tructural ntegration S ® I THE JOURNAL OF THE ROLF INSTITUTE NOVEMBER 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR 2 STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION: THE JOURNAL OF COLUMNS ® THE ROLF INSTITUTE Rolf Movement® Faculty Perspectives: 3 November 2015 The Art of Yield – An Interview with Hiroyoshi Tahata Vol. 43, No. 3 ROLFING® SI AND ANIMALS PUBLISHER Reflections on Three Decades of Rolfing SI for Animals – 5 The Rolf Institute of and the Story of Mike the Moose Structural Integration Briah Anson 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Rolfing SI for Horse and Rider 9 Boulder, CO 80301 USA Lauren Harmon (303) 449-5903 Rolfing SI for the Performance Horse 13 (303) 449-5978 Fax Sue Rhynhart Equine Motor-Control Therapy Using Perceptual 17 EDITORIAL BOARD and Coordinative Techniques Shonnie Carson Robert Rex Diana Cary Dispatch from the Amazon 19 Colleen Chen Igor Simões Andrade and Heidi Massa Lynn Cohen Craig Ellis Sensory Awareness and Feline Play 22 Jazmine Fox-Stern Heather L. Corwin Szaja Gottlieb Beamer: The Chihuahua That Somehow Knew 25 Anne F. Hoff, Editor-in-Chief Liz Gaggini Amy Iadarola Kerry McKenna THE HUMAN ANIMAL Dorothy Miller The Human Animal 26 Linda Loggins Matt Walker Heidi Massa The Three-Dimensional Animal 28 Meg Maurer Michael Boblett Robert McWilliams Deanna Melnychuk Refining Dr. Rolf’s Lateral Line 31 John Schewe Richard F. Wheeler Max Leyf Treinen Polyvagal Theory for Rolfers™ 36 Lina Hack LAYOUT AND The Reptile and the Mammal Within 38 GRAPHIC DESIGN Barbara Drummond Susan Winter The Long Body: An Interview with Frank Forencich 39 Frank Forencich and Brooke Thomas Articles in Structural Integration: The Turning Our Lens Inward: Acknowledging the Animal Under Our Suit 42 ® Journal of The Rolf Institute represent the Norman Holler views and opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official PERSPECTIVES positions or teachings of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. The Rolf Institute An Overview of the Fourth International Fascia Research Congress 46 Szaja Gottlieb reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to accept or reject any article Integrating the Fourth International FRC 49 for publication in Structural Integration: The Naomi Wynter-Vincent Journal of The Rolf Institute. Biotensegrity Summit Report 51 Brooke Thomas Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute® (ISBN-13: 978-0692578865, Snowflakes Falling: A Personal and Professional Relationship 52 ISBN-10: 0692578862, ISSN 1538-3784) with Gravity is published by the Rolf Institute, 5055 Caryn McHose Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103, Boulder, CO 80301. The Three-Dimensional Foot, Part 2: 55 Evoking Pattern-Consistent Competency Copyright ©2015 Rolf Institute. All rights Michael Boblett reserved. Duplication in whole or in part in any form is prohibited without written CONTACTS 58 permission from the publisher. “Rolfing®,” “Rolf Movement®,” “Rolfer™,” Cover image: Briah Anson and some of the many animals she has worked on using the and the Little Boy Logo are service marks principles of Rolfing Structural Integration applied to animal structures. of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. FROM THE EDITOR Ida P. Rolf developed and taught Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) for the human body, but that has not stopped our community of innovators from applying the Rolfing conceptualization of structure in gravity and fascial touch to animals, usually starting with our own pets. Some Rolfers™ have taken it much further, and made work with animals a centerpiece of their practices, particularly those working in the equine (horse and rider) communities. But how many of us have considered applying Rolfing methodology to an eagle, or a hamster? Briah Anson has ventured deep into this territory, as the photo gallery on the cover of this issue attests. Anson’s article, and a chapter about working on a wild moose (from her book Animal Healing: The Power of Rolfing Structural Integration), open our Rolfing SI and Animals theme, followed by Lauren Harmon, Sue Rhynhart, and Robert Rex addressing aspects of the work, both structural and movement, for horse and rider. Then we hear about Igor Simões Andrade’s Rolfing practice in the Amazon, which includes aquatic work assisted by boto cor de rosa, the pink river dolphins. We round out the theme with stories of how domestic animals have initiated engagement with Rolfers, and what transpired: Heather L. Corwin shares how play with her cat deepened her experience of Sensory Awareness, and Liz Gaggini relates how a perceptive Chihuahua made good use of her presence, directing the session she wanted from the visiting Rolfer. The discussion of animals leads us to the fact that we humans also are animals. We know this from Darwin’s theory of evolution, but how far have we have drifted from understanding our animal nature and its implications? Test this in yourself by considering a question posed by Norman Holler: “What might the cultural/spiritual shift be if we were to consider all doctors of medicine to be veterinarians?” Let that percolate and consider what we have to offer in this theme of The Human Animal from a variety of angles, first the study of anthropology and/or paleontology that Matt Walker, Michael Boblett, and Richard F. Wheeler bring to bear. Walker opens our theme with a contemplation of the human animal vis-à-vis the other ‘earthlings’ among us. This is followed by Boblett’s consideration of the evolution of bipedalism and the human foot, drawing on the latest discoveries. Then we have Wheeler’s thesis, drawing on vertebrate paleontology, that Rolf’s ‘lateral line’, as depicted pictorially in her book, needs modification to account for the curvilinear structure evident in all bones. As he states: “There is linear order in the body and it is curved.” Further articles take us into particular systems: Lina Hack offers a concise outline of polyvagal theory, and Barbara Drummond shares how humans have both reptilian and mammalian respiratory mechanisms and the implications of that for structure/function. Then we conclude the theme with considerations of how the human animal lives in his environment – both the outer environment (Brooke Thomas’s interview with Frank Forencich) and the biological environment of our animal bodies (Holler’s plea that we ‘acknowledge the animal under our suit’). This issue also brings an interview with Hiroyoshi Tahata on The Art of Yield (a significant development in Rolf Movement® Integration), reportage from the Fourth International Fascia Research Congress and the First Biotensegrity Summit, a meditation on ‘a personal and professional relationship with gravity’ from Caryn McHose, and further considerations on ‘the three-dimensional foot’ from Michael Boblett. Anne F. Hoff Editor-in-Chief 2 Structural Integration / November 2015 www.rolf.org COLUMNS ® expressed it this way: “It seems like you Rolf Movement are doing less and I am feeling more.” The essence of my practice is evolving in a new direction. The work now is in Faculty Perspectives being present with myself, the client, and the third organism that is activated by the The Art of Yield: An Interview with Hiroyoshi Tahata relationship (the field). By Hiroyoshi Tahata, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement Instructor This interview was done via email, and as and Kathy McConnell, Certified Advanced Rolfer, Rolf Movement Practitioner English is not Hiro’s native language, it has been edited for clarity. Note from the Editor: In 2016, U.S. workshops on the Art of Yield will be held in Santa Cruz, California: Yield 1 dates are April 13-16 and Yield 2 dates are April 19-22. Contact Carol Agneessens Kathy McConnell: Please describe the for more information at [email protected]. Art of Yield approach to Rolfing® Structural Integration that you have developed. Introduction by Interviewer Hiroyoshi Tahata: The Art of Yield Kathy McConnell stimulates the motility response in living tissue, which promotes a system-wide ‘The Art of Yield’, developed by Rolf coherency that has profound transformative Movement instructor Hiroyoshi Tahata, potential. The practitioner’s touch invites a has been described by Mary Bond as “an very deep relaxation in the whole body- exploration in being fully present and in mind system, facilitating decompression observing the whole again and again.” of joints and core-space expansion. It I attended a workshop on The Art of Yield evolved in response to the need to provide with Tahata in April 2015. Since then, I structural integration to people who could have been weaving various aspects of not tolerate the classical myofascial release his innovation into my sessions with techniques typically used in Rolfing SI. The good results. In his method, sessions Art of Yield demonstrates that effective begin with the practitioner bringing structural change can be achieved through awareness to his/her own body sensations, Hiroyoshi Tahata gentle and brief, but precisely timed, touch. then grounding him/herself, and finally It is based on the concept that change expanding awareness to include the client, becomes more lasting and meaningful by and the space in the room. This all happens engaging the client’s own self-regulatory before making physical contact with the intelligence, rather than forcing change that client, and is what creates the ‘field’. The the practitioner believes needs to happen. practitioner then employs a technique The perceptual state of the practitioner called ‘conditioning’. Conditioning is key for this work. It is important to prepares the body for change by applying attend to your internal sensations, as a light touch, most often with the back of well as the sensation of the space around the hand, in various places on the body. you, including the client, consistently The purpose is to ground the client, set up throughout the session. This state enables scaffolding for cells, and animate subtle a palpable flow that assists the practitioner waves of motility.