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Structural Integration
A Recipe for Personal Evolution

by Rob Martin

What is Structural Integration?
Structural Integration is a unique system of postural education that utilizes soft tissue manipulation and movement exercises to release stress patterns and imbalances in the body's myo-fascial structure. Fascia is a continuous web of fibrous tissue extending throughout the body from the deepest bone level to the layer just under the surface of the skin. It is what gives us our shape and can become disorganized due to postural habits, injuries and emotional stress. By affecting the quality of this tissue with touch, a more organized structure is created. A structure that works with gravity and not opposed to it.

"New times, they say, require new remedies. New times also demand and consequently receive new forms, new ideas, perhaps a new man. One of the pregnant ideas of this decade is that human behavior is basically an outward and visible functional response of structural organization or the lack thereof" - I. P. Rolf, Ph.D. 

Where did it come from?
"Structural Integration" was developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf during the 1930's, while searching for an alternative to the available medical treatments of the day. Dr. Rolf, formerly a biochemist with the Rockefeller Institute became interested in Osteopathy, Chiropractic and Tantric Yoga and was especially intrigued with Dr. Still's (of osteopathic fame) idea that structure determined function. Fascial tissue is the organ of structure that allows us a sense of "proprioception" or how we order ourselves in three-dimensional space. By adding energy through touch to the fascial tissue, Dr. Rolf was able to change the structure of the body and thereby invoke change to its function.  It is at this point that the body's relationship to gravitational forces and integration of the work come into play. By bringing a sense of order to the fascial tissue and organizing the body's segments in relation to its central vertical axis, gravity can now act as a supporting force rather than a downward pull on an imbalanced body. Until the late 60's her work was virtually unknown except for chiropractors, osteopaths and other therapists she had taught. Her ideas were met with much skepticism by the allopathic community and did not receive any attention until she was invited by the psychologist Fritz Perls, to lecture and do bodywork at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. This eventually led to the establishment of a permanent teaching facility in Boulder, Colorado. Presently, there are two schools in Boulder teaching Dr. Rolf's method of Structural Integration, "The Guild for Structural Integration" and "The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration". Both schools continue to research the effects of gravity on the human structure. Other schools that were inspired by Dr. Rolf's genius are Ed Maupin's IPSB in San Diego and Joseph Heller's, Hellerwork. 

"What we do is put an organized wave in the body through the 'recipe'. It is not random."  - I. P. Rolf, Ph.D.

What is the "Recipe"?
The "recipe" is a series of ten sessions designed to work from superficial to core layers of the body, adding length and elasticity by using slow, precise touch. Each session builds on the work accomplished in the previous session. SI work is completed with respect to the client's organicity and ability to establish healthy 
boundaries regarding pain. It is an intense, personal maturation process that slowly introduces the physical and emotional bodies to a new concept of "relationship".

The final results differ with each individual and reflect the body/self awareness they are able to cultivate during the work. This newfound awareness is part of the cognitive process that can provide the client with a new perception of themselves and the world they live in.

"In Structural Integration, we expect to give a cycle of ten sessions. There is a reason for this. We are not dealing with local problems. We are not dealing with the kind of thing that you can say, "Well, I fixed that, that's all." We are dealing with an intent to make a body a sturdier human being, to make a body more secure, more adequate within the field of gravity. This requires that muscles be balanced, and need to be balanced around a vertical line. And, when I talk about balancing muscles, I'm talking about balancing the right side against the left side. About balancing the front of the body against the back of the body, and finally, about balancing the innermost muscles against the outermost muscles, the inside against the outside, this is the most important of those balances, and we start from the outside working in, and it takes us ten hours before we can get to the place where we can really balance the outside against the inside."  - I. P. Rolf, Ph.D. 

How do I benefit?
Because the work directly affects the elasticity and permeability of the myo-fascial tissue, length comes into the body allowing muscles the space to work and joints the freedom to function. 

Clients report feeling:

• Relief from chronic pain -e.g. low back, knee or neck pain-caused by injury or overuse.

• Increased energy, flexibility, and balance. 

• Better posture; easier breathing. 

• Recovery from repetitive stress injuries.

• Resolution of past traumas.

• Increased body and self-awareness. 

After the ten series is completed, a waiting period of six months to a year is recommended. This allows time for the work to "settle in", and for the client to integrate into their awareness what this new sense of self feels like.  Afterwards, there is the opportunity for more advanced work for those who are interested in continuing investing in their own evolution.

"This is the gospel of Rolfing: When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself."

"Rolfers make a life study of relating bodies and their fields to the earth and its gravity field, and we so organize the body that the gravity field can reinforce the body's energy field. This is our primary concept."

"There are two types of people who come to a Rolfer. One has what I so elegantly call a bellyache, and wants you to get that bellyache out. The other's ache is an overly absorbing recognition of the fact that he is unhappy. He is unwell, uneasy. He wants to know why, he wants to move on, he wants to know more.

"Structural Integration is about the whole person; it is about the fascia and feeling.

The sensation of moving from weakness into strength, the exhilaration of owning a new part of oneself, the immediate and simultaneous re-education of ones being and action, the joy of self-empowerment, waking up; these are the experiences of Structural Integration."  
Emmett Hutchins

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Rob Martin is a certified Structural Integration practitioner, trained at the Guild for Structural Education in Boulder, CO. and on the island of Kauai. He has been studying bodywork therapies since 1994 and was certified in Structural Integration in 2000.