Good Ouch: Rolfing still around, still fixing bodies
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Good Ouch: Rolfing still around, still fixing bodies
By Susan Phinney
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Rolfing.

If you're of a certain age, the word conjures up '60s- and '70s-era
memories of crystals, pyramid power, EST training and other generally
short-lived New Age phenomena.
But the fact is, Rolfing is still around, and increasingly becoming a
mainstream, sought-after solution for those suffering from chronic pain.
Rolfing adherents describe it as a hands-on manipulation and movement
education - a kind of super-massage system that has roots in osteopathy,
homeopathy, yoga and chiropractic medicine.

Brad Jones, a certified advanced Rolfer practicing in Seattle, said that
his clients usually come to him out after they've tried physical
therapy, visited a chiropractor and an orthopedic specialist and
basically run the gamut of Western medicine.
Jones sees people with chronic problems - lower-back or neck pain,
carpal tunnel syndrome or a bad knee, for example.
But the whole body is involved in the healing process. Jones looks at
how various segments of a body line up. He looks at a client standing.
Walking. Moving. He checks to see when and how feet hit the floor, and
what happens to the body when they do.

"Stilted movement is indicative of misalignment or some sort of
structural asymmetry," he said.
Only after checking out the full body does he begin working with
connective tissue, the fascia that covers, supports and connects muscles
and inner organs.
He focuses on changing the structure by getting his hands into
connective tissues and manipulating the tissues. He's emphatic that it
isn't massage. He goes after "knots" where connective tissue has become
thick and dehydrated.

Personal trainer Philip Johnson, who works in Seattle, said that "for
people unaccustomed to massage, Rolfing is uncomfortable," Johnson said.
"That's a potential drawback. It would take the right Rolfer to make it
work."
Ele Sale sought out Rolfing about eight years ago when she was having
repetitive stress problems and body aches that she called "the aging
athlete thing." Sale is a fitness instructor.
A friend suggested that she try Rolfing. "It was painful. I always refer
to it as the worst massage I've ever had," Sale said.

But after about 12 sessions, she said, Rolfing changed the way her body
moved - for the better. The sessions still hurt, but she endures because
she knows it will be good in the end.
"Look at it as an investment in yourself, especially if you're an
athlete," Sale said.
Zoe Scofield, a dancer and director of a dance company, has been working
with Jones for several months. She suffered a knee injury a year ago.
The pain was misdiagnosed as arthritis. An orthopedic specialist
suggested surgery. Finally, a physical therapist suggested Rolfing.

Jones discovered that she had both knee and hip problems that affected
her left side. When she arrived at his Fremont clinic for an appointment
recently, she stood quietly while he inspected her body to check
alignment. She walked across the room so he could study her movement.
Jones explained that if one foot isn't bearing weight evenly, it can
adversely affect one side of the body. One of Scofield's feet is
slightly out of alignment.

Then the work began. Scofield lay on the massage-like table, a pillow
between her knees. Jones leaned on her knee and hip, "trying to open up
the left side," he said.
He picked up a replica of a spine and showed her how her sacrum is
slightly bent. Using hands, knuckles and elbows, he worked on her left
leg, back and torso.
Toward the end of the 75-minute session, Scofield reported a "dull ache"
in her left leg. Jones explained that her sciatic nerve is irritated.

"When this settles down, you're going to be looser," he said.
Rolfing was invented by Ida P. Rolf, a graduate of Barnard College with
a doctorate in biological chemistry from Columbia University. She was
also a serious student of tantric yoga.
In the 1940s she moved to California to study with osteopaths and began
to formulate her work methods, which she called "postural release." In
the 1960s she began teaching at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. She
trained teachers of Rolfing and founded an institute that moved its
headquarters to Boulder, Colo., in 1972.

Jonathan Martine, the faculty chairman at the Rolf Institute in Boulder,
said students must complete three eight-week sessions with practice and
home study in between.
Anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, Rolf movement, therapeutic
relationship, touch skills and clinical work are involved.