The body is interesting, in my experience and knowledge, particular body parts can have a direct relation to an emotion or an emotional situation. In this vein, the Center of Disease Control says 80% of chronic illnesses are caused by emotions, the various acupuncture systems all associate organs/points/meridians with emotions, Ayurvedic healing and diet takes emotions into consideration, and in Structural Integration structure and posture are a window into life. People come to me with various knee problems, or at any point of their healing process and when I probe deeper by asking, “What’s going on in life?” 10% of the time there are money worries, the other 90% have to do with unstable relationships. In my practice I educate people this way so in case they are involved in an emotional circumstance they can be extra careful that day or in the ensuing days to prevent seriously injuring themselves which could occur from something as simple as a sneeze, the body is susceptible.

I am not convinced that there is an emotional undertone to and injury 100% of the time, but there is definitely some correlation between knees and relationships. The problem may not be immediately apparent, but I think when we look deep there is some unstable feeling, some concern, some doubt, something in a relationship (and it doesn’t have to be a wife/husband relationship) that we suffer from. At any event wherever the body is insisting on our attention it is signaling us to be more intimate or more deeply insightful about life. Our bodies have a language and they try to communicate with us.

So, you ask, what to do from here? Obviously, a solution is to find someone who can treat your knee, and yes, simple physical relief maybe all that you need. Or you can choose to be silent, listen for your body’s signs and look into different relationships that you’re in and see if you can’t be more attentive to those. If you can hold your anger or your over-frustration, or better yet deal with him/her in a gentle and tactful way knowing that this person is going through the trials of life just like you. At the end of the day I have come to believe that it is something in us that we must get right, our bodies are warning us of our own internal dilemmas in hopes of preventing a major catastrophe in a relationship or in our bodies. Structural Integration makes bodies and minds wholesome again.

Do you have chronic back pain or has your back ever suddenly seized up for no apparent reason? If it has you’ve most likely experienced sharp pain or pain concentrated in one area. What we feel and experience and what the reality of the issue is can be very different. In this post I want to focus on some anatomical relationships surrounding the spine which get little attention, but are likely contributors to the pain.

Back pain can be sort of mysterious. We’ve created popular, but largely ineffective sayings for addressing back pain, and many have become cliche. You may have heard, “Strengthen your abs,” “Strengthen your back,” or “Stretch your hamstrings.” You might have said, “I need a massage” or you may have heard therapists point out, “There are knots in your back and you’re muscles are tense.” Simple solutions such as these inspire hope, but they fizzle out as ineffective attempts. If these solutions were effective and back issues were simple back pain wouldn’t be one of the most common medical complaints. Usually back pain is a complex and dynamic problem, and to add to that the origins of each person’s pain may be very different. It is a given that the area in pain should be treated, the soft tissues should be eased and brought back to a more fluid state. Treating the area directly is certainly protocol – when contraindications are not present – but, there’s more than that. Part of what contributes to the pain is remaining mentally fixated on localized treatment. Let’s let go of our culture of “cliche solutions.”  Thinking outside of the box means thinking outside of the spine.

Structural Integration presents a global perspective of the body; and when understanding the spine the dynamics of local and distant anatomical landmarks such as the ribs, shoulders, and the sternum (in the chest) are seen as directly related.

The ribs and sternum are important aspects of the spine which many clients and professionals often overlook during treatment. The sides and front of the body have a direct affect on long term results. Maybe even more enlightening is that giving freedom to these adjacent structures can also contribute to decrease possible future susceptibility of acute and chronic pain.

When back muscles becomes rigid and spinal resilience is compromised the entire thoracic trunk is affected and all the structures from one extent to another freeze. When a vertebrae or a section of the spine is affected it is effected three-dimensionally, meaning to treat back pain thoroughly it is also neccessary to restore fluidity in the front (sternum), top and bottom (neck and shoulder blade), side to side (ribs) and through the body because the body is not hollow – it is three dimensionally connected. The soft tissues i.e., muscles, fascia, tendons, and ligaments on the very front of the spine (behind the organs) need to become fluid again for long term relief.  This  concept is foundational, but unique to Structural Integration, good practitioners can affect change at this level.

In a recent news article posted on the Pittsburgh ABC news site, the benefits of structural integration are highlighted.

Structural integration is getting more attention as a way to help relieve pain for people who lead sedentary lifestyles and straighten them out.

Structural integration has been called deeper than deep-tissue massage.

Physical therapy is great for acute things, great for very specific problems.

Each session is specifically designed to your particular shape, your particular issues, and what the goals are.

Read the full article here: Structural Integration Relieves Pain

Pain comes from a pattern of fixation and rigidity.  Habitual daily patterns create a “closed system” and prevent movement, fluids, and energies from providing nourishment to our bodies on every level.  The pain is concentrated at a locus point caused by the lack of one or more of these vital processes.

Body patterns vary and are molded by our individual experiences beginning in the womb.  It may be that you get sick, but your body but doesn’t release the physical consequences easily. Someone else becomes injured or has an operation, but the healing process doesn’t require a “release” of connective tissues.  Another person might go through a highly stressful event, when it’s over he says, “I’m not the same.” Dysfunctional patterns can be created from stress on any level, but they tend to always manifest on the physical plane.

Structural Integration eases stress on all levels no matter what the causation is – by addressing the physical structure.  Contact us today and do something for yourself that will have a positive effect not only on you but in everything you do.  Have a beautiful day!

By AUSTIN CONSIDINE

A FORMER dancer of 14 years, Anna Zahn is in touch with her body. To gain more flexibility, and to counteract some of the strain from dancing, she has tried a number of remedies: Reiki, acupuncture, yoga.

But she still felt tight, her body tense. So she started getting Rolfed — a kind of deep-tissue bodywork that can be so intense that some jokingly liken it to masochism.

“It’s not going to massage and lighting aromatherapy candles,” said Ms. Zahn, a 20-year-old student at New York University, who gets a Rolfing treatment every week or so. “It’s tough to go to these sessions. It’s painful, very painful, emotionally and physically. But you feel such a relief when you leave that it’s just the most amazing feeling.”

Others are feeling it, too. Popular in the 1970s, Rolfing once evoked hairy-chested, New Age types seeking alternative therapies — perhaps most famously spoofed in the 1977 football movie “Semi-Tough,” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson.

But today, Rolfing is experiencing something of a resurgence, especially among younger city dwellers for whom the novelty of yoga has worn off, and who are now seeking more intense ways to relieve the stresses of modern life.

“Back in the day, Rolfing’s growth was word of mouth,” said Rey Allen, a Rolfing practitioner in lower Manhattan, who has noticed an increase in its popularity. He attributes the rise partly to the Internet, which has introduced the treatment to a new generation.

“Over half of my clientele are in their 20s,” he added. “Since I opened my practice in the city a few years ago, the average age of my clientele has always been 35. But that has drastically changed since the summer.”

Could Rolfing be one Madonna endorsement away from becoming the next Pilates?

Rolfing is named after its creator, Ida Rolf, a biochemist from New York City who studied alternative methods of bodywork and healing beginning in the 1920s. She died in 1979 at the age of 82.

Dr. Rolf developed a theory that the body’s aches and pains arose from basic imbalances in posture and alignment, which were created and reinforced over time by gravity and learned responses among muscles and fascia — the sheath-like connective tissue that surrounds and binds muscles together. Rolfing developed as a way to “restructure” muscles and fascia.

The focus on manipulating fascia is part of what distinguishes it from chiropractics, which deals with bones, and from therapeutic massages, which works on muscles.

That also explains why Rolfing has a reputation for being aggressive, even painful at times. Fascia is stubborn material, particularly if it is marked by knots and scar tissue. Rolfers gouge with knuckles and knead with fists, contort limbs and lean into elbows to loosen tendons and ligaments. Patients, meanwhile, need the fortitude to relax and take it during the hourlong sessions.

Russell Poses, a 39-year-old international equities trader on Wall Street, who started getting Rolfing treatments after injuring his back, likened the experience to “paying $150 an hour for an Indian burn.” But the benefits, as far as he’s concerned, are well worth it. Chiropractors and years of physical therapy couldn’t accomplish what two or three Rolfing sessions did, he said.

Plus, he said he could still feel the results two weeks later. “It’s something that actually lasts,” he said.

It is hard to find reliable statistics on the prevalence of Rolfing. But the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, which was founded by Dr. Rolf in 1971 to educate and certify practioners, says it has noticed a rise in student enrollments at its Boulder, Colo., headquarters.

Kevin McCoy, a faculty member at the institute with a practice in Milwaukee, said he had seen annual class sizes swell to 100 from 75 students in recent years. In the mid-1980s, he said, the school graduated fewer than 50 a year. Despite the bad economy, he said, “our numbers have been maintaining or growing.”

An endorsement in 2007 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” by the cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz certainly didn’t hurt. Now the host of the syndicated daytime program “The Dr. Oz Show,” he says he sees the growing popularity of Rolfing as “a general perception by the public that taking medications for discomfort is not giving you the panacea benefits that you would desire.”

In that regard, he said he viewed the treatment as an extension of practices like yoga, which also offers relief without drugs. “Yoga is in many ways analogous to Rolfing because it takes tendons and it stretches them into a position of discomfort,” Dr. Oz said. “They’re just doing it for you without your doing it yourself.”

Rolfing practitioners say they have also noticed a shift that may explain why younger clients are seeking out their services. It’s not just to treat injuries, but also stress. “Health is one area where we can find a sense of control,” said Mr. Allen, who has been practicing for about nine years. “The real trend is that people are starting to look within the boundaries of their own skin for meaning in their lives, and to find a sense of security in the world.”

As with other holistic practices, Rolfing seems to leave the door open for a certain mysticism. Even those who have little use for New Age-type practices like meditation can verge on the metaphysical when discussing Rolfing.

Beau Buffier, a 35-year-old partner at a corporate law firm in New York, says he started Rolfing treatments after he injured his neck and shoulder in a fall. Despite three M.R.I.’s, surgery, physical therapy, a chiropractor, acupuncture and deep massage, the pain remained. Stress from his high-stakes job didn’t help.

But somehow Rolfing did the trick. “It’s dealing with the physical manifestations of something that’s kind of emotional or spiritual,” Mr. Buffier said.

He has since gotten in touch with his body in other ways. He began exercising more and eating better. He lost 20 pounds. His blood pressure dropped. “It’s almost as if your body locks up emotions,” he said.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/fashion/07rolfing.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print (text version)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/fashion/07rolfing.html?_r=1 (full version)

Man is a confluence of material, mental, emotional, and energetic streams that have at the very least an indirect influence on one another. However, much of the time in a session of bodywork a client can immediately recognize a positive response in his well-being during a session.

Dr. Rolf observed that “for the therapist of the psyche, as well as the therapist dealing with the physical man, the goal is appropriate movement. The psychotherapist senses immobility in the dimension of time rather than space. The individual, bogged down, unmoving in time, unable to escape from his infantile or adolescent assumption or traumata, manifests this physically as well as psychologically. His lack of movement, his general or localized rigidity, are unequivocal in their statement.”

It has been my experience many times over that a proper session of bodywork can bring relief on numerous levels, even through the simple purity of bodywork.

“It’s Mystical, but it’s Physical” (The way one client expressed his experience of Rolf Structural Integration)

In my practice, MedicinEvolution, I’ve heard clients say some of the most interesting things after experiencing Rolf Structural Integration.  I want to share some of what I can recall with you.
•    Since the session the world has been more vivid, my senses seemed to be more acute.  That goes for every sense, my hearing, sight, smell, etc.  I notice things I didn’t before although they’ve always been right in front of me.
•    For some reason I have access to a wider range of vocabulary.
•    I felt a sense of spirituality.  I became Muslim.
•    This work has will help develop your intuition.
•    I’m an athlete, I know my foot, but I’ve never been able to feel my foot like this before.  The awareness that it has brought, amazing!
•    I’m much more aware of my body.
•    Before the work I used to live in the attic (pointing to her head).  Now I feel like I’ve come down to live in the house (pointing to her body).
•    I wanted to get married, and now I’m engaged.
•    His confidence is better.
•    She’s happier!
•    That night after the 6th session all of my symptoms the night of the car accident returned i.e., vomitting, back pain, headache, etc. just like they were.  By the time I woke in the morning they were gone.  My back pain is gone.
•    Don’t take your hand off my back, I can feel the pain leaving through your hand.  Keep it right where it is.  (A very good friend during his bout with cancer, I miss you)
•    My asthma went away.
•    I totally forgot that I wore leg braces.  That was 20 something years ago, and right now I am recalling the Dr. and his exact address.  That’s weird.  (While reestablishing balance in his lower legs)
•    Emotions could no longer anchor themselves to flesh, they’d come and go.
•    I grew an inch.
•    I feel stronger.
•    I feel younger.
•    I feel skinnier.
•    My old pants fit me again.
•    What I’ve learned from Structural Integration is that I can prevent my own future ailments.
•    I don’t get sick like I used to, I would’ve expected to get sick this winter.
•    I’ve experienced a new level of health and fitness.
•    I consider it a part of my training (as a triathlete).
•    I’ve been to a lot of reputable people but no one ( like a Structural Integration practitioner) waits for the body to move, I feel like this does something.
•    I can sleep better.
•    I didn’t feel a thing after the ten sessions.  After returning from a 200 mile hike on the Pacific Coast Trail I don’t think I would’ve made it if I didn’t go through this work.
•    I was shy, the uprightness that I feel makes me feel better about myself.
•    After only a few sessions I could already feel the results not only in the way my back felt but my posture, breathing and the way I was moving. I knew that the underlying postural imbalances were beginning to correct themselves.

If you read through the literature of alternative medicine you can find interesting things like this.  What I love about the Rolf work is that its focus is to release, clarify, define, communicate, support, and organize the physical body.  As a result, the purity of the physical work can sometimes lead to a sort of veil being removed between different aspects of one’s being, the direct correlation, then, becomes clear.  Here are some physical goals during the ten session process of Rolf Structural Integration:
•    Bringing length to the front of the body.
•    Stacking major segments more appropriately.
•    Increasing the vital capacity (breath).
•    Helping the (3) foot arches to function properly.
•    Balancing knees over ankles.
•    Lengthening the back and supporting the spine by restoring correct position of muscles and soft tissue.
•    To win back “sides” of the body
•    Coaxing length in inner legs and revitalizing the pelvic floor.
•    Awakening deep structures and relating anatomy superficial and deep.
•    Freeing the sacrum from the pelvis and restoring it as part of the spine.
•    Horizontalizing the pelvis (the “seat of the soul” as Dr. Rolf described it).
•    Enabling micro-movements to the bones of the head and unifying the spine and all its complexities.
•    Integrating movement of the limbs into the body and empowering a broader more unified range of motion.
•    Establishing optimal joint function, nervous system health, organ space, structure and function, function and structure, three-dimensional body.

Julia was two months old when she first came into the office.  She was fussy, cried a lot, and looked small for her age. Despite what I perceived to be a trying child, her mother Michelle was happy and positive.  Michelle seemed to have an intuitive sense of hope for her young daughter.  On intake, I found a child who woke up every 1 1/2 hours through the night, cried incessantly, and made sharp body movements as if she demanded some internal change.  She had been on a laxative for the past three weeks. Constipation seemed to be the underlying issue, however the frequency of her stools had not changed since starting the laxatives. She would still only pass a stool once every 5 to 8 days, which had been ongoing since birth.  The laxatives weren’t working.