INTEGRATIVE HEALTH

Reground, Recenter and Re-emerge in This “New Normal” with Rolfing SI

Misconceptions about Rolfing SI abound. Is it nothing more than a deep massage? Clients quickly learn Rolfing SI is nothing like massage.

By Victoria L. Huss, Rolfer, New Possibilities Integration, LLC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

For many people, this time of collective trauma (COVID-19) has been disorienting from a mind-body-spirit perspective.

 

 

The isolation within safety protocols and social distancing has affected mental health. Nervous systems have been on high alert. And at the same time, this tremendous slow-down of life has forced many folks to ask deeper, probing questions of themselves. So much shifting and changing within individual worlds that it can be difficult for the physical body to keep pace.

One way to foster a greater sense of ease and adaptability during these times is through the experience of Rolfing Structural Integration (or Rolfing SI).

Rolfing SI is a process of soft tissue manipulation (manual therapy), natural movement, and awareness-building exercises.

The work aims to change muscle memory by releasing restrictions held within the web of fascia or connective tissue that surrounds, supports, and protects all the muscles, bones, blood vessels, nerves, organs, and tissues of the body.

 

 

Since the fascia is a communication network for the nervous system, certain areas of the body may experience more contraction and tightness than others—creating imbalances and adding to distracting “body clutter.” Uneven tension within the body will pull an individual off their healthiest center of gravity.

Even slightly off-center, a body needs to work harder to sit or stand upright. While a recipe for the development of chronic pain, this imbalance can also drain a person of energy, create inflexibility, and reduce the adaptive capacity for emotional, physical, and spiritual stressors. Consequently, an individual unable to fully process or discharge stress may be weighed down by their “body suitcase” of past accidents, traumas, experiences, or injuries.

 

 

“The only constant in life is change.”

~ Heraclitus

 

Rolfing SI focuses on restoring alignment and posture by balancing the body left/right, front/back, top/bottom, and inside/outside.

This exquisite detailing process creates congruency, support, adaptability, space for ease, and more efficient expression of movement. A body less tethered can more easily find a sense of grounding.

 

 

Ida Rolf, Ph.D. (the founder of Rolfing SI) said, “When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.”

 

A renewed sense of grounding invokes a greater capacity to feel one’s healthiest center of gravity and center of self. (Which can help calm and regulate a traumatized nervous system.)

A grounded and centered individual can access more resiliency and greater body awareness. Without distracting “body clutter,” more choices and opportunities to hang out in the present become more readily available. This can help shift the old patterns of just surviving/constantly reacting more toward patterns of ease and adaptation. 

Emerging into this strange new world with a much cleaner and defined slate catalyzes transformation, active change, and openness to other possibilities for a new life direction during this time of shifting sands.

 

 

 

Victoria L. Huss is the Certified Rolfer™/owner of New Possibilities Integration LLC in Appleton, WI.

She finds joy in helping people unfold, finds freedom, and authentically express themselves within rigidity, chronic pain, and trauma challenges.

For a free consultation or more information, call 920-427-7653.

Rolfing® and Rolfer™ are registered service marks of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute®.

 

 

 

 

Reprint, March 18, 2021

Victoria L. Huss, New Possibilities Integration LLC

With additional editing by M. Zuleger-Thyss

 

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