Structural Integration – Vol. 37 – Nº 4

Question: I have noticed that some of my clients seem to have a primary pattern involving an over-activated nervous system. Their problem seems to be systemic rather than local. There is a high level of tone throughout the body, with all their muscles tight and holding. We have lots of techniques for releasing restricted fascia and joints, but what is the best approach to help relax an amped-up nervous system?

This article is a response to Dr. Serge Gracovetsky’s presentation to the Rolf Institute® Annual Meeting in 2008 in Boulder, Colorado. Because it is the job of Rolfers to understand healthy function of the muscular/skeletal system, as well as to observe the impediments to it, we are interested in a comprehensive model of walking that explains what that is. We, the authors, believe that maps and models influence our perceptions and our behaviors. In the interest of finding a model of understanding the complex coordination of human ambulation that could serve our profession, we wish to raise some points in which Gracovetsky’s model and our model seem to differ. We cannot presume to assess the full breadth and depth of Gracovetsky’s knowledge on this subject, and there are many places of agreement that we will not be elucidating. In a nutshell, we believe that the body will not reveal the full elegance of its design if we continue to see its movement from a lever/pulley muscular model. Just as Dr. Rolf needed to view the body from the vantage point of connective tissue in order to share her perceptions, we are offering a vision of walking that need not be either linear or segmented. Within this model, which we call “Natural Walking,”1 movement is non-hierarchical with each aspect of the body and the design of joints and tissue participating in equal measure. As much as we agree with and appreciate the clarity and specificity that Gracovetsky has brought to spinal function in walking, we are seeking a view that integrates the elegance of spinal mechanics with the pelvis and legs. Natural Walking is more than just our theory about walking. It is an understanding of human movement that can lead a principledriven Rolfer’s diagnosis of structure and function, and assist in directing the Rolfer’s intervention. We are presenting much of this material in our classes. The technical details are important, but mostly we wish to emphasize that there is something here that is useful, practical, and true. Three points are being raised for the benefit of creating further distinctions in a model of walking as we envision it and to stimulate further inquiry within our community. We then present theoretical and practical aspects of our Natural Walking model.

The greatest sense in our body is our touch sense. It is probably the chief sense in the processes of sleeping and waking; it gives us our knowledge of depth or thickness and form; we feel, we love and hate, are touchy and are touched, through the touch corpuscles of our skin.J. Lionel Tayler(1)

This article draws on material presented in the May 2009 workshop “An Energetic Foundation for Rolfing: A Bridge Between Dr. Rolf’s Recipe and the Wisdom of Each Individual’s Body,” taught by Bob Schrei, Certified Advanced Rolfer, and Ray McCall, Advanced Rolfing instructor. The stated goal of the workshop was to teach SourcePoint Therapy (which was developed by Bob Schrei and his wife Donna Thomson) and to explore it as a means to accomplish the goals of Rolfing Structural Integration. The claim is that SourcePoint Therapy “aligns and relates a person’s physical body to the energetic blueprint that Dr. Rolf refers to in her book Structural Integration” (quoted from class description in Fascial Flashes Vol. 17, No. 2). We were also promised a body-scanning technique that would enable us to “locate blockages [and] discontinuities which result in global patterns of dysfunction and compensation,” and which “informs the questions: ‘Where do we start [an intervention]?’, ‘Where do we go next?’ and ‘When are we done?’” Answering these questions would enable a practitioner to effectively strategize a session or a Rolfing series, be it basic or advanced. My purpose in writing this article is to present a clinically effective way of working in the energetic taxonomy.

Editor’s Note: In this issue, we profile two U.S. Rolfers who are also instructors for the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration.

QCan you give me advice on how to educate clients about the jaw? I understand working with perception and coordination, but how can I do that with the jaw?