CAPA structural integration - 2004-01-12-Winter-December

Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute – Winter/December 2004 – Vol 32 – Nº 04

Dr. Ida Rolf Institute
Volume: 32
KLINGER, Werner
SCHLEIP, Robert
ZORN, Adjo
Pages: 4-10
Year 2004
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FARAONE, Fulvio
Pages: 11-13
Year 2004
On the first page of her book Rolfing, Dr. Rolf states that two main goals can be achieved by the process of structural integration of the body: vitality and well-being. We Rolfers believe that, and would swear to the beneficial effects that we experienced once as clients, the same effects that we try to “stimulate” on our clients now. And, in fact, the words “vitality” and “well-being” do sum up the feelings experienced by the majority of Rolfing clients during and after the sessions.However, Dr. Rolf’s intention in her statement was to say that Rolfing scientifically works – meaning these effects on the mind happen regularly as a consequence of Rolfing manipulation to improve posture. Yet our clients’ enthusiastic words mean little when we are trying to communicate with members of the scientific and academic worlds, who will ask us how we can prove that better posture means a better personality or a better mood. And were such a relationship to be determined, they would ask us why Rolfers can change minds by working with the connective tissue – after all, there are so many people with great posture and bad tempers – and why Rolfing should be better for this than all the other forms of bodywork available.Our community has a number of theorists, even some distinguished ones, but little scientific research to prove that the beneficial effects we see are induced mainly by Rolfing and not by simple coincidence, by mere human touch, or by an inner factor (e.g., growth, maturation, relaxation). The existing research on Rolfing has never inquired into the psychological aspect, only the physiological (vagal tone, jump length, position of the pelvis, etc). Moreover, it is also not easy to state which posture is best, as indicators are not always clear. Referring to the angle of pelvic inclination, for example, is not very precise; as the pelvis becomes more horizontal, other angles in the body may have worsened, or the measurement may not be objective because the client may try to “help” by holding the pelvis.As my graduate diploma in psychology required that I present a thesis to a scientific commission, I strove to make a modest contribution to our community through explorative research that would measure change in clients’ physiological and psychological aspects over the course of their Rolfing sessions. What follows is a brief summary of my work. I would be happy to provide further details to anyone interested.
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HUMISTON, Karl E.
Pages: 14-16
Year 2004
FOREWORD (SEPTEMBER 2004)When, at an Evergreen Foundation seminar in Salt Lake City in 1990, I heard Jeff Konrad describe how he was healed from a life of aberrant sexual behavior by being taught healthy ways to connect with other people and finally achieve the friendship he had always craved, I was deeply moved. Like Jeff, I had grown up not knowing how to make friends. When the other boys rode off on their bicycles together after school, I stood there miserably lonely, not knowing how to join them. Although I had not strayed onto the sexual deviance path that he had, I understood very well the crucial lack that lay behind it.Starting in 1963, 1 had learned from Virginia Satir how to use family therapy to help my psychiatric patients learn the missing functions they needed for healing. My life changed in 1967 when I realized that I needed to learn these skills as much as they did. I began to see that the most helpful learning always involved becoming more consciously connected with one’s own body, more structurally integrated. In 19691 received the ten-series from Ed Maupin. In 1971, the year I turned 41 and met my present wife Bonnie, the bright light of real friendship entered my life, the payoff from the previous eight years of seeking. That same year I received my training from Ida Rolf; words cannot convey the depth of change this brought to me.Working with Ida deepened what I had already learned from Virginia: that what people need for healing is already within them, as a potential to be activated by whatever healing method is used. Becoming a Rolfer (a lifelong process) enabled me to feel at home inside the human body, unafraid of intense feeling. Part of Ida’s vision was that there is a wisdom in our intended structure that far surpasses any practitioner’s cleverness. I saw that, likewise, what makes good men good is already within them, part of their original design, and can be brought to light by proper lessons. I knew that the standard treatment of sex offenders aimed in an utterly different direction, and I became fired up to show that the principles I had been learning would work much better, which they did.My disappointment was that not one of the other sex offender therapists in Oregon, some of whom were my friends, took an interest in this work, even after I presented it at meetings and they knew it was working. I guess that preparing for this kind of work came more from being a Rolfer than from my extensive mental health credential program training.The following article is presented exactly as it was written in 1993 for publication in a professional journal for sex offender therapists. The name “Internal Correlate” was invented by me on the advice of a colleague who said that, for my work, to be taken seriously by other mental health professionals, it needed a name. So I made one up. My article was refused by each of the three editors to whom I offered it. The one editor who gave a reason said that his editorial board of academics rejected it on the grounds that it did not reflect a standard research format. Similarly, when the local director of probation and parole prohibited further offenders from working with me, he told me he feared that someone might criticize him for allowing those under his supervision to be treated by a method that did not come from published scientific research. Which indeed it did not.
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AUSTIN, Laura
Pages: 20
Year 2004
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BISHOP, Raymond J.
Pages: 21-25
Year 2004
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HELLER, Joseph
KASTRIS, Michael
Pages: 26-28
Year 2004
Joseph Heller was born in Poland, June 15, 1940. He received his early education in Paris, graduated from Cal Tech in 1962 with a degree in mathematics, and worked as an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Ca. Heller became involved with humanistic psychology and eventually left engineering. He became the director of Kairos, a Los Angeles center for human development, and participated in year-long training programs in Bioenergetics and Gestalt, as well as shorter workshops with Buckminster Fuller, Werner Erhard, John Lilly, Virginia Satir, and Hal and Sinda Stone. He became a Rolfer in 1972 and continued to study through 1978 with Dr. Rolf. In 1973 he became a Structural Patterner after learning Patterning from Judith Aston. He received advanced training with Brugh Joy, a noted physician, author, and innovator in the field of preventive medicine and the use of energy as a means of healing. He became the first president of the Rolf Institute in 1975.
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BERG, Valerie
Pages: 29-30
Year 2004
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ELLIS, Craig
Pages: 35-38
Year 2004
A panel discussion was held at the Rolf Institute annual meeting to discuss the future of structural integration. The panel, moderated by Siana Goodwin, was made up of representatives of six organizations: The Rolf Institute, the Guild for Structural Integration, Hellerwork International, Aston Enterprises, International Professional School of Bodywork, and the International Association of Structural Integrators. The free-ranging discussion was the culmination of a meeting that embraced the coming together of all structural integration practitioners in an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and cooperation.Following are excerpts from the discussion, edited for clarity and length. Some of the questions were previously submitted to the panel; others were asked by the audience. The questions and comments included in this article were intended to provide a general representation of what was discussed.
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