About Rolfing
with Thomas Jackson
Who is Rolfing for
Clients choose Rolfing® as complementary or alternative treatment to conventional medicine for physical ailments. Additionally, clients seek relaxation and wellbeing from the stressors of daily life, looking for more body awareness and presence in their lives. Rolfing® is holistic in nature: changes in structure can impact the whole person on a physical, mental, emotional and energetic level.
It can help with
- Tight or held breathing
- Aching shoulders, frozen shoulder
- Back pain
- Stiff neck
- Tights hips
- Illiotibial band syndrome
- RSI (carpal tunnel) pain
- Tennis and Golfers elbow
- Migraine
- Chronic tension
A Rolfing Session®
Lasts from 60 to 90 minutes and costs 180 CHF. Students and clients without an additional health insurance plans receive a 20% discount.
Sessions are covered in part by most Swiss additional health insurance plans. Please inquire beforehand with your health insurance provider. I am an ASCA and EGK approved therapist.
Treatments are received by the client lying down and sitting, in underwear and bra. It is a holistic and highly individual process. Your focused awareness and openness will enhance the experience.
Rolfing can challenge habitual patterns of movement and posture, freeing the way to more self-expression and self-esteem. It is a fascinating journey into your own body!
Rolfing® can help people who are
- suffering from chronic tension and pain and feel in need of balance
- are subjected to one-sided stress and strain due to repetitive movements in their job and occupation (office workers, dentists, musicians, bankers, service employees, craftsmen etc.)
- want to explore and maintain their mobility, body intelligence and body awareness (senior citizens, Yogis, dancers, athletes, actors, you name it!) and lower their injury rates
What is Rolfing®?
Rolfing® is a system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education. Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979) an American biochemist developed the system in the 1950’s. The goal of Rolfing® is to balance the body’s structure in order to deal more efficiently with the force of gravity. A qualified practitioner, a Certified Rolfer™, uses physical pressure and sensitivity to manipulate the fascial system of a client. Patterns of tension along this 3D net, the connective tissue, are released. The body regains its natural balance and ease in gravity as tensional patterns fall away. This not only allows the body to move with more grace and lightness, but also influences our nervous system, metabolism and blood circulation.
Rolfing® brings you back into alignment and frees up your joints to increase flexibility. Rolfing® is an individual process, normally carried out over 10 sessions, in intervals of 2 to 4 weeks.
Rolfing and Fascia
Fascia is your multifunctional diving suit for life!
For Rolfers® especially important is their function as support system for your body within the field of gravity. Fascia, your 3D connective tissue costume, furthermore functions as shock absorber and sensory organ.
For an in-depth view and exploration into the world of fascia, visit the website of Robert Schleip PhD at Ulm University, Germany. He is one of the leading researchers on fascia worldwide.
Rolfing® and it's visionary
As a result, your fascia (sheets) can shorten, stick together, overstretch or harden. This will affect the static of your body: imbalances and tensional patterns aggravate your joints, your metabolism as well as your overall wellbeing
Heureka!
This is exactly were Rolfing® comes in! Ida Rolf’s insight was that tensional patterns of your fascia can be changed, balanced and nurtured back into health, into balance by manual interventions by your Rolfer™. A balanced and integrated body within the field gravity is the primary aim of Rolfing®. Gravity becomes your friend again, so to speak. Your body is naturally supported and effortlessly upright; you walk and move with grace and ease – your body in balance!
A possible side effect of Rolfing® sessions are the improvement of tensional patterns, aches and pains and emotional states of suffering. Please take note that improvement can happen, there is however, no guarantee. Freedom from symptoms is a bonus, the main goal of Rolfing® is to bring you back into centeredness and balance and let the innate intelligence of your body and being take over.
10 Series
A Certified Rolfer™ normally works with a client over a period of ten sessions. The 10 Series are the classic succession of Rolfing® sessions, which Ida P. Rolf developed over many years. The sessions build systemically on each other and are thematically related.
Rolfing® in daily life, where else?
Daily movement patterns and postural habits are addressed in the work with your Rolfer™. This includes: breathing, contact with the ground, stability in walking and standing, physical strain and stress in your work-life, perception of space and your body awareness. This process can allow you to reconsider your habitual and possibly restrictive movement patterns and postural habits and instead explore and integrate new alternatives in daily life. The goal is to bring more freedom and awareness to your life!
A Brief history of Rolfing®
“What conditions must be fulfilled in order for the human body-structure to be organized and integrated in gravity so that the whole person can function in the most optimal and economical way?“ – Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979) posed this fundamental question.
Trained as a biochemist she earned her PhD at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1920. Over more than 50 years of research and her inquisitive and visionary nature being influenced by disciplines such as osteopathy, yoga or chiropractic, she developed her system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education. It is what we now call Rolfing®.
In the mid 1960’s she began teaching at Esalen. In 1971 she established the Rolf Insitute in Boulder, Colorado, which is dedicated to this day to share her work by certifying Rolfers™ worldwide.
www.esalen.org
www.rolf.org
In 1991 The European Rolfing® Association e.V. (ERA) was founded to promote Rolfing® in Europe and is based in Munich, Germany.