This is where courage, experience, and listening (with my hands) come into play and prove valuable -sometimes beyond medicine.

I began, like always, by touching and assessing the fluidity of the body or lack of it. Keeping mindful of the symptoms, but knowing they were simply the background of something closer, something more tangible. You see, the body will always express an imbalance on any level (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) as a symptom or a group of symptoms in the muscles and soft tissue. Why? Because symptoms are simply a pysical articulation o fsome inner imbalance. In my limited experience of 13 years, it is more frequent than not that symptoms stem from a structural imbalance(s) than from a viral or bacterial illness. It is sad that the treatment of such things isn’t referred more to people who do the type of work I do.

I didn’t touch the head or neck that session, even though at the end of the session those areas remained in pain. What I did do was go to where the body and my hands felt the most structural restrictions. Which happened to be the sacrum and low back, but my hands could tell this wasn’t simple. I worked right along the spine, in deep joint crevices of the sacro-illium, and around the mid-back where both head/neck and shoulders were not feeling connected to the lower spine and pelvis. In about 30 min I can tell by tissue changes whether or not I can help a person. Things were progressing well so I knew I needed to trust the work, my hands, and the healing potential of the body. By the end of the session movement was flowing as I rocked the hips I could see and feel movement through the spine move all the way up to the head. The ribcage was soft again, breathing more complete. I had to trust my clinical experience (backed that up with hundreds of years of knowledge passed from bodyworker to bodyworker through the ages) that the spine reflects itself vertebrae to vertebrae, the top most reflecting the bottom most, the base of the skull reflecting the sacrum – I left him in expert care.

I went for a second session the next day. I went with an open mind but I admit I was slightly haunted with thoughts that I would have to do direct work on the neck. So much was better, the symptoms were gone or at least very, very bearable. The suffering was gone from an observer’s view and that was expressed subjectively. When clients are suffering and tests fail to confirm than get  under the scrupulous knowledge of expert hands. Hands which know they are not perfect and will quickly and humbly bow out of any situation too much to bear.

I am thankful for my teachers, I am thankful for those who have the courage to take a different almost untrodden path, I do hope that people out there read this and come to structural bodyworkers like myself. If you aren’t in my area I will try my best to connect you with someone who maybe qualified closer to you. I was on the other side of the table years ago, this gave me my life back and I truly believe that others need this opportunity. Cutting people off from this type of work is oppression, it is selfish, it is insane.

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.