Structure, Function, Integration. Journal of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute. November 2021/ Vol. 49, No. 3

ABSTRACT When the 2020 shutdown happened, some of the scheduled Dr. Ida Rolf Institute® (DIRI) Rolf Movement® continuing education and certification classes were shifted to an online format. In this article, faculty member Per Haaland discusses how he delivered online Rolf Movement courses and what he learned in the process.

ABSTRACT In this interview, Robert Litman shares the story of breath and integration, drawing on his deep background in breath and movement studies. He offers insight into how to bring ease to the breath – to breathe tenderly from the inside out, rather than forcefully from the outside in – and how this resolves both body tensions and held emotions.

ABSTRACT Tristan Koepke spoke with Russell Maliphant, acclaimed dancer, choreographer, and former Rolfer to explore the connections between the different and related inquiries – aesthetic, spatial, and physiological – that have informed his work across three decades. While Maliphant no longer practices as a Rolfer, his bodywork training and ongoing studies offer a deep basis for analysis and inspiration, and recently led to the award of a PhD achieved through performance and analysis.

ABSTRACT Co-Editor-in-Chief Lina Amy Hack discusses the value of bias-free language as part of the current style guide for Structure, Function, Integration.

ABSTRACT Phoenix L. Quetzal DeLeón explores the concept of working across difference as an expansion of perceptual awareness and observational skills. She reflects on Rolf’s question about attitudes towards change, and the possibility of evoking change through better understanding cultural influences and social memberships. DeLeón introduces the ADDRESSING model in the context of structural integration, and cites evidence that social context and mindsets are critical aspects of therapeutic relationship that can significantly affect clinical outcomes.

ABSTRACT The following is a transcript of a conversation between Marekah Stewart, Advanced Rolfer and member of Dr. Ida Rolf Institute’s® (DIRI) Committee for Diversity and Anti-Racism (DIRI D/A), and Tristan Koepke, Rolfer and Chair of DIRI D/A, from August 8th, 2021. Together, they reflect on the theme of integration, weaving their personal histories, the history of Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI), and ongoing work regarding diversity, equity, and anti-racism within SI and broader culture.

ABSTRACT Gael Rosewood shares thoughts on integration, drawing from her studies with Ida P. Rolf, PhD, Judith Aston, Emilie Conrad, and others. She considers both structure and function, as well as the psychobiological and spiritual aspects of integration.

ABSTRACT In this discussion about what ‘integration’ means for Rolfers®, Pierpaola Volpones explores the many structures involved with integrating the complex human organism, including an exploration of walking and her personal experience of feeling integrated after a Rolfing session.

Kathy McConnell is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her twenty years of practice she has assembled an eclectic palette of formal and self-directed trainings that influence her work, including Craniosacral Therapy, Medical Qi Gong, and Western Esoteric Studies. Through her poetry she is experimenting with the language of embodiment that is awakened by Rolfing® SI and Rolf Movement Integration.

ABSTRACT The author proposes that Rolfers need not ask what a person looks like after they’ve experienced a complete Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) Ten Series; SI practitioners should instead ask: What is a ‘random body’? Mintz shares his impressions about why people suffer random bodies, plus the factors to his success in helping people integrate and organize through his Rolfing work.

ABSTRACT In this article, John Panter discusses what makes Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) distinct within the professional category of manual therapy. He describes how the organizing work of Rolfing SI has strategy behind the myofascial interventions. Panter finds Rolfing strategy to mirror some elements that underlie military strategy, and he discusses several historical examples.

ABSTRACT The foundational theory of Rolfing Structural Integration (SI) is the Principles of Intervention. This article contains the complete description of the five Principles of Intervention as taught by Jan H. Sultan.

ABSTRACT In the theme of ‘integration’, Konrad Obermeier reviews the process of becoming a human from the embryo, to birth, to post-natal embryo.

ABSTRACT In this interview, Lina Amy Hack seeks to examine the constructs and results of the recent 2020 research article by Stephen P. Evanko, PhD, “A Role for HAPLN1 During Phenotypic Modulation of Human Lung Fibroblasts In Vitro” published in the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry. The application to Rolfing® interventions is discussed.

The body of any living organism is not a simple unit. Nor is it just an aggregation of separate elements. The body has an intrinsic organic wholeness. In the matrix of the developing embryo, cartilage and bone are laid down together. While this unity has been separated and analyzed into its parts to further an ongoing understanding, still, the integration, the wholeness, resulting from unitary interplay is the basic fact. Rolf 1977, 179.

ABSTRACT In this article, longtime Rolfer Michael Maskornick uses his understanding of biotensegrity to expand Dr. Rolf’s concept of the ‘Line’ into two templates – a G-line and T-tube – that relate verticality to both embodiment and the evolution of consciousness.