like a good coach, I encourage them loudly and with gusto. I’ve even been known to play rock-n-roll music during sessions (James Brown’s “I Feel Good” works particularly well) and to cheer on my clients to get them to work harder, stretch more, open their eyes and do more, more, more.
While this next statement may surprise many who have criticized my work, I don’t choose my clients. They choose me. In The Rossiter System approach, the therapist/ practitioner is not called a therapist, but a Coach. By changing the naming conventions and the nature of howl approach my clients, I hand power directly to the client instead of disempowering them or setting myself up as the expert. Your clients know their own bodies better than you do, and when you give them the responsibility, the tools, the techniques, and the encouragement that they need to recover their health, you fundamentally change the nature of the relationship. Your clients become active participants, while you provide the help and expertise to get them where they want to go. By changing the nature of the relationship, you also have the benefit of changing the nature of the problem and the solution, and as you do, solutions become simpler and more predictable.
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Figure 1: An elbow technique called The Bicep uses anchored weight delivered by the practitioner’s foot and active stretching of the entire arm by the client to open up the elbow; 2-3 repetitions can be done in less than a minute. The other arm is in what is called a “lock,” which is a part of all Rossiter System techniques.
Also in The Rossiter System, the client is called the PIG – the Person in Charge. The first time I meet or talk with potential clients I tell them: you will be required to participate, you will be expected to work hard, you will be asked to accept responsibility for finding pain in your own body, going in after it, and stretching like hell to work it out. Usually when working with new PICs, I find out within minutes whether or not they’re serious about getting out of pain. And if they don’t come back, it’s either because I’ve told them that they’re not suited for Rossiter work and need to find a practitioner /modality better suited to their needs/goals, or because they experience enough relief and improvement with my techniques in one to two sessions and don’t need my services any more. And that’s fine with me, because I figure next time someone asks them how they got out of pain, they’ll be willing to recommend someone who was knowledgeable, efficient, and successful.
That said, The Rossiter System is not for what I called “weenies.” Those are clients who want someone else to make them better and aren’t willing to accept the responsibility (or the weight) of stretching their own bodies. Some clients don’t want hard work; they want soft, gentle, soothing sessions, and The Rossiter System is not for them. It is for clients who are serious about attacking their pain head-on and firsthand – in their own bodies.
GIVE YOUR HANDS A BREAK, PUT YOUR FEET TO WORK
I’m totally serious when I advocate putting our clients on the floor (in their clothes) and using our feet – much stronger than our hands, elbows, palms and shoulders – for power when changing, moving, and integrating connective tissue. The foot is a far more powerful “tool” than any hand will ever be, and once I discovered that innate power, I never went back to table work with my arms, hands, and long-injured shoulders.
Once the work turns to the floor and power is given to the practitioner’s foot, the connective tissue-stretching techniques become easier to perform for both Coach and PIC…and it can be adapted to other forms of bodywork. Once learned, The Rossiter System can be accommodated into and used by all schools of Rolfing/SI, and most forms of bodywork outside of SI. All bodyworkers who wear out their own bodies in pursuit of pain relief for their clients can benefit from The Rossiter System because it’s easier on the body and produces superior, results. I see this continually, as do my students.
Don’t believe it? Try it. Next time a client presents with elbow pain, try this. Spend the typical twenty to thirty minutes moving, kneading, pulling, pushing, and changing connective tissue using traditional Rolfing/SI work. Do that on one side. Then try this: a Rossiter System technique called The Bicep.
Ask the PIC (client) to lay on the floor on a thick blanket or a foamy camping mat. Make sure there’s plenty of padding under the elbow. Use your right foot for the client’s right side, left foot for the client’s left side. Standing close to the PIC’s upper arm and with your toes pointing up, place the arch of your foot onto the PIC’s bicep, an inch above the elbow, and ask the PIC to place his/her hand flat against your calf, forearm straight up. Slowly, apply weight with your foot straight down on to the PIC’s bicep, at least until the sensation is uncomfortable for the PIC. (Maintain that weight during the stretch.) Now ask the PIC to slowly bend back at the wrist and peel the hand away from your leg, slowly peeling the forearm all the way down to the floor (see Figure 1) until the PIC’s wrist flattens on the floor. Make sure the PIC’s movement is slow and deliberate. Repeat the technique.
Now ask the PIC to compare the recently stretched elbow with the traditionally Rolfed elbow. Notice the speed at which you opened up the entire elbow area. Is the elbow “done”? No, but the technique provides a fast start. And ask yourself this: how hard did you work, and how much time did you spend, compared to what you did to open the opposite elbow? For me, that’s the beauty of The Rossiter System: quick, deep, client-directed results with minimal stress/ strain on the practitioner.
IT’S ABOUT OPTIONS
It seems to me that Rollers / SI practitioners like to think of themselves as open-minded, free-thinking, free-spirited practitioners who follow the beat of their own drums. But they can also be somewhat rigid and narrow about certain dogma or practices, a trait that makes them often unwilling to open the Rolling/SI world to new ideas that can move it forward and make it better, more relevant, more practical, and more common. Aspirin was a strange new drug once; now it’s common. I’m the first to concede that the Rossiter System does not cure everything, but what it does is provide options. It provides options for clients who only have the time, interest or money to come for a few sessions to get out of pain. It provides options to clients who want to work harder than we often give them credit for to recover the integrity of their own bodies.
Keep in mind I’m not talking about other venues, such as chiropractic, hot-stone massage, bone manipulation, laser treatment, or organ manipulation. Those are their own modalities, not those of SI/Rolling. It doesn’t mean we cant or shouldn’t use those other modalities. All I’m saying is that they represent other modes, techniques, and theories that fall outside of SI/Rolling. I’m happy with our modalities, and I don’t need more Ida Rolls to lead me. She is my inspiration and her work is what I draw my work from. I don’t feel the need for another great teacher, I just want our work to become easier and friendlier to our bodies (and there’s nothing wrong with it being more lucrative by being more effective quickly and thus having broader appeal), all being done within the bounds of SI, or the tools I feel comfortable choosing. I’m happy with what I’ve discovered and more than happy to pass on information that’s directly tied to Dr. Roll and derived from her teachings.
Boiled to its essence, The Rossiter System can be just another format for doing the ten-, eleven- or twelve-series (everybody has a number that they stick with) – or it can be about not tying a client’s needs to a set number of sessions. Quite simply, The Rossiter System provides options to Rollers / Sl practitioners themselves, including the option of offering fewer than ten sessions. By adhering to a ten-session approach, we diminish our skill as therapists because we assume that everyone will fit into our mold, which is not what today’s clients want. They want approaches that are tailored to them, their needs, their time demands, their lifestyles, and their budgets. If results can be achieved in two sessions (or four or twenty, for that matter), then clients have choices, and practitioners have choices and the tools to deliver.
Likewise, we as practitioners have choices about how to carry out the work we love to do. We can do as we were taught, or we can start using the rest of our bodies (especially our feet) to change tissue and restore structures and pursue integration as we best know how. But unless we pursue all the options available to us, we are less than what we can be – and so are our clients.
I often ask myself, if Dr. Rolf were alive today, would she be thrilled with the evolution of Rolfing, excited about the new approaches and techniques that her students have discovered and shared? But most times I ask myself, would she even notice?[:de]Each day, when I’m confronted with the reality of the work that I do and the questions of strangers who want to know what Rolling®/Structural Integration (SI) is, I have to face the obvious answer: what I do, and what we do as structural integrators, is not rocket science. We may make it sound more complex and complicated than it is, by adding dimensions of psychotherapy, energy, emotion, movement, manipulation and other elements to Ida Rolf’s teachings, but our basic essence is this: we specialize in stretching and re-structuring the body in ways that no other profession does, and our medium is connective tissue.
That is our singular claim to fame. We know every millimeter of the body’s connective tissue, from head to toe, and we manipulate it in ways that no other practitioners or bodyworkers do so that our clients can live more easily, more freely, more naturally and without pain (or as much of it) in their bodies. But I can’t stop asking: why don’t we do our work in ways that are most beneficial to our clients and most beneficial to ourselves? Why don’t we, as structural integrators, do what other professions do: keep searching for, experimenting with, and adopting new ways of doing old things such that they’re done better, more efficiently, faster, more inexpensively, with better results and more predictable outcomes?
That was the message I delivered last fall to the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI) annual meeting in Seattle, and it’s the message I bring again to the Rolling / SI community in this article. When I created the two-person Rossiter System techniques that I use and teach today, I remained true to Rolf’s concepts and teachings, but I searched for ways of moving, changing, elongating, loosening and lengthening connective tissue such that it can be done much more effectively for the client and certainly much more kindly to the bodies of Rolfers/SI practitioners themselves
– Why not use the foot instead of the more vulnerable hands, elbows, and palms?
– Why not anchor the client’s tissue in place for an even better stretch?
– Why not ask the client to move actively, constantly, consciously and purposefully…to become an integral part of the healing process instead of a passive recipient? Why not add movement to our work to achieve better, faster, deeper, more integrated results? Although Rolfers use movement cues, they are far smaller and much less involved than in most any Rossiter technique.
SI does not have to be difficult, complicated or ethereal. For our own best interests, it ought to be understandable to all and able to deliver what it promises. But when we, as Rolfers/SI practitioners, make it more difficult for ourselves to understand and explain, we in turn make our work more difficult for our clients to understand. And if, after thirty to forty years of institutional history, we still have a difficult time explaining our work to the public, what does it say about our ability to understand it ourselves? To give clarity and meaning to ourselves? To find common ground instead of constant (and often divisive or counterproductive) searching and questioning? To guide ourselves and be open-minded enough to change, adapt and recognize best practices and approaches when they present themselves? We want to see them, learn them, teach them, and ensure they’re always brought forward with teachers who see their benefits. This would be great if this could be seen across the boundaries of our work.
That’s why, early into my career, I began experimenting with the base knowledge of SI work to create other, equally effective, more powerful, and certainly quicker approaches to change and lengthen the connective tissue. The Rossiter System, at least in my opinion, removes the mystique from SI work and makes it readily available to everybody – and easier to perform by bodyworkers’ bodies.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s always a place for practitioners who look for complexities and intricacies in daily work. It’s what they’re good at. In the big-picture scheme of life, I like a balanced checkbook, but I leave the details to my wife. I like studying, teaching, and examining things beyond what they appear to be on the surface. Now that I’ve taken time to come up with an SI approach that works best for me, I love to teach and I love the simplicity of showing other people a) how easily connective tissue will change, b) how quickly connective tissue will change, and c) how easy it is to learn how to change connective tissue with a minimal base of knowledge and understanding.
When applied to the Rolling/SI community, similar principles beg to be challenged. First, we don’t have to destroy ourselves and our own bodies in order to help other people get out of pain. No other modality dings up its own practitioners like the bodywork / SI profession. In fact, there’s no reason we should wear down our own bodies in pursuit of our own professions. We know more today. We have shared more, experimented more, studied more. We can get great results in our clients without harming ourselves and without overwhelming the integrity and anatomy of our own bodies. We, perhaps more than most, should understand and embrace the fragility and resilience of the human body.
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