Whole-Body Integration

Rolfers™ – the Navy Seals of Bodywork?

I just got this from a colleague, Deborah Weidhaas of Los Gatos, CA, on our Rolfing® Structural Integration community forum: 

"On Friday, my client said a friend asked him what Rolfing is. Rather than try to explain it, he says he said, 'Rolfing is to massage as the Navy Seals are to boy scouts.'"

It doesn't say it all (and might intimidate some!) but it is beautifully succinct. Like Navy Seals, Rolfers™ are highly trained in a strategic approach to bring effective change. We tend to dive right in and get things done. 

This is why I tell prospective clients that just one Rolfing session should give a clear sense of whether this modality will help with their issues. One session may not resolve an issue, but if you have good body awareness, it should provide enough change that you can tell if Rolfing is for you.

Yelp Review

Wow - I just received a great review on Yelp from one of my Seattle clients, who mentions how Rolfing® has helped her posture and range of motion! This came out of the blue, and in these days when potential clients seek practitioners through the web as well as word of mouth, it means alot to me - thank you, Shelbi, I'm glad I could be of service!

Rolfing® After Auto Accidents

Here's a nice Rolfing® article that discusses the use of Rolfing for pain relief after an auto accident. The article features my colleague Emily Gordon in Maryland, and talks about how three sessions of Rolfing are giving one of her clients relief from the constant pain he has been in since an auto accident some six years ago. I have also found this to be true with the many clients coming in to see me for Rolfing on auto and workers' compensation claims in the dozen-plus years I've been in practice  (first in Hawaii, now in Seattle). In most of the cases I've worked with, clients find that Rolfing® is what really gets them out of the woods, bringing relief that was not found through just chiropractic care, physical therapy, or massage – although these can be valuable components of a full treatment plan, as well as acupuncture.

When a client comes to my Rolfing practice after an auto accident, there are several things to consider. If the accident was recent, and the person is in significant pain, we have to see whether he responds best to direct Rolfing, or to indirect techniques that are very gentle. If the accident was particularly traumatic or shocking, or if the neck is highly guarded because of a whiplash, we may start with craniosacral work to drain some of the shock from the system. 

I also want to know how the person was hit, and how he was positioned at the time, as that - plus a visual analysis - tells me how the force vectors that entered the body may have impacted the myofascial, cranial, and organ systems. For example, if you were rear-ended while you were the driver, stopped at a traffic signal, with your seatbelt on and your right foot jammed on the brake, and your head turned to the right to say something to the person in the passenger seat, I know immediately that there may be a chain of compression up the right leg affecting the foot/ankle/knee/hip, and a whiplash effect with a right rotation in the musculature of the neck and torso as your body was propelled forward into and around the seatbelt. 

If a client has had many sessions of other treatment, including myofascial massage, it may be an indication that the cranial or visceral (organ) component of the accident was not addressed and will be the missing link. For example, whiplash can put strain around the suspensory ligaments of the pleura; in this case, even great myofascial work to the neck muscles will not bring a permanent fix until those ligaments are under less strain.

I'm passionate about helping people get out of suffering and back to their normal lives after auto and work accidents, and think that Rolfing® – combined with craniosacral and visceral work as needed – is the best form of manual therapy to deal with this intricate problem-solving. The silver lining to an auto accident is that insurance will usually fully cover the treatments if prescribed by a medical doctor or chiropractor. While some Rolfers™ will not bill your auto insurer or workers' compensation program directly, I have found that these agencies are usually easy to work with, and I am happy to do that so my clients have one less burden to deal with while they are recovering. 

How the Enneagram Helps to Understand Self and Others

I was pleased to see Huffington Post's article about the Enneagram. While basic, it's a good introduction to a very deep topic. Just yesterday my friend Seattle acupuncturist Kory Kapitke and I were talking about the Enneagram, and how it can be useful to understand ourselves and others. He's an acupuncturist, I'm a Rolfer™ and craniosacral therapist, so we both work with people all day long - people in pain, people in transformation, people curious about alternatives. Sometimes a client is on a growth path and curious to hear about something like the Enneagram, curious about how Rolfing® works to bring the body into alignment in gravity, interested in the mystical aspect of craniosacral work... Other clients are working the body dimension primarily - in pain, healing from an injury - but my knowing something about the Enneagram can help me relate to them better even if we never talk about such things. It can help me understand what makes a person tick, sometimes it can help me understand how to better communicate with a person, sometimes it helps me to see my own blind spots. 

The Enneagram is ultimately a multi-faceted and multi-layered system that can be used to understand oneself on many levels, including one's evolution, and to understand reality itself. At the most commonly known level the Enneagram consists of the nine Enneatypes, which are listed in the HuffPo article (Reformer, Helper, Achiever...) These are ways we can understand our selves and how we operate, in the same way that knowing the position of planets in your astrology chart can give you information about yourself. However, if you are interested in spiritual growth, it is important to understand that the Enneatypes are ego fixations - manifestations of the ego, the personality - and not representations of reality or the potential of the true self. To get stuck thinking "I'm a Five" or "I'm a Nine" is to forget your potential and to put your being into a pigeonhole. In truth we all visit all the Enneatypes, although we have particular ones our personalities are more constellated around. 

Just as I want to keep from putting myself into an Enneatype box, I also want to give that space to my Rolfing® and craniosacral clients as I think about them and how to best help them in their processes of transformation and health. If I limit my thinking about a client to "he's blah blah blah" or "she's such a ___," I'm seeing only a limited aspect of the person's personality, and I may also be perceiving inaccurately, based on my own predispositions and projections. So if I do have an idea of a client's Enneatype or character style, I want to hold that loosely, as a way to better understand and communicate with him or her, not to think that is all s/he is.

And then there's another level of the Enneagram, the Nine Holy Ideas. From this perspective, it is understood that each  Enneatype or ego fixation is actually a misunderstanding of one of the nine Holy Ideas, which are a map of the true nature of reality, the enlightened perspective. In contrast, the Enneatypes are the ego's best and imperfect attempt to find it's way towards this truth. Thus, the Enneatype One is a "reformer" because he thinks he has to change himself and others to seek perfection, while the Holy Idea of Point One, "Holy Perfection" tells us that reality is inherently perfect as it is - as all the great mystical traditions say. So the Enneatype of Point One has it partially right - he knows it's about perfection - but he is mistaken and deluded in thinking that it is up to him to create perfection rather than to awaken to a realization of the perfection that already exists. 

The best resources I know on the Holy Ideas are the books Facets of Unity by A.H. Almaas and The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram by Sandra Maitri. Maitri has also written The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues - think the seven deadly sins and the Christian virtues, but there are nine of each, not seven. This is yet another layer of the Enneagram. The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson, mentioned in the HuffPo article, is also an excellent overall Enneagram resource. If you live in Seattle and are interested in Enneagram study, see  Enneagram classes with Ragini Michales at Facticity . 

Library of Rolfing® Articles

Do you want to read more about Rolfing® structural integration? In my links / blogroll, you will see the Ida P. Rolf Library. This is an online library of articles about Rolfing that is generously  maintained by Brazilian Rolfer Pedro Prado (one of my teachers - thanks, Pedro!).

The library includes articles from the three journals of the Rolf Institute (the name has changed over time: first it was the Bulletin of Structural Integration, then it was Rolf Lines, now it is Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute, as well as other sources. Most of the articles are written by Rolfers or other structural integrators. There are even a few by me (and there will be more as Pedro updates with the most current issues of Structural Integration).

I highly recommend this site to Rolfers, structural integrators, bodyworks, and anyone curious about Rolfing.

Wisdom from Leonard Cohen

I recently watched the dvd Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, a documentary/tribute concert about singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen. He is interviewed on various topics between the songs, and at one point he talks about becoming a Zen monk and his relationship with his Zen teacher, who he refers to by the honorific "Roshi." I loved one particular comment he made about his friendship with his Zen teacher, as it speaks to spiritual and transformative work:

"[Roshi] became a part of my life and a deep friend in the real sense  

of friendship:  someone who really cared about – or didn't care, I'm  

not quite sure which it is – who deeply didn't care about who I was.  

Therefore who I was began to wither, and the less I was of who I was,  

the better I felt." 

In any work of transformation we challenge what is familiar, what we take to be "me." In transformative bodywork like Rolfing®, we shift the familiar felt sense of the body, and the challenge in the process is to let yourself become the someone who is possible in that body that feels different. Openess to the process can result not only in having a "different" body - one that is better aligned in gravity, more open to energy flow, more spacious and lifted - but in transformation rippling through your life as other old and familiar patterns shift and the possibility for what is new and authentic arises.

In spiritual work, we challenge our familiar self images, the "me" who one takes oneself to be. As Cohen indicates, the less you are identified with who you are, the less you care about (i.e., are attached to) who you take yourself to be, the more space there is for true change. Thus, our true spiritual friends are those who are deeply disinterested in our ego self images, and instead curious about what else is there when we create the space for something more - or something less? - to arise.

I had the great good fortune to see Leonard Cohen perform in Seattle last month. What an amazing singer/performer/being. Here's a video from that tour, Cohen performing his great song "Hallelujah" in London. Enjoy!

Pelvic Pain

Pelvic pain is a challenging issue for many women - one that can be hard to speak about, and hard to find effective treatment for. It can involve pain in the pelvic musculature or genitals, or pain with intercourse. Flare-ups can cause discomfort with sitting and exercising as well.

I've worked with a small number of women with this condition and have found that multiple modalities are usually called for. I've gotten good results from Rolfing® techniques to balance the pelvic fascias and musculature, especially combined with nerve release techniques (another form of manual therapy). Sometimes visceral work to release strain patterns around the pelvic organs has helped, sometimes craniosacral balancing to the sacrum and SI joints. I usually get a sense of which techniques to start with through a postural assessment and good medical/injury history. For example, falls onto the tailbone can cause imbalances in musculature and fascia that travel through the pelvic floor.

Given that the matter is complex, and requires different approaches, one may need to see multiple practitioners. I also recommend osteopathic treatment, and physical therapy - particularly if one can find a PT specializing in this syndrome. 

What is important to note is that manual therapy techniques can make a difference in reducing pain and improving quality of life.

Plantar Fasciitis

Today I did a fascinating Rolfing® session on a client with plantar fasciitis. I applied some of the ideas on inflammed nerves that I've gleaned from Don Hazen, a Rolfer and chiropractor. As I understand it, Don believes that not just fascia but inflamed nerves are behind many postural issues. Anyway, rather than do deep fascial work on an area that was painful and felt inflamed, I felt for the "string" of the inflamed nerves in the foot and ankle and spoke to them gently with indirect techniques (indirect: work that follows the body's lead rather than being directive). The changes were profound – softening of tight tissue, reduced pain, and a softening of the taut nerves. My client was also a bodyworker and we were both thrilled and blown away that it could be so easy.