Lifehacker did a recent post on the posture at work – check it out.
As Rolfers we have been educating our clients for decades about how to sit.
Rolfing(R) Structural Integration
Lifehacker did a recent post on the posture at work – check it out.
As Rolfers we have been educating our clients for decades about how to sit.
Thanks for putting align.org on the first page of Google search for Rolfing. We are also the first Rolfer’s site listed under Rolfing on Google.
Even though I am in the small town of Sandpoint, ID, we have put this web site on the top of search results. I suspect this part of why a third of my clients are outside our local area. Many come from Spokane and beyond. Thank you for making the long drive.
The recent The Atlantic article leads off with,
Van Jones is a man who did censor his political thoughts, did not hesitate to pursue the logical consequences of his beliefs and did not care what others thought of his affiliations. In other words, he is a man who has no business whatsoever serving in government, where such candor knows no quarters — particularly for a man of the left. Mr. Jones resigned on Saturday after it became clear that the White House had no intention of lending its institutional credibility to defend him.
What impresses me even more is his commitment to his own development. In the April 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine Van Jones spoke about his personal journey of healing which included meditation, shamanism, Buddhism and yes, Rolfing. He represents the leadership this country needs, leadership that is based on first leading one’s self.
For more on how he leads others check out his site – www.greenforall.org.
Fall
After a gorgeous summer here in Sandpoint, we are entering a special time when the days are temperate and the nights are cool, the tourist are gone – we get to enjoy the beautiful environs at a slow pace.
Labor Day is when we all get back to our normal routines, school for some, “serious work” for others. For my practice there is always, a surge of clients coming in be it they were too busy in the summer or now they can be earnest about their bodies now summer is done.
Stress
The economic recession proved to be a psychological recession. For some the stress of worrying about money took a toll on them and their bodies. My first blog, www.stressedout.org because of this stress made it to #2 in Google. Honestly, for a good year, I didn’t do much with it, then I noticed it took off – I guess we are stressed.
While in Scottsdale, my business partner and I ran a Mindfulness Stress Reduction company. We were hugely successful in results and broke even finically. For years, I have wanted clients here in Sandpoint to take the class, but the closest class was Spokane. Thanks to a client, I found out these classes are now taught here. Call or email me and I can give you the details.
Enjoy your fall.
Many years ago, I learned that Dr. Rolf was not the typical scientist; she had an esoteric bent. When I moved my Rolfing practice from Boulder to Scottsdale, one of my teachers introduced me to an old friend of Dr. Rolf’s in Mesa, AZ. This woman made her money in the stock market by using numerology – she did well at it. Being a young man and her being a grandmother, she took me under her wing and feed me. I heard stories of how my new friend and Dr. Rolf would hang out and speak about the occult and esoteric interests from astrology to numerology.
Carole LaRochelle a Rolfer in Santa Rosa, CA wrote a fascinating post on Dr. Rolf’s hidden interests. William Garner Sutherland, the founder of Osteopathic cranial work and Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist and mystic as Carole describes were two of Dr. Rolf’s primary teachers. Check out her post to learn more about the foundations of Rolfing – they go deep.
Let us know what you think.
NPR airred a report on how back surgery and many other standard allopathic procedures are not proven to work, yet they are still done.
Many have questioned the effectiveness of various other back pain procedures. For example, long after surgeries for slipped disks had become common practice, it was determined that the surgery has only a slight advantage over rest and rehabilitation. Spinal fusion also remains controversial. In many cases, the passing of time alone can heal the back.
“We do need to today have these kinds of studies done before we implement these strategies in clinical practice,” says Weinstein. “And where we can’t do them because of funding or support or for whatever reason, maybe we ought to think twice about introducing them into the common marketplace.”
In my practice over the years I have seen many clients who had back surgery who came to me saying it didn’t hold. Some of these clients were surgeons who were not going to have another back surgery.
In the 1940s, a few obscure, forward-thinking osteopaths were working with fascia, after it was first discovered that fascial adhesions were the cause of many conditions. But Dr. Ida P. Rolf made fascia famous. Dr. Rolf’s new therapy, Rolfing, expanded what osteopaths understood about fascia, and what they could do to treat it.
Fascia is the thin, tough connective tissue that extends throughout the body from head to toe as a continuous three-dimensional web. Physical trauma, poor posture, prolonged stress, or inflammation force the fascia to bind up, twist and constrict, creating scar tissue and leaving you with adhesions in your fascia. These adhesions cause constriction around nerves, muscles, bones, blood vessels, and organs. That tightening pulls your body out of alignment, causing everything from back pain, to poor, inefficient breathing, even ankle or knee problems.
Traditional tests such as x-rays, myelograms, CAT scans, and electromyography don’t show these restrictions. Because medical tests can’t show fascial restrictions and their consequences, many people go undiagnosed. Doctors treat their symptom—sore back, “bad” knee, whatever it is; Dr. Rolf , however, recognized the importance of focusing not on the symptoms, but on the fascial adhesions.
Dr. Rolf also understood that you can’t force change; the restriction will just return. Inevitably though, some practitioners thought if a little pressure was good, then more would be better. The “old school” became associated with pain. Then gentle Rolfing evolved as the antithesis, more light massage or myofascial release than Rolfing. Over the last decade, myofascial release has become popular. Practitioners claim that light pressure releases the adhesions.
There is a place for the more gentle approach. If you were working on a young child or the elderly, you would certainly be lighter. For the majority of clients, though, more pressure is often needed. The hallmark of effective Rolfing is the slow, precise and indirect pressure (following the tissue-releasing pattern) that sometimes may be firm. This combination of Dr. Rolf’s firm approach, the sensitivity of osteopathic manipulation, the indirect manipulation of myofascial release, and cranio-sacral work creates the most powerful results.
In the beginning with any client, there will be a place or two that will need deep and precise pressure to get the tissue to release. Without genuine pressure, soft tissue that feels like bone will not release. I don’t care how much intent, time or skill you apply. That hard, dead tissue needs pressure. I often see clients who had work from a practitioner who used gentle pressure on these more tough areas. Other parts of the client might have changed, but these areas didn’t.
I will do the more gentle manipulation when needed. I will also refer out to cranial osteopaths, cranio-sacral therapists, and myofascial release practitioners when needed. That said, there is still a need to do deeper work on many people. My old friend Denis Leri is one of the original Feldenkrais practitioners. He’s told me that Dr. Feldenkrais, the originator of this very gentle movement therapy, would, when needed, get in there to break up hard restrictions.
Just as others learned from Rolfing, we learned that integrating the firmer pressure with slow indirect manipulation could be the most effect approach.
My caution – don’t be lured into thinking gentle manipulation will do it all. When, as a Rolfer, you need to get the tissue released, go slow and go deep as you respond to the tissue releasing. As a client, trust a Rolfer with the skill to go deep in an indirect manner. It can feel good, and it is certainly safe and effective.
Here is a link to an post about using duck tape to stand straight. If I can’t make it as a Rolfer, I can go out and buy a case of duck tape to custom posture braces.