Thoughts on size

A couple of 10 series clients have recently reported feeling bigger after sessions, while another felt smaller.  This isn’t a measurable change in height, just a feeling that their size has changed and that they feel more comfortable with this changed sense of their size.  I feel really heartened when a client reports these sorts of feelings. To me it’s a sign that we are working on the rich, deep somatic level that’s really Rolfing at its best.


What I think is going on, is that at times we all either shrink away or pump ourselves up to handle a situation that we don’t like.  

Say the thought of public speaking makes you uncomfortable.  Imagine all the physical things that you might do to prepare: take a deep breath, stick your chest out, shoulders back, stiffen the back and upper lip.  Effectively what you’re doing is making yourself bigger to steel yourself to do something.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is the shrinking away.  An encounter with a bullying boss, overbearing partner or parent, or a social situation where you’re uncomfortable.  Maybe social niceties prevent you responding with the loud “Fuck off” that you’d like to.  So you find yourself “wishing the ground would just swallow you up”.  How can one’s body manifest that desire to disappear?  A sense of sinking in the front of the body, head and gaze coming forward and down, shoulders coming forward, breath becoming shallow.  You can probably think of more examples.

We all do this; the body manifests what we are feeling emotionally, and at times we will deploy the first strategy, at others the second, but each option changes our size from the size we are when we feel happy, comfortable and safe.  This oscillation around our comfortable, happy, safe size is great as long as we come back the that size when the situation allows.  Unfortunately it’s possible for one of these strategies to be overused or become habitual.  As a Rolfer I’m not so interested in how or why this physical strategy became habitual, rather, I’m looking to help the client to find a strategy that better reflects them when they are happy and safe and help them return easily to this happy place.

Through the Rolfing 10 series I would do this by giving lots of hands on bodywork to the areas that hold the client in their shape.  For the person who shrinks away I’d help the front line of the body to lengthen. I’d work on the tissue at the front of the shoulder that’s holding them forward.  I’d want to help this client to feel a sense of length up the front of the spine, and for them to feel the weight of the shoulder blades and let them rest down the back.  Homework and awareness exercises would be to feel physically lighthearted, to let the heart float up and let the shoulders rest down.  For the person who pumps up, I’d want to help them release tension in the lower back and the back of the hips, and gain an ability to let this area rest.  There’d be a lot of work on the legs and feet for both these groups so that the changes we’re looking to make can be supported from below.

Our emotional state caused us to adopt one of the two physical strategies, now a change in our physical shape can bring us back to that peaceful emotional state: the happy middle ground between these two ways of being.  If after a 10 series a client can recognise that they’ve moved away from the happy middle ground and find their way back to feeling the right size, then they’ll be more comfortable and adaptable when they find themselves in an situation they find stressful.

My thoughts on this aspect of Rolfing have been influenced by a book by Thomas Hanna called Somatics which I highly recommend.