“Rolfing” is named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from Columbia University in 1920 and worked for over a decade at the Rockefeller Institute in the Chemotherapy and Organic Chemistry departments. During the 1930′s, Dr. Rolf studied Osteopathy, Chiropractic Medicine, Tantric Yoga and the Alexander Technique. By the 1940′s, Dr. Rolf developed her work and spent the next 30 years perfecting and teaching it.
Dr. Rolf recognized that the body is inherently a system of seamless networks of tissues rather than a collection of separate parts. These connective tissues surround, support and penetrate all of the muscles, bones, nerves and organs. Rolfing Structural Integration works on this web-like complex of connective tissues to release, realign and balance the whole body, thus potentially resolving discomfort, reducing compensations, restoring flexibility and alleviating pain.
Dr. Rolf referred to her work not as “Rolfing,” but as “Structural Integration,” and her goal was exactly that: integration of the structure of the body. Rolfing is guided by three simple ideas concerning the human structure:
- We function much better when we are lined up with the earth’s gravitational field,
- The majority of human beings are significantly out of alignment with gravity, and
- The human body is so changeable that it can be brought into balance with gravity at practically any point in one’s life.
The major premise of Rolfing is that the body is constantly affected by the powerful force of gravity. When the body is out of alignment, the body is used inefficiently.
We want to get you to a place where gravity is your friend; a nourishing force.
Dr. Ida Rolf
Art of Rolfing® 