Letter from Carter Beckett
Dear Colleagues, Many of the responses to Jan Sultan’s letter (Rolf Lines, March 1983) express concern over the matter of using rolfing to fix or alleviate symptoms. I think it would be helpful in this continuing dialogue for each of us to define these terms when we use them. If to “fix” means to stop […]
Post Advanced Seminar
We have just completed a three week class for Advanced Rolfers and Movement Teachers, and comments which follow are to share some observations and reflections on the process. A CONTEXT OF PEERS. We began with the notion that, at this level of continuing education, it was appropriate to think in terms of a context which […]
Rolfing and Pregnancy
Is it appropriate to Rolf a pregnant woman? From my point of view, the ideal situation is one in which a woman receives the basic tenseries before ever getting pregnant. Pregnancy and birth are so much easier for most women if they have been Rolfed first. And a Rolfer can be so much more helpful […]
Which Way Is UP?
An understanding of the upright posture in man a requires knowing how man senses the vertical and then how he controls his body to avoid falling over. There are some useful concepts and reason-able explanations that scientists have developed to explain this ability. This essay will first consider the contributions from a number of sensory […]
Talking to Fascia – Changing the Brain
About a year ago I wrote the following letter to all faculty members of the Rolf Institute: “RE: THE IMPORTANCE OF FASCIA INTHE ALIGNMENT OF HUMAN BODIES” Dear Colleagues, A few months ago I had a challenging discussion with several leading Feldenkra is teachers and other body workers in Australia. They questioned the importance of […]
Preliminary Considerations for a Theory of Core
When I read that this would be the First Annual Science of Rolfing Lecture, I thought this a little bit incongruous with what I have to say: I have chosen the theme of core, because I thought “this is really one of the issues I don’t know anything about.” It reminds me a little bit […]
The Ethics of Rolfing: Some Reflections and Notes – Part II
Benefits of Rolfing It is a challenge to present Rolfing in a way that neither distorts the work nor endangers its future. Rolfing creates medical, psychological, and spiritual changes. Most of us became Rolfers because we value the changes that being Rolfed made in us. Yet we have discouraged one another from being too open […]
Working with Repetitive Stress Syndrome within Industry
Since April of 1992 I’ve been working on-site for Starkey Laboratories, Inc. I provide soft-tissue work, a combination of both release and organization, for people who have repetitive-motion problems, particularly of the hands, wrists, and arms. Starkey is the largest manufacturer of custom hearing aids in the U.S. (I’m told they provided a hearing aid […]
Explorations – Somatics
There has been an explosion of interest in “alternative” or “complementary medicine.” Congress established the Office of Alternative Medicine within NIH to foster empirical studies of alternative methods. David Eisenberg’s demographic study of the public’s surprisingly extensive use of alternative practices, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was widely reported in the press. […]
Interdisciplinary Relationships in the Treatment of Chronic Back Pain
At the August 1994 Meeting of the International Society for the Study of The Lumbar Spine, a presentation was given by Drs. Tom and Ane Bendix of Denmark’s Copenhagen Back Center. They reported that “higher low back pain impact is achieved by an intensive multi-disciplinary program that included physical training, psychological pain management, work hardening, […]