Definition and Principles of Rolfing

In the June/July 1991 issue of Rolf Lines, we provided a provisional statement of the principles of Rolfing. We asked that our statement of principles be regarded as a work-in-progress. Since the publication of those articles, we taught an Advanced class together and worked out what we believed to be a much more satisfactory statement […]

The Recipe, or: What Is the Job of a Rolfer

The Rolf Institute claims that it is teaching people a recipe in its basic classes. But to have a recipe you need to know what you want to cook. In the Rolfing training, however, the desired result of the “recipe” is kept in very vague terms: integration, balance of sleeve and core, an aesthetic whole, […]

Rolfing The New York Mets

BH: Hello, Matt. MS: Does it sound funny, us on both phones? BH: No. MS: Well, we’re okay. BH: Well, in my vision of what we’re doing today, and you can correct me at any point. MS: We don’t know what we’re doing. BH: Well, what I wanted to do was not make have this […]

The Lotus Position (Padmasana)

Drawing conclusions about yoga from one yoga asana is analogous to generalizing about Rolfing from the fact that some Rolfers put their fingers up the client’s nose. The value some people ascribe to the full lotus posture (padmasana) ignores the fact that the lotus is just one of countless yoga positions. Perhaps the association of […]

Acupuncture Points, Meridians and Stripes

I continue in my process of doing the 10 sessions with an awareness of the locationof acupuncture points, meridians and stripes. This approach continues to yield new insights into human structure and opens new ways of effectively reaching the goals of the individual sessions. Before examining the inner arch of the foot in the second […]

Review of Neuroanatomy Involved in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) has been an interest of mine for several years, so I was very pleased to be asked to be a participant on this panel. Carpal tunnel syndrome is precisely defined as a “compressive peripheral neuropathy of the median nerve at the wrist.” It is the most common of the peripheral neuropathies […]

A Look at the Past and Future of Rolfing

I spent a wonderful and enlightening week this summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will, Dr. Marvin Solit who was tine of Dr. Roll’s earliest students and whom I’m sure most of you have never heard of. I certainly hadn’t until tins Oschman brought him to my attention. The earliest years of Dr Roll’s ,caching and exploration:, […]

An Evolutionary Perspective on the Body-Mind Relationship

The goal of my talk is to present review of some recent trends in evolutionary and theoretical biology, mainly with reference to those biomedical aspects that could be also of general, but I hope are of special interest for an audience of Rolfers. Some preliminary statements outline the topics I want to cover: Humans are […]

Body

Let us take a slightly eccentric look at the mighty array of muscles around the hip joint. For those who want to refresh or deepen their visual grasp of this material, we include references to Frank Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy, published by CIBA-Geigy, although you can follow along with any good anatomy atlas. Because […]

Improvisation, Jazz and Rolfing:

One day over lunch, my movement teacher, Vivian Jaye, and I were discussing how I might improve my connection with clients. Her idea was that, as a musician, I “play” them like instruments. That I initially struggled with this interesting idea hardly surprised me, when I recalled my unsuccessful forays into jazz improvisation. Clearly, there […]