The Process

Through the application of hands-on pressure, your practitioner releases fascial restrictions and re-balances the web of connective tissue (fascia) that surrounds and connects muscles, organs and bones. Over the course of ten sessions, each one lasting between 60 and 80 minutes, a specific section of the body is addressed. The process is a gradual one, with your practitioner releasing strain from the superficial layers and steadily working deeper into your body's structure. During the sessions you participate through awareness, movement and feedback. After each session you may also be given some instruction to encourage you to remain aware of the new positioning of your body.

 

Posture

Posture: the position or way in which one stands, walks etc.; it is an individual body signature from our life experiences. Each of these leaves its stamp on our structure. They can range from physical trauma e.g. accidents, injuries, surgery: sustained periods of holding the same position or repeated movements, to emotional stress that disrupts breathing and promotes poor postural habits (hanging of the head, slumping over etc.). Patterns of mind and body become mutually sustaining and we can, in some regards, become rigid, inflexible and "set in our ways".

Before Session 1 After Session 10	One of the hallmarks of Structural Integration is the attainment of improved posture through surrendering tension and strain, as opposed to learning new ways of working hard. Clients often hear that they are not coming to learn to work harder in their bodies; they are coming to work less hard. Dr. Rolf often clarified the difference between posture and balance. The Latin word, ponere, has the same root as posture and means "to put" or "to place". As a result of interpreting posture in such a manner, people often acquire the habit of holding a static, "correct" position. Through Structural Integration we continuously seek out a dynamic, creative balance in our bodies that is quite different to putting or placing body parts in one place and then keeping them in that place. Posture, as is taught through Structural Integration, is a creative, fluid process. We move with correct posture; we do not hold. We learn the inherent balance of a properly aligned structure and let gravity do the work of providing support.
A body that appears compressed and drooping forward personifies fatigue in the losing fight with gravity. By contrast, the same body in equipoise appears to lift, not droop. There is a greater sense of vitality as the body is supported and nourished by gravity.

 

 

Symmetry

The symmetry of the physical body is assessed in relation to a central vertical axis, known as the "Rolf Line" which travels up through the centre of the body and out through the top of the head. When the body is positioned correctly around this line, every part of the body is in correct relationship with every other part.

 

 

Gravity

The affects of gravity on the human body were fundamental to Dr. Rolf's development of Structural Integration. So much so that she said "Structural Integration is not a treatment but a preparation for the use of gravity. The Rolf Line forms a relationship between man and gravity."

The gravitational force is one of the strongest, unseen forces that determines our uprightness or lack of it. Like all other material bodies, we are subject to the laws of mechanics; one of these laws states that masses must be balanced in order to be stable.

If the material body of your house is subsiding and your door no longer shuts properly you have a choice: plane the frame to fit the changing surround or stop your house from collapsing. The first approach will solve the problem temporarily but you'll have to do more and more work as the structure continues to topple; it's the same with your body.

Man consists, more or less, of stackable units. The agents of this balance within the human body are the bones and soft tissue (myofascia). Bones determine position in space but bones are held by soft tissue. When the myofascia is repositioned, bones adjust their position accordingly.

Dr. Rolf noted that misalignment of any body-part causes pain and other symptoms that increase with gravity's ever-present downward force. She saw that it wasn't enough just to relieve the most painful or troubled area, rather to solve the problem permanently, the entire structure had to be rebalanced from its foundations. We only have to look at the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa to see this: the entire structure is visibly fighting against gravity. In the unbalanced body the same forces apply; movement becomes restricted, joints lose freedom and range of movement and the soft tissue compresses.

When the tone of the soft tissue is balanced, there is a sensation of lightness in the body. The body components of head, thorax, pelvis etc. are no longer dragged out of true alignment by weight; the structure presents less resistance and gravity can flow through.

 

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