What is Rolfing?
As you can guess I get asked a lot to explain what I do. It goes with the territory of having a job title few people have heard of. I’ve decided to create this document to be clearer about what I do. There’s lots of ways that I could explain my work, and I hope by having them all in one place that you’ll be able to find one or two that ring true for you.
"Rolfing is a combination of hands on treatment of the body’s soft tissue coupled with education about better body habits.”
If you imagine a number crunching accountant at their desk or a hairdresser working intensely with hands all day, they might have shoulders that roll forward and start to creep up towards the ears. Pain between their shoulder blades alongside a stiff achey neck are likely.
How would soft tissue work help this person? Well I’d look for the areas that are tight (often the tight places aren’t the painful places). For the accountant or the hairdresser then the tight area is going to be around the front of the shoulder the muscles & fascia that connect shoulder to upper ribs. Sensitive work in this area is going to allow the shoulders to rest back: imagine their collar bones have grown a little longer and their shoulders are directly under the ears. This is great, the shoulders are in a much happier place, that achey pain between shoulder blades is reduced and the neck will feel freer.
If everything feels better then what’s the education about body habits for? Well back at work the muscle round the front of the shoulder is going to rapidly tighten up and a week later I’ll be having to do the same thing over again. The body is very good at doing something the same way it has always done it. What I as a Rolfer can do is help you break bad habits by finding better ones.
How do you do that James? In a way it’s not me that does the doing, this is the point where the client takes over the responsibility for making change. Awareness is the key here, I might get them to move between the old and the new shoulder position paying attention to what feels easy about the new. I might rest my hands on top of their shoulders and ask them to feel what happens when their shoulders are heavier. I might ask them to feel that their shoulder blades are heavy pieces of bone and that they can rest and slide down their back. All these awareness exercises give the client the skill to notice sooner when things are out of shape and show them how to get back to the better easier place. These exercises also mean that you can maintain good posture without lots of effort. I’d never want you to squeeze the shoulders back (think Sgt Major posture) because this is adds tension and requires lots of effort.
"Rolfing is a combination of hands on treatment of the body’s soft tissue coupled with education about better body habits.”
If you imagine a number crunching accountant at their desk or a hairdresser working intensely with hands all day, they might have shoulders that roll forward and start to creep up towards the ears. Pain between their shoulder blades alongside a stiff achey neck are likely.
How would soft tissue work help this person? Well I’d look for the areas that are tight (often the tight places aren’t the painful places). For the accountant or the hairdresser then the tight area is going to be around the front of the shoulder the muscles & fascia that connect shoulder to upper ribs. Sensitive work in this area is going to allow the shoulders to rest back: imagine their collar bones have grown a little longer and their shoulders are directly under the ears. This is great, the shoulders are in a much happier place, that achey pain between shoulder blades is reduced and the neck will feel freer.
If everything feels better then what’s the education about body habits for? Well back at work the muscle round the front of the shoulder is going to rapidly tighten up and a week later I’ll be having to do the same thing over again. The body is very good at doing something the same way it has always done it. What I as a Rolfer can do is help you break bad habits by finding better ones.
How do you do that James? In a way it’s not me that does the doing, this is the point where the client takes over the responsibility for making change. Awareness is the key here, I might get them to move between the old and the new shoulder position paying attention to what feels easy about the new. I might rest my hands on top of their shoulders and ask them to feel what happens when their shoulders are heavier. I might ask them to feel that their shoulder blades are heavy pieces of bone and that they can rest and slide down their back. All these awareness exercises give the client the skill to notice sooner when things are out of shape and show them how to get back to the better easier place. These exercises also mean that you can maintain good posture without lots of effort. I’d never want you to squeeze the shoulders back (think Sgt Major posture) because this is adds tension and requires lots of effort.