Editor’s Note: Metaphor was the subject of Dr. Merlino’s PhD thesis, “Metáforas do corpo em transformação: Experiência, Percepção, Postura e as relações com a Integração Estrutural Rolfing,” which translates as Metaphors of the Body in Transformation: Experience, Perception, and Posture and Their Relationship to Rolfing® Structural Integration.”

Although other authors have written in Structural Integration about the importance of metaphors in body therapies, I believe there are myriad new approaches to this theme. This article summarizes some of the concepts presented in my Master’s Dissertation in the field of Communication and Semiotics, the latter referring to the general designation for the analysis of sign systems. The subject of my dissertation was the mediation between the human body (recognized as a complex system) and the environment in which it operates. The theoretical foundation of the work was established through the ideas of Ida Rolf, and Certified Advanced RolfersTM Hubert Godard and Jeffrey Maitland, the neuroscientists Antonio Damasio and Vilaynur Ramachandran; the linguists and philosophers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson; and the philosopher Michel Bernard. My special thanks to Jose Rubens Siqueira for the illustrations appearing here.