“One Individual may experience his losing fight
with gravity as a sharp pain in the back,
another as the unflattering contour of his body,
another as constant fatigue, and yet another as
an unrelenting threatening environment.
Those over forty may call it old age, yet all of
these signals may be pointing to a single problem
so prominent in their own structures and the
structures of others that it has been ignored;
they are off balance; they are at war with gravity.”

– Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.

The Rolf Method of Structural Integration achieves its remarkable results by manipulating the myofascial system (the muscles and connective tissue called fascia which surrounds and penetrates the muscles and all other structures of the body).

Our bodies must deal with gravity like other material structures. When we are out of balance, gravity drags us down just as it drags down a building that has lost its architectural integrity. Whether from poor posture, injury, illness or emotional distress, an unbalanced body is at war with gravity. We experience this battle as pain, stress and depleted energy. When the body loses its architectural integrity, fascia shortens and thickens in characteristic patterns of strain and tightness.

To the Certified Rolfers trained eyes, slouched bodies with heads too far towards, hyper erect bodies which bow backward, knock knees or bowed legs, flat feet or high arches and excessive spinal curvature, all display complicated patterns of strain, tightness, and thickening in the muscles and fascia.

Through refined and intelligent pressure applied by the hands of the Rolfing practitioner, fascia is softened and lengthened allowing the body to right itself effortlessly in gravity.

Once the Standard Ten Sessions of Rolfing are completed and the inappropriate patterns of movement are corrected. The body remains changed for the better. Effortlessly upright, balanced, and at ease with itself in the field of gravity.

Like many other approaches, Rolfing is capable of releasing the body from its restrictions but unlike every other manipulative system, East or West, Rolfing is unprecedented in its being the first and only system to have conceived and succeeded in organizing the whole body in gravity.

Techniques: Because Rolfing works with the deep myofascial structures, some people can experience the work as uncomfortable or “painful.” There are a broad range of techniques to avoid “over stimulating” the system.

Rolfing is surely an odd name for a pioneering form of bodywork and movement education. Dr. Ida P. Rolf originally, and more appropriately called her unique approach to the body structural integration, but Rolfing is the name that the public gave her work and it is the name that stuck.

Athletes, dancers, students of yoga and meditation, musicians, business people, people riddled with chronic pain and stress, people from all walks of life and of all ages, come to Rolfing not only for relief from their pain and stress, but also for improved performance in their professions and daily activities.

Research has shown that Rolfing creates more efficient use of the muscles, allowed conservation of energy, and enabled more refined patterns of movement.

It reduces chronic stress and changes in body structures.

Stated most simply, the goal of Rolfing is to enable one to move and balance from the core of the body, from the center line of gravity. This has both physical and experiential (psychological, spiritual) aspects which can be addressed separately.

It Deserves attention that Ida Rolf, the originator of Rolfing, was a scientist, a biochemist, who though she moved far away from her field, never lost her clear attention to physical reality. Both the force of gravity acting upon everybody and the fascial tissues she worked to reorganize are real in the scientific sense. At the same time, she understood that the body is the form of our awareness, the lens through which consciousness experiences life, and this “experiential” aspect never was far from her mind.

Carter Evans is a licensed massage therapist and a Certified Rolfing Practitioner. His teacher is Emmit Hutchins a well known Rolfer and 40 plus year practitioner of the Rolf Method. Also Ida's friend and student.

Carter's teacher being a direct conduit of IDA'S teaching advocates the “Roots” techniques and philosophies of this demanding art.

Structural Integration to Carter is the finest form of art he has ever known.