Structure. Function. Integration – June 2026 – Vol. 54 – Nº 01

Movement education is a key ingredient for many clients to experience lasting structural and functional changes; manual work with the fascia alone, no matter how skillful, is often insufficient. This case study examines a forty-three-year-old former dancer presenting with lower back pain, hyperextended hips and knees, and an anterior pelvic shift. Before and after pictures of the Second Hour of their Rolfing Ten Series are presented and discussed. This client’s Second Hour intervention included movement awareness exercises based on the principles of ‘Normal Function’. Structural analysis and gait observation were used to distinguish between structurally and functionally determined patterns in the fascial network, guiding targeted manual interventions on the lower legs, hip joints, lower back, shoulder blades, and neck. Movement education using tactile and verbal cues repositioned the hip and knee axes into their physiologically advantageous directions – hip behind, knee in front – resulting in greater body length, improved left-right symmetry, and significantly better shock absorption during gait. This case demonstrates that lasting structural order requires the complementary use of both fascial manual techniques and movement education, inclusive of an understanding of the lumbar lordosis as a physiologically necessary feature of adequate shock absorption.

Rolfer™ and author Luca Williams chronicles her recovery from a complex ankle fracture that included coming to an understanding about her lifelong hypermobility. Drawing on emerging research connecting hypermobility spectrum disorders to fascial dysregulation, Williams examines how these systemic connective tissue characteristics produced unexpected surgical outcomes and confounded standard physical therapy protocols. Through direct application of her Rolfing® Structural Integration training, Williams describes how she navigated her recovery.

Biological, cultural, technological, and cosmological forces act on the human system, and when those forces become stressors that exceed a system’s capacity. Michael J. Shea, PhD, traces how pre- and perinatal overwhelm reduces the margin available for later demands. Shea speaks of an “era of grief,” a collective condition placing sustained pressure on everyone’s well-being.

Will Johnson is on a decades-long exploration of Dr. Ida Rolf’s lesser-known legacy: her vision of structural integration not merely as a manual therapy profession, but a path toward evolutionary awakening. Drawing on personal experience beginning in the 1970s, Johnson argues that Rolf’s teachings contain two distinct elements – hands-on bodywork and a mystery school of somatic transformation centered on ‘The Line’. Johnson reflects on how psychedelic substances used in conjunction with exploring ‘Lined’ states can catalyze profound shifts in consciousness. Situating these experiences within broader contemplative and cultural contexts, including Subud, Buddhist breathwork, and rave culture, Johnson calls on the structural integration community to reclaim these transformational teachings for themselves.

In this conversation with Certified Advanced Rolfer™ Miquel de Jong, we explore an embodied movement practice called ‘living tensegrity’ that can deepen the quality of touch for participants. De Jong describes a partner exercise in which two people use lightweight bamboo sticks held between their fingertips to practice sensitive, nonverbal communication. Originally developed while teaching contact improvisation in China, the exercise has since been brought into Rolfing trainings, peer groups, and wellness settings.

Rolfer™ John Panter takes the reader on a tour of breathing, looking at the mechanical action, a molecular exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and grounding the discussion in anatomy. He explains how the pleura, diaphragm, and thoracic expansion create a vacuum that draws air into the lungs, emphasizing that inhalation requires coordinated muscular effort. Abdominal breathing patterns are described, ones that rely on anterior pelvic tilt and shortened hip flexors, arguing that they disrupt spinal alignment and impair locomotion. Compared with a flatter lumbar spine and slight posterior pelvic tilt to integrate the thoracic and abdominal cavities into a unified body cylinder, for structural efficiency and power transmission. Refined breath awareness can extend through fascial pathways into the legs and even evolve into subtle pulse perception.

In this interview, Advanced Rolfer™ and movement educator Mary Bond reflects on her experience completing a three-month course in biotensegrity, exploring how this emerging paradigm reshapes our understanding of human structure, movement, and life itself. Bond discusses how the biotensegrity model – grounded in the interplay of tension and compression forces at every scale of the body – challenges conventional biomechanical thinking and offers a richer framework for understanding structural integration.

Many clients who seek Rolfing® Structural Integration appear highly capable and resilient, yet arrive with descriptions of pain, misalignment, or a persistent sense of bodily strain that does not correspond to an obvious cause. From a somatic perspective, this strain often reflects not failure but successful adaptation – the nervous system organizing itself around chronic demands such as time pressure, emotional self-regulation, and social roles that reward endurance over responsiveness. For this Philosophical Touch column, Rolfer™ Andrew Rosenstock draws parallels with critical theory of the Frankfurt School to argue that resilience itself can become a form of defense, normalized over time. Rolfing Structural Integration offers a means of restoring perceptual choice – not by overriding adaptation, but by creating conditions in which the body can differentiate between necessary effort and habitual holding.

ABSTRACT Fascia and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) interact through a dynamically integrated regulatory relationship shaped by neural and physiological processes and by their coevolution across vertebrate phylogeny. Despite this, the implications of this relationship remain under-integrated in both fascia research and clinical practice. This article presents a polyvagal framework for understanding fascial tone and therapeutic change, drawing on the keynote address delivered by Stephen W. Porges, PhD, at the 2025 Fascia Research Congress in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an extended interview conducted in February 2026.