An underdeveloped area for service and practice building for many Rolfers is the post-10 practice. Increasely, I have found the post-l0 part of my practice to be a valuable on-going service to clients a source of considerable satisfaction to me; a valuable way to develop my Rolfing skills; and a significant numerical part of my case load. I am convinced most clients can benefit from an average of two or three sessions a year. I tell clients this and take various steps to involve them in a life time process with Rolfing. In this article, I will offer suggestions about a framework for building a post-10 practice and offer specific strategies.

Clients often ask if Rolfing is permanent. I answer that Rolfing’s results tend to be lasting and even progressive, but that nothing in the body is permanent. After the basic ten-series, the body will function at a new level of competence and resilience, with greater efficiency and grace. Nonetheless, accidents, illness, strains, psychological stress, persistent patterns of inappropriate movement, biochemical changes, and so on have consequences.

In talking with clients about post-10 work I highlight its role in

· maintenance of the immediate post10 accomplishments,

· helping the body right itself after injury,

· further work on specific problem areas, and

· the advanced series, distinguished from other post-ten work by its focus on fundamental structural changes and activation from the core.

I also explain that an average of two or three sessions a year is useful. This does not necessarily mean a single session every four to six months, althoughat some point it might. Post-l0 work might mean a single session one year later the basic ten-series; the advanced series six months later; two sessions shortly after that following a trauma; the advanced series repeated in three years; and so on. Depending on the client’s age, I suggest that in the next thirty or forty or sixty years, he/she might want to receive sixty or eighty or one hundred Rolfing session, as part of a lifetime process of nurturing well-being.

What follows is the ?doing? part of this approach. The question of post-ten Rolfing often is raised by potential clients when they first seek information. I do not give much detail, but I do plant the idea then?or early in the series – that on-going work is useful for most people and that if the results the client gets from their ten series are satisfying, they will probably want to have more sessions from time to time.

In the tenth session, I spend time talking with clients, completing the Rolfing process at a verbal level, as needed. We talk about what was and was not accomplished, and I invite the client to tell me about incompletions regarding the Rolfing. I review post-10 options, both in general terms and as they might be tailored to that individual. I specific a future time when more Rolfing might be appropriate?usually eight to fourteen months hence -and ask if they would like a phone at that time. The answer is almost always yes. I encourage the client to call me sooner if a special problem on need arises, and I explain that we will discuss the appropriate next step with Rolfing when we talk in the future. I leave the client with a brochure on post-10 work which I have developed and which you may review for your own use by contacting me (See ROLF LINES, March/April 1990,XVlll:l,p. 17). I then write the clients name in my appointment book or contact list for the following year at the appropriate date. Since I have done this for years, each week as I flip over to the next week’s appointments, I see the names of clients whom I have agreed to call, and I call them. The process does not work if I neglect this part, although some Rolfers do the follow-up with postcards and letters.

The follow-up cabs frequently involve a re-enrollment process, reviewing the client’s gains from Rolfing, what has happened since, and their present needs and goals. If the client is not ready to do more work, I ask them if they would like me to telephone them later. If they do, we agree on a time, and I record that in my calendar. I also note the date and content of the conversation in the client’s record. If the conversation concludes with a very clear ?Don’t call me; I’ll call you?, I note that in the record and abide by it.

When the client has more sessions, I again provide the same information as I did initially about on-going work; and I renew the process of recording and contact as described.

I have been Rolfing at my present location for six years. Currently, just over thirty percent of my average weelky case load consists of post-10 clients. This percentage has been increasing in the last several years as I complete more people and as I have become systematic with follow-up. In two years, I target an average of fifty percent of my case load consisting of post-10 clients.

If you have not been nurturing a post-10 practice and want to, consider these steps. Start laying the ground-work now with your current clients for their future involvement. Then, prepare a mailing to the people in your ?complete? file, with a cover letter and a post-10 brochure. Use the brochure I am making available or develop your own. In the cover letter, tell people you will be calling them soon. A week later, get on the phone. Target a number of calls you will complete per week and stay with it until you have called everyone. If your mailing list is sufficiently long, stagger the mailing so your follow-up calls arrive one to three weeks after your letter arrives. As you call, record each call in the client’s file and record other follow-up calls you have agreed to make at a later date.

These calls are also an opportune time to ask former clients if they know of other people who are or might be interested in Rolfing and to whom you could send literature and/or call. This part of your follow-up might be integrated in one of several ways with a gift certificate program. (See ROLF LINES, Fall 1989. Page 40).Building a Post-10 Rolfing Practice