Category Archives: Sessions

Rolfing 10 Series with Kate Session 1

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Rolfing before photo, 10 series, ten series, jamestherolfer, james the rolfer

Kate Right side before Rolfing

A major goal of the first Rolfing session is to give the spine more adaptability. In the photo you can see that Kate holds her hips forward and the spine & shoulders end up working hard to catch up.  “She’s behind her line”, in Rolfer speak.  To address this, I worked on back of the hips because it’s an area that’s holding & pushing the hips forward.

To integrate the changes we talked about the feet; Kate’s weight travels down through the heels mainly. If she could use the toes more it would give the pelvis the support it needs to rest further back.

Leaning forward is the obvious way of bringing more weight into the toes, but this doesn’t help.  I asked Kate to try and send her toes down into the floor, so that the support form the toes matched the heel.  This opens the angle of the foot & shin slightly so the hips can move back.  We looked at a lot of other thing in this session but this feels like the main theme. I’m interested to see what Kate has to say.

Here’s what Kate had to say

James and I began our course of 10 rolfing sessions today! I always look forward to Rolfing sessions with James as I get such an enormous amount from them. Today I felt impatient about my ongoing hamstring injury (a 10 year old+ injury) and found myself waiting to work on “the bit that hurts”. When I have sore shoulders, tired legs, or stiffness in my back, I want that particular part to be addressed directly and with great force (ie. with deep massage, pressure, etc), but often it makes the injured or sore area inflamed and more painful. James quoted Ida Rolf to me as he was working on my hip: “where the pain is, it isn’t”. How true… I was surprised to find that other places in my body spoke more to my hamstring, ie. “the bit that hurts”. Oh James, such wisdom.

 After being treated today i felt as if my feet were almost buoyant; like they were being sprung back up off the floor without the usual weight of my legs and body pressing them down. There was some pretty intense leg work, enough to render me fairly speechless, but it felt necessary and important. Without trying to sound hyperbolic, I felt like a changed person after the session. My awareness shifted so dramatically, and all of a sudden i was thinking about the inward rotation of my ankle and the gentle outward rotation of my leg. I said to James after he had asked me to imagine this rotation, “that’s fine and all, but how am I supposed to integrate that into my life?” and nonchalantly he responded, “well, you just have.” He is right, of course; by imagining my body moving in a certain way, I am already creating an awareness of it. I am already starting to do what I need to do.

Rolfing is magic. I feel like I am doing something important for myself. It makes me feel courageous to look at my own body and BE in it,  honestly and truthfully, rather than hiding behind excuses for why I may not be flexible enough, strong enough, able to stand up straight and let my feet feel the ground. Bring on session 2!

Ten Series with Kate: Introduction

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My friend Kate & I have worked out an exchange. Hopefully it will generate some great content and feedback about the experience and benefits of Rolfing for readers of my website.

The plan is this:

I am going to give Kate a complete series of 10 Rolfing sessions, and after each session we will each comment on the session and I will publish our commentary to the website.

I will discuss each session in a general way but also give a sense of how each Rolfing session is tailored to the individual. I will also be photographing Kate at the beginning of each session; hopefully as the sessions progress the photographs will show changes in Kate’s body as she gains more awareness of her posture and body position.

Kate will also write about the session from a client’s perspective, and share her experiences of Rolfing.  I’m really excited about this Rolfer/Client journey as it will hopefully allow readers to get a sense of what I do that goes far beyond client testimonials.

The 10 Sessions

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Many peoples first contact with a Rolfer is to work through the 10 sessions.  These 10 sessions are all about helping your body find balance and support in gravity.  Starting with the feet, we move upwards till we reach the head & neck.  I’m looking to help your body parts to work at their full potential & for them to all work together as a whole with ease.  It isn’t necessary to commit to all 10 sessions I prefer people to come try one or two to see how my work might help them.  If you have something specific that you want help with, then sometimes it’s best to work with it through the 10 sessions, sometime we might do a few “fix it” sessions & then maybe start the 10.

Soft Sandy Feet. (Session 2)

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So often when Rolfing, I’m looking to help the client connect with the things that support their posture. During 2nd of the 10 series we look at the feet. Ensuring they are adaptable & flexible, but in the bigger sense we are looking for the feet to connect with the ground. So often we ignore our feet phrases like “my feet are killing me” say a lot about how we think about our feet. During the 2nd session I’ll encourage you to pay attention to what your feet can feel. By paying attention you will feed the movement areas of your brain beautiful info that it will relish, & use to coordinate your balance & movements. We are developing proprioception the sense of where our body parts are in space.

“The griping of the toes is the gripping of the mind” B.K.S Iyengar

When I teach Yoga people often try & grip with their feet, toes claw down with white knuckles & the whole foot is hard. Spending effort trying to grip something as large as the earth with something as small as your feet is a bit daft. So in class & when Rolfing I’ll encourage soft feet that spread on the ground. Often metaphors are helpful like “imagine your toes growing long like fingers” or “feel the whole of the sole, like you’re stood on soft sand”. A soft spreading foot feeding rich info to the brain gives a strong sense of the ground. A hard/gripping foot can’t do this & leaves us ungrounded. So in a session 2 I’ll be manipulating feet & lower legs to soften the feet & I’ll be encouraging you to take that softness & feel with it, amongst other things.