tructural ntegration S ® I THE JOURNAL OF THE ROLF INSTITUTE DECEMBER 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION: THE JOURNAL OF COLUMNS THE ROLF INSTITUTE® Ask the Faculty: On Seeing and Body Reading 2 December 2013 Rolf Movement® Faculty Perspectives: 6 Vol. 41, No. 2 Replacing Shoulder Tension with Shoulder Support

PUBLISHER ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE IN ROLFING SI The Rolf Institute of The Mother of All Taxonomies 8 Structural Integration Bob Schrei 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Flowing Wholeness: 10 Boulder, CO 80301 USA The Vibratory Resonance Beneath Perceivable Form (303) 449-5903 Carol Ann Agneesens (303) 449-5978 Fax The Geometry of Qi 14 Chris Hayden (800) 530-8875 The Geometrical Taxonomy: 17 EDITORIAL BOARD Sacred Geometry and Its Power to Integrate Deborah Weidhaas Craig Ellis Jazmine Fox-Stern RolfMap: A Call to Action 19 Szaja Gottlieb Richard Wheeler Anne F. Hoff, Editor-in-Chief The Mystery of the Ten-Series Symbols 21 Amy Iadarola Anne F. Hoff Kerry McKenna Linda Loggins PRACTICE BUILDING Heidi Massa The Myth of Rolfing® SI 24 Meg Maurer Renae Bechthold Robert McWilliams Deanna Melchynuk Be More Specific and Get More Clients 26 John Schewe Matt Hsu Generosity and Delight as Practice-Building Strategies 27 LAYOUT AND Brooke Thomas GRAPHIC DESIGN How to Be Found Online: What You Need to Know 30 Susan Winter About Websites and SEO Lu Mueller-Kaul

® Articles in Structural Integration: The Controversial Marketing: Wrestling with Groupon 32 Jazmine Fox-Stern Journal of The Rolf Institute® represent the views and opinions of the authors and My Favorite Practice-Building Secret 34 do not necessarily represent the official Bethany Ward positions or teachings of the Rolf Institute Your Business Is You; However, You Are Not Your Business 38 of Structural Integration. The Rolf Institute Deborah Weidhaas reserves the right, in its sole and absolute Just Spell My Name Right 41 discretion, to accept or reject any article Ritchie Mintz for publication in Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute. The Relationship of Continuing Education and Practice Building 42 Anne F. Hoff and Karin Edwards Wagner Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute® (USPS 0005-122, ISSN 1538- PERSPECTIVES 3784) is published by the Rolf Institute, Eight Days in the Mountains: Bringing SI into a 43 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103, Boulder, CO Buddhist Meditation Retreat 80301. Postage paid at Boulder, Colorado. Will Johnson, Diana Newby, Jackie Ashley POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Structural Integration: The Journal of The INSTITUTE NEWS Rolf Institute®, 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. ® 103, Boulder, CO 80301. The Rolf Institute Membership Conference 2013 46

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described generally as a path of unlearning, Ask the Faculty moving from academic and intellectual understanding to experiential knowing On Seeing and Body Reading of holism. During the early years of my practice, I Q: As Rolfers™ we are taught various models and tools for body reading, and we each have our was generally focused on a segmental, own proclivities and strengths that come into play in this – whether we see in terms of anatomy, biomechanical assessment according to a particular model, energy flow, etc. Can you discuss how this has evolved for you in your own which Ten-Series session I was doing. I was practice, and what you have found helps students develop their ability to “see”? trained to narrow the field of possibilities and consider particular relationships. This A: Models of body reading are based on we are not looking to fix anything. We are type of seeing with the “eyes” of each some ideal body type, both in shape and in instead looking for an interactive process session familiarized me with how results movement. In general, we create “lenses” or that communicates many educational occur and taught me what the Ten Series “frames” that facilitate the observation and/ aspects with the goal of promoting adaptive reliably produces. During the first few years or the objective of some kind of intervention change toward a higher level of health, I also began to develop feeling through after we do a body reading. During all consciousness, and well-being. During this the body. When doing neck work at the ® these years of development of the Rolfing process, symptoms and discomfort may end of each session, I could feel past the Structural Integration (SI) method, many disappear and a new quality of presence, a client’s cervical-thoracic junction through models were created, some of them fully better perception of the self, appear. I don’t the spine toward the pelvis. This ability adopted as a pedagogic way of “seeing,” for promise anything, I just open possibilities, to feel the progress was very exciting and both modalities of Rolfing SI: structural and making clear that we share responsibility encouraging. It gave me confidence because movement. In Rolfing classes, all models for the outcome and that it is a risk contract. I could feel changes were happening. of body reading that are used have their If the client agrees to continue, we do a utility and merit. Practitioners generally use In my eighth year of practice I took my body reading. I start with an “appreciative models of body reading that they feel more advanced Rolfing training, and for roughly look.” Once more I put myself in a receptive identified with; this is a reflex of their own the next ten years I became absorbed in mental state, and using all my senses I try body experience and vision of the world. being able to feel and work into deeper to “receive” my client in a way that he feels fascial layers and joints. My focus became Rolfing SI is a relational art and a welcomed and comfortable. It’s not only a more narrow as I struggled to know the therapeutic process; I would like to make peripheral and receptive vision, but also value of deeper work and its place in a few observations that I consider to be my whole presence, what I call “peripheral furthering integration. I placed emphasis on useful before any kind of body reading or mind.” It’s a kind of look that appreciates seeing with my eyes in terms of movement intervention. First, all human beings are the individuality and oneness of this human and concentrated on being able to feel singular. As similar as we may seem, we are being, searching first for the inherent deeper and more subtly, both in terms of unique and different in our ways of being qualities, resources, and possibilities (not joint relationships and inherent motion. I felt and acting. This belongs to our relational a phallic eye searching for dysfunction). that Principles of Manual Medicine (Greenman field and it includes our individual history. This reading is also a dialogue, where I 1996) combined with Physiology of the In my practice, when I first meet a client, I can express what I appreciate and let the Joints (Kapandji 1974, 1985) was all I needed want to listen in a careful way, not only to client also express his perception of himself. to guide me. In my tenth year of practice I what brings him to this work, but also to Gradually, I start speaking about the began teaching as an assistant instructor. As how he sees himself, what kind of beliefs and adaptation issues that can be worked on in this required me to demonstrate and explain values he has in life, and how all of that is the process, and how the client’s complains the work, I became obsessed with knowing related to his body. I try to get into a curious are related to them – which means: we and being able to verbally describe the effects and appreciative mental state, so that I can create a perspective together. Here all the of my work. Apart from what my clients perceive this new human being that I am models of seeing and perceiving someone could tell me, I wanted to be able to know meeting. It’s a receptive mental state; I avoid can be used. They become less imposed and and say if my work was producing better an investigative stance and open myself more relational. As I said before, Rolfing SI integration. It was a matter of integrity as to a dialogue where my client can show is a relational art: how I meet with the other well as developing deeper confidence. himself without judgment or censorship, makes all the difference in the way that we and where we can meet on the same level. continue together. At about the fifteen-year mark of my Recognizing that this individual is unique, practice, some interesting things happened. authentic, I wonder: in this moment, what Marcelo Muniz During a three-day course with Tom Wing, I ® moves this person towards his desire?; what Rolfing & Rolf Movement Instructor asked him why he chose a particular location is keeping him from moving that way?; to begin his demo. He replied by saying, where are his best resources?; where are “because I feel good here.” Finding his these resources missing? Psychobiological, A: Over the twenty-four years that I have reply to be rather non-specific, I asked for sociobiological, and spiritual-biological been in practice, the way that I see and read further clarification. He politely did his best aspects are considered. bodies has changed a lot. Looking back, I to come up with a rationale, but his initial can see that so far there have been three answer had already jostled me. In the three After this dialogue is opened, I explain fairly distinct phases of understanding, days of that workshop I began a process of how Rolfing SI works and am clear that skill, and ability. The progression could be renewal, of loosening my grip on needing to

2 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org COLUMNS have a logical rationale for my choices, and true contralateral motion). Although more Recognizing this geometric movement, of trusting more deeply what I felt was real. abstract than anatomy, geometric models connecting with “it,” and experiencing The more I let go of telling myself a story help us to see and design strategies for its primal resonance enables us to ride about what to look for, the more I am able to intervention. However, they are templates the “ocean of consciousness” like a surfer feel what is there. A few years ago it dawned and as such often represent a linear and as vibratory intelligence arises between on me that I was starting to feel the body as rather static view of reality. It is my belief that our hands. a whole, not as an aggregation of parts. I the geometric taxonomy is actually a primordial The universe and man’s consciousness have always understood intellectually that resonance shaping matter in all its forms. (the macrocosm and microcosm) consist the body is whole, but I wasn’t experiencing I n synthesizing a rudimentary in a continuum and a dynamic whole; it as such the way I can now. This shift in understanding from the writings of David this can be expressed by the spiral when, awareness can be fleeting, but is becoming Bohm (quantum physicist), Arthur M. instead of ending it is drawn either more accessible all the time. Young (theoretical physicist and inventor), around a sphere or a doughnut ring, so I am less focused on the visual results of a and Rupert Sheldrake (biologist and that it joins up with itself by spiraling particular session because I know and can author), the moving resonance known as through its own middle. This symbol trust what the series of sessions will yield. I the vortex ring might answer some of the which is perpetually turning in on feel more able to trust my impressions and misperceptions regarding the geometric itself expanding and contracting has an enjoy looking for ways to validate them taxonomy. This primal-resonance shapes interchangeable center and circumference through feeling the body. These fleeting both body and nature and appears to be the and has neither beginning nor end. perceptions sometimes occur when a client underlying vibratory pattern beneath what (Purce 1974) enters the room, or in conversation while is perceived as solid form. sitting across from one another prior to Carol A. Agneessens At this point, appreciate that the vortex a session. Essentially, I feel more free to Rolfing & Rolf Movement Instructor ring is not static nor is “it” a thing. “It” is perceive without having to apply a model of an organizing resonance. I imagine it being seeing. Nevertheless, I also feel that I need like the sound a crystal bowl emanates as it to validate my perceptions through testing, A: is rung, permeating through the room and working, and re-testing. I am always looking the listener. This “field” resonance shapes Perception is not something that happens for sources that describe new understanding form and sustains it. We can witness its to us, or in us. It is something we do. of the body. Lately, I have discovered two effects in the growth of the embryo and The world makes itself available to the sources that more closely describe what in the gradients and densities of tissues, perceiver through physical movement I feel: Stecco’s description of myofascial bones, and organs. And this resonance is and interaction. . . . Perceiving is a kind spirals and Paoletti’s descriptions of fascial something that can be experienced moving of skillful bodily activity. (Noe 2004) architecture are my current guides for feeling through your own body. what I see. I look forward to seeing what the The world shows up for us. But it coming years bring in terms of “seeing”! Now here’s the question: how is this vibratory doesn’t show up for free. We achieve pattern (or geometric model) named the access to the world around us through Russell Stolzoff vortex ring bringing forth patterns, form, and skillful engagement; we acquire and Rolfing Instructor what we call the perceivable universe and deploy the skills needed to bring the body? Imagine a bagel, and let it “explode” world into focus. Presence is manifestly through you so that the center hole expands fragile. It is a discovery. It is how A: As Rolfing practitioners we are and becomes a transparent midline vertically we experience it, from being in it. familiar with the plumb line and grid organizing your body in gravity. The dough Perception is a transaction; it is the background against which we photograph of your bagel reaches out and through the sharing of a situation with what we an individual to verify structural change. porous spaciousness of your body in all perceive. Perceptual experience is, at There have been a number of geometric directions. Although this is a metaphoric best, a work in progress. (Noe 2012) models presented in trainings supporting image, we can still appreciate the likeness What made immediate sense to me relating ways to cultivate “seeing” and “analyzing” to the shape of a torus with its center of “no- to body reading during Unit 2 of my basic alignment. Perhaps the models of the X, Y, thing.” Bohm (1980) suggests that it is the Rolfing training was the invitation to look and Z axes; cylinders; the spatial planes enfolding and unfolding of the universe whose at the body as geometric shape – two depicted in anatomical illustrations; and primal vibratory resonance appears both cylinders; their shape, relationship to one movement preference were presented and physical and perceivable. And according to another, rotations, amount of pressure explored. These models help to determine Young, this movement is multidimensional inside them, how they are supported, if a client’s effort in walking expresses and reflexive. In other words, it is both etc. When invited to perceive the body in a sagittal orientation in space (as in the feeding into formation and dissolving that this way, I started seeing things that gave marathon runner) or a homolateral/coronal formation, simultaneously. In Sanskrit relevant information of where work was plane orientation (as witnessed in the walk this vibratory movement is called spanda needed. This was sharply contrasted to of someone living and working on a fishing and translates as “throb” or “pulsation.” the “knowing-nodding-of-head-yet-blank- boat). Or perhaps there is a transverse/ In his most recent book, Sheldrake (2012) stare” that accompanied comments such tabletop rotational motion indicating deconstructs long-held and cherished as “And now notice how he is stabilizing possible hypermobility at various sites in scientific dogmas. He writes of an informing differently with the left rhomboid,” or “See the body (horizontal-plane movement is not intelligence resonating through the field. how there is no talar glide on the right.”

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From there it has systematically grown which the body resides.” Body schema and and opens the space that will eventually be into a grid of ways of seeing very loosely body image are two such maps (Paillard filled by information that we can describe classifiable under the taxonomies: structural 2004). Craig (2003, 2009) elaborates on and will be useful in the strategizing of our includes internal-external, pelvic tilt/shift, interoception: “The body and subjective work. This broadens our perception. spinal position/fixations, Flury’s types, awareness of the body, including visceral The broadening of our body reading helps us etc.; functional includes continuity of awareness, instantiates the ‘self’ and invite/engage our clients into their lived, felt movement, still points, center of gravity, provides the intermediary by which the experience, and meet them where they are contralateral movement; geometric includes nervous system interacts with the external in terms of how they perceive themselves. line, blocks, cylinders, grid (horizontal and world.” According to Esrock (2010), “the This shifts them from being watched as vertical lines), shape of space around body thesis is that the physical body, as it object to a collaboration of exploring how (including between arms and torso, between develops within a social world, shapes our their phenomenal experience meets the legs); psychobiological includes nervous emotions, thoughts, concepts, and beliefs – anatomical reality of their structure. It also system charge, signs of trauma, the client’s which we ordinarily characterize as mental gives us information that is most relevant to perception/self-sensing, possibly how his – and serves as a necessary starting point them, and valuable information as to how worldview communicated linguistically for understanding all human processes they orient with the body maps mentioned may reflect in structure and movement and activities.” Included in these “human above. It engages them as meaningful patterns, spatiality/relationship to space processes and activities” are posture and our participants from the outset of the work. inside and around them; energetic includes movements, and how they get organized. It also helps to distinguish Rolfing SI from flow, charge, field, hydrostatic pressure, In your thoughtful question of how body other modalities they have experienced. etc. Each of these can be explored further reading has evolved for me in my practice, and deepened by asking questions related I can summarize that it was helpful to Marius Strydom to the Rolfing Principles. deepen and start working from where my Rolfing Instructor There are obvious difficulties in trying strength was, that it naturally developed to fit models of seeing into taxonomies, into broadening across taxonomies, and as all of them communicate across all that it is now oriented more and more to A: Does this sound familiar?: I was standing the taxonomies. This grid has helped me the perceptual nature of how we embody with some of my fellow students as Stacey Mills, orient in perceptual “space,” the perceptual ourselves. Regarding the part of your my practitioning (now Phase III) teacher, was space that I am more oriented to, and less question relating to what helps students: describing what she was “seeing” about her oriented to. It has provided a type of map, a in classes I have seen different of these client. We were all nodding, as if we were in template, to keep track of my development “invitations to seeing” land for people with agreement (none of us wanted to look stupid). in body reading. Filling in the areas that are different learning and perceptual styles. It After she turned, preparing to do her session, less available to me, and allowing myself is always meaningful to see when a light we whispered to each other, “Did you see to spend time with the questions inhabited goes on and our world opens up to the anything?” there, helps to grow these fields of vision. world of the person we are attempting to I remember being told by one of my teachers So it can be a self-reflective learning tool. perceive. What I have found most effective that if I can’t see, just do the “Recipe” and I for students is simply to ask them what The other most accessible method of will learn. So I started out with ten 4x6-inch they see. Then to help them categorize “seeing” for me was to copy the person’s cards, one describing each session – do this this information (available and primary pattern of standing, walking, and breathing first, this next, etc. I would put the card for for them in their learning styles) under in my own body and noticing what I needed the session under my table (so my client models of seeing and taxonomies. This to contract and change to replicate that. couldn’t see it), and I made sure that every orients them to a map, and informs where This orienting to interoception (perception part of the body relating to that session was in the landscape they are most resourced, of stimuli arising within the body) brings pink! I began having my clients stand up and where less so. The invitation is to view the relationship between perception and more often during sessions and asked them from as many different models as possible: presence into focus. As Noe says in the to relate their experiences. I then used their this gives dimension to the complexity that opening quotation above: “The world makes descriptions as a “lens” through which to is there, of what the person communicates itself available to the perceiver through see what had changed. As I was told would through his form and movement, and physical movement and interaction . . . . happen, I did begin to see predictable moves us into more fullness of perception. Perceiving is a kind of skillful bodily changes relating to each session and the activity.” It has also allowed glimpses of Asking questions that deepen the model we Ten Series as a whole. not seeing the lateral rotation in the person’s have primary access to supports growth in We have been admonished in the writings of femur as that “only,” but of how he creates that model of seeing (e.g., if describing a still Dr. Rolf and others to learn to “see” in order that structural outcome in the way he relates point while a client is walking, questions to become accomplished at our profession. In and orients to space. This invites “swimming might be: how big is the area that does reality, what we need to learn is to “perceive” upstream” to the organizing maps in the not move?; how deep into the body does it (which means “to become aware of, know, person’s nervous system. Cameron (2001) seem to go?; what effect does it have on the or identify by means of the senses”). What describes these maps as follows: “They are surrounding areas, on the rest of the body?). I’ve learned over the years is that “seeing” maps of the body in relation to the internal Asking questions related to the models only with my eyes can be limiting. structure and function of the body itself as less available to perception, and waiting well as the immediate environment within to see what arises, gives the opportunity I once had a student who was struggling with seeing until she really understood that

4 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org COLUMNS it was okay to see differently. I asked her to For me now, I have simplified the lenses we In summary, if we change “seeing” to describe her perceptions in whatever way have developed within the Rolf Institute® “perception,” more possibilities are she wanted. She perceived her client’s body to the following questions: available. Perception is what we do during a as an apartment house with too many people session. By learning to include more lenses, 1. Where can this person use more: in one apartment, no one in another, sadness we consciously broaden our perceptual • space and or fear in another. She said she needed field. When in physical contact with my • length to get more people in the empty apartment client, my neutral frame of mind and • depth/dimension and get fewer people in the one with the widening of my perceptual field allows • support party. When I looked at the body through me to perceive many more layers and • symmetry her lens it made total sense to me! It then expressions of physicality of the whole. • flow/connection became okay for her to become comfortable Doing the same during the pre- and post- • movement perceiving with her primary lens. I also session assessment allows me to experience • life know a twenty-plus-year Rolfer who, for all more of who my client is (instead of fitting • biomechanical efficiency? her years of trying and working on it, still her into a comfortable box). This helps to “sees” primarily with her hands, not her 2. Does this segment fit with the rest of the body? allow her to step into who she is becoming. eyes. As she briefly watches her client, she 3. Where can there be more dimension and how gets a visual impression, a glimpse of what Thomas Walker might optimizing support help the process? seems odd. It is not until she sits quietly with Rolfing Instructor (I most often ask this.) her fingers resting on the clavicles, the feet, the sacrum, etc., that she can listen to the Keep it simple! (“Let’s see if we can get story of the body – rigid or fluid, flow or not, more space here so your shoulder can work Bibliography space or congestion, agitation, density, etc. better.”) If my assessments are too specific, Bohm, D. 1980. Wholeness and the Implicate A few minutes of listening in and it becomes especially anatomically, I may predetermine Order. New York: Routledge. clear where to go and how to proceed. This a path to the goal. If I become too attached perceiving is also “seeing.” to my path, I may miss other very important Cameron, O. 2001. “Interoception: The information and easier paths. I have had Inside Story – A Model for Psychosomatic I like to think of the taxonomies (segmental/ students who perceive so many things Processes.” Psychosomatic Medicine 63:697- structural, geometric, functional, energetic, that they get confused. If you are doing a 710. psychobiological), the “models of seeing” Ten Series, remember that you only need that have been used in our profession, Craig, A.D. 2003. “Interoception: the Sense to “see” what is important for that session as lenses through which we can perceive of the Physiological Condition of the Body.” and the goal of the Series. If you are doing our clients. These lenses can provide a Current Opinion in Neurobiology 13:500-505. a non-formulaic tune-up or advanced framework upon which we can organize sessions, then the above questions may Craig, A.D. 2009. “How Do You Feel and describe our perceptions. We can “see” become important in helping to design the Now? The Anterior Insula and Human how a person’s body/being has changed as progression of steps for the mini-series. Awareness.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience a result of our interventions. 10(1):59-70. No matter which lens you use for your I recently saw a quote from Anaïs Nin pre- and post-session assessments, it is Esrock, E. 2010. “Embodying Art: The which is appropriate here: “We do not see important to use that information as just one Spectator and the Inner Body.” Poetics Today things as they are. We see things as we are.” piece which informs you as you touch your 31(2):217-250. Our perceptions are developed by culture, client. Thinking you know what is going on astrology, personal history, spiritual beliefs, Greenman, P. 1996. Principles of Manual with your client, based on your pre-session etc. It is important that you know and are Medicine. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams “seeing,” doesn’t mean that is the only, or comfortable with the lenses (biases) through & Wilkins. most important, thing happening in the which you perceive! Your lenses aren’t less body. The pre-session assessment only or more effective than another’s, though Kapandji, I.A. 1974. The Physiology of the gives us an idea of where we may be going. they may be limiting, as most models are. It’s Joints, Vol. 3. London: Churchill Livingstone. For me, the really important perception important to try on and explore new lenses Kapandji, I.A. 1985. The Physiology of the begins with physical contact. Then I am in the ongoing process of learning to expand Joints, Vol. 2. London: Churchill Livingstone. informed of the specifics of how to get our comfort zones as well as our perceptual there. When your client is on the table, take field. Seeing/perceiving will indeed make Noe, A. 2004. Action in Perception. a few minutes to be with yourself and your you more accomplished at our profession. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. client. With a neutral contact (inquiring, A simple way to experience widening your unbiased, spacious, and present), perceive Noe, A. 2012. Varieties of Presence. Cambridge, field is to practice being grounded through what his body has to communicate to your MA: Harvard Press. your legs and feet while at the same time senses. Once I begin touching my client, feeling your physical boundaries become Paillard, J. 2005. “Sensorimotor versus I may be led in a different direction than more dispersed and expansive. Include representational framing of Body Space – A my original intention. Develop a broad both the spacious and the ground in your neural basis for a distinction between Body spectrum of lenses and a broad spectrum of attention as well as attending to whatever schema and Body image.” In: V.Knockaert contact skills and listen to your client with you are doing/being/experiencing within & H. De Preester (eds), Body Image and all your senses. and around you. Continually practicing this Body Schema: Interdisciplinary perspectives will greatly enhance your perceptual skills. on the body. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 5 COLUMNS

Paoletti, S. 2006. The Fasciae: Anatomy, Sheldrake, R. 2012. Science Set Free: 10 Stecco, L. and C. Stecco, 2009. Fascial Dysfunction and Treatment. Seattle: Eastland Paths to New Discovery. New York: Deepak Manipulation, Practical Part. Padova, Italy: Press. Chopra Books/Crown Publishing Group. Piccin Nuova Libraria. Purce, J. 1974/1980. The Mystic Spiral, Stecco, L., 2004. Fascial Manipulation for Journey of the Soul. New York: Thames and Musculoskeletal Pain. Padova, Italy: Piccin Hudson. Nuova Libraria.

® Then I ask her to roll the upper arms just Rolf Movement enough to aim the crease of the elbow toward the ceiling. This minute adjustment engages lower trapezius and challenges a Faculty Perspectives shortened pectoralis minor. Then, pressing the hands into the wall as if pushing it away Replacing Shoulder Tension with Shoulder Support activates the feeling of serratus anterior. (To do this last action without moving the trunk By Mary Bond, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement Instructor back is the key to success.) The client is now aware of a broad, sturdy feeling across the This article shares an approach to helping and pectoralis minor muscles. Rolfers upper back. With my fingers on the inferior clients develop healthy stabilization commonly find the fascia in these areas to angles of the scapulae, I invite the client through the shoulder girdle. While Rolfers be tight, short, and fibrotic. While posterior to move in and out of this configuration, systematically release upper shoulder-girdle shoulder stabilizers (lower trapezius, noticing how serratus anterior activation tension, the release may be unsustainable serratus anterior, latissimus dorsi) may be flattens the scapulae against the back of unless the client acquires a new and better made strong through weight-bearing yoga the rib cage. habit for shoulder and arm coordination. poses or gym workouts, strength does I have found, over several decades of not insure they will properly connect the practicing Rolfing® Structural Integration arm to the spine during ordinary tasks. (SI), that a client’s momentary (or even week- Further, strengthening the shoulders does long) somatic epiphany about her shoulder not guarantee that the core of the shoulders1 tension does not guarantee sustainable is active, or that it will be engaged in functional change. supporting the shoulder girdle in the postures and locomotion of daily living. What follows presumes that the client has already developed some capacity to I approach this issue with a brief tour of yield to gravity and to experience spatial shoulder anatomy. I have a shoulder girdle support. She has also experienced the whole- model that includes the upper humerus, body decompression that accompanies clavicle, and scapula, and also a spine with simultaneously accessing the dual perceptual rib cage. People are interested to see how support systems. She has a sense of her the shoulder girdle fits onto the thorax, central line, and reasonably well-functioning and how the scapula and clavicle adjust to lower extremities. support arm movements. I could pull up a video of all this, but clients seem to like my Anatomy Tour hands-on approach. They can touch and I often begin by instructing my client in examine the model, and then palpate the basic anatomy relevant to the issue being same bony features on themselves. With Figure 1: Hands-on-wall position. addressed. Many people cannot internalize one hand on the clavicle at the manubrium, the three-dimensionality of the pelvis, for I have the client move the other arm around Once a client can sense lower shoulder- example, or do not know that each lower and notice how the clavicle adjusts. girdle engagement on her own, I ask her leg is composed of two bones. They may Sensing the Core to keep the feeling as she lowers her arms have taken an anatomy course long ago, and steps back from the wall. And then to but never associated what they studied of the Shoulder Girdle describe what she feels. Finding her own to their own bodies. Understanding that Next I have my client sit or stand facing a descriptive words helps her anchor the the coracoid process is a projection from wall and place her hands on the wall with feeling. Because many people are interested the front of the scapula, and finding it on the heels of the hands at armpit level (see only in changing a shape-oriented notion of oneself, can initiate a journey of shoulder- Figure 1). I instruct her to keep her hands posture, it can take some convincing to get girdle transformation. “glued” to the wall while at the same time them to value what they feel. Information about brain re-mapping is useful because In our sedentary, forward-head culture, sliding them down towards the floor. The people tend to respect the brain’s needs and it’s common for people to stabilize their hands don’t move, but the resulting traction limitations, if not the body’s. Clients need shoulder girdles from the levator scapula activates the sensation of latissimus dorsi.

6 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org COLUMNS to believe that our brains map new habits only through sensory experience, and that mindless practice quickly degenerates into habitual patterns. To that end, I emphasize the sensations that the client experiences, not the coordination, and not the body shape, even though those may be hoped- for results. A first such mini-lesson might take ten minutes. It concludes with the client finding the serratus-anterior sensation and then purposefully losing it again, in order to practice the transition from the familiar sensory habit to the new one. A follow- up session could incorporate the new Figure 2: Four-point kneeling. sensation into some everyday activity. After rehearsing that, it becomes homework. chaturanga can be accomplished without of the clavicles, and freeing of the coracoid losing the new shoulder support. processes as described here. In that way the When the client can reliably find the humeral heads are seated into their sockets sensation of “serratus support” (serratus A Shoulder Shortcut and are thus better supported for heartfelt anterior is not the only muscle that needs gestures, defensive actions, and daily tasks. to be engaged, but because the sensation of There’s a video blog on my website that engaging it is usually unfamiliar to people, demonstrates a mini-lesson about the Bridging to the Real World it makes a good nickname), I ask her to feed coracoid processes (www.healyourposture. this feeling into her exercise routines, or feel com/2013/01/secrets-of-your-shoulders/). I nearly always end my sessions with it while driving, folding laundry, or doing Once clients can palpate their own coracoid the client’s walking self-assessment. dishes. With some clients it is necessary to processes, they can identify the sensation After shoulder-girdle awareness work as coach them through such activities with a of the pectoralis minor pulling the whole described above, it would be common for car, sheets, and real dishes. shoulder forward and down, and drawing the client to notice her arms swinging more the neck along with it. They can reverse from the back (instead of from the humeral For yoga practitioners, it’s important to this trend by imagining those points as heads) and for the neck to feel elongated, the step them through some of the arm weight- lights shining forward into the world (more head more erect. Or she might notice a new bearing poses. To their chagrin, some clients imaginary vectors). Such imagery provides rhythm to her gait. And you never know, discover that their plank and chaturanga lack a shortcut to the serratus support they she might have a clearer sense of the ground full serratus-anterior participation – that experienced earlier. (It may not be a bad under her feet. What’s important is for her their scapulae tend to “wing” when weight- idea to use this imagery yourself as you to find her own words for her sensations. bearing is challenged. The re-learning practice Rolfing SI: if you’re not blessed Once the new shoulder awareness is on process might look like this: starting in four- with a naturally broad-backed structure, its way to becoming a new habit (usually point kneeling (see Figure 2), with the heels the practice of SI can severely compress the several sessions along), we are ready to of her hands directly below the armpits shoulder girdle.) (and knees below the groin), I help the approach the essential thing for the client client find the sensations of a broad upper The process of bringing spaciousness to to notice: her perception of the world. back and lower shoulder-girdle stability the clavicle/coracoid area (and of course How does her new sense of shoulder we have already developed in non-weight- the thoracic outlet) relates to the topic of organization affect her experience of bearing positions. Initially I may keep my “heart opening.” Many people believe relationships with people? I sometimes fingers lightly touching the inferior angles they can open the heart area by lifting the invite a client to walk across the room of her scapulae for feedback about their sternum and retracting the shoulder blades. toward me as if I were an unknown person, stability. By reminding the client of her The resultant narrowing of the back thrusts while she tries on different versions of “earth and sky” perceptions in this position, the humeral heads forward in the sockets shoulder support. She may notice that she initiates abdominal core support. (destabilizing them), de-activates serratus her perception of me shifts depending Vectors reach into opposite directions from anterior, and compresses the inferior on the sensation in her shoulders. Her clavicles and sit bones; hands and shins/ back lung area (among other potential homework is to look for similar perceptual ankles press into the ground. Sustaining the accommodations). Simple information shifts during what I think of as “neutral sensations of shoulder support, along with about how the lungs work can provide relationships” – chatting with the grocery ongoing perceptual renewal of weight and incentive for a client to revise a belief that checker, greeting the bank teller, standing spaciousness, she steps each foot carefully thrusting the chest forward contributes in line at the theater. to good or “open” posture. Just knowing into plank position (now with oppositional There are more things to observe and there is more lung tissue in back than in vectoring between clavicles and heels). consider than I can cover in this short article. front can help dismantle that belief. What For many, using their underactive deeper Because scapulae are often habituated in contributes more to the desired openness shoulder stabilizers makes this surprisingly opposite tilts, the felt sense for each side will is broadening of the upper back, widening difficult. It may be quite some time before be distinctive. It’s good for clients to notice

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 7 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE this. It can be an outcome of handedness, or building a new habit takes longer than best to approach this quest sincerely, kindly, a response to torque in the pelvis. As we all our busy selves would like. Consider and over the long haul. know, the genesis of a “shoulder issue” can this: how one uses the arms and shoulder be traced to imbalanced and unsupportive girdle expresses the satisfying of needs and Endnotes feet. This is why our work never “gets old” protecting of oneself from a very early age. 1. While serratus anterior is the deepest for us. If that self-expression is deeply embedded, muscular layer of the shoulder stabilizers, I it will take time to unravel. In approaching Openness and curiosity are attributes that consider the “core of the shoulders” to be a our shoulders – or any postural habit – a well serve both client and practitioner in relationship of all the structures around the quest for self-understanding serves us far the endeavor to revise a habit. Sometimes axilla such that the scapula efficiently links better than a drive to perfect ourselves. It’s movement between the spine and the arm.

to healing called SourcePoint Therapy®. The Mother The central premise of SourcePoint is that there is a specific energy field that is the blueprint of health for the human being. of All Taxonomies We can connect with the blueprint for the benefit of our own health and that of others. By Bob Schrei, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ Geometry is the language of this blueprint.

Let none ignorant of geometry enter here. The geometric configuration of the human body and the metabolic processes Sign above the entry are present before the central nervous to Plato’s Academy system develops . . . the innate wisdom The most recognized image in the world, of the body is not contained within after the Coca-Cola® logo, is one we all know any cellular structure. This innate well. Many of us use it on our websites, wisdom which gives the body form is business cards, and in articles such as this not a function of any system of the body. one. It is Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (Jealous 1996) (Figure 1), named after an image created by Twenty years ago, Dr. Jeff Maitland, as a the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius, member of the Advanced Faculty of the author of The Ten Books on Architecture. Rolf Institute®, introduced a taxonomic Vitruvius, in turn, took this image from the model of structural integration (SI) in an Egyptian mystery schools. Leonardo’s view effort to articulate Rolfing® SI as a holistic of the human body is imprinted deeply practice. Dr. Rolf’s stated goal for her work in the archetypal collective unconscious was to see how the structurally integrated and contains a great deal of both practical human being would affect the evolution and esoteric knowledge. It is a riddle to be of both the human being and human race. plumbed deeply. It is not a mere symbol but She emphatically stated that she was not rather a living, breathing reality. primarily interested in the palliation of When I began my studies in architecture Figure 1: Vitruvian Man. symptoms. She was interested in “human school, the Vitruvian Man was one of our potential.” The taxonomic view was articulated to place the work of Rolfing first subjects of study. There is an infinite The esoteric and exoteric information SI in this great context of the evolution of amount of information contained in the hidden in Leonardo’s drawing is the root of the mind-body system as a whole, thereby image. Vitruvius referred to this drawing what we now know as “sacred geometry.” honoring Rolf’s stated goal for the work. of the human figure as the principal source The ordering forces as manifested in this of proportion for the classical orders of figure give birth to all form. It reveals the The taxonomic perspective is taught architecture, and it contains the exact ground upon which this visible world is regularly within the basic Rolfing training proportions that we find in many of the created. It is the foundation for all sacred by many of the faculty. The functional architectural wonders of the world. architecture, an unfolding of information taxonomy has been further articulated and On the surface, the first thing you notice is and pattern that is awe-inspiring. has become an accepted and important aspect of our training and work within the the figure, arms outstretched, surrounded The Vitruvian Man has frequently been taxonomic perspective of SI, along with by a square and a circle. The center of called the blueprint for the human body. The the structural taxonomy. The remaining the square is the sacrum, which is the term “blueprint” is key to understanding taxonomies (the energetic, geometric, and geometrical center of the human body. The the significance of geometry as an ordering psychobiological) continue to be developed center of the circle is the umbilicus, or navel, force that brings health and balance to the but have not yet become a widely accepted the energetic center of the human body. body. For many years, I have worked with aspect of the Rolfing training and have been my wife and partner in healing work, Donna the subject of much debate. Thomson, to evolve an energetic approach

8 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE

It has been suggested that the geometric the two dimensions of a plane and in the by Numbers” (www.youtube.com/ taxonomy be subsumed in the structural three dimensions of our lived, perceived watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA). This film vividly and functional taxonomies, both of which reality. They are patterns that “give birth to, demonstrates the unfolding of life into form contain many references to geometric repair, and maintain the human body.” This that is “informed” by the information of terminology. Rolfers speak about is how the function of the Adam Kadmon, the geometric pattern and proportion. Often organization around “the Line,” as well as archetypal human being of the Kabbalah, people think the word “blueprint” signifies referring to cylinders, lemniscates, spirals, is commonly described. It is also how we a static, unchanging pattern. The geometric palintonic lines, and planes. We use many describe the function of the blueprint in blueprint that underlies organic life is a other geometric terms in describing our SourcePoint Therapy®. sentient, vibrant, interactive energy field. work. The Little Boy Logo that we all use is Take a moment to experience the video when A joyful radiance of health is attained a geometric model of the alignment of the you finish this article. The images are worth only as the body conforms more nearly segments of the body around the Line. It is a thousand words. to its inherent pattern. This pattern, this a model of optimal geometric relationship form, this Platonic idea, is the blueprint In his book Science and the Akashic Field, in space and the field of gravity. for structure. (Rolf 1971, 1) systems theorist Ervin Laszlo tells us I would like to propose that, in reality, the the “quantum sea” is a vast energy field When we examine the Vitruvian Man and geometric taxonomy is the “mother” of filled with information that “informs” see the proportions of the golden mean so all of the taxonomies, and that all of the the material universe. He says we must clearly manifested in the human body, when others could easily be embraced in the apprehend this informed universe we perceive the Fibonacci sequence present unfolding fractals of this organizing and with “our hearts as well as our brains” in organic life, when we study the principles ordering force. For in reality, it is a sentient (Laszlo 2004, 5). of sacred geometry in depth, then we can organizing force that gives our bodies and see that geometry is the language of the Let us take a journey from this perspective. the world of nature its form. blueprint. This intrinsic geometric precision Let’s imagine that the geometric proportion In the Rolfing community we frequently and proportion is not just a synchronicity present in all material form preexists in hear the phrase “Gravity is the therapist.” of form, but is actually the ordering force that quantum sea. Imagine a single point What is gravity? Gravity is often defined that brings form into existence. in dark, vast space. Out of that point in physics as a geometric relationship emerges a network of lines and points, The chief characteristic of form . . . is between space and time. If we substitute the which become pattern. Out of those patterns its intrinsic geometric precision and definition for the word, we have the phrase emerge multiple dimensions of energy, proportion. (Ridley 2006, 188) “The geometric relationship between space consciousness, and form, including the and time is the therapist.” Abbreviated, this We find this principle of the blueprint, natural world and eventually the human becomes “Geometry is the therapist.” There expressed as geometric proportion, in a body as expressed in the Vitruvian Man. are profound implications for our work if variety of healing traditions, including The many manifestations from this point are we investigate this thoroughly. For a few osteopathy: organized according to exact proportions. moments, drop your preconceptions and Whole universes, including this human HEALTH is that perfect matrix, contemplate this statement: “Geometry is body, are the fractal unfolding of that present within us from the moment of the therapist.” What is the deeper meaning? single point. The creation of a mandala conception. . . . Health is more inherent How does this statement relate to the follows this progression, and symbolizes in the geometry than the genetics. information revealed in the Vitruvian Man? the emergence of the universal energy into (Rosen 2000) What are the implications for our work as form through geometric pattern. Rolfers? In thinking about this, remember We can also find this principle of formative What then is the significance of this for that the ancient Greeks, and before them ordering forces present in the research Rolfing SI and the geometric taxonomy? the Egyptians, understood this simple fact: of modern physics. In a 2010 article in Rolf herself asked this question: the human body is structured according Scientific American by physicists A. Garrett to the ideal of the golden mean (aka Lisi and James Owen Weatherall entitled . . . Is “balancing” actually the placing golden rectangle). “A Geometric Theory of Everything,” the of the body of flesh upon an energy authors state: “In fact, physicists think that pattern that activates it? The pattern The architecture of bodily existence is everything in the world – all the forces of of this energy would not be as easily determined by an invisible, immaterial nature and even all the particles of matter disrupted and might well survive, world of pure form and geometry. – arises from different kinds of fields. relatively intact, traumatic episodes (Lawlor 1982, 4) The behavior of these fields hints at an that distort the flesh. (Rolf 1971, 206) Geometry is not merely descriptive nor underlying geometric structure” (Lisi and The implications of this statement are boundary defining. Consider the possibility Weatherall 2010, 55). In other words, profound. If “balancing” might mean, as that a point, a line, a plane, a circle, a Deep down, the particles and forces she proposes, orienting the body towards triangle, a square, the golden rectangle of the universe are an expression an energy pattern that activates it, then our and all of the spirals that emerge from its of exquisite geometry. (Lisi and real work is simply organizing the flesh, mathematical relationships, and a five- Weatherall 2010, 54) the tissue, around an existing energetic pointed star and all its fractal unfolding are pattern. As we have explored in this article, actually energetic structures. These patterns This principle is also expressed beautifully there is a strong likelihood that the pattern have the ability to organize space in both in a video on YouTube entitled “Nature she is speaking of would have a geometric

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 9 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE structure. This brings us once again to the his wife and partner in healing work, Donna Lisi, A.G. and J.O. Weatherall 2010. “A original premise of this article: that the Thomson. Bob teaches SourcePoint Therapy® Geometric Theory of Everything.” Scientific realm of pattern, the geometric taxonomy, worldwide. American, December 2010. is at the heart of our work as Rolfers and The author wishes to thank Donna Thomson for Ridley, C. 2006. Stillness: Biodynamic Cranial deserves serious consideration. her assistance with editing this article. Practice and the Evolution of Consciousness. Many stories have been told about the body. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. When I first came to the Rolf Institute at its Bibliography Rolf, I. 1971. Rolfing: The Integration of old location on Pearl Street, I had the good Jealous, J. 1996. “Around the Edges.” The Human Structures. New York: Harper and fortune to study physiology with Dr. Jim Tide (U.K. Sutherland Society osteopathic Row. Oschman, a research biologist who has been newsletter). Spring 1996. a good friend of the Rolfing community and Rolf, I. 1990. Rolfing and Physical Reality. who has written several books on energy Laszlo, E. 2004. Science and the Akashic Field: Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press. medicine. At the beginning of the class An Integral Theory of Everything. Rochester, Rosen, M. 2000/2008. “Biodynamics.” www. he told us that there was one thing that Vermont: Inner Traditions. osteodoc.com/biodynamics.htm (retrieved he wanted us to understand: everything Lawlor, R. 1982. Sacred Geometry, Philosophy August 9, 2013). we were about to learn in his class was and Practice. London: Thames and Hudson. just a story, and the stories change. I have always remembered this. The stories that were told fifty years ago about the body are different from the stories we tell now. And fifty years from now those stories will have Flowing Wholeness changed dramatically. Rolf stated in Rolfing and Physical Reality The Vibratory Resonance Beneath Perceivable Form that as Rolfers we are simply invoking and By Carol Ann Agneessens, MS, Rolfing® Instructor, Rolf Movement® Instructor evoking health, and that is what makes us different from other therapists (Rolf 1990, 202). From the perspective of the geometric Imagine for a moment having access to a orienting vibration is prior to the Rolfing taxonomy, what we are invoking and Hubble-like telescope. Not only can it block Line or the imagined skyhook. The evoking is the underlying energy pattern distortions from Earth’s atmosphere, but movement into upright does begin and of health. That pattern expresses itself also it is able to record a deep view into end at the feet and the vertex of the cranium. in geometric form and proportion in the space and time with laser precision. In Integration and alignment of the human greater cosmos and in the human body. The addition, it captures the energetic blueprint body in gravity invites an orientation and accepted story of Rolfing SI has been that of structure prior to coalescing into form. immersion in this resonance that we can call we work primarily with structure, function, What might you see? Is there an iterative “the field.” If we look closely, this energetic and connective tissue to bring about change pattern shaping nature that can be identified scaffolding reveals itself throughout the in the body. That view has been challenged throughout the animal and plant kingdoms? natural world in the swirling and spiraling in recent years. A new emerging paradigm Perhaps, through the exquisite eye of this patterns of leaves, shells, ferns, and flowers; proposes that the nervous system is actually lens, we are witnessing the fundamental the slowly rising and phototropic reaching responsible for the changes we see. The vibration underlying form. Perhaps, beneath of trees and limbs and geotropic descent of stories will continue to change over time, the perceived solidity of structure, there roots; the twisting turns of rivers; and the and eventually the story may return to is an active process moving, shaping, and currents of wind patterns. We can follow its what Rolf was musing about: an underlying vivifying all organic matter. imprint in the lines of flow forming bone, the looping fibers forming the heart, and energy pattern, a “blueprint of structure.” A This article is an inquiry into what is the embryonic process of development. It future story could tell of an epigenetic, self- called the geometric taxonomy1 in Rolfing is more than a line of orientation and more organizing energetic pattern, informed by Structural Integration (SI), the blueprint dimensional than a spiral drawn on a piece geometric ordering forces, as the primary in biodynamic craniosacral circles and of paper. What is this metaforce that shapes factor that is responsible for bringing embryology, the underlying shakti in kundalini and sustains? change. The geometric taxonomy may yoga, and the central channel in osteopathy. reveal itself as being the heart of what we Whatever the name, there appears to be a D’Arcy Thompson, Buckminster Fuller, do, the mother of all taxonomies. It is an vibratory resonance beneath perceivable Arthur M. Young, David Bohm, Jill old story at the heart of many spiritual and and observable structures that arises prior Purce, Rupert Sheldrake and others have shamanic traditions, and it is a new story to their formation. The Rolfing “Line,” written about aspects of this resonance emerging in the realm of physics. It may the primitive streak and notochord of according to their particular and yet become a significant aspect of our story. embryology, the central channel, and the impassioned orientations. shakti of kundalini rising are metaphors for Bob Schrei is a Certified Advanced Rolfer with Thompson was one of the first to integrate this expression. twenty-seven years’ experience, a biodynamic the mathematics of geometry with craniosacral therapist, an artist and former Zen This resonance is more than a movement morphology. In On Growth and Form, he teacher, and the co-originator of SourcePoint toward verticality. This organizing and writes of the use and beauty of mathematics Therapy (www.sourcepointtherapy.com) with

10 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE in the study of material things. From quality of the lemniscate is manifest as the lemniscate as a breathing figure (Van Thompson’s perspective, “number, order, structured oscillations that occur in cycles der Bie 2003, 114-115). and position is [sic] the threefold clue to of sleeping and waking, catabolism and Energy medicine practitioner Donna Eden exact knowledge” (Thompson 1961, 326). anabolism, inhalation and exhalation, and speaks of the lemniscate as representing And these three things in a mathematician’s systole and diastole. the energetic threads of the connective- hand form the initial sketch of the universe. In the skeletal body, the lemniscate appears tissue system. The weaving pattern of its Fuller took inspiration from the shapes of again and again. Take for example the hip movement through the body manifests as cells to create the design of his geodesic joint: you can trace a lemniscate around continuity and connectivity. The movement domes. He applied mathematics and the iliac fossa through the acetabulum to of expansion and contraction reaches an understanding of the fundamental the ischium, as seen in Figure 1. At the directly into the cells and the spiraling form architecture of life to inspire the functional acetabulum lies the center of the lemniscate, of DNA, according to Eden. design of his dwellings. where the three pelvic bones join. Further Somatic Inquiry: understanding of the lemniscate challenges During my basic Rolfing training in our senses, which often relegate it to a solid Exploring the Lemniscate 1981, Emmett Hutchins introduced the form. The secret of the lemniscate is that it 1. Take a moment to trace the lemniscate on a class to the work of Young and his book is in fact a moving form that combines and sheet of paper, over and over again until you feel The Reflexive Universe. Young saw the transcends the polarities of a sphere – the the continuity and breath of this form moving universe as uninterrupted movement, circle and its radius. through you. turning into itself and unfolding out again in seamless motion. Physicists call the shape When drawing a lemniscate, there is the 2. Find a picture of one of the inominate bones created by this movement a hypersphere beginning of a circle with a central point of the pelvis with the view including the and describe it with the mathematical (A). Yet as the circle begins to come to acetabulum. Draw a lemniscate through the formula for the volume of a torus. (A torus completion, there is an “attractor” (A’) that ramus and ilium with the acetabulum as the is shaped like a bagel with an infinitely pulls it away from completion. This central fulcrum (Figure 1). smaller hole in the middle.) Young (1999) becomes another center as it attracts the line postulated that this hypersphere was an moving through point B (the central point) 3. Apply your understanding of this “informing” 2 organizing field and likened this organizing and bends the direction into a circular lemniscate in your practice as follows: Cradle principle in human beings to the awakened movement. The movement around centers the client’s talar and navicular bones and kundalini concept of the yogis. A and A’ continues, around and around gently bring these two aspects of the foot into and through the central fulcrum of B. compression. Sense the lemniscate pattern These visionary writers have broadened Following this movement you might sense informing the relationship of these bones as my exploration and understanding of you gently feed into the central fulcrum. Wait the geometric taxonomy as the template beneath the structures we perceive. Although the block model of Rolfing SI serves to educate the public (a picture is worth a thousand words), there are deeper implications held within this design. Locked within the linear midline of the Little Boy Logo is a cosmic order reaching beyond a Hip Bone cursory understanding of alignment. Could (innominate bone) this vibratory resonance prior to form be revealing an intelligence or consciousness 3 ordering chaos? In my private practice, I Acetabulum discovered that when I immerse myself in (articular cavity of the hip) the potential of this vibratory expression, the work within a session seems to enrich contact, deepen experience, and sustain Pubic Bone itself over time. 2 Embryologist Johannes Rohan expands on Obturator foramen this idea that the organizing principle is more than a simple midline relationship. Ischium In Functional Morphology: The Dynamic Wholeness of the Human Organism, he 1 describes the lemniscate as the most rhythmic of all geometric forms. Think of the lemniscate as a figure eight or an infinity sign, perhaps lying on its side, sometimes Figure 1:The lemniscate appears in the innominate bone. Reprinted with permission from Adonis Press (Functional Morphology: The Dynamic Wholeness of the Human with one loop larger than the other. Organism by Johannes Rohan; Fig. 56, pg. 95). The numbers 1, 2, and 3 indicate According to Rohan (2007, 17), the rhythmic origins of the chief muscle groups: 1) flexors, 2) adductors, and 3) extensors.

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 11 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE and feel for the expansion moving out into In an early workshop, Tom Shaver, DO your hands. Think beyond the pattern. The introduced a technique that followed a lemniscate is not confined to the bones you torus-like pathway releasing tensions at the are manipulating. It can be sensed extending hip joint and lower back. I call the technique beyond the boundary of these bones. “pretzeling the leg” and describe it below. The Torus: Somatic Inquiry: A Moving Constellation Exploring the Moving Form of a Torus Now let’s explore other representations 1. With the client supine, gently stretch her leg of the vibratory resonance that underlies up and toward her head and then slightly form by returning to the torus – the donut- toward midline. Sense the leg’s relationship shaped form described by Young that folds to the lower back as well as the flexibility at into itself endlessly. Embryologist Brian the hip joint. Bend the knee and bring the leg Figure 2: The vortex ring. (Image Freeman, PhD speaks of the torus as the back to the table. retrieved from http://go.webassistant.com/ wa/upload/users/u1000057/pages/3007- shape organizing the formation of the fossa 2. Next place one hand under the lower thigh of the hip joint-leg relationship. He writes: 4984720478c6uGHH0uTt/free energy and (above the knee joint) and the other hand at free thinking.htm.) Detailed anatomical investigations, the bottom of the foot. Become comfortable with this hold. based in part on total-reconstructions the familiar models of geometric taxonomy of a developmental series of human 3. Medially rotate the femur at the hip joint – lines, planes, blocks, and cylinders. embryos, have demonstrated the as you turn the lower leg (via the foot) Quantum physicist Bohm theorized that the following positional changes in into external rotation. Explore the internal universe must be fundamentally indivisible the embryo’s lower limb from the rotation of the femur, following the inner edge and called it a “flowing wholeness” in time it first appears as a torus in of the torus shape at the hip. Imagine the knee which the observer cannot be essentially the inferior part of the ectodermal circumscribing this shape in the air. ring. Initially, as the limb anlage separated from what is being observed. He grows in volume, it growth-adducts 4. Next move the femur into external rotation theorized that “parts” – particles or waves toward the umbilical cord folding and gently turn the lower leg/foot into – are forms of abstraction from this flowing across the embryo’s genito-femoral internal rotation as you explore external wholeness (Briggs and Peat 1989, 29). fossa, then it growth-flexes, the rotation of the femur. To complete the In his treatise Wholeness and the Implicate bend being the anlage of the knee. “pretzel,” gently bring the femur further Order, Bohm (1980) suggests that it is the Subsequent embryonic events in into external rotation as you lower the leg enfolding and unfolding of the universe the development of the lower limb over the edge of the table. Continue holding whose primal vibratory resonance appears include growth-extension of the the lower leg in a gentle internal rotation and both physical and perceivable. We are both knee, growth-flexion in a region continue cradling the foot. particle and wave. At one moment we might sense ourselves as particle through which then becomes the ankle, and 5. Complete the external rotation of the femur focused attention on our specific anatomy, growth-eversion of the foot. These without being restricted by the table, and muscular development, efforts, or bracings. changes of limb position occur then bring the leg back to rest on the table in At another moment we might experience over defined periods of time and a neutral position. therefore represent the primordial a flow through our tissues that generates movements of the human lower 6. Engage the other leg in a similar exploration. a sense of continuity and connectivity as limb. In other words, the very we move and breathe. Could the vortex 7. Sense changes in the relationship between the growth of the embryonic lower ring be the first primordial touchstone, the low back and hip joint as well as the motility/ limb is an early stepping, the so- space between unfolding and enfolding, mobility and continuity from the leg through called ‘growth-kicking’. This is like the pause between an inhalation and the pelvis into the client’s back. well-portrayed by reproducing the an exhalation? 8. Repeat this exploration as you sense and feel form and position of the lower limb What we observe as material bodies the shape of the torus guiding you. of human embryos at successive and forces are nothing but shapes stages, at the same magnification. and the variations in the structure (Freeman 1988, 127-128) Flowing Wholeness: The Vortex Ring of space. (Erwin Schrodinger quoted Following this movement as Freeman in Lazlo 2008, 93) By integrating the motile resonances of the describes, you can feel the circular trajectory According to Young, the vibratory movement lemniscate and torus as they feed through of a torus as its path shapes the fossa. of the vortex ring is multidimensional the dynamic central channel, you will likely You might imagine the torus as a three- and reflexive. In other words, it is both not only imagine the form of a vortex ring dimensional weaving of gossamer threads feeding into formation and dissolving that (see Figure 2) but also sense it through your traversing in multidimensional paths, yet formation simultaneously. In Sanskrit, this body and hands. The vibratory resonance sharing a common crossover space at the is called spanda and translates as “throb” that you will sense is the golden nugget simultaneously dynamic and still central or “pulsation.” core. Each thread feeds into and out of a beneath perceivable form and gives rise to central fulcrum and then returns back again.

12 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE In his most recent book, Science Set Free, d. Breathe and soften into the relationships Bibliography Sheldrake investigates the phenomena of your central channel. of morphic resonance and presents an Bohm, D. 1980. Wholeness and the Implicate e. You are this still center within. understanding of an informing field Order. London: Routledge & Kegan. resonating through time. A resonance is 4. Expand your perception to include your Briggs, J. and F.D. Peat 1989. Turbulent a quality of reverberation through space skin boundary. Explore the interface of skin Mirror. New York, NY: Harper and Row. and time. It has “no-matter” yet transmits surface and environment. Sense the porous vibratory patterns informing all self- quality of this boundary. Freeman, B. 1988. “Newborn Stepping organizing systems. Morphic resonance and Embryonic Growth-Stepping.” 5. Move your attention from your skin boundary underlies habits of protein folding and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology to the field immediately surrounding your crystallization as well as the inheritance 30(1):127-128. body – perhaps twelve to sixteen inches. of habits observed as instinctive behavior Lazlo, E. 2008. Quantum Shift in the Global and the transfer of learning (Sheldrake 6. Notice your breath. Brain. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions. 2012, 199). Taking a leap into the iterative 7. Become aware of a subtle resonance, geometry of formation, perhaps the moving Purce, J. 1974/1980. The Mystic Spiral. New vibration, or movement. This may feel like a elements of the vortex ring function as the York, NY: Thames and Hudson. breeze or heightened awareness or you may primal dynamic that fuels the organization feel nothing at all. Rohan, J. 2007. Functional Morphology: The of structure through its vibratory resonance. Dynamic Wholeness of the Human Organism. Purce writes of the appearance of The flow between one’s external and New York, NY: Adonis Press. internal world is essentially seamless. It is evolutionary spiral flows, forms, and Sheldrake, R. 2012. Science Set Free: 10 symbols depicted throughout all cultures the breath moving between inhalation and exhalation. It is the movement between Paths to New Discovery. New York: Deepak over the eons. From Egypt to Glastonbury Chopra Books/Crown Publishing Group. to the tattoo markings on Polynesian impression and expression, between being shamans, a three-dimensional spiral and doing. It is an inquiry into the common Thompson, D. 1961. On Growth and imprints art, pottery, earth formations, and unity. It is a willingness to cultivate both Form. Cambridge, England: Cambridge temples. This dynamic shape has imprinted an understanding and perception of the University Press. wholeness that lies beneath the surface of the human psyche throughout centuries, Van der Bie, G. and M. Huber, eds. 2003. across space and time. the illusion of separate, individual parts. Whether we are speaking of a central core Foundations of Anthroposophical Medicine. Once flowing this energy may and midline or the spiraling flows of the Edinburgh, Scotland: Floris Books. bring enlightenment and a state torus resonating through the vastness, Young, A.M. 1999. The Reflexive Universe. of wholeness: the balance is the our moving, sensing, breathing bodies are Cambria, CA: Anodos Foundation. still center of the spiral. From the informed and imprinted by the iterative (universe) macrocosm to man as patterns of vibratory intelligence that microcosm, in the center of any manifest through the geometric taxonomy. spiral is the calm core through Carol Ann Agneessens, MS, RCST®, is a Rolfing which man passes to eternity. Instructor and Rolf Movement Instructor. She (Purce 1974, 127) has been a member of the Rolf Institute® faculty Somatic Inquiry: Flowing Wholeness since 1994. For additional writings visit www.holographictouch.com. 1. Find a comfortable yet upright position for sitting. Endnotes 2. Settle into the ease and support of your 1. A taxonomy is a system of classification, breath. a lens through which principles regarding 3. Sense the verticality through the central core a certain classification (of plants, animals, of your body. etc.) are viewed. a. You might begin by sensing the top of 2. Osteopaths and embryologists speak your head (the vertex of your cranium). of the lemniscate. In workshops with Ron Murray, Osteopath (Canada), Certified b. Sense your way through the midline Advanced Rolfer™, a lemniscate pump structures of your cranium, the roof of is taught. In early Rolfing trainings, we your mouth, your throat, heart, pancreas, were introduced to a function called the and umbilicus, descending through your “two-way operator,” which identified uterus or prostate and perineum. and engaged the lemniscate forms found c. Experience the connecting relationship through varying fascial relationships within through these internal structures and the structure. extend your sense of this channel below your perineum through the ground and far above your head.

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 13 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE

or “pushed up toward the heavens.” This The Geometry of Qi point can be found by placing both index fingers behind both ears, pointing upwards, Initial Incursions into the Border Country between SI and then drawing them together at the top of the head. When Bai Hui is lifted, one’s and Traditional East Asian Healing Arts chin naturally draws in slightly. This is By Chris Hayden, Certified Rolfer™, Licensed Asian Bodywork Therapist obviously slightly different from the Rolfing goal of getting the head evenly balanced, and is more geared to the lengthening and Introduction Points of Palintonicity opening of the spine so that energy may As a novice practitioner of both Rolfing® In writing this article, my goal is to explore flow freely along it for specific applications. Structural Integration (SI) and Asian some aspects of TCM theory concerned In acupressure and acupuncture, this bodywork therapy, I have slowly cultivated with the geometry of the human body, and point is often used to sedate excessive an interest in comparing and contrasting specifically to compare them to aspects yang energy, which may be associated these two great holistic healing systems. of Rolfing theory. The Rolfing concept of with dizziness, headaches, irritability, or My first manual therapy training was palintonicity seems an ideal starting point hypertension (Jarmey and Mojay 1999, 296). in AMMA Therapy®, a Korean form of for this exploration. On the other hand, it can strengthen yang bodywork based in traditional Chinese energy as well, and is used in the treatment The TCM view of palintonicity can be medicine (TCM). AMMA Therapy combines of hemorrhoids, as well as for anal, rectal, related to the famous yin-yang symbol, acupressure and massage techniques or vaginal prolapse, which are considered properly referred to as the taiji symbol applied on a passive recipient, with the goal to result from a lack of this upward energy; or The Supreme Ultimate. It depicts the of bringing the body’s qi, or vital energy, this treatment protocol exemplifies the dynamic balance of opposing forces that into a balanced and free-flowing state. general TCM concept of treating one pole govern life, each necessary for the other It was nearly a decade later that I began of a polarity to affect the other. During SI to exist, and each containing the seeds of the study of Rolfing SI, a seemingly very sessions, I have used acupressure to GV 20 the other. Yin represents qualities of earth, different approach to well-being, which to stimulate a client’s connection to his sky darkness, solidity, stillness, nurturing, required a strong somatic component. resource, or help to enliven a client who has coolness, heaviness, and so on, while become too relaxed or groggy. The “connective tissue” that unites these yang represents heaven/sky, brightness, two studies for me is taiji (tai chi), my emptiness, movement, activation, heat, At the yin end of the trunk, we find a point first love in the world of healing arts. rising, and so on. Various energies of called Hui Yin (Meeting of Yin) or Conception Rooted in Chinese martial arts, taiji can the body are referred to as yin or yang Vessel 1 (CV 1). Located approximately in also be looked at as a branch of TCM, due as well, depending on their movements the center of the perineum, it is a gathering to its well-known health benefits. I have and functions. The spatial palintonicity place for yin energies, the diametric practiced several styles of taiji for fifteen sought after in SI is one aspect of this larger opposite of GV 20. While its location makes years altogether, and have settled on a style abstraction, and like other aspects depicts it a rarely used point for manual therapy, called Yanjia Michuan, which emphasizes a harmonious interplay between opposing some taiji and nei gong practitioners learn nei gong, or “internal energy development.” forces. Taijiquan (Supreme Ultimate Boxing) to access it by “pumping” the perineum, Taiji combines a biomechanical view based and Asian bodywork therapy both seek to letting it expand and drop with the in- in palintonicity with the application of engender a homeostatic balance between breath, and rise and contract at the end energetic theory. It then rigorously tests these forces. of the out-breath. This pumping allows the practitioner’s embodied understanding internal energy to be stored and circulated of these principles through two-person Heaven and Earth in the body, especially via the Governing practices. This makes Yanjia Michuan an One manifestation of this is balance between and Conception Vessels (outlined below). ® ideal guide and companion through the the upper and lower extremes of the body. As all Rolf Institute graduates know, rather forbidding border country I have In regard to the entire body, the top of the Rolfing SI also sees great value in gaining begun exploring. head is considered yang and connected to awareness of this area. Mary Bond’s The the heavens, while the soles of the feet are New Rules of Posture, for instance, contains I admit that my knowledge of Asian healing an exercise relating the out-breath to the traditions is quite limited. Asia is a big place considered yin and root the body into the earth. With regard to the spine, there is gentle drawing in of the perineum, which with a wide variety of healing practices. builds core stability (Bond 2007, 97-98). A Even within my chosen areas of study, I am a similar polarity between the top of the cranium and the coccygeal region. nearby point, Governing Vessel 1, located only skimming the surface of what I know between the tip of the coccyx and the anus, to be possible, what the masters of these To be more precise, a point at the top of the mirrors GV 20 in that it is used both to treat arts are capable of. This article is intended head called Bai Hui (One Hundred Meeting prolapse (strengthening yang) and to calm as a starting point, a loosely organized Point), or Governing Vessel 20 (GV 20), an agitated mind (sedating yang) (Jarmey collection of musings and scraps of practical represents the ultimate in yang energy. and Mojay 1999, 295). This again illustrates experience that may lead others to initiate The Governing Vessel draws this energy the connection between opposite ends of the their own explorations. It is not intended to along the spine to the top of the head. spine in TCM. represent all Asian healing modalities, or to Taiji practitioners are directed to imagine be a practical guide in itself. GV 20 being “suspended from the sky,”

14 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE Even More Earth lingual posture, while Rolfing practitioners related to the emotions, which can bind and use it to maintain openness in the upper block qi. Likewise, carrying energy in the In the feet, the primary location of core (i.e., the throat). head leaves one prone to rumination and connecting to the yin energy of the earth being “lost in thought.” Operating from G A common method of building energy is known as Bubbling Springs, or Kidney allows one to act “in the moment” before is to visualize the circulation of energy 1. It is located behind the ball of the foot, fear and anger arise, moving instinctively through these two vessels. This practice about one-third of the distance from the toe but also with a sense of connection to the is known as the Microcosmic Orbit, and is to the heel, between the second and third world. (Technically, the center of one’s a form of nei gong. A female practitioner metatarsals (Jarmey and Mojay 1999, 295). focus is generally a bit higher than G, and who has gone through some basic stages This seems to relate to the Rolfing concept is in the neighborhood of Sea of Qi and of learning the meditation posture and of the “eye of the foot.” Rolfing Instructor Gate of Vitality mentioned above, putting practicing foundational exercises might Lael Keen refers to this general area of the it near the sitting rather than standing practice something like this (the male orbit metatarsals as the “suction cup” of the foot, gravity center.) which functions as a “coherent, diaphragm- runs in the opposite direction): like dome” (Keen 2011, 22-27). As one of the This is not to say that the head and chest 1. Begin inhaling though the nose. “diaphragms” in SI work, this area carries are disparaged, but that they are seen as considerable importance for the whole 2. Draw qi in through GV 20 at the crown energetically subordinate to the lower body. In AMMA Therapy, Kidney 1 is often of the head. torso. Points along the Conception Vessel, used to ground the body and mind, making on and below the sternum, are used to help 3. Bring qi down the Governing Vessel to a client calm and stable. release trapped energy downward into the the perineum (CV 1). Sea of Qi area. At the beginning of some In taiji, Bubbling Springs is a site for 4. When the qi reaches a point at the Rolfing sessions I have used manipulation energetic “rooting,” a process that can second lumbar vertebra called Gate of these points, along the sternum and make someone very difficult to knock over, of Vitality, also allow it to encircle the upper abdomen, to shift a stressed-out or and also where energy is drawn up from waist bidirectionally, meeting about tense client into a more parasympathetic the ground into the body, ultimately to be 1.5 thumb widths below the navel, at state (my interpretation of the results) expressed by the arms. This happens on a a point called Sea of Qi. and prepare him for structural work – subtle as well as on a gross mechanical level. “energetic adaptability,” if you will. Many schools of taiji emphasize getting 5. Begin exhaling through the mouth. the perineum (CV 1) approximately on a A Network of Rivers 6. Draw qi up from the perineum along coronal plane with Bubbling Springs to the Conception Vessel. Qi is circulated through the body largely enhance this delivery system. This is often along the twelve Primary Channels, which accomplished by either letting the tailbone 7. As the qi passes through Sea of Qi, also tend to run longitudinally along the limbs, drop, or by gently pushing it forward while allow it to pass through the center of trunk, and neck, ending at the fingers, softening the low back, a feature of taiji the body (approximating the curve toes, and head. This is like a system of that is often repugnant to Rolfers and yoga of the diaphragm). It again reaches underground rivers, connected to each other instructors alike, but which confers several Gate of Vitality and loops several at specific points. Along these channels are the distinct advantages for martial application times through the perineum and back many “potent” points, used in acupuncture and energetic development when used in around this circuit. and acupressure, places where the flow of the proper context. 8. Meanwhile, the qi also continues to these rivers may be easily affected. Famously The Central Axis rise along the Conception Vessel to the (in our community), Helen Langevin, a and Its Development roof of the mouth via the tongue, and researcher at the University of Vermont, out through a point between and just has found an 80% correspondence between The Conception and Governing Vessels above the eyebrows, called the Third these potent points and intersections of mentioned above form a loop through the Eye Point. planes of fascia, indicating the possibility head and trunk of the body. They can be that fascial tissue response may account for The geometric pattern of this exercise likened to great reservoirs of qi that supply some of acupuncture’s effects (Schleip 2007, illustrates a strong focus on building energy the more commonly known channels such 31). The intermuscular septa of the limbs, in the abdominal and pelvic regions. It is as the Heart and Kidney Channels, which for instance, are part of the course of several likened to drawing fire down from the head are more like rivers. The major path of channels and are easy to locate. Importantly and placing it in the belly and is common in the Conception Vessel (Ren Mai) extends for manual therapy, these channels also Asian healing and martial arts. In taiji, one from the perineum to the mouth along correspond to larger surrounding regions, is directed to bring the mind and qi into the anterior midline, while the major called Tendino-Muscle Channels, which the belly. This has given me the impression Governing Vessel (Du Mai) channel extends supply qi to broader areas of tissue. Many of that there is a distinct favoring of Hubert from the perineum along the posterior Tom Myers’s myofascial meridians from his Godard’s G movement center (located in midline, then over the top of the head classic work Anatomy Trains often correspond the pelvic region) over the G’ movement and down to the mouth. Placing the tip of roughly to these Tendino-Muscle Channels, center (located in the upper thoracic region) the tongue softly against the hard palate, and that book’s second edition does include in these traditions. Indeed, the G’ region is slightly behind the teeth, completes this an exploration of some common ground generally considered to be an inefficient energy circuit. Practitioners of taiji and Zen between TCM and Anatomy Trains theory place to carry one’s energy, as it is too much and Taoist meditation often maintain this (Myers 2009, 273-280).

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 15 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE Directions of Flow The Mighty Kidneys longus and rectus capitis muscles (Sohn and Sohn 1996, 101; see Figure 1). Including the The flow of qi is largely upwards along the I would now like to explore the similarities Tendino-Muscle Channel provides a more inner legs, through the torso and out the between Rolfing SI and TCM theory complete view for the bodywork therapist, inner/palmar aspect of the arms, returning by honing in on a channel of particular indicating the practical biomechanical then along the outer arms and down the structural importance: the Leg Lesser Yin importance of this energetic pathway. outer legs. The yin channels are grouped Kidney Channel, a.k.a. Kidney Channel. along the medial and anterior aspects of More than any other, I think that this From all of this energetic anatomy, we see the limbs and torso, and contain earthly channel pairs with the SI concept of “core,” a pattern of deep, full-body stabilization energy, which rises from the feet to the at least in terms of whole-body support. at work. In TCM, the Kidneys are greatly fingertips (the hands are held overhead On the surface, it runs from Bubbling responsible for the strength and health in this model), while the yang channels Springs (described above) at the sole of of the spine, as well as for will power (as convey heavenly energy downwards via the foot, through the deep posterior crural in “backbone”). As in Rolfing SI, a TCM the more lateral and posterior aspects of the musculature, up the inner thigh and torso practitioner will often use points along the limbs and torso. Some Primary Channels all the way to the clavicles. However – and legs, including the Kidney Channels, to reach the head, and others interact with this is a very important point – a deeper influence and support the spine. There is the head through deeper rivers that branch channel also passes through the perineum, also a great deal of crossover between this from them. Many of the channels are interacting with the Microcosmic Orbit at channel and the Anatomy Trains’ Deep commonly known simply by the name of the beginning of the Governing Vessel, Front Line (DFL; see Figure 2), which is an internal organ that they are related to, and traveling up the spine, through the used by the body for underlying structural rather than their full name. For instance, liver, diaphragm, and lung, to the root of support. Myers himself considers the the Arm Lesser Yin Heart Fire Channel the tongue (Sohn and Sohn 1996, 84-85). related Liver Channel to be a closer match to becomes “Heart Channel.” (The use of Additionally, the Tendino-Muscle Channel the DFL (Myers 2009, 278), and that channel capitalization for organ names denotes related to the Kidney Channel ascends does connect aspects of the inner leg, i.e., a very different meaning compared to from the big toe and along the adductors, the adductors, to the visceral space and the our familiar Western understanding. The bridging the pelvis at the iliopsoas tendon nasal area. However, the Kidney Channel organs themselves are viewed as complexes and traveling along the psoas to the front of is unlike any other in its ability to connect of energetic functions, and include mental, the spine, passing through the diaphragm, the “core” of the legs to the entire spine via emotional, and even spiritual processes the anterior longitudinal ligament, and the the psoas and pelvic floor. along with physical ones.) While this core muscular of the neck, including the abbreviated nomenclature is convenient, it Taiji and the Functioning somewhat obscures the directional flow of of Kidney Energy qi, which is an important aspect of energetic Taiji also places special emphasis on the geometry. Scott Pyeatt, in a Rolfing SI Kidney Channels. Besides the focus on neural workshop, demonstrated that the Bubbling Spring point, taiji relies on facilitating energetic flow in its “proper” the rhythmic opening and closing of the direction according to TCM theory can groin (through which the Tendino-Muscle have a normalizing effect on the reflexes Channel passes) by rotating the pelvis over of the legs and arms when, for instance, a the legs, in effect squeezing the energy that client is unable to maintain femoral flexion rises from the feet and causing it to gain 1 against resistance. momentum and power as it travels along The channels flow very close to the surface the spine toward the hands, as squeezing at the fingers and toes, and here we often a garden hose causes a sharper spray of see points used for dramatic actions such water. This is often coordinated with the as restoring consciousness or stopping breath for maximum effect. So this channel bleeding. More proximally, they gradually permits the drawing of energy from the deepen, and eventually interact directly ground, the transfer of it through the groin with the internal organs. Proximal points and along the psoas, and the sending of it are generally used for more subtle purposes along the spine on a wave of breathing. such as strengthening the muscles or Incidentally, the concept of the Kidneys also organs. So the distal points are a quick includes one’s ability to draw breath deeply way to get the body’s “attention,” and I into the body, implying that the respiratory use occasional stimulation of them in my diaphragm is also an aspect of the Kidney SI practice to make a proximal region more organ complex – the ancient Chinese were responsive to fascial interventions, when less interested in anatomical specifics than the proximal region lies approximately general patterns of function. along the same channel. Figure 1: Lesser Yin Tendino-Muscle Channel in the leg (from Sohn and Sohn, AMMA Therapy; used with permission of Healing Arts Press).

16 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE Endnotes 1. Author’s notes from the class “Neural, Visceral, and Energetic Integration” taught by Scott Pyeatt and Jon Martine in Lawrence, KS in 2012. Bibliography Bond, M. 2007. The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press. Jarmey, C. and G. Mojay 1999. Shiatsu: The Complete Guide. London: Thorson’s Publishers, Ltd. Keen, L. 2011 Jun. “The Arches of the Feet in Standing and Walking, Part One.” Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute® 39(1). Myers, T. 2009. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Edinburgh, U.K.: Elsevier. Schleip, R. 2007 Jun. “Introduction to Dr. Langevin’s Research.” Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute® 35(2).

Figure 2: An early version of the Deep Front (or “core”) Line, illustration courtesy of Sohn, T. and R. Sohn 1996. AMMA Therapy: Tom Myers. A Complete Textbook of Oriental Bodywork and Medical Principles. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press. Toward a Deeper await anyone seeking to thoroughly relate Understanding these visions. Behind the odd terminology and esoteric appearance of TCM there I hope that this short introduction has exists a wealth of practical information for served to illustrate a bit of the crossover the somatic bodyworker. I believe it could between the Rolfing and TCM visions of enrich our field. health, and also indicated the depths that

ancient mystery schools would tell us that The Geometrical Taxonomy the sacred-geometry forms are also fields around the body. Sacred Geometry and Its Power to Integrate These sacred-geometry forms exist not By Deborah Weidhaas, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement® only for humans but also in trees, plants, Practitioner mammals, fish, birds, insects, and the shells of crustaceans. They also form the I studied sacred geometry1 about fifteen Scientific American (January 1998, 48) is “the structure of crystals and metals. This years ago because I was drawn to the architecture of life.” repetition in nature could well be why these concepts, the forms, and the ways these geometric forms were considered “sacred.” Anyone who has studied embryology has organize and exist in every living thing. It is said that Pythagoras considered the seen these concepts, over and over, but in Sacred geometry takes one into words like dodecahedron to be so sacred that he the living form. The geometric shapes in vesica piscis, tubed torus, Phi ratio, golden prohibited speaking the word outside embryological images, and in tensegrity, mean rectangle, Metatron’s Cube, Fibonacci his school. are hard to miss, though looking at three sequence, the Platonic solids (sphere, cube, dimensions one might forget that these Tensegrity, fractals, quantum physics, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, are the Platonic solids of sacred geometry. systems theory, and sacred geometry (and dodecahedron), and spirals. All of these In The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, their patterns, evolution, and expression lead straight to the subjects of patterns, Drunvalo Melchizedek (1998, 183) says: “In through the physical form) are in my fractals, systems theory, tensegrity, and the beginning of your life in the womb, you conscious awareness and in the “field of quantum physics. Tensegrity, according to were nothing but geometrical forms.” The consciousness” from which I work. These

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 17 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE forms are life’s basic building blocks to Integration work. The third axis, the z arises. In fact, organization and integration organize, structure, inform itself, pattern, axis, produces depth, which gives us three happen so pervasively and intrinsically that integrate, and enliven. I am much more dimensions, spirals, and all the concepts, I am convinced the same could not have informed in how to proceed with each client forms and perspectives of sacred geometry. been achieved from our classic tissue work. from this material than I am from knowing The point of knowing sacred geometry The body’s own innate wisdom is much how the rectus femoris is supposed to is not so much that it directly feeds the greater and grander than what is contained function. I look upon anatomy as an essential practitioner with a “how to.” The point in our anatomy books, and the body wants learning – similar to learning our alphabet, is that it can expand our inquiry and to have, experience, and express through colors, and numbers as kids. These basics, concepts of: the cylinder model, the “Line,” these grander dynamics. Perhaps arising however, are too rudimentary to guide us multidirectional span (palintonicity), and from both my extensive experience as a in functioning each day. You know your the influences of gravity. For example, how Rolf Movement client and my knowledge alphabet so well that you could recite it might your work change if your sense of of sacred geometry, I hold a perspective while doing three other tasks plus reminding palintonicity, or of transmission, came from that includes at least twelve to eighteen yourself to return a phone call when you’re the perspective that the body’s sense of inches off the body while I am on tissues done. I think Rolfers should know anatomy itself, from where it orients, also continues to do the integration sessions. While twelve like we know the alphabet, so we: 1) need out beyond the skin surface? How might to eighteen inches doesn’t encompass the not question our knowledge of it; 2) are not your work change if you knew that the fullness of the fields around a body, I have tempted to use it as the guiding principle; physical body knows this beyond-the-skin found that it is sufficient to engage enough and 3) will incorporate bigger principles perspective and wants to function from it? dynamics so that structural integration can regarding life and consciousness into our How is its structure and function limited manifest and sustain at a higher level. map of this work. Anatomy, for me, is a when we, as practitioners, embody that the crucial knowledge base and, at the same To date, the only way I know to transmit skin surface delineates the end of a physical time, an incomplete truth. qualities of being to another person is body and an anatomical middle delineates through guiding another to find and Let me discuss further what I mean by its core? experience it for oneself. This is true of more “field of consciousness”; “in my conscious Some of you, and most of your clients, may things in life than just our work, and it is awareness”; “incorporating bigger not realize that we are bigger than our skin why I stayed with doing my modification principles” into our map; and “anatomy is surface. I tell a client to remember a time on the integration sessions. My approach to an incomplete truth.” when someone walked up behind him and integration transmits the information to the I can go into nothing more than beliefs he never saw a thing, never heard a sound – client’s conscious awareness and activates acquired from direct experience. I believe: but he knew, beyond a doubt, that someone qualities and dynamics of being that are was there. Nearly everyone has had this already inherent, waiting to be able to arise, 1. Anatomy lives in the world of doing. experience, and it proves to us that we are in tissues and in experience. I am currently 2. Structure lives in the world of being. bigger than our skin surface. designing a class to teach this integration approach to Rolfers so they can experience 3. Each world has its own distinct In my experience, we are also much deeper integration even more soundly in their own dynamics. than our anatomical middle. I can’t prove bodies and also facilitate it in their clients. this in writing, but I can perceive when 4. The world of being/structure is a clients don’t have access to this deeper Fundamentally, a body wants to know, and higher principle, is closer to the truth, center, can coach them to find it, and then have direct access to, up, down, front, back, and is discernible through a palpable coach them to move from it. My ability to side, side, superficial, and deep. A physical vibration and quality. perceive this deeper center comes from body knows these dimensions exist within, 5. The world of being/structure includes: experiencing it, from living it. It arose in me but also beyond, physical tissues. I say, “the consciousness (which is evolving), the as a result of doing nearly ninety sessions body knows” because that is exactly what body as an energy field, and all of who as a Rolf Movement client. I completed it exhibits in organization and movement a person is including divinity/spirit. this extended process of Rolf Movement when it has the freedom to do so. Therefore, six months before I began my basic there are some restrictions in the physical I believe tensegrity, fractals, quantum Rolfing training. body’s tissues for which you might find an physics, systems theory, and what sacred interesting resolution if you were to play After my basic training, I did Sessions geometry alludes to, also exist in this world with ideas like: we are bigger than skin; Eight and Nine with my Ten Series clients of being/structure. These give a higher we are deeper than anatomical middle; our just as I had been trained for about a year. principle of understanding, integration, bodies are an energy field; all movement That approach, however, never quite and complexity, but the complexity of it originates in perception; and geometric settled itself into my system. After a year, I is the kind that, when embraced, actually form underlies our structure and innate produces simplicity. shifted my integration work over to what I had known in my own body, this state of body wisdom in the field of gravity. For those who don’t have an innate love larger-than-skin and a core or center that is Deborah Weidhaas is in her twenty-second of geometry as I do, the beginning is the deeper-than-anatomical-middle. I’ve done year as a Rolfer. In addition to structural x and y axes, two lines, perpendicular to integration sessions with clients this way integration, movement integration, and visceral each other. This gives us two dimensions, ever since. When clients move from this manipulation, she is highly skilled in the mental, and also the horizontals and verticals we state-of-being, integration spontaneously emotional, and spiritual material that arises for all know so well in our Rolfing® Structural

18 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE clients from our work. She lives and works in watch “Sacred Geometry Explained Part 1 kyphosis. I submitted my report but Los Gatos, California. of 2,” and “Sacred Geometry Explained Part never heard anything back. At that point, 2 of 2” at www.youtube.com. busy with a full practice in Los Angeles, I Endnote concluded that the Rolf Institute was either 1. For a good overview of sacred geometry too busy or not interested in following up – including its esoteric and practical roots, on this opportunity for collaborating with structure and consciousness, the natural the medical community. I let the subject world, science, math, and embryology – drop – until now. An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Improved Objective RolfMap: A Call to Action Feedback of SI’s By Richard Wheeler, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement® Practitioner Effectiveness Back in the early days of her training Over thirty years ago, during Neal Powers’ show people the benefits that could be classes, Dr. Rolf routinely used “before” and first term as president of the Rolf Institute®, gained by our work. This was an 8.5x11- “after” Polaroid photos of clients to give the Board of Directors approved and inch manual, with a blue cover, that students and practitioners more objective funded my proposal to attend a conference presented before and after photographs visual feedback of the clients’ structural in Oxford, England. The conference theme of our clients. I figured the so-called “Blue changes. I’m confident that all of her was anatomical surface topography and Book” would make it easy for me to do a students will remember her insistence that contour evaluation, a topic of great interest “show and tell” for anyone who expressed we rely on “what your eyes see and what to the conveners: surgeons and biomedical interest. your hands feel” to guide our work, as well researchers who worked with patients as her assertion that “seeing is touching at My show-and-tell moment came near the suffering from the extremes of scoliosis a distance.” end of the conference, over a pint of ale in and kyphosis. the Cambridge pub. One of the conference Obviously, Polaroid images have their The primary reason for the conference organizers, a surgeon, asked me what I did limitations. Today, a question that we SI was that the conveners were perplexed by for a living; in response, I pulled out the practitioners need to be asking ourselves the dramatic difference, at times, between Blue Book. He flipped through it slowly, is, “What information will best expand our pre-surgery surface evaluations of their with obvious interest, often going back understanding of our work and help us patients’ contours and the actual internal to look at an earlier photo. He got very develop even more effective strategies for anatomical configurations they discovered quiet. It took him a long time to go through transforming human form and function?” In during surgery. Imagine the dismay of a the mere fifteen- to twenty-page booklet. my view, we need precise tools that provide surgeon as he cut open a patient to discover Finally, he looked up at me intently and said us with objective, real-time feedback to that his carefully measured struts and rods emphatically, with a very British accent, help us better evaluate the visible effects did not fit, or that the attentively palpated “Where the hell have you people been? If of our work, both with “normal” people lump was not L4 after all. these photographs are real, then we’ve been as well as with those who have clinically barking up the wrong tree entirely!” significant issues. Both static images and Moiré Contourography was one of the high-resolution motion imaging will help analytical techniques for surface contour This physician clearly had the best interests us document the changes we make in evaluations that was being evaluated by of his patients at heart. He knew through static contours, breathing dynamics, and some of the participants in the conference. I direct personal experience that surgical regional-segmental motion patterns. was initially very enthusiastic about using intervention was – and should be – the Moiré-based analysis for evaluating the very last choice for someone whose To record change, we must first establish results of Rolfing® Structural Integration structure was in serious trouble. Thanks a baseline by documenting the client prior (SI) sessions. However, I soon learned that to the simple photographic evidence to any SI work. As we introduce changes while Moiré patterns intuitively seem to in Blue Book, he saw that Rolfers were with our manipulative strategies, we need resemble contour maps, at that time they achieving phenomenal results and that our to document each session (with before could not accurately measure surface manipulative strategy had huge potential and after documentation, since changes topography at the level of resolution our for helping patients avoid or delay surgical continue to take place between sessions). SI community needed. procedures that all too often led to serious This judicious documentation will make medical complications. clear the effects of our work. This will Early Recognition of help us move beyond the all-too-common On my return to the States, I wrote up a Rolfing SI as perspective that Rolfing SI simply offers complete report for the Rolf Institute’s an Effective Method symptom relief, as well as beyond the Board of Directors. In it I documented the notion that SI, like massage, has only of Structural Change current state of Moiré Contourography and temporary effects. I’d brought with me to Cambridge a copy described how I’d encountered enthusiastic of Ida Rolf’s “photo book” that the Rolf interest in Rolfing SI as a possible adjunct I am convinced that this proposed Institute was using back in the 1970s to therapeutic strategy for scoliosis and documentation would dramatically

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 19 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE improve both the practical development to printers of various kinds. One Getting Objective and effectiveness of our work, as well as consumer-level product, GoPro® Feedback of SI Results accelerate the far wider acceptance of SI by cameras, fills these requirements. The Accepted and Published the medical and academic communities, as downside to this setup is its expense: well as by the general public. After almost a complete setup capable of whole- in Academic Journals forty-five years, I eagerly await the day body imaging can cost $10,000 or Academic journals want data, not merely that our work is clearly differentiated from more – not viable for most individual anecdotes. Thus, hard data generated by massage. I strongly suspect that other SI practitioners, without research the kind of mapping studies I’m proposing practitioners feel the same. grant support. will make articles on SI more acceptable to academic journals, especially those, such And here’s the good news: modern • Ultrasound provides a medium- as the Journal of Morphology, which focus technology has now developed to the point resolution view of the anatomy on theoretical and applied functional that it can be employed to help us map the underlying surface contours. With the morphology. Gaining greater academic territory of the human form with far greater collaboration of a physician trained acceptance and respect for the demonstrable detail and accuracy than the images in the in using ultrasound equipment, results we achieve will be pivotal in Blue Book I showed to the British surgeon Certified Advanced Rolfer and Rolf advancing SI from being perceived as in that Cambridge pub back in the 1970s. In Movement Practitioner Sharon merely “a strange form of massage,” both the next section of this article, I list some of Wheeler has successfully used by the medical and academic communities, the imaging tools that we Rolfers might use ultrasound to document the results as well as by the lay public. I will go so far to demonstrate the effectiveness of our work. of her manipulative strategies for as to predict that if we document results changing scar tissues. Modern Tools to Provide effectively, there will one day be advanced Better Objective Feedback • Acoustic imaging research has recently degrees in SI at many universities around demonstrated the ability to image the the world. Once SI receives the recognition As you read through the list of technologies shape of a room with an accuracy of it deserves, this will be a logical outcome. below, keep in mind that all of these tools are millimeters. This technique uses a continuously improving. Also consider ways sound source and four microphones In Search of Collaborators we might encourage further development coupled to a computer, enabling a Rolf identified a very large territory, the of these tools in a direction that will better visual mapping of room shapes in a human body, in which positive changes serve our SI community’s needs. manner reminiscent of the echolocation in structure and function can be made. • Structured lighting technology projects strategy used by bats. This technology I believe the time has come to map this a grid or a pattern of dots over the body’s offers the fascinating potential for entire territory with the best tools we can surface. This is then photographed. The camera-free imaging – not only of get our hands on. Once we have mapped projected pattern’s distortions (caused rooms but also of everything in the this territory, we can then use our maps by the body’s shape) can be measured room, including people. Feedback from to help us better understand the range and evaluated before and after sessions the SI community to the developers of of positive changes that we can create in to give useful insight into the body’s this technology could possibly help our clients. This includes both clients who changing form and function. shape the direction of development. have “normally random bodies” as well A short article on the state of this as clients with significant clinical issues. • Laser scanning measures the distortion technology is found at http://phys.org/ of a laser beam on contoured surfaces news/2013-06-microphones-algorithm- I propose, therefore, that we form a group to create image maps. A disadvantage d-simple-convex.html. – the “RolfMap” Team – composed of those of this method is that scans currently of us with a genuinely strong interest in take time and generate relatively low- Imaging tools are already routinely used by developing and implementing effective resolution images. While in the future plastic surgeons to measure precisely and imaging and documenting strategies. The these limitations will no doubt be to fit prosthetic parts. For this, they use purpose of RolfMap will be as follows: overcome, at present laser scans are images generated by stereo cameras and 3D • To explore, refine, and extend the ideas best used on stationary subjects. CT or MRI scans that are coupled through computer-aided design and drafting presented in this article. • Stereo imaging uses two cameras (CADD) programs to 3D printers. • To discover and track the presence, or an image splitter to create a development, and evolution of linked “right-eye / left-eye” pair Advanced SI Practitioner Jeff Linn has used imaging systems most appropriate of images. These linked pairs can relatively low-tech computer-based video for our work. then be computationally integrated imaging to produce two-dimensional (2D) to generate contour maps. Good video imaging. A drawback of 2D images is • To communicate with industry three-dimensional (3D) photographic that they are easily disbelieved, especially (imaging tool developers) about the use image creation requires stereo images by those of us who are over-exposed of their technology for documenting taken simultaneously from multiple to advertisements that are obviously plasticity and structural change in ® positions. This involves a twelve- manipulated through Photoshop . human beings. camera photo booth, cabling or wi-fi • To find sources of funding for interface, and software for graphic workstations and office systems useful display, for analysis, and for output

20 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE

for client and practitioner education The RolfMap Team can start by Dr. Rolf showed us the way. it’s now our and research projects. communicating via email and social time, our responsibility, and our privilege media. If you are interested in joining to take this amazing body of work to the • To educate the SI community about the RolfMap Team, please email Richard next level. the development, relevance and use of Wheeler at [email protected]. (Thank imaging systems in SI work. Richard Wheeler is a Certified Advanced Rolfer you in advance for any suggestions you and Rolf Movement Practitioner in Ecuador. • To educate the research community might have for how to carry this forward.) He is also an artist, musician, paleontologist, and the public about SI’s effectiveness, It is time to document Rolfing SI’s inventor, and entrepreneur. He is available to using data from RolfMap. extraordinary effectiveness in changing mentor Rolfing students. bodies and enhancing performance.

the formation of the Guild for Structural The Mystery of Integration (GSI)]. Kaplan also located figures for sessions seven through nine in “A Searcher’s Handbook” – a manuscript the Ten-Series Symbols that Clinton Kramer compiled based on his notes from a class with Emmett Hutchins. By Anne F. Hoff, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ (The class was presumably held in 1985, the Author’s note: I am most grateful to Emmett Hutchins, Carol Agneesens, Don Bruce, Jeff Linn, date listed next to the manuscript’s opening Michael Vilain, and (particularly) Allan Kaplan for all of their efforts and communications to quote.) In the “Handbook,” Hutchins help with this article. refers to the figures as “symbols” and uses them to distill the meaning of the sessions. When I was studying Rolfing® Structural Figure 2 shows these early “symbols” for Integration (SI) in the mid-1990s, students sessions seven, eight, and nine as they had class t-shirts made with the stick-figure images shown in Figure 1. We didn’t know the provenance of the stick figures, but they clearly had some relationship to the Ten Series. Despite the lack of information, they looked cool on t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Rolfing – the Evolution Revolution – Get It Straight,” proclaiming our passion for our work. Recently, I began to wonder again about those figures, and their origin. I dug deeper into the mystery with help from colleagues, came to some definitive conclusions, and added some speculation, all of which I’ll present below. The History I first went on the Rolf Forum LISTSERV to consult colleagues. Rolfing Instructor Carol Agneesens also remembers the figures from class t-shirts circa the mid-1990s, and she directed me to Don Bruce, who had made class t-shirts around that time but did not know who found the images. Further digging by Agneesens and Allan Kaplan clearly suggested that the “set” for the Ten Series is actually a combination of figures from two periods (and two different sources), as they could trace only the figures for sessions seven to ten back to the early 1980s. Kaplan found versions of the figures for sessions seven through ten in his own and other students’ notes from classes with both Emmett Hutchins and Figure 1: Stick-figure images circa mid-1990s (recreated by Michael ilain,V from a Peter Melchior [both were instructors at t-shirt image provided by Don Bruce). the Rolf Institute® who later were part of www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 21 ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE were documented by a student in Peter Melchior’s summer 1985 class. The symbol for session ten is shown in Figure 3, as documented by a student in a class with Emmett Hutchins (date uncertain). With this much information pointing to Hutchins, it made sense to contact him. Although busy starting a six-week training just as this article was being completed, he graciously responded with information that dispelled the first part of the mystery: Figure 2: Symbols for sessions “1-7” and “8-9,” from a student’s notes of a 1985 class The symbols [for sessions seven, with Peter Melchior. Courtesy of Allan Kaplan. eight, and nine] were developed during the teaching of the first Advanced Training Class following Dr. Rolf’s death in 1979. That class was taught jointly by Peter Melchior and I. We have always given the credit for these symbols jointly [to] that class event. However, if we must give individual credit, I would say that Peter had more to do with those for the 8th and 9th hour while I might take more credit for the 7th hour symbol . . . . They [are] standard diagrams and symbols though, [and] are still used in our training classes. (Hutchins 2013) Hutchins says the symbol for session ten – Figure 3: Symbol for session10, from a student’s notes of a class with Emmett where the seventh-session symbol is given Hutchins, date uncertain. Courtesy of Allan Kaplan a squiggly line – is of later origin, and may have been drawn by him or by another of the seventh hour, you will notice, about we believe about bodies” (Kaplan 1987). teacher. It is not part of GSI’s standard halfway through the session, that there will Notes from Melchior’s 1985 class, in turn, teaching.1 Hutchins (2013) also said, “We be a subtle shift where the . . . symbol will have him teaching “sessions 8-9 are a pair never developed symbols for the other manifest itself. The integration of the body where you’ll integrate the length you hours.” He seemed to have some familiarity has begun!” (Kramer 1985, 158). He later achieved in 1-7 with functional movement,” with some of the other symbols, but could says, “We have worked for seven hours to and labeling the two symbols collectively as not say when or where they came from. create the force. We have created a core and “sessions 8-9” (Kaplan, various). Melchior we have created a sleeve. The symbol . . . stated that “at the completion of these I was able to get more specific information is one in which we may perceive the force hours all movement originates from the about the full set of symbols shown in Figure 1 as we have created it; a representation of a lumbodorsal hinge” (Kaplan 1987). With from somatic practitioner Jeff Linn, who charged being” (Kramer 1985, 179). Thus, the eighth and ninth sessions, one is a lower trained at both the Rolf Institute and GSI. the figure really represent the culmination session and the other an upper session; thus According to Linn (2013), the symbols for of the work of sessions one through seven, you “bisect the two figures with a horizontal sessions one through six “were created in which is consistent with the labeling as line” and do “both of the halves of the two a GSI class sometime in the 90s because “sessions 1-7,” a process of “length-space- figures” in each session (Kramer 1985, 181), some of the students thought there should stacking,” in Figure 2. Melchior stated that again implying that the figures together are be symbols for all the sessions.” Linn also the symbols are “multilevel events” (not the representation of the sum total of the two noted, “In my opinion, these symbols (1-6) linear) that deliver a lot of information, sessions’ work, able to express in two forms add unneeded complexity to an elegant and that the first symbol represents the or energies (Kramer 1985, 178). Hutchins explanation for 8/9/10.” My own contention “intentions of sessions one through seven, links back to the session-seven symbol and is that they are internally inconsistent as a creating space and context for the ‘Line’” in says that in sessions eight and nine “we are symbolic system, as will be discussed below. a bi-polar structure (Kaplan 1987). trying to get symbol seven more distinct here, cleaner and freer. If you start bearing Commentary Hutchins told Kaplan’s class that the in on the girdles – being heavy-handed – session-seven symbol of the cranium, spine, “A Searcher’s Handbook” has Hutchins then symbol seven will shrink and maybe and sacrum was a “worm” that you had to stating in the session-seven lecture, “We even disappear. You have to nurture symbol get to “relate to the outside world through now come to the first symbol that we seven whilst you are working. . . . Structural the girdles” – work that would be done in will encounter in the recipe. . . . If you are integration is the relating of segments so sessions eight and nine, which “contain all particularly observant during the course that they will act as a single unit” (Kramer 22 Structural Integration / December 2013 1985, 182). www.rolf.org ON GEOMETRY AND SHAPE

The X-shaped figure Hutchins distinguishes the symbols were intended to represent. • Session six has no bench work as the as solar, representing movement, Hutchins and Melchior created symbols back work is done with the client prone communication with the external world, for sessions seven through ten that clearly on the table. This is consistent with and action from the lumbodorsal hinge represent the goals, or essence, of the the figure. – the midpoint of the X in the symbol sessions, in both their look and the way they • The mid-1990s symbol for session (Kaplan 1987). He also stated, “This figure described them in their classes. Looking seven adds arrows to the earlier is result. It is also the definition of particle at the additional figures for sessions one symbol. Kaplan’s notes have the goal (or current) as we have discussed . . . about through six, it is hard to apply the same of the back work on the bench being to the electromagnetic fields of the body. This logic. Instead, it would seem they are more link the trapezius to the lumbodorsal figure has no pelvis and there is no shoulder likely shorthand for the back work done in hinge with the client upright, keeping girdle. There is a dorsal hinge and it is from each session, as many show a seated figure. the head on top and relating large this point that all of this figure’s movement Kaplan and I discussed this in a phone broad planes. The later figure does radiates. This figure is all movement and all conversation (2013), referencing back to his stress the importance of the head action” (Kramer 1985, 178). class notes (1987). through the added arrows, but it does For the figure with right-angled limbs, • Traditional session-one back work was not depict a seated figure and does not Hutchins said represented order (top/ done with the client seated on the table seem very well correlated. It seems bottom, left/right, horizontal/vertical; core/ with his feet in contact with the table a better representation of Hutchins’s sleeve, and hinges) and identified it as lunar and knees up, as would seem to be stated goal for the session of “intrinsic noting that it is nourished from the universe depicted in Figure 1. The practitioner movement of the neck muscles” and nurtures itself (Kaplan 1987). Hutchins would stand behind the client and do (Kramer 1985, 158). advises to “pay attention to working the general spreading work to the back. • Kaplan’s (1987) notes say that back core to the outside . . . the figure is seeking • Session two back work was done on the work in sessions eight and nine is unity with the universe, not isolation, and bench, with the client connecting from “whatever you need” with eight it seeks integration through the girdles. the floor through the back, generating being more structural and nine more The girdles are the middle ground through support from the ground and creating functional, with goals of connection which the core will find a unity with the length. This could be what the artist through the feet, length, ease, mobility. field in which we live” (Kramer 1985, 182). was depicting. The mid-1990s versions of the symbols Also, “This figure is stimulus. It is also for sessions eight and nine add arrows the field phenomenon in our discussion • Session three typically did not have of directionality that could convey of electromagnetic fields of the body. . . back work on the bench; rather, it was the connection through the feet and We see here right-angledness, and we see done with the client in a sidelying a more structural sense in “8” and horizontals as well as verticals. There are all posture. According to Kaplan, Hutchins functionality in “9”, but again without three axes; there is entry and exit from the said there was no such thing as third- really making the symbols a good body. This is getting oneself in agreement hour back work, while Melchior said fit as a representation of back work with the universe. Control is through the that if you needed to do work on the alone. Perhaps “8” is meant to convey top of the head, vitalization through the bench, you must have the client stay a lower session with girdle integration feet” (Kramer 1985, 178). upright to maintain the front-to-back and function through the legs, while relationship you have worked on “A Searcher’s Handbook” does not give a “9” expresses integration and function through the session. Perhaps this is symbol for session ten. A version attributed through both girdles, as would be what the symbol attempts to depict. to Hutchins (undated) is shown in Figure achieved when both sessions were 3, while Kaplan’s (1987) class notes from • Back work in session four gives the completed. This makes one wonder Hutchins show the same representation client access to his sit-bones, and is whether the artist for these figures with little lines coming off at angles all to create space in the lumbars and was aware of the earlier explication around the body, as if it is radiating energy balance length from inside (adductors, that the two images combined were (rather than the horizontal lines of the hamstrings). This would seem to be the representation of sessions eight mid-1990s figure). Hutchins (2013) states, what the artist is indicating. and nine. “The wavy line (to me) implies a core • Session-five back work is to balance • Session-ten back work, per Kaplan’s structure free from the girdles and with the psoas work. As the session has (1987) notes, is “whatever it takes to independent spinal motion.” A student’s created length in the front of the body, do the job.” The mid-1990s symbol notes from Hutchins’s class state that “the you don’t have the client roll forward, does not seem to be about back work Tenth hour integrates movement through but you may have him hinge from alone, but more about the horizontals the joints[,] enabling the body to stay in the sit-bones with an erect torso and one works to achieve (but depicted dynamic balance around the X, Y, Z axes, as activated psoas. Kaplan believes the only in the spine). it functions within the gravitational field. . . . symbol here shows the figure too far [It] completes the process of organizing forward, although the arrows in front Conclusion the body so that the gravity field supports of the body do indicate the anterior the body’s energy field” (Kaplan, various). It would seem that the mid-1990s figures length we are working to attain. added to and modified the earlier symbols Now to the later symbols. No one I contacted to make a complete series, but in doing was able to say what about the Ten Series so the creator most likely combined two

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 23 PRACTICE BUILDING different premises: symbols that represent ® session results (the purpose of the original The Myth of Rolfing SI symbology), and symbols that encode instructions for back work during the series. By Renae Bechthold In doing so, the artist made a representation Editor’s note: Business coach Renae Bechthold has imagined this dialogue with a Rolfer™ to for the Ten Series that is graphically highlight elements she deems necessary to building a strong Rolfing Structural Integration strong and intriguing (Figure 1), but (SI) practice. internally inconsistent. It would be an interesting exercise to Rolfer: What is the myth of Rolfing SI? foundational business, marketing, and sales modify the complete set into two forms, Why do you say it’s a myth? skills that you implement consistently and each internally consistent. The first would that are aligned with each other and your Renae Bechthold: The myth is not follow the earlier premise that the symbols purpose. exclusive to Rolfing SI, but is something distill the completed work of each session. perpetuated by many small business Rolfer: Whoa! You’re losing me now – I’m This would require modification of symbols owners, in particular, those providing not a salesperson, I hate sales, I never want one through six. A second set would personal services. to sell anything. That’s why I went into follow the (assumed) later premise that the bodywork. symbols represent back work, requiring Rolfer: So what is that myth? modification of the final four symbols. RB: I get it that you don’t like sales. I RB: Here’s the myth – and it has many These complete sets of symbols could then don’t know too many people who love variations, but I’ll phrase it this way: “If be more useful aids for visual learners. it. However, you cannot have a thriving I’m a good enough practitioner, I won’t have business without having a sales process. Anne Hoff is the Editor-in-Chief of this Journal, to sell or market myself and people will seek When someone says, “Yes, I want to do a and maintains a Rolfing practice in Seattle, WA. me out – that is, IF I’m good enough.” What Rolfing series with you,” and then writes She blogs about Rolfing SI and embodiment at happens when the typical Rolfer starts out you a check or pays with a card, that is a www.wholebodyintegration.com and can be in business and people don’t immediately sale. You didn’t realize it because you were emailed at [email protected]. flock to him – sometimes not even in not being “sales-y” and you were focused on the first few years of business? What do helping the potential client with a problem Endnote you think the Rolfer starts to think about and educating her on a solution. That is himself? 1. According to Jeff Linn (2013), in teaching how sales should be. In a personal-services “Peter and Emmett had two different Rolfer: That he must not be a good enough profession like Rolfing SI, sales are all about symbols [for the tenth hour, neither of practitioner. education. When given enough information which is shown here]. The symbol that about how Rolfing SI can help them, your RB: Precisely. And no one is around to Emmett gave us for the tenth hour in 1992 potential clients make the buying decision. tell him to “knock it off.” Building a great and in successive classes in the 90s was the You never have to “sell” them. Are you business really has nothing to do with symbol of what he called ‘the circle squared’ educating your clients in such a way that whether you are a great practitioner or (which is also the astrological symbol they can hear you and understand you in not. Plenty of average practitioners have for earth). Peter used a line with a spiral their own words? Your job, as a business built full practices and are making a really around it to represent the tenth hour. . . owner who delivers Rolfing SI, is to make good living. think ‘tornado with a line in it.’” that process, that system, so consistent Bibliography Rolfer: So what’s the secret? and so aligned that you can predict and project how many clients you’ll have over Hutchins, E. 2013. Personal communication RB: There is no secret, unless you also a given period of time. There are a few (email) with the author. think there’s a secret to learning the skill/ things you need to educate yourself about art of Rolfing SI. Is there a secret to learning to do that well. For example: Do you know Kaplan, A., various. Archival collection of Rolfing SI? class notes, including student notes from what motivates your prospective clients? a 1985 class with Peter Melchior and from Rolfer: Not really. To get better and Do you know what they want? Do you an undated class with Emmett Hutchins. better, you learn it, then practice it and know how to educate them? Do you know continuously apply it, while improving how to speak to them in a way that they Kaplan, A. 1987. Personal notes from classes your skill. understand how it applies to them? These with Emmett Hutchins and Peter Melchior. are skills you can train yourself to do. The RB: It’s just like that when building more you are aligned with your current Kaplan, A. 2013. Personal communication a business or a practice. Business is a clients and prospective ones, the more you (telephone) comparing the Ten Series learned skill, just like Rolfing SI. It takes are connected with them and the better symbols with his 1987 notes on back work. information, training, a system – “a recipe,” they can actually hear what you are saying. Kramer, C. 1985. “A Searcher’s Handbook” practice, and another ingredient I like to Other business systems and structures are – unpublished manuscript of notes from a call “universal alignment.” The myth is crucial to have in place if you want to create Rolfing class with Emmett Hutchins; passed in thinking that Rolfing SI is all you need a thriving business. hand to hand in the Rolfing community. to know in order to make a great living financially. You can make a good living as Rolfer: Are you saying I need to go back Linn, J. 2013. Personal communication a Rolfer, if you also combine it with sound, and get a business degree just to have my (email) with the author. business be successful?

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RB: No. Absolutely, not. Most business clients put this structure into place or I Rolfer: I’m starting to see what you mean. schools are designed to educate people won’t work with them. What can I begin to do about it? on management skills so that they that Rolfer: Really? Most Rolfers I know have RB: Realize that what is required to grow can be hired into larger companies with a and keep a schedule. a Rolfing practice doesn’t take ten years to management team. As an entrepreneur, you achieve. Because the structures I’ve been can learn these skills and get really good RB: Probably for clients and client treatment discussing are so simple, people tend to at them without going into the academic times. However, I bet many of them let the ignore them while waiting or looking for world. client dictate when the practitioner will the “real” secret – something so esoteric work on them, not the other way around. Rolfer: How do I do that? Specifically, and intellectual it would take your breath Plus, most likely there’s no time scheduled what kind of skills do you mean? away. Now that’s magical thinking. That for consistently working on developing and doesn’t exist. It’s the simple, the basic, the RB: First, create a game plan on paper. growing the business, only a hope that they foundational stuff that everybody ignores Avoid running your business by the seat are good enough so that their current clients that will actually grow your practice in a of your pants. I’m sure most Rolfers don’t will refer them to others. I never heard of short time – if you are patient and persistent. take that approach when working on “hope” growing a thriving business. It usually takes less than two years, if you their clients, but I see they tend to be a bit Rolfer: Can you give me some concrete have the right guidance or get the proper scattered in their business domain. One examples of these basic principles? business coaching in systems, structures, aspect of that is that they usually don’t mindset, and energetic alignment for these have their business goals and plans worked RB: Sure. A Rolfer who sets a goal of kinds of businesses. Earlier, you asked me out on paper to see if they have merit and if making $8,400 a month and charges an if there was a secret. The answer is simple, those plans will actually get them the results average of $120 per session would need but it is not always easy because most of us they want. If you have a habit of keeping about seventy clients per month to reach lack discipline. I have a lot of faith, however, your goals in your head, it’s not very likely that goal. Let’s say there are twenty-two in the quality of person that is drawn to the that you will ever consistently generate days in the month to work, that’s about 3.2 Rolfing profession. I’ve worked with quite a six-figure practice. That approach just clients per day. So let’s make this easy and a few Rolfers now and I really “get” the doesn’t have enough clarity behind it. To say you have five business days and four level of commitment and heart the average start, write down a good solid plan of action hours scheduled each day to see clients. You Rolfer has for her work and clients. Here’s complete with written, attainable goals, now have a structure within which $8,400 a the “secret”: consistently implement basic completion dates, and milestones. month can happen. Your calendar has very structures and systems along with the specific blocks marked off for scheduling Rolfer: Should I hire someone to help me qualities of focus, attention, intentionality, clients and, just as important, the number write a formal business plan? persistence, and consistency. Educate of blocks in the calendar matches the stated yourself in these basic practice structures RB: If you are already in practice and don’t goal. Without this alignment and clarity, and gain some training in the key areas that need capital to start your business, then you struggle ensues. In the above example, will grow and develop your business. That’s don’t really need a formal business plan. For you have clarity on several things you what I help Rolfers do. I advocate following the most part, their purpose is to convince a didn’t have before you started: 1) you have a good business coaching program that financier/banker that you and your business some flat numbers; 2) you know what and focuses on performance and results and are a good risk. Everyone who has come when to block into your schedule; and 3) keeps you focused. to me with a really well-written business you have a road map to earn $8,400 each plan ahead of time has never actually month. Don’t mess it up with emotionality Rolfer: What’s the difference between followed their plan or known how to put or disempowering beliefs or lack of self- a coaching program and other books it into effect. You require a basic business worth. Those things don’t belong in a or online services that sell marketing plan with basic foundational structures and business action plan. Another critical time programs or practice-building courses? systems. You can get better business results management structure that is missing for RB: A lot of really good information and if you just start with a simple set of actions most practitioners is blocking off time in knowledge is available, but information that you know how to take consistently their schedules to work on their business, and knowledge aren’t enough. Practicing and have them mapped out on a calendar not just on clients. Another eight hours the right actions is critical. Can you learn or a time line. I call this an “action plan.” per week, at least, should be devoted to how to be a great Rolfer by reading Ida Another approach that I’ve seen literally specific business functions such as practice Rolf’s book? Coaches help you improve turn practices around is having the owner management, finance, marketing, and sales. your performance exponentially. I’ve never create and live by a calendar schedule that Block these functions into specific days and heard of an Olympic athlete competing states when he will see clients, when he time slots or you won’t do them regularly. without a coach. Gaining some facility will work on growing his business, what Taking action consistently across time when around business skills is no different. Most he will prioritize, and how he’ll manage his it comes to the growth of your business is a business owners or executives who excel time. It’s like a mini-miracle structure. Most hugely important habit to develop. Just like and are known to have had very thriving people lack the discipline to do something you wouldn’t flake on an appointment with profitable companies usually had a mentor so simple and basic. I’ve seen it happen over a client, don’t flake on these very important or coach of some kind. It’s taking consistent and over again – having a more structured appointments with yourself when it comes action and having consistent focus over time calendar can turn a floundering practice to focusing on marketing, financial, and that produces really outstanding results. into one that is growing. I insist that my other business systems. The kind of business coaching I advocate

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 25 PRACTICE BUILDING comes from enlightened principles and different perspective on how to do business. professionals. Her programs and coaching style foundations. “Business” doesn’t have That’s what makes it easier and more fun. create an environment where owners can grow to be a dirty word. You can truly make their bodywork businesses beyond what they Renae Bechthold is a professional business coach a profound difference for others and be thought was possible. Contact her at http:// with thirty years of business-building expertise. prosperous yourself. Being aligned with metromassage.net or 1-877-239-0340. She is the author of several ebooks on various higher universal principles of integrity and topics of business growth for holistic-health purpose and service give you a completely

time and money targeting “everyone.” Be More Specific Billboard ads along a freeway would be a huge waste for most Rolfers, but some well-placed postcards at a yoga studio, a and Get More Clients well-optimized website, and a few referrals from a business networking group can go a By Matt Hsu, Certified Rolfer™ long way towards launching your practice to the next level. When I moved to San Diego in 2009, I started would actually want to work with. This going to business networking meetings. In clarity makes it easy for her to refer people If you’re interested in finding a networking pretty much any U.S. city (and I presume to you. If she’s thinking of anonymous group in your area, try looking up a abroad as well), you will find groups of masses because of your answer, your Business Networking International chapter business people looking to meet other answer isn’t doing its job. or a business-oriented Meetup Group on business people on a regular basis to develop Meetup.com. You may worry that being Now, how about this answer: “Rolfing SI mutually beneficial relationships. I’m not the specific limits your reach, but a few actual is great for golfers who have chronic back kind of guy who generally likes walking into clients are better than lots of potential pain and want to improve their stroke a large room of strangers, but I was new in clients who still have the vague and mechanics.” What is the friendly insurance town and figured it was something I could unsettling notion that you throw up on broker visualizing now? Her grumpy do to help establish my practice in Rolfing® people with back pain. Remember, clarity husband who spent the whole weekend Structural Integration (SI). Once I got into makes action easier. complaining about his back and how high the swing of things, the experience turned his handicap is getting lately? Her coworker Matt Hsu is a Certified Rolfer™ with a love-hate out quite positively, and I learned a valuable who is always fidgeting in his chair and relationship with technology. He runs the blog lesson that is useful not just for these kinds popping ibuprofen? Those are two real at www.websites4rolfers.com where he shares of networking meetings but also for your people that she wants to help (hopefully), technology-based practice-building tips for practice as a whole. and now the solution is standing in front Rolfers. He is a co-teacher for Seeing Made Easy, Now, let’s say you’ve taken the plunge, and of her (you!). That’s a win-win situation a body-reading class for structural integrators, you’re at one of these meetings, and you’ve for both of you, and that’s what business and has been certified as an NASM Corrective found a friendly face. She’s an insurance networking is about. Even if she can’t think Exercise Specialist and an Egoscue Posture broker, and you tell her you’re a Rolfer of anyone at that moment, she has in her head Alignment Specialist. In his free time, he enjoys (though this is generally not an optimal that you are someone who can help golfers exploring and expanding his movement abilities way to introduce yourself). You politely in pain. She may be meeting with a golfer by having pucks shot at and around him. chuckle through the customary jokes about later that afternoon with a limp and guess vomiting, and then your acquaintance asks: who will come to mind? “So who are Rolfing sessions good for?” You don’t always have to be this precise, What is your answer? Think about it but you do have to be more specific than for second. Maybe you didn’t need a “everyone.” You can always tweak your second? In your head, were you screaming answer based on your audience and the “Everyone!”? That’s great. It means you’re situation, and it’s probably a good idea enthusiastic! However it’s the worst answer to work out a few ideas in your head to you can give. What kind of image does use whenever you’re out and about. Just “everyone” bring to this friendly insurance make sure you don’t get too specific for broker’s mind? A huge anonymous mass your geographic and demographic area of people, or maybe just a mass of nothing. (e.g., “Rolfing SI is good for Hungarian Neither image is particularly helpful. homeopathic dentists with gouty right toes” You’re at a networking event. She’s asking would be a terrible answer for my area, you because she wants to understand your though perhaps great for the right dental business and how she can refer people to convention.). you. You want a more useful answer – one Being specific is also important for your that helps her to help you. Your response general marketing materials. Don’t waste should make her think of someone you

26 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING

in your practice that you can infuse with Generosity and Delight As generosity and delight in order to grow your practice and your long term referral base: Generosity: Operating from a place Practice-Building Strategies of worthiness and “enough-ness” so By Brooke Thomas, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ that all things are created and added to from a place of open-palmed It is so easy to get obsessed with marketing integral pieces to getting it right: processes, giving. Taken from the Wikipedia tricks these days and to believe that we need trust, and collaboration. definition, generosity “includes to master every new shiny technological the individual’s pure intentions of But before we do that, let’s talk about what advance in order to stay current and to looking out for society’s common generosity and delight are not – because we grow our practices. We begin to panic and good and giving from the heart.” in the holistic health field love to define those try to hurry up and master all the fancy For our purposes, I would add that things in terms that undersell ourselves. Yes, new stuff that is out there. However, I can this happens in a way that benefits the I’m talking about the ubiquitous discount. guarantee you that your practice isn’t slow greater good for all parties involved. By far the most common practice-building because you have yet to reach 3,000 Twitter strategy that I see people trying is giving Delight: Infusing things with an followers, to make your Yelp page, to run a a discount on services. This is unfortunate unexpected specialness that both set of Facebook or Google ads, or any other since it always proves itself to be the least benefits people and surprises number of online activities. effective strategy. In certain situations – them by going above and beyond. I am not saying that I think any of that is and when done very rarely and for a very This extra oomph that you give to useless; far from it. I myself maintain a blog, short period of time – it can be an effective things brings pleasure and joy to a Facebook page, and a Yelp page just for strategy to discount services provided the recipient. starters. I’ve also taken part in a myriad you have exceptionally clear intention To ground these definitions in some of other online practice-building activities and boundaries. But, more often than not tangible examples, we can now look at how from Groupon® to Twitter to ebooks, etc. it has a negative effect. Generally when they can be put to use in your processes, But what I’ve found is that these new tools you discount your work, you are telling trust-building, and collaboration strategies are amplifiers. They will take whatever it is yourself and your potential clients that you as practice-building activities. that is happening on the ground in your are worth less (worthless). [A sad but true real world practice and expand that. To be fact in a culture that has been trained to Looking first at processes, these are the more clear, your online practice building view marketing messages (of which we all nitty-gritty details related to our day-to- will magnify two things. First, if you see thousands per day) with both extreme day operations in our offices – things like were to anonymously poll the last fifty savvy and trepidation. All of those “free!” intake forms, how we welcome new clients, clients you saw and get their honest, no- and “cheap!” offers that disappointed returning phone calls and emails, and how holds-barred feedback on their experience people in the past are rattling around in their we set up our offices. Processes can seem working with you, that information is memories, and you will get lumped in with so undeniably boring that we often pretend what will be conveyed through any tech them even if it’s not deserved.] they don’t exist and do them by whatever channel you choose to work with. And rote method we set up when our practices It is incredibly common to think that giving, second, all of these tools will simply make began. I invite you to redefine the term or generosity, needs to happen in a way it easier for you to serve your people in the processes from “the boring/meaningless that removes something from us. But I best way possible. But remember, they are day-to-day details of my practice” to “an would argue (strongly) that this is “scarcity tools, they are not the whole story. It’s the opportunity to show the world how I do mindset” at play. When you believe that you tangible serving of people that still makes things here.” have to take something away from yourself the foundation of the house, and it is only – your full fee – in order to give to someone The little details are indeed how people learn in being attentive to that foundation that else, you are believing that there is a limited what you are all about; they are therefore the your practice will grow and thrive. Think supply of giving. In reality, true generosity first touch-point you can use to show people about Dr. Rolf’s love for session two of the is generous to all parties involved. It should that you aren’t just another holistic health Ten Series. She knew that if you didn’t get be a win-win situation. As Brené Brown said practitioner, but are indeed extraordinary. some good stuff going on in someone’s feet, in her beautiful book Daring Greatly, “The People return to and talk about things that it was going to be very hard to get good stuff greatest casualties of a scarcity culture are are extraordinary. You have to believe and going on in his spine. Same deal here. This is our willingness to own our vulnerabilities behave as if what you are offering to people the “session two” of Practice Building, and and our ability to engage with the world from is so amazing that they will be delighted to without it, all else is at worst meaningless, a place of worthiness” [italics added]. So let’s discover it. If not, why are you doing the and at best an uphill battle. use the ideas that follow in this article to work you do? As Jim Jantsch says in his All that said, in this article I would like turn up the volume on worthiness. excellent book The Referral Engine, “If you to tackle the dynamic duo that I believe don’t feel strongly enough about the value Now that we’re clear what we are not talking to be the fastest and most effective ways you or your products deliver to expect that about, let’s briefly define “generosity” and of growing a practice; that duo being your clients will voluntarily make an effort “delight” as I’m using them here, then we generosity and delight. We will take apart to see that others receive it, then there is little can move on to looking at the three areas those terms and look at three specific and chance that you will ever come to depend

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 27 PRACTICE BUILDING on a consistent flow of referrals. Expecting they can download, one that briefly a system like that that you use, you can referrals is not about you; it’s about getting discusses what’s next, what post-Ten always just host a quarterly meet up the customer what’s possible. Find a way to work looks like. where people can come and chat with detach yourself from any personal feelings you about whatever is on their minds • Make the process of becoming a new of pride or self-doubt and get to work on related to their bodies and the series (or client incredibly easy for people. creating a brilliant system that’s focused on this can happen online in a webinar so Things like how quickly you return getting results for your customers.” people don’t have to leave their homes phone calls and emails, having online and/or can tune in later). Now about that system (otherwise known booking available, and having online as your processes), here are just a few intake forms make an enormous Next we’ll look at trust – a rare and examples of ways you can surprise and difference in how people experience cherished resource in the world these days, delight your clients through your processes. you, and therefore how people make a so when it’s found people flock to it and I will give you resources to make all of these determination about your value. Don’t talk it up to their loved ones. To get a taste things in the “Resources” section at the end disregard the simple stuff! Review all of of this, just go on Yelp.com and look up of the article. the steps someone needs to take to get to auto mechanics in your area. Mechanics are her first session with you and see if you one of those professions, like car salesmen, • Every time a new client commits to a can’t make those steps easier, tidier, and that has earned low trust in many people’s Ten Series, give them a “welcome to more delightful for people. Note that eyes. On Yelp, you can watch a community the Ten series” gift. It could be a book one of the biggest first steps most people passionately pointing out the mechanics of quotes from Ida Rolf or testimonials will have is encountering your website, who have earned their trust. from your clients, a book or brochure so make sure it’s design friendly, user with photographs of people before As Rolfers, we work in a high intimacy field. friendly, clear, and informative. As and after the series (these need not be People are putting their bodies and their another example, I regularly have your own, they can simply be pulled health in our hands, literally. This means that people tell me what a lifesaver my from available media shots from the people must have a lot of trust in us in order online booking (on my website) has Rolf Institute®), a book or ebook that to show up at our offices at all, and certainly been for them. In this day and age you create that compiles media articles to return. So if you can amplify that trust where most people have atypical and on Rolfing® Structural Integration, a beyond simply being an ethical and non- overly busy schedules, things like printed book that you have created creepy practitioner, your clients will go out having easy online booking available on what to expect in each session, or of their way to spread the word about you. can dramatically impact your client simply a postcard that points them numbers. It’s hopping online to click As an example of using generosity and to a page on your website where they a couple of buttons and book versus delight to enhance trust in your practice, be can download an ebook that you taking a deep breath and committing sure that your clients know that in hiring have created which they can follow to a game of phone and schedule tag. you, they are hiring you as their Rolfing along in as they go through their practitioner and as an unbiased person sessions. Why not make this ebook • Look at your office through the eyes committed to seeing them get well. The part description (of each session) and of a new client. There are so many unbiased part is important. Spelling it out part journal (blank space where your things that become invisible to us starkly, it means you are not biased towards client can fill in her experience after when we’re in that room all day that being the person who will “fix” them, and each session)? Additionally, if you won’t be invisible to the client. With you are not biased towards taking payment have any self-care tools that you teach a simple glance clients will see those every week regardless of whether they are people to use in your practice (for three empty shea butter containers making progress or not. Clients assume example I frequently show people self on your desk, that overflowing and that when they hire someone for a specific myofascial-release work on Yoga Tune falling-apart laundry basket in the issue, whether knee pain or a leaky roof, it Up® therapy balls), also include those corner, and the total lack of an obvious is the other party’s job to a) fix the problem in your welcome gift. Be sure to be place to settle in and hang clothes and and b) take their money. So what if there is attentive to the details here. Handing coat, and those things will signal that a snag with fixing the problem? What if you someone a brochure is very different your practice is half-hearted. Scan your work on that knee and you discover that than giving them a lovely wrapped office to see what changes you need the ligaments have no integrity? If you’re gift. Infuse it with specialness, don’t to make for your clients to deem it a like me, you’re going to give the client a just half-heartedly chuck them some whole-hearted practice. referral for a prolotherapist, acupuncturist, extra reading materials that you have • Create an event for your clients that and orthopedist. Who knows which of those lying around. adds benefit to their work with you people will get the integrity back in the • When a client completes a Ten Series, and for which you don’t charge extra. ligaments, but you identified that the client send a handwritten “graduation” card As I mentioned earlier, I teach a lot of needed to see you for Rolfing SI only after to his physical address. It has become self myofasical-release work, so I have he sorted out an issue better served with so rare to receive a handwritten card considered holding a quarterly “Free different work. Sending clients away will that they have a meaningful quality for the Fascia!” party where people come bring you more clients. As an example, I most people. You can even take it up a and take a group class on how to use frequently refer to an amazing osteopath notch by including in the graduation therapy balls to get more benefit out of when I am scratching my head over a card a link to yet another ebook their Rolfing SI work. If you don’t have client who isn’t responding. Often she does

28 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING get those people’s issues resolved, but the run towards freedom.” Here are some ways communities’ top holistic providers, funny thing is that the clients I refer remain you can generously collaborate your way to each giving his or her take on how best passionate supporters, referring to both the a full practice: to address it. You write on structural osteopath and me. The trust I build with integration, the naturopath or personal • Let’s say there is a group of practitioners them by knowing when to refer out and chef writes on an anti-inflammatory in your community who you are sending them to the right place has earned diet, the acupuncturist writes on how always hearing good things about their loyalty. Everybody wins! Chinese medicine views the issue, and whose radar you would love etc. Once you have it completed, all Another important piece to building trust to be on so that they could refer to participating practitioners can offer with clients is following up. I would argue you. Instead of contacting them and it as a free or paid download on their that in our overly busy, over-stimulated proposing a networking meet up, websites, so that it becomes a local contemporary culture, people feel more propose a monthly soup club where resource that is more widespread. and more alone, disregarded, and unseen. one member hosts each month and you This is particularly true within the current chat about whatever’s on your mind In conclusion, embracing a generous and allopathic medical establishment. But here in your practices as a way of helping delight-full practice-building strategy is the good news: your clients took a detour one another out of what can often be should take much of the drudgery out out of allopathic care and found their the loneliness of private practice. Or of getting the word out about your work way to you! So why not show them how perhaps you make it a monthly body and can often send you into new and you’re different by making them feel seen nerd meet up where one member unexpected adventures, not to mention and heard. Other than being attentive in gives a brief talk each time about what a very busy practice. As you infuse your sessions, a nice way to do this is to follow up they’re currently fascinated by in the practice with more generosity and delight, with them from time to time via email. As human body. Creating a themed reason you will often find these qualities in your our much-too-much culture has created the to hang out is certainly more genuine life much more often as well. I will close by chronically overflowing email inbox, don’t and compelling than handing out yet going back to quote Altucher’s article again, overdo it, but reaching out on occasion to another business card. for he says it much more eloquently than send a personalized and relevant email I can: “Become a beacon of enhancement • Create a blog or website that compiles asking a client how she is since her last and then, when the night is gray, all of the posts from all the holistic people in session (with no mention of booking with boats will move towards you, bringing their your town. In this way it becomes an you again – this is about making her feel bountiful riches.” aggregate of what’s going on in the attended to, not sold to) can do a world of holistic health community local to you, good for trust-building. A colleague who Resources which will make it a much more widely made this a regular part of her practice said used resource than if it were just for Ebooks: To make a book or ebook, I hire that an unexpected side effect was receiving your practice. The effect is that you are a designer to lay it out and make it a stunning testimonials back from the people growing traffic for everyone, and as snazzy PDF. You can do the same, or you she contacted. (Of course, ask your clients the creator and host of this community can check out the printed book and ebook for permission to put the testimonials in you are certainly given top-dog status. creation options at www.lulu.com and your marketing materials.) Is it a bunch of extra work? Yes! A lot www.blurb.com I saved my favorite for last: collaboration. If of it! But if that seems naturally fun Online booking: I use Google’s free you want to grow your practice like wildfire, and compelling to you, the side effect and easy option, www.youcanbook.me. fall in love with collaborating. When we are of taking it on will be a much busier Another good option is www.fullslate.com/. trying to grow our referral network, most of private practice for you. us look around at all the thriving and like- Online intake forms: These can be easily • If you already maintain a website or minded businesses in our communities and created at www.wufoo.com blog, interview other practitioners in think, “How can I get them to refer to me?” your town to both highlight them and Websites and blogs: To make sure your If you instead ask, “I wonder what we could to have them add even more value to website is wowing your potential and all build together?”, or simply “How could your clients. For example, is there a current clients, and to keep it from being I contribute to what they’re up to?”, it takes healthy personal chef or a naturopath a pain to update or overly pricey, either on a much more light-hearted, playful, and who talks about clean eating a lot? Have create a site at www.squarespace.com, or indeed delightful feeling. In what is one of him contribute to your blog a piece on make a Wordpress site (my favorite option my favorite articles of the year so far, “10 eating for chronic pain. Your clients and the most flexible one).You can visit Reasons Why 2013 Will Be the Year You will benefit from a new perspective on www.wordpress.org to get started and Quit Your Job” (online at www.techcrunch. what they are working to resolve, the www.woothemes.com to grab a beautiful com), James Altucher writes about his own other practitioner will be honored to be template that can be powered by Wordpress. process around collaboration: “It starts the featured, and you make your website a moment I wake up: ‘Who can I help today?’ Brooke Thomas has practices in New York, NY more valuable resource for everyone. I ask the darkness when I open my eyes. and New Haven, CT. She also runs the practice- ‘Who would you have me help today?’ • You could also collaborate on a project building course and community Practice I’m a secret agent and I’m waiting for my with other practitioners, like creating Abundance at www.practiceabundancecourse. mission. Ready to receive. This is how you an ebook on resolving chronic pain com. It’s the marketing-phobe’s guide to take baby steps. This is how eventually you that has chapters written by your local growing a thriving wellness practice!

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SI – and they miss out on the work that How to be Found Online could change their lives. Now my new clients – 60% of them What You Need to Know About Websites and SEO find me online – come in after typing By Lu Mueller-Kaul, Certified Rolfer™, Rolf Movement® Practitioner search keywords like assisted stretching, neuromuscular therapy, and acupuncture for back pain. The first time they ever hear not bodywork, but people who search for Introduction about Rolfing SI is on my website. Potential “deep bodywork in X-Town” want you. clients don’t know quite what they want, so Marketing has changed in the past ten They just don’t know it yet. This is where don’t hesitate to use the keyword massage. years – so much and so rapidly that former search engine optimization (SEO) – the most Because so many people are familiar with experts have no use of their vast experience important marketing today – comes in. any longer. It used to be the company the massage industry in general, you should reaching out to prospective clients, trying Understanding SEO be able to rank well for massage x-town or to get its information, logo, and an attractive at least for your ZIP Code™. SEO means creating and improving your offer in front of as many people as possible, website so it can be easily found by Getting It Done hoping that some might follow the “call-to- Google™, Yahoo!®, Bing™, and other search action” and pick up the phone or visit the Ready to take the first step toward allowing engines. (Below, I will stick to writing location. Now the prospect is reaching out, your future clients to find you online? The “Google” when I mean search engines in trying to find information. Marketing now next section will guide you through the general; 70% of all internet searches in the is about making sure that when somebody key aspects of an optimized web presence. U.S. are done on Google, and in the U.K. is looking for us, we’re being found. The it’s around 90%.) All search engines use a Set Up a Website and/or Blog biggest mistake that I see Rolfers make in ranking system to determine what tops the their marketing is that their ads talk only You need a place that you can control on list of search results, and they primarily about Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) the Internet, where you can add the content use keywords (what you type into the search . . . as do their websites and their profiles that will allow Google to help people find window) to retrieve the information. The on social media. Most people don’t even you. Make sure that you can make changes SEO process optimizes your website for know they need a Rolfer, so part of being to your website and add new pages easily. keyword searches. found is discovering what somebody might If you don’t have a website, or it’s one that be looking for in their search. [I do get the The idea is to use SEO to move your site you can’t change without paying your occasional client who found me on rolf.org, up in the rankings of search results. You’ve webmaster, make a blog (wordpress.org and those are my favorites: they already seen endless spam emails that promise to makes that easy) or ask your webmaster know they want Rolfing SI, so I don’t need get you on page one on Google, and you to add a blog to your site. Just make to explain much. But those are too rare. know from your own searches that you sure that you can set up new pages and They don’t pay the rent.] This article shows hardly ever go to the second page of search make changes to them as you please. It’s you how you can be found online easily by results. So you have to make sure your site important to update your site or blog often spending time on your website and general shows up on page one for keywords that because search engines want to have recent online presence. can get people interested in Rolfing SI. information. At least once per week make some little changes, post a picture, change Like all therapeutic professionals, Rolfers In essence, a high rank in search results is the words, or add information. If you don’t have a hard time marketing themselves. given to pages that explain the keyword, like technology, learn it anyway – there are When faced with difficulties, we make and focus on the keyword. There is a lot many free tutorials, videos, and podcasts excuses: “It’s all word-of-mouth anyway” more that influences ranking, and that’s available. As a business owner today, you or “In my area people don’t know about what SEO experts work with (or claim have to know how to update your website. Rolfing SI, so it’s been slow building a to). Fortunately Google gets smarter all If you really don’t want to, hire somebody. business.” We do our best to educate the time, and cheap SEO tricks and scams people about Rolfing SI, perhaps by giving get penalized with low ranks. That’s good As an example of a web presence that demonstrations. It’s important to get the news for us, since we’re no experts – all we was inexpensive to produce that still word out, and meeting people face-to-face have to do is write good content, which I’ll gives good results in searches, look at is a necessity, but it’s a frustratingly slow detail later. my blog – www.balanceorlando.com/ way to build a clientele, and it only works Lu. My website www.balanceorlando. Now you’ll probably say what I said three with people who have heard about Rolfing com is an example of a more expensive years ago: “My website is optimized! If I SI and are already curious. If you saw in design. If you’re looking for decently search for Rolfing SI, I’m right there, on the newspaper that somebody was giving priced professional help, I recommend page one!” That’s great, and that will get a talk about “Kauling,” and it seemed to be www.CT-Social.com, they’ve been extremely you found by people who know about health-related, and supposedly good for helpful for my site. Our colleague Matt Hsu Rolfing SI. But what about the people who you, good for everybody, would you go? can also build you a beautiful design; see want bodywork who don’t type “Rolfing Probably not, unless you’d heard the term www.websites4rolfers.com. X-Town” in the search bar? If you’re not before. Investing in your website is a better optimized, you’ll miss out on the majority As you build your site you’ll need the usual approach than paying for newspaper ads. of people who have never heard of Rolfing pages that explain who you are, what your People who read the paper want the news, business is about, what Rolfing SI is and

30 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING how it can help people, and how you price centered form of bodywork that by Google, and the link from rolf.org to your sessions. Look up other Rolfers and utilizes movement education in your website or blog is good for your own see what they have, but don’t copy and combination with deep-tissue ranking. And as you understand now, if you paste – not only is it unethical, it can hurt strokes. are using my content as a source, your link your search ranking. Please don’t think to my site is good for both of us, and a nice You can still point out later in the entry that posting your rates will discourage “thank you” for me. that Rolfing SI is not a massage technique, readers from calling – it’s the opposite. but a holistic system. Remember, first you Your prospective clients want to know what Conclusion need to get people’s attention – people to expect. who don’t know to look for “Rolfing SI” in These four steps will give you a good start Make a List of Keywords their searches. Many prospects have had in SEO. If you search for blogs and articles a great experience with a well-educated about SEO online, you’ll find a lot more Now get more specific, identifying massage therapist, and now they’re trying information about what you can do yourself keywords that your prospects might type to find another. If you don’t use the word – or about the experts you might want to in a search window. You want to make “massage,” they may never find you! hire. Let me and the Journal’s Editor-in- sure you get found when somebody uses Chief know if you’re interested in follow-up them. Ask your friends and family what In your search for content, do not copy articles on social media, especially Twitter they would type into a search 1) if they had and paste verbatim – it will be penalized. and Google+. I can be reached for questions chronic muscle pain; 2) if they wanted to Search engines are looking for original at [email protected]. Please let me improve their performance as athletes; and content, so if the same paragraph shows know how you’re doing; I love getting 3) if they were concerned about posture and up on different sites, the ranking goes feedback! aging gracefully. Here’s some ideas: back down. Feel free to look around my site pain, therapy for chronic pain, posture www.balanceorlando.com and use what stretching, neuromuscular massage, you like for inspiration – just make sure that trigger point massage, help for stiff back, you reword it, and please mention my site posture therapy, myofascial massage, as a source (see the section on links below). myofascial release. You can also use terms If you are uncomfortable with writing your like acupuncture and chiropractic (see own blog or website copy, you can hire a next section). You can find more keywords copywriter (feel free to contact me for a through online tools like Google AdWords’ referral to one who has experience with Keyword Planner. Just start by typing in Rolfing SI-related topics). something simple, like massage therapy Links and it will bring up related terms that are often used in searches. Search engines love links – they are the “word-of-mouth” of the internet. If another Write Good Content bodywork-themed site is linking to yours, Content is the most important factor in Google adds points for your site, and search-engine ranking, and it is what I focus considers you influential on the topic of on, even though other factors also improve bodywork. A link to your site on a page that search results. Good content is achieved sells jewelry is still better than nothing, but primarily by writing relevant content to not as helpful as a link from Massage Today, match the keywords. The title of the web for example. SEO experts (and many who page or blog post should include the call themselves experts to deceive you) also keyword, and they should show up again try to get other sites to link to your site. In Memoriam in the first few sentences. You can still write Have you ever gotten emails that ask you about Rolfing SI – just include your other to put links to their sites on your site? That’s Structural Integration: The Journal of ® keyword. For example, your titles could somebody working on SEO. On your own the Rolf Institute notes the passing be “Is Rolfing SI the Same As Myofascial site, you can toot your horn all day long, but of the following member of our community Release?”, “Rolfing SI and Acupuncture”, if someone else recommends you, it has a : and “How Rolfing SI Improved my Yoga lot more value for ranking. Gerry Allard, Certified Advanced Practice” for keywords myofascial release, Rolfer™ A good way to get links to your pages is acupuncture, and yoga. social-media engagement. By posting on Also mention your location often! For Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, example, with the content below you get Google+ and other sites, you get your links search results if people type in deep tissue in front of people. And by being supportive massage x-town, or deep tissue x-town. of their posts – by seeing the “social” in social media – you’ll get those people to Are you looking for a deep form use your links, which will improve your of massage in x-town? Have you ranking on Google. And of course, you heard about Rolfing Structural should keep your listing on rolf.org. The Integration? It is an alignment- Rolf Institute® site is very well ranked

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People warned me about the loss of control Controversial Marketing: over my message when using Groupon, but I found the collaboration highly functional. ® I was clear about trademark rules, and Wrestling with Groupon when asked for information to use in an ad, I simply directed the company to my By Jazmine Fox-Stern, Certified Rolfer™ website. Groupon came up with an ad that I thought was accurate, inviting, and funny. Context The Contract I could never have done that on my own. I Like most Rolfers, I was not drawn to this Groupon’s primary business model is to was also allowed to make a last edit before career out of an entrepreneurial spirit. email a daily local deal to its thousands it was published to ensure that there would The decisions involved in managing of subscribers (more than 200,000 in the be no misrepresentation. and marketing a business invited nearly Boston area). Subscribers have a limited Since my contract with Groupon ended paralyzing anxiety. If I could have graduated amount of time (usually one to four days) December 27, 2012, customers are no longer ® from the Rolf Institute and found a job as a to purchase the deal coupon through the able to use the “promotional value” of the Rolfer at somebody else’s practice, I would Groupon website. The coupon can be coupon they purchased. Most customers have done it. If all I had to do was show up used in electronic form on a smart phone ignore these expired coupons, but they are and practice the Ten Series on ten to twenty or tablet, or be printed out. At the time of contractually allowed redeem the coupon clients each week, I would gladly have service, the “merchant” (the business that is for the amount paid. For example, people earned a mere third of the going rate for offering the deal, delivering the goods and paid $69 for a coupon, redeemable for a Rolfers. If such jobs did exist, I was unable services that Groupon advertises) enters single Rolfing session with me, which is to find them. the redemption code off the coupon on the usually priced at $140. That coupon has Groupon-merchant website, so that that After completing my basic training in July now expired, but there are still thirty-one coupon won’t be used again or refunded 2010, I spent fourteen months trying to find people out there somewhere who could by Groupon. If the client has the Groupon clients in Boulder, Colorado. Although the claim a $69 credit at my business, which app, the coupon can also be redeemed on quality of my work pleased clients, my means they could get a Rolfing session by the client’s smart phone with two button busiest weeks had only six appointments, paying me $71 at the time of service. There clicks, no typing necessary. most had only one or two, and the numbers are also thirty people who purchased three were not growing. This schedule sapped Groupon has a standard contract for sessions at $189 who have not redeemed my confidence and left me in debt. When merchants: customers buy your service at their coupons. So far, only one person my sweetheart’s career led us to the Boston half or more off; Groupon takes half of that called to ask whether she could still redeem area, I was excited for the opportunities of a money, and also subtracts the credit card her expired coupon for three sessions. I bigger city. Even so, I would be starting out fees for all the sales out of your portion. explained that the contract would have me with no connections, minimal confidence, One day after the deal offer expires, the offer her one session plus another at half and no money to invest in advertising – all company calculates how much your deal off, but that I would let her redeem the in a city with high rent and few people who has brought in and sends you 33%. Another coupon for two sessions. She responded had heard the word “bodywork,” much less 33% is sent a month later, and the final with gratitude and relief and is planning Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI). 34%, minus any refund deductions is sent to complete the rest of a Ten Series at my a month after that. (The refund deductions regular rate. As of the writing of this article, Into this context entered Groupon. A is “an amount two times the total value the date of her third appointment has yet representative called me a few weeks of all refunds actually paid by Groupon to take place, so such plans are far from after I registered my business in Boston. prior to the Third Payment Date.”) If any guarantees. Even so, I feel good about this For no initial investment, the company of the reserved money remains after the offer, as part of the incalculable marketing would design a descriptive ad for me agreement expires, you are sent another value of my Groupon experience is to get and put it into the phones and inboxes of payment. If, on the other hand, more many people in my community to know tens of thousands of locals. The prospect customers get refunded than the amount about Rolfing SI, about me, and to have that I would receive a third of my share of money reserved, Groupon covers the something positive to say about both. of the sales a week after the promotion costs. In my case, for example, in the first was announced gave me the security of Drawbacks of Using two months after my deal was advertised, knowing I could pay my rent. The deal one person who bought a $69 coupon Groupon and Similar could also boost traffic to my website, raise got a refund from Groupon rather than Marketing Strategies my Google™ search rating, and give me redeeming the coupon. Therefore, Groupon additional opportunities to demonstrate There is an argument that heavy discounts took $138 out of my final 34% payment. If no the value of my work to clients who might lower the perceived value of a service. one else had requested a refund, Groupon continue at full price and perhaps make Once the work has been cheapened, other would have mailed me $69 at the end of the referrals. For these benefits, I was happy providers of the same service might have year-long contract. Since eight other people to face the downsides of Groupon, against to lower their prices to compete. When did eventually get refunded, I did not get which I had been aggressively cautioned by I was deciding on whether to work with a fourth payment, but neither did I have to my fellow Rolfers. Groupon, the hostility from other Rolfers pay for those refunds. who feared that such discount marketing

32 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING would drive down the rates of all of us to about what is ethical marketing. There thirteen Groupon clients, 54% continued unacceptable levels was tangible. Doing is a logical debate about whether deep for an average of 6.6 additional sessions. business with Groupon felt like crossing discounts undercut colleagues, but I’ve Other Rolfers I have talked to throughout a picket line. found a deeper conflict in me, one that the country who have run Groupon I suspect is also playing out in many of Another fear is that Groupon customers are promotions have all told me that it was us: is there a fundamental discord between relentlessly deal-seeking, so much so that worth it. The estimates they gave me about charging money for services and whole-hearted they will never pay full price for a service. clients returning for more regularly priced helping? Although I can make all sorts Even if the Groupon customers themselves sessions ranged from 25% to 50%. Although of rational arguments for the pragmatic are not inherently unwilling to pay full some were thrilled with the results, most value of capitalism, I am still influenced price for a service, the mere fact of starting had come to more moderate conclusions, by my socialist-leaning upbringing. I with a discount may cause problems. Many and nearly all told me they would never have been conditioned to associate selling practitioners assert that clients need to do it again. I hope I will never need to, but with scamming, accepting money with make significant financial investments in I would consider using Groupon again to selfishness. I have been taught to see more a service in order to participate fully in the launch a new service (Rolf Movement®, nobility in those who are paid by the experience. The reasoning continues that perhaps), or to start over in a new city. collective (my parents were both public lukewarm participation is more likely to school teachers) than in those who are Procedures for redeeming the coupons were yield mediocre results, satisfying neither paid directly by individuals who receive easy, and clearly explained. Depending on the client nor the practitioner. the work. Like omnivores who abhor the how you schedule appointments, there is A third way that Groupon could harm a thought of killing a poor, innocent animal, a chance of being cheated if clients don’t business rather than build it is through I have sought to distance myself from the present their coupons or if they don’t the strain on the practitioner. Working for exchange of money. My conflict of identity show up for their appointments. There are such low rates (roughly a quarter of one’s as I have begun learning about marketing ways to avoid this risk, such as insisting regular fee) could invite emotional stress and has alternately clouded my thoughts and on a credit card number when booking an physical exhaustion, reducing the quality of evoked personal growth. I choose to listen appointment, but they seem cold, and were the service provided and thereby creating a to those who define marketing in terms not worth it to me. I had one client “forget” poor professional reputation. Many people of honest communication. I continue to her coupon on the first of three scheduled bristle at the seeming injustice of a company educate myself about this view of ethical appointments and then not return my calls like Groupon taking half of the money for a business, and I frequently revisit the or emails. I also had a few clients who didn’t service that it merely publicizes. Even those question, “How am I contributing to a show up for their first appointment, whom I who see the value of Groupon’s presentation better world?” chose to let reschedule for free, even though to its customer list acknowledge that this is the fine print on the coupon insists on a $50 a hefty cost for advertising. Results fee for missed appointments. Finally, the lack of a final expiration to My success with Groupon was as follows: Clients who used their coupons in the first the paid value of the Groupon coupons 241 transactions sold, 93 for single sessions, six months after the promotion were much might leave some practitioners feeling 148 for three. Out of the single-session more likely to continue with regular-rate vulnerable, as would the general dynamic coupons, 35% were unredeemed. Out of sessions. I didn’t want to negotiate a shorter of negotiating with such a large business. those that were, only 9% continued, for an redemption period because I wanted to The “ick” factor of big business is significant average of four additional regularly-priced sell more coupons without buyers feeling for some of us. sessions. As for the triple-session coupons, the sessions had to be squeezed into too 20% were unredeemed. Of those who short a time period. It might have been Larger Considerations redeemed their coupons, 38% continued better to move up the expiration date to for an average of 5.6 additional full-priced Many of the arguments against using maintain enthusiasm. However, all the sessions. Several clients have referred Groupon touch on bigger issues in the unredeemed coupons helped to increase others to me, as well as helped me make Rolfing community, juicy questions the average amount I was compensated professional networking connections. that guide us with the tension of their per session. Another consideration is that unanswerable natures. We ask questions For nearly six months after my Groupon my Groupon deal was promoted just before about how to present our field to the deal was advertised, I was seeing over Christmas, and many of the coupons were public so that people understand how we twenty clients every week and had a wait given as gifts. Most, but not all, of the gift can help them, seeking balance between list. It took a while for me to figure out recipients were disappointed by Rolfing anchoring to what they know and pointing the best way to arrange a wait list so that SI’s dissimilarities from massage. It might them to new possibilities. This relates current clients could reschedule as needed, be that many of the unredeemed coupons to the tension between “fix-it work” future clients would not get too impatient, were gifts as well. versus transformation, since it is much and so that I could accept new full-paying In contrast to Groupon, I ran a couple easier to explain getting out of pain than clients as they called. One of the ways I dealt of deals with Signpost, one offering half evoking personal evolution. with the wait list was by teaming up with off one session and the other offering another local structural integrator whose I believe that some of the tension around two sessions for the price of one. None practice was far from full. She was happy the issue of selling Rolfing sessions through of the seven people who bought these to accept my overflow clients at the rates Groupon comes from generalized angst deals continued. I was getting from Groupon. Out of her

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I used the money I earned through Groupon • Consider your current clients. Do not • Consider guaranteeing payment at to get out of debt and invest in my practice. offend those who have already been the time of booking by requesting As of this writing, it is nearly two months paying you full price for your services. either the coupon redemption code or since my Groupon deal expired, and I am credit card information. • Make space for clients who wish to confident and happy, averaging ten paying continue with a series. For me, a wait • Educate your Groupon clients about clients a week. list was instrumental. Booking your Rolfing SI and the Ten Series. Recommendations schedule full several weeks in advance can mean that clients will have the flow Conclusion Should anyone choose to try a Groupon of their series interrupted. Helping clients and managing a business promotion, these are my recommendations are two very different skill sets. Many of for a successful deal: • Make space for new full-paying clients who come from the increased us feel more comfortable with the former • Negotiate for a better contract. The word of mouth and website traffic. rather than with the latter. Ingrained deal I ended up with earned me more Again, consider a wait list. beliefs, chosen values, and lack of education than $2,000 more than the one they may all contribute to our difficulties with first offered. • Know your limits. Don’t let your mind, marketing. Addressing these limitations body, or interest get burned out. can help us to rationally weigh the pros and cons of any business decision, such as offering a deal through Groupon.

special cases on an individual basis. If you My Favorite set your fees too low, you run the risk of burnout, which may result in you helping fewer people over the length of your career.) Practice-Building Secret If you do place an ad, commit to a regular By Bethany Ward, MBA, Rolfing® Instructor submission. Well over a decade ago, I bought an eighth of a page ad every week at Introduction Consider the Obvious $85 per ad. That was $340 a month – quite a chunk for a new Rolfer™. At my original In my opinion, developing your craft is First, I’ll discuss some of the common fee, this was the equivalent of one session your very best form of Practice Building. a p p r o a c h e s t o p r o m o t i n g y o u r per week. But my ad brought me an average The more skilled you are, the more clients business: paid advertising, a website, of three clients per week. After a few weeks, refer others. So committing to lifelong printed marketing materials, and it started adding up. learning is primary. But, until you have demonstrations/workshops. a self-sustaining practice (and in many In addition to finding the proper publication, environments, this may never be possible), Paid Advertising one of the reasons I think my ad worked what other ways are there to build your I have created two busy practices from was that I developed a recognizable look practice? I have a favorite practice-building scratch. My first practice was in Athens, and layout, but changed the content each approach that I don’t hear discussed very Georgia, and a couple years later I moved to time. So the fonts and the ad’s title, “What’s much. It helped me create a steady twenty- Durham, North Carolina. I am very grateful Rolfing?”, stayed the same, but in each issue client-per-week practice in six months. A for my first practice. I grew it fairly quickly I answered the question differently with a couple months later, it became twenty-five using a weekly ad in Flagpole, a local music different quote about Rolfing SI. I suspect clients (all I wanted to see at the time) with and events newspaper. Paid advertising that people tended to return to see what a six-week waiting list. often has a low return on investment, so changed each week. You want people to it’s rarely my first recommendation for start recognizing you by encountering your There is much more to Practice Building Practice Building, but it can work well if business on a recurring basis. Of course, the than any one technique. Our beliefs about the right elements are in place. First, find ad directed them to my website where they seeing Rolfing Structural Integration (SI) a publication that reaches the population could learn more. as a business can support or derail our in your immediate vicinity (I was in a best practice-building efforts. For more I personally don’t think advertising in college town, and the publication I chose about this, see the sidebar on page 36. If telephone directories, such as the “yellow focused on that market) and speaks to a we believe it is okay to want a thriving pages,” is worth your while. Not only segment that wants and (dare I say it) can practice, how do we attain it? This article do most people use the Internet to find afford your services. (We are all concerned will initially review several approaches and information, directory ads are usually about providing our services to those who techniques for developing your business, seen by people who aren’t looking for need them, rather than only those who can ending with a deeper exploration into one Rolfing SI and usually result in long afford them. Rather than being a low-cost approach that can be extremely effective and telephone conversations with poor return provider, it is often preferable to charge a often overlooked. on investment. little more so you have the flexibility to help

34 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING Website just the ticket for some of you. Or you may My Favorite Marketing simply do them for your own professional Technique: Writing I designed my website to be informational development. From that perspective, – this has been a key part of my marketing they’re an excellent use of your time. Having this awareness about demographic strategy over the years. Initially, I wanted to niches where I was particularly effective provide a resource for clients to learn about Identify Who You may have influenced me to pick up a copy Rolfing SI, but the approach had additional Like to Work With of a local start-up publication, Endurance benefits. First, my comprehensive website Magazine (see Figure 1). The monthly When I started my first practice, I used lent credibility. Second, it saved me a bunch journal was created for endurance athletes – ­ pretty traditional forms of marketing and of time because I didn’t have to answer runners, cyclists, swimmers, and triathletes advertising and worked with whatever many questions for new clients on the (a goal-oriented and highly disciplined populations came to my door. I was new phone (before developing my site, I would segment, if there ever was one). Knowing and my approach allowed me to work a easily spend a half hour on that). how valuable Rolfing SI can be for these lot and get the experience I needed to start athletes, I contacted the editor about Invest your time upfront creating a website developing my skills. When I decided to writing an article covering what Rolfing that is easy to navigate, low on clutter, and move to North Carolina, however, I set a SI is and how many athletes use it to responds to client needs. It will develop the goal to intentionally create the practice of improve performance. way you talk about the work, and it will my dreams. I found a good resource in the require you to clarify policies, procedures, book Building Your Ideal Private Practice: and boundaries. That exercise itself will A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing strengthen your business model, which Professionals by Lynn Grodzki. The text is creates a better experience for your clients still widely available and impressed upon and ultimately improves your bottom line. me the importance of identifying the kind Printed Marketing Materials of clients I most enjoyed. Let’s face it. Not all clients are created equal, and none of us Especially when you’re creating a new are interested in – or suited to – working practice, it helps to keep your printed with all individuals. When you identify the marketing materials low-cost and flexible. types of clients that you find it thrilling to Being able to design and lay out your work with, you can make marketing and own materials means they can be living advertising decisions that make your work documents that allow experimentation more sustainable. and ongoing development. With today’s For example, although many of you may inexpensive high-quality printers, you can sigh a little when another “Type A” client create professional looking materials for walks in the door, I often really enjoy very little money. But do spend the time Figure 1: Endurance Magazine issues. working with them. I understand them! In editing, and then editing some more, and my eyes, they’re often highly motivated, attending to design details. The brochure proactive, disciplined, and eager to learn. The editor took me up on my offer, and represents you. They tend to like homework and they give I wrote an article about the Ten Series, In addition to trifold brochures, I created me good feedback. I even like that they summarizing how the goals of each session small (8.5x11 inch) posters that had a come in a little skeptical and ask a lot of could be beneficial to athletes. It was a pocket for my business cards. I hung questions. Granted, some clients are on the stand-alone article, but it was well-received posters in organic groceries, coffee shops, far end of the Type-A spectrum and may not so the editor asked me about writing more. etc. I worked to design all of my materials have any interest in exploring movement I suggested I devote an article to each of with meaningful images, clear copy, and or verbalizing somatic observations. But, the ten sessions, exploring a single concept as much whitespace as possible. The fewer for the most part, they come over to my or idea more fully (see Figure 2). I had a the words, the clearer your message, and side. Maybe it’s because I understand plan for ten articles, and soon my articles the more likely it will be read. their perspective and can reframe goals in became known as “the bodywork column” – and I learned that writing articles was an Demonstrations/Workshops their language. When I teach someone like this how important it is to breathe, or feel extremely cost-effective way to generate I also taught informational workshops at weight, or experience his “Line,” I feel like clients. It costs nothing but your time, and grocery stores and such. Although these I’ve revealed an entirely new world. That’s it works better than ad placement. were fun and excellent practice for learning the kind of thing that keeps me jazzed about Writing Versus Advertising to talk and present about bodywork, the work. Of course, this is just a segment they were time-consuming and never of my practice, but it’s helpful to know this People pay more attention to articles than really produced a lot of Rolfing work. It about myself as a practitioner. My soul to ads. Although I wrote the articles for seemed that the people who attended these searching also uncovered a deep interest free, I also bought a regular ad in Endurance were seeking low-cost information and in working with scoliosis, as well as my Magazine. I did it to support the publication, entertainment and they didn’t turn into preference for working with adults. suspecting that my articles generated clients. Of course, different things work more clients than the ad. New clients often well in different situations, so these kinds mentioned my articles, and I usually got of workshops or demonstrations might be three to five new clients every time an issue

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Our Beliefs About Business and Money: Why Create a Thriving Practice

There’s more to practice building than techniques. Our give it to someone else in exchange for the same. Money beliefs about business and money often color the way is energy. Often, a full practice means a little extra money, we build and maintain our practices. Perhaps the reason and this gives us options. We can trade it for products or we came to this work – to help, educate and facilitate services that we don’t want to create or perform ourselves, transformation – makes it feel wrong to look at it through a or activities that might take a lot longer to perform than the financial lens. Whether it’s that we don’t feel comfortable time it would take to earn the same amount of money in our charging what we’re worth, or that we make unconscious studios. A full practice allows you to have more of a say in decisions that hamper creating a sustainable practice, it’s how you use your time. worth taking a moment to consider our beliefs about money and what a thriving practice means. But the best part of having a full practice is that you can do as much continuing education as you like. Continuing Why would we want a thriving practice? Probably the first education keeps you fired up about your work, and your things that come to mind are to make a living or pay back clients feel it. If you take a lot of classes, your clients benefit the money we borrowed for training. These are excellent twice: they receive work that is continuously improving, and reasons, but keep asking the question and the list gets more from a practitioner who is enthusiastic about the work. There interesting. Seeing lots of clients allows you to develop is no better practice-building technique than to nurture your your skills. It gives you choices on how you spend your love for this work. When you do, people feel it, they refer to non-working time, including access to continuing education. you, your practice keeps growing, you have more options It develops our profession so we can help more people. . . . . You get the point.

Of course, developing your skills is a lifelong pursuit that When you have a practice like that, you’re helping all of can’t be crammed into a few weeks or months. Each of us us. Some of you have worked on clients who have had has our own timetable for integrating experience, but, we amazing Rolfing experiences. Then those clients talked also need a fair amount of input to optimize our learning to their brothers, mothers, or friends in my area and they curve. We need enough samples to allow us to compare, called me. Thank you! I get to repay the kindness when I contrast, and develop our awareness. For example, when help clients find some of you. Thriving practices are a way we learn to feel layers, we start out with a vague conceptual to make our work more available to more clients. understanding. As we hold this, and then compare different types of tissue within and among hundreds of clients, Profitable practices equate to much more than dollar signs. distinctions emerge. Especially in the early years of a Full practices provide the lab where we hone our skills, add Rolfing® Structural Integration career, having access to flexibility and options to our daily lives, allow us to learn many clients provides the extensive information needed more and stay excited, and grow our profession as a whole. to compare and contrast a wealth of observations, so you can develop your spectrum of touch, body-reading, and client-relation skills. All of these skills inform our intuition – perhaps the greatest Rolfing skill of all.

For some, beliefs about money obstruct efforts to grow a practice. If you get queasy when you talk about profiting from your work, it may be your definition of money. Consider that money is simply a convenient, transferable way we represent expended energy. A dollar bill is something we accept in exchange for our energy and talents, and we’ll

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readers. Of course, if you can get an article and then provide a stretch or experiential in the New York Times, grab the opportunity. exercise that readers could try on their own, Articles in well-known journals create like how to make a traditional quad stretch instant and long-lasting credibility when more effective, showing pictures of me people visit your website. Also, don’t doing it both incorrectly and correctly. My confuse writing for peer journals as Practice conclusion would mention other techniques Building. Although there are a lot of great and modalities people use to address this reasons to write for these publications, area, such as foam-rolling, acupuncture, they’ll bring very few new clients to and bodywork. I never directed readers your doorstep. to call me or suggested that Rolfing SI would solve all their problems. I wanted Repetition is key: One article is nice, but my readers to get a better understanding regular submissions are infinitely more about their bodies. A simple byline at valuable. If you provide good content, the end of each article stated that I was a readers will start to look for you. Even Certified Rolfer who worked in the area if they don’t read your articles, they’ll and provided my website and telephone Figure 2: Articles on the sessions of the have a sense of the kind of material you number. We don’t have to always sell Ten Series and other topics. write about and start considering you as a ourselves directly. Write from a place of specialist in your area. They may not need wanting to share and people will find you hit the stands. My suspicions were further you now, but they’ll remember you in the to learn more. Of course, make sure you can supported one month when I included a future. Even better, they’ll know that you be found easily on the Internet, and that coupon in my ad. To my amazement, new always write something in a particular all of your materials (website, brochures, clients mentioned and even brought in my journal and they’ll know they can find you cards) have contact info that’s easy to find. article – but not a single one clipped the there. Even if you don’t consider yourself coupon or asked for the discount! a writer, you might consider a small “tips Include photos: Your article will get more and techniques” piece. Maybe you only attention if you include images whenever Additionally, an article takes up more write one hundred words, but you teach possible. Robert Schleip, PhD, is one of our visual space and hold attention longer something each issue about posture or peers who excels at making fascia research than an ad. The public tends to view an body use. Maybe you’re artistic and you’d accessible. He always reminds me that article as relatively unbiased – especially if rather create a comic. The key is that you although creating pictures may require you give the reader something he can use find a venue where you keep showing up, 25% or more of your writing time, images (more about this below). I found out later you teach something, and your contact info are responsible for the majority of your that there are printed, local publications is listed. exposure. When it comes to images, the that are full of health articles that seem payback is well worth the effort. unbiased, but in many cases the authors Educate and inform: If you write articles pay to be included. This is also the case for that feel like a long advertisement about Conclusion some call-in radio shows. These outfits have Rolfing SI or your services, you’ll lose your you provide all the content while expecting audience. If you’re going to have a regular A well-researched and well-written article you to pay them a fee, because print and presence in a print or digital magazine, lends credibility to you as a practitioner radio communications bring credibility. you have to commit to educating readers. and further enhances the way our field is People believe what they read and what Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “You perceived. It also improves the way you they hear. I turned down a paid radio show can have everything in life that you want if think and speak about the work. When opportunity and have never paid anyone to you just give enough other people what they you’re spending untold hours meeting your place an article. In my experience, journal want.” As a Rolfer, you have an enormous deadline rather than going out with friends, and website editors are often desperate for amount of information that can significantly remember that writing is self-imposed good copy. If you are willing to look a little improve people’s lives, and you’ll probably continuing education. In terms of both harder, and if you provide reliable copy, be sharing information that is completely personal and professional development, I I think you can find good venues. Every new to them. Write about the fascial matrix, haven’t found a better return on investment. article is worth several costly ads. tensegrity, why the foot should be flexible, Bibliography Writing Articles incorporating movement concepts, better sitting, the iliopsoas, scar tissue, viewing the Grodzki, L. 2000. Building Your Ideal Private That Build Your Practice body as system – whatever you’re interested Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Target your market: If you want your in at the time. Explore one concept; keep Healing Professionals. New York: W.W. articles to bring you clients, make sure it short and avoid Rolfing jargon. Suggest Norton & Co. you’re writing for a publication that gets an exercise so the reader can bring it into into the hands of local readers. A local, her experience. In each column, I taught printed publication may reach more one concept. Say I discussed hip flexors potential clients than a larger publication and shared something interesting – e.g., with a wider readership. With online how a tight rectus femoris can contribute articles this is different, but still make sure to tight hamstrings – then I’d discuss how your intended market is included among its this is relevant for my athlete readership,

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asking questions, and getting precise and Your Business Is You; However, clear about what your question is asking. When working with self, with a client, or with one specific aspect of self, I very rarely You Are Not Your Business ask a “why” question. A “why” question By Deborah Weidhaas, Certified Advance Rolfer™, Rolf Movement® Practitioner will generate a “because” answer. There can be dozens of “becauses,” very few of Beneath The Surface We Rolfers are a bit unique from most other which are the truth. “Becauses” are usually businesses in that we are not manufacturing explanations or excuses (mental constructs). You are the original manuscript from which widgets or developing end-use technology. To get useful information, along with more your business is written. It can be no other Our work literally stirs up and challenges opportunities for revelation, one needs way. This manuscript includes everything the subconscious and unconscious material to use questions that begin with “what,” that is wonderful about you. It also includes of our clients and ourselves. Therefore, we “where,” “when,” and “how,” as well as your belief systems, likes and dislikes, are in a business where the skill to work the question, “Could you explain how ‘xyz’ childhood conditioning, business know- one’s own process is crucial. Peeling the veil makes sense for you?” how, structural integration skill, inherent off our own psychological dysfunction is There is a balance that needs to be found gifts, savvy, and ingenuity. Then, too, it not an easy task. As Rolfing clients, we have here. While your business is you, you includes your rationalizations, fears, biases, all probably accomplished some degree are much more than your business, with and varied shortcomings. of this work. As Rolfing practitioners, many other interests, commitments, and pushing further is a necessity. In addition, Organization development consultants who diversions. It is all too easy to let other things our skill in personal processing can inform work with family-owned (“mom-and-pop”) distract us from the time and self-reflection us when we’ve erroneously absorbed businesses know that the predispositions needed to work our personal process. material from our clients. It can also give of mom and pop, as well as the function Fortunately, when we get distracted, the us greater confidence in supporting and and dysfunction within their marriage/ triggers persist as reminders that there is facilitating clients through the psychological family, is woven into the very fabric of something to attend to. It is also easy to material that arises for them during their the organization’s systems and processes. focus on the Rolfing work, clients’ needs, or Rolfing process. This can be quite challenging, because our need to generate cash flow, so that we most of the material upon which the The great thing about this psychological neglect our other interests, commitments, organization resonates is the subconscious work is that if we don’t deal with an issue, diversions, and the need for downtime. It and unconscious material of its founders, it will become quite a nuisance; and if we is important to remember that our other and most business owners are unaware that still ignore it, it will become ardent about activities contribute to the wholeness of this dynamic even exists. getting our attention. The two most valuable who we are. qualities to doing this work with yourself The internal map of who you are becomes Throughout your career, your business are the willingness and courage to ferret an architectural blueprint to your will generate something, someone, or some out whatever you have been mistakenly business. For example, if you have issues circumstance that triggers you. You can holding as true – no matter what it is. with integrity, honesty, respect, feeling view this as a frustration or seek out the Still, you are not alone with this task. You worthy, saying “no,” asking for what material in your psychological architecture can talk with a trusted friend who speaks you want, or problems around charging that is reacting; insecure; injured; hurt; truth to you, broach the subject with or accepting money, your business will threatened; scared; or hooked on an agenda, other Rolfers, or work with a licensed produce some dysfunction that stems the ego, or a belief system. The general psychological professional. from these patterns. No marketing strategy rule of thumb is that a circumstance that or business tactic will save you from The more you develop your skills for arises three times, in any aspect of your generating your patterns. What resolves this sleuthing within your own psychological life, originates from a pattern. Many is finding, acknowledging, and changing architecture, the more skillful and time- years ago, a vignette of images came to the dysfunctional material within your efficient you become in identifying me. I saw a person walking, stumbling, own psychological architecture. This is why underlying patterns/belief systems and cussing, and then carrying on as if nothing one’s personal process is so important to finding solutions. In the human being, had happened. The next vignette was the ® attend to throughout a Rolfing Structural our patterns and belief systems literally same person, a week later, stumbling hard Integration (SI) career. You don’t need to operate just like a computer application enough to get injured, and focusing on the have your less-than-optimal issues solved program, dictating who and how we get injury. The third vignette was the same in order to run your own business. You to be and what we get to experience; that person, two weeks later, stumbling so hard do, however, need to: 1) know what these is, until we delete them or find the way that the person lost balance and tumbled issues are; 2) clean out the most obvious to alter, rewrite, or transcend them. Some down a flight of stairs. Then, landing at the dysfunctions before they take root in additional qualities that are useful here bottom of the stairs like a rag doll, hurting your business; 3) work your personal are: curiosity, a lack of agenda, a lack of and dumbfounded, the person looks up process on an ongoing basis; and 4) seek attachment to outcome, the persistence to to the sky, as if talking to God, and says, out your causal contributions to discord collect data rather than apply a quick fix, “What was it you wanted me to notice?” I and problems. decided the message was to pay attention

38 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PRACTICE BUILDING to blips and information the first or second because it relates everything into larger How do you handle money? What are your time so I don’t have to land at the bottom and larger contexts and systems. Each part handling-money weaknesses and strengths? of the stairs. or piece exists (or persists) within a larger How will you deal with money stress when whole; and it is from this vantage that we things are slow? Rooting Yourself Securely Rolfers inquire, analyze, engage, strategize, What patterns or beliefs can you oust because and change. What can you come up with as For your clients, Rolfing SI is you. Everything they no longer serve or are not the truth? What ways to help others understand the large your clients experience; everything you say patterns or beliefs do you need to explore in more scope of Rolfing SI and what this large about this work; how you conduct yourself detail in order to collect more data or uncover scope produces in a physical body/human and your business; the actual work you do the true root? with clients to help them achieve higher being? Because we are what Rolfing SI is for levels of structural integration: these are our clients, we need to clearly state what Needed in Rolfing SI: How do you handle not what your clients use to define Rolfing this work is and to produce it authentically, knowing? What resourcefulness can you find SI. Since you are the direct experience in accordance with our SOP. in “I don’t know”? How can you cultivate, within yourself, the abiltiy to trust the process, of Rolfing SI, the who-and-how you are Revisiting the Basics defines Rolfing SI for the public. trust your hands, trust your intuition, trust the When I am working my personal process, I client, trust the tissues, and trust the structure? Read our Standards of Practice (SOP) and am fierce about uncovering patterns that my Code of Ethics documents with the intent Remember, above all, that your personal subconscious and unconscious hold to be to fully digest the definition of Rolfing SI, process is a process, as are you; so both true. This has little to do with what I think. its context, and its implications on how you evolve over time. To make progress with These patterns operate behind my thoughts; do your work. If you are a new Rolfer, read this process, you are looking for tools and dictate what I can think and can focus on; the SOP, and then read it again in ten years. methods that produce reliable, accurate, produce subtle changes in physical-body I suspect you will be surprised (perhaps and dependable information as to: what responses; and generate circumstances in even shocked) with how much more you your issues are; how to work through them; my business and life. When I began this understand, in depth and meaning, after ten and how to find resolution to them. work many decades ago, physical-body more years’ experience. Our experience in responses were the first guides I used. Using the Right Tools this work, over time, educates our thoughts/ intellect about it. Physical bodies are impeccable. They Some of the questions above can be analyzed are constantly negotiating conscious with the thinking mind, but this approach One task I gave myself early on was to awareness, the subconscious, and the will get us only so far. If the thinking mind come up with ten different ways to begin to unconscious. Bodies know our truth and were set up as a contender against feelings, describe this work to others. For example, falsehoods, regardless of what we would the subconscious, or the unconscious, the how would one describe this work to like to think. To use body responses as a thinking mind would lose nearly every an architect, an engineer, a computer guide, look over these questions and take time. And yet, the thinking mind is such programmer, a financial analyst, a dancer, a note of what triggers you; what you want a constant presence that many believe it is five-year old child, a hairdresser, an athlete, to discount or ignore; what activates ego what and who they are, when it is, in fact, and a physician? What aspects of another or righteousness; and what produces a only a tiny piece of who we are. person’s experience can be used to form deflating sensation. analogies, associations, and similes, which The thinking mind’s greatest gift is that will help the other begin to understand What drives who and how you are? What drives it is a fabulous analyzer, synthesizer, and what this work produces? who and how you are under stress? What are processor. We need to use it for these tasks. you most afraid of? Most insecure about? Most The thinking mind is the only part of us, We know it is challenging to help others confident about? What do you expect will be no and a very small part at that, that is rational understand Rolfing SI. There are three problem for you? and logical. While logic and reason can be inescapable factors within this challenge. a great help, these can also become a great First, just as Ida Rolf said, we come to What are your strengths and weaknesses hindrance because all the other aspects of understand what this work is through for handling conflict, confusion, and who-we-are don’t respond to, or organize experience. We know this is true for us miscommunication? When you make a mistake? around, logic. The thinking mind regularly as practitioners, but it is also true for our Get feedback? Are confronted? What inhibitions distorts, deletes, avoids, and generalizes clients. A second factor is that Rolfing SI do you have about saying what you need or our human experience, so it doesn’t have causes new dynamics to arise within a saying what’s true of you? the data or tools to override feelings, the person that one can’t imagine or believe What do your clients want or need from you: subconscious, or the unconscious in a possible, until one experiences it. As a result, as a Rolfer; as a professional; as an educator/ lasting, functional way. It has no idea about clients’ perceptions are literally altered, facilitator; as a human being? What boundaries patterns and belief systems that act upon over time, about what it is to be physical do you maintain and what strategies do you have us like an operating system in a computer. and about the body’s real capabilities. for when a boundary is overstepped? Since it is a processor, the thinking mind Perhaps the most pervasive factor in why has absolutely no capacity to choose or Rolfing SI is hard to understand is that our What activities require your time? How do you decide. Given all this, the thinking mind’s society is predisposed to a mode of thinking handle time? What drives how you use it? What ability to comprehend, discover, and heal that breaks things down into parts and are your time weaknesses and strengths? It is dysfunctional patterns is quite limited. pieces in order to find understanding. wise to build much time into your schedule for Rolfing SI is exactly opposite to this mode administration (you will need it).

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When we’ve done all we can with analyzing, – as some belief system dissolved into This is not easy or simple work. The planning, thinking, and insisting, and nothingness – that I get to ask for what I complexity, layers, and original causes dysfunctional circumstances continue to want. I don’t have to explain it. I don’t have can be challenging to identify. It is also arise in our businesses, there are some to justify it. I don’t need to rationalize it, and challenging to muster the willingness to Band-Aid®-type tools available. We can use I don’t need to figure out how to change pick apart our own psyche on a regular meditation as a tool to quiet the thinking another person’s behavior. I just get to ask basis. Some don’t do this work because they mind and affirmations to direct its attention. for what I want. Then, the other gets to didn’t know it was possible to change these One Band-Aid approach I used quite often decide to opt in or opt out. aspects of self. There are two qualities that was to imagine I could talk directly to arise as we acquire more experience and That day again, the client arrived late, my mind (which, since it is an aspect of skill in this work. First is that our intuition walked past me in the reception area, me, I can) and tell it: “Thank you for your and/or our higher selves become more walked into my room, and yelled for us opinion, but it is only opinion, and I’m here present and reliable. Second is that the to start. I stayed at the reception desk and to tell you that you hold no monopoly on information we receive is more accurate. yelled back to him, “I want to know what the truth,” or, “I may not fully understand needs to happen for us to start on time.” He I hold this work as crucial in a Rolfing it all yet, but I do know that message is not informed me this is the way he is and it’s practice because, as I said before, no my truth.” time to get started. Again I yelled what I had marketing strategy or business tactic will The indicators that point the way toward yelled the first time. He stuck his head out of save us from generating our patterns finding our own patterns and belief systems the doorway of my room saying, “You need within our businesses. I hold this work are the messages one hears regularly within to accept it or are we going to dicker about as highly valuable because, like Rolfing one’s inner world; the not-so-pleasant this?” I told him we were going to dicker SI, it releases old dysfunctional patterns, circumstances that arise multiple times about this, that I want to know what needs produces change, and lets us find new ways in our experience; the feelings that don’t to happen for us to start on time, and please to be. When we undo ego attachments, seem true to who we know ourselves to don’t go back to my room until invited to do belief systems, misinterpretations, and be; and any ideas we hold about ourselves so. An irate client headed for the reception those falsehoods held as truth in our that inhibit, prohibit, oppress, or contain. area saying how dare I treat him this way. psychological architecture, our businesses Anything that triggers and activates is also I continued to ask for what I wanted. He fare better and operate more cleanly. an indicator. Situations and circumstances said no one gets away with treating him can give indicators to our patterns; but there this way, and he stormed out of the office is no solution, and no healing, to be found and slammed the door. Surprisingly, two at the situational level of “he said/she said,” minutes later, he returned. He said I was so “he did/she did,” and then what happened out of line that he was going to pay me for is “xyz.” With indicators, we need to get the session just to make sure I knew how out quiet within ourselves, get curious and of line I was. He wrote a check, threw it at courageous, resist quick fixes, and realize me, and slammed the door on his way out. that what is needed is data collection and That morning I got to ask for what I wanted, soul searching. allowed the client to opt in or out, and got To begin to ferret out the dysfunctional paid for it. I also used the empty session patterns in our psychological architecture, time to go to the bank so he wouldn’t have one needs to shift to the pattern and time to process a stop payment. belief-system level (realizing, too, that this Over the course of our practices, level can contain many layers). One clear circumstances will arise that trigger us. example of this was the new client who Sometimes we need to address those triggered me the minute he arrived at my circumstances directly and immediately. office. He arrived late, strode past three Sometimes, however, like my example, the of us in the reception area without any circumstance arises from some subconscious acknowledgment; and, as he went down or unconscious material that is running the hallway, he yelled over his shoulder, like an operating system and producing “Well, are we going to get started?” I was dysfunction in our business. I like to think so triggered that I couldn’t address what the universe puts circumstances in my had just happened. I knew, however, that experience so I can find the material within my triggered state had little to do with what me to be healed. In any event, in these just happened. cases, it is important to drop our focus I grappled with what was up for me in the on the circumstance. Next is to recognize weeks across three sessions. This client how intimately invested we are in our ego repeated his behavior at the beginning attachments and depower these. Then we of every session. In the morning before can begin to do the soul searching and data our fourth session, I was, once again, collection to ferret out the subconscious sitting quietly and striving to soul search and unconscious material that is operating for a solution. It became brilliantly clear in our systems.

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plasticity of the body to a world that is in Just Spell My Name Right pain and ready for relief. When we do that, we will help bring to reality Rolf’s dream By Ritchie Mintz, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ that her ideas would permeate society.

It was 1979. I had been a Rolfer™ for two presentations, I demonstrate how I see. I My Rolfer tells a story about a time long ago years and my practice was in the tank. point out the ways and manner that gravity when some multi-level marketing scheme The bills were piling up and I knew that flows through structure and when it does tried to work its way into the Rolf Institute. I needed paying clients or my new career not. Lo and behold, when the vectors and Dr. Rolf was dead set against using a would be short-lived. Luckily, I lived in the painful spots coincide, the audience Rolfing practice to promote anything other Boulder at the time, so attending the Rolf sees what I see and voilà, they’re mine. than Rolfing work. “Besides,” our founder Institute’s® Annual Meeting that year was a (Of course, I don’t leave this to chance. declared, “I don’t think you [meaning no-brainer. At the very end of the meeting, While I’m telling my story, I’m surveying Rolfers] are very good salesmen.” Hmm, there was a summation of how Rolfing® the audience in order to choose just the let me think about that. As Rolfers, we are Structural Integration (SI) was impacting right bodies to make my point.) I’m part asked to sell something that few people the world. Then Francis Wenger stood up raconteur, part seminar leader, and part have heard about, that has a reputation in the back of the room. standup comic. for being agonizingly painful, and also costs a lot of money. Put that together with At that time of his life, Frank had no vocal Standup comedy looks like it’s all created Rolf’s exhortation – that we exert “scientific chords. That’s why everybody in the room on the spot. It’s not. Standup, when it’s done caution” with our claims – and it truly swiveled in their chairs to face him and well, is rigorously scripted. I only script makes me wonder what, exactly, are we the crowd fell silent. Instantly, he had the beginning of my public presentations. supposed to say about what we do? How everyone’s attention in a way I have rarely The opening words of any speech are the are we supposed to advertise ourselves? seen before or since. He surely had mine. hardest because the audience doesn’t know How are we to sell the one thing that Rolf The whole room leaned in to listen. Here’s me, which makes me nervous. That’s why I did want us to sell – Rolfing SI itself? what he said in his hoarse whisper: “Rolfing control the opening moments by asking the [SI] is its own unique thing that is unlike same question every time: “How many of How is SI perceived in the world? In the anything else in the world, and it stands on you are here tonight because you were sent 1977 movie Semi Tough with Burt Reynolds its own plenty good enough just as it is.” by someone you trust?” Then I raise my hand and Kris Kristopherson, Lotte Lenya plays up high. This does several things. Those Clara Pelf, a clear reference to Ida Rolf. I’m Wow, I thought. Here was Frank, with no words connect the audience members to the told Rolf loved that movie, saying that she voice at all, whispering loud enough for reason they came, and they remember the would rather be parodied than reported- all the world to hear that we – I – have person they trust who said to them, “I tried on. (Reported-on implies novelty while something to offer a world that hurts this Rolfing thing and it’s good.” By raising parody implies assimilation in the culture.) mightily as a result of the price of living my own hand, it gives them permission to Our history is also rife with articles about in gravity. That was when I realized why I raise their hand and participate. us, some by reporters or interviewers, had so much trouble articulating to people, and some written by other Rolfers. My both individually and in groups, what SI I then say, “Thank you. How many of you practitioning partner, Tony Zimkowski, is and what it has to offer. The funny part are here for other reasons?” and I raise my tells a knee-slapper about the time he did is that it wasn’t because I was inadequate hand again. I thank everyone for giving a free demonstration first session on a as a Rolfer. Here’s the thing: it wasn’t until up his or her time. At this point, everyone hometown news reporter. The next week, I heard Frank say it that I realized that in the room has raised their hands and the local headline read “Rolfing – A Cross I had completely underestimated how I have the room fully engaged. In those Between a Massage and a Mugging.” There monumentally magical is this work. critical opening moments, I have asked was also the Rolfer who wrote his own story two involving questions, connected with I realized that if I were to speak of the about how Rolfing SI is the “fountain of the entire crowd, established a safe space, work, I would have to be less like Dr. Rolf youth,” with his literary citation being the and given myself time to settle down with a and more like Jerry Seinfeld. I changed my letters section of Penthouse magazine. carefully rehearsed opening. I tell my story whole approach to public demonstrations. and the evening is off and running on my How is our work seen currenlty? In 2010, a Instead of explaining the science of Rolfing terms. That is the place from which I am New York Times print headline read: “Rolfing, SI, I told my story. My goal was not to able to tell how Rolfing SI is magical. A Painful Form Of Massage, Regains sell Rolfing SI, but to create an attractive Popularity,” with a subheading (and online character with whom the audience would I doubt that I will ever have the attention of article title, www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/ relate. After all, if they were in the room, a room like Frank Wenger did, but Frank, fashion/07rolfing.html?_r=0) the work itself had already drawn them if you’re listening, I heard you loud and calling the work “Excrutiatingly Helpful.” in. All I had to do was get them to like me, clear. Your whispered words changed my I thought of all the years I’d tried to and since I’m such a likable guy, it was easy life and my practice. Since then, I began distance myself from the reputation and genuine. to speak of the magical plasticity of fascia, that Rolfing SI has of being painful. The the brain, and the nervous system. As Let me mention one point that is strictly same year National Public Radio had a structural integrators, we have a job and personal and illustrates both my comfort story on December 6, 2010, “Rolfing Back an opportunity that is greater than merely zone and Rolf’s warning to us to exert In Vogue, But With Shaky Evidence” doing sessions. We must educate about the “scientific caution” in our claims. In my (www.npr.org/templates/transcript/

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 41 PRACTICE BUILDING transcript.php?storyId=131735132), with the article’s slant making it look like The Relationship of Rolfing SI is supposed to fix pathological pain, for which, they say, there is no evidence. I considered this terribly negative Continuing Education and coverage, yet the stories lit up the Rolf Institute’s website like a Christmas tree and Rolfers across the country got calls for Practice Building appointments. Apparently, no matter how much our work is described as painful, A Dialogue people are interested. By Anne Hoff, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ and From the Times article, I had wondered Karin Edwards Wagner, Certified Rolfer whether “excruciating” or “helpful” would stick, and I guess I got my answer. Anne Hoff: As we planned a theme field. Or you can contact a past client and It reminds me of the old advertising adage, around Practice Building for this issue, I say, “I’ve learned something that I think “There’s no bad coverage. I don’t care what felt it was important to discuss education. might help with your issue, would you you say about me. Just spell my name As much as it’s crucial to attend to business like to come in and try a session?” I tend right.” It also brought me back to how Rolf – our websites, networking, marketing – it to go more the implicit route, though I do didn’t think Rolfers were very good at sales. is also important to continue to develop sometime mention in a blog post something Well, Dr. Rolf, your work, as expressed professionally, and there’s many ways I’ve added to my skill set. What do you do? through us, your heirs, is so great that it that can directly or indirectly impact the KW: I do mention shiny new skills in sells itself. Rolfing SI is so well-established growth and success of our practices. Karin, my email newsletter to my client list, but that it cannot be extinguished, even by the you take a lot of continuing education (CE) only if I have capacity to handle the extra worst coverage. In fact, instead of rehabbing classes, and you also organize many classes sessions that inevitably result. This is a our reputation for pain, we have cashed for the Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) great strategy for creating an opportunity in on it. community in the Portland area. What are to practice the class material. I often manage your thoughts on this? The title of the Los Angeles Times crossword to book the week following a class with puzzle on November 1, 2011 was “That Karin Edwards Wagner: Well, first I’d at least ten clients who are really excited Hurts!” and the clue for 91-Down was like to say that learning can happen every about experiencing the new information. “a four-letter word meaning ‘deeply day in our practices, by being good scientists I do sometimes specifically reach out to massage.’” You guessed it: ROLF. So I and observing which interventions worked, past clients who might find it relevant. guess it’s fair to say that we have made researching our questions, and simply Since this is motivated by a genuine desire our way into the cultural lexicon. How are paying attention while we are working. to help, people seem to find it thoughtful we perceived by society? It seems we do Classes are just one tool for learning. I rather than pushy. Also, I post a list of all expensive deep massage that hurts like hell definitely don’t take classes for the purpose of the classes I’ve taken on my website, so (but it works, except there’s no evidence). of Practice Building, but rather as a natural potential clients can see how my knowledge And people love us. outgrowth of my learning addiction. base matches up to their needs. Potential clients often resonate with that AH: You mention booking the week Ritchie Mintz trained at the Rolf Institute in professional curiosity and commitment to following class to directly apply the 1978. He is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and excellence. They interpret it to mean that material. I know that was the case the author of Foundations of Structural if you don’t have all the answers, you will when you came to Seattle to study John Integration (self-published, available at engage deeply with the process of learning De Mahy’s lumbar-pelvic algorithm, that http://ritchiemintz.com). about their particular case. It’s likely to be you had clients with pelvic issues lined up a better investment than working with a for your return. Do you tell clients ahead of practitioner who is brilliant but bored. time that you are about to take a class on a AH: Absolutely! I think classes make for certain topic? fresh energy for our work, and clients sense KW: In that case it was easy, because half that. As far as Practice Building, you can of my clients have back or pelvic pain, so I work that implicitly or explicitly. Implicitly, scheduled those people for that week and you just trust that the expansion of your everyone else had to wait a week – although skills will draw in more people who can I used the algorithm to check all of them too. benefit from what you learn. I’ve taken three workshops in the past year, and while AH: I think John DeMahy’s class is a good I can’t say it’s strictly cause and effect, I have example of one type of CE: a very nuts- definitely seen a boost in my client load over and-bolts class with specific assessment that period. To work it explicitly, you can and treatment skills that hone our ability to put out a newsletter or write a blog post help with particular issues. I find that when where you mention that you have taken a clients get quick results to their presenting class and now have new skills in a particular issues – particularly when those issues are

42 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PERSPECTIVES gnarly and have not been met with success with senior faculty who have evolved this transformative Rolfing [SI] and Trauma from other modalities – then they are quite work beyond Ida Rolf’s legacy in a way that class, based on the work of Peter Levine. likely to talk about it and refer their friends. expands our domain while still keeping it Portlanders are also looking forward to So this type of CE class can really boost uniquely Rolfing SI. What’s ahead on your Ron Murray’s fourth class, to be scheduled word-of-mouth referrals, once you are CE agenda? I’m taking Sharon Wheeler’s for 2014. comfortable with the skill set. The material cranial class and organizing John DeMahy’s AH: Thanks for your time, Karin, and for we learn in our basic Rolfing training, and return to Seattle to teach his cervical all the organizing you do. It’s wonderful to of course taking someone through the Ten algorithm. have all these classes available in Portland! Series, can often solve clients’ presenting KW: I’m digging in for a fresh tissue issues, but it may take longer, or we may Anne Hoff has a Rolfing practice in Seattle, dissection class with Jeff Burch and Todd not get the results we would like. The very Washington, and has begun to organize Garcia, as well as the fifth and final class in specific knowledge we get from these Rolfing CE classes there. Contact her at anne@ Jeff’s Visceral Manipulation for Structural practical classes makes our work very wholebodyintegration.com to be added to the Integrators series. I hope to do another efficient and enhances our ability to explain mailing list for classes. Karin Edwards Wagner visceral class with Liz Gaggini when to clients exactly what is going on. keeps a list of SI practitioners who like to take the time is right. And I’m excited to be classes in Portland, Oregon, and you may email KW: Yes, those nuts-and-bolts classes hosting Lael Keen in January 2014 for her her at [email protected]. probably have a more immediate impact on Practice Building, while other classes are about long-term skill development such as quality of touch, presence, how to strategize our work, and so on. This is more “the art of Rolfing [SI],” and it encompasses Eight Days in the Mountains everything that makes our work special and different from other modalities. While Bringing SI into a Buddhist Meditation Retreat some classes have this art as their entire By Will Johnson, Certified Rolfer™; Diana Newby, Certified Rolfer; and focus, others offer both nuts-and-bolts and Jackie Ashley, MA, BC-DMT, LPC more far-reaching skill sets. I’d say that’s true about Sharon Wheeler’s scar class, Editor’s Note: Over the years, this Journal has published articles by Will Johnson and reviews of if only because it is intrinsic to how she various of his books. This past spring Johnson led an eight-day Buddhist retreat that focused on the thinks and works, and if you are watching application of Dr. Rolf’s vision of the “Line” to the practice of sitting meditation. As an integral and listening to her, there’s a lot to learn on part of the program, all participants received four sessions of structural integration (SI). The that meta level. Ironically, I’d also say it was following article shares observations from three points of view: Johnson’s perspective as teacher of true for me with Jon Martine’s neurofascial the program, Rolfer Diana Newby’s as a member of the SI team, and Jackie Ashley’s as a retreat classes, because learning to sense and work participant. (Jackie is on the faculty of the Somatic Psychology Department at Naropa University.) with the neural net was the catalyst for me Johnson will be teaching two more of these retreats in May and June of 2014, one in Colorado, the to be able to jump to a more sophisticated other in New Hampshire, and he is currently assembling his SI team. quality of touch. It’s important not to get too content with the immediately satisfying Part 1: The View from the The retreat took place from April 26 tool improvements, but also to be pushing through May 5 of 2013 and was, in a word, ourselves to grow in a larger sense. Teacher’s Seat extraordinary. First of all, let me talk about the bodywork team. When I was first Will Johnson AH: I would put the advanced Rolfing given the green light to go ahead with the ® and Rolf Movement trainings in that retreat, I decided not to actively publicize second category of “the art of Rolfing [SI].” Last year I received an invitation to teach a sitting meditation retreat high in the Sangre my need for a bodywork team, but instead Although students may come home with a simply spoke with one person who spoke lot of very specific tools, to my mind these de Cristo mountains in Crestone, Colorado at the beautiful, recently completed retreat with another person who . . . you get the longer certification programs function as idea. Within a few months I’d received not just another layer of training, but as center of the American body-oriented Buddhist teacher Reggie Ray. I share with passionate emails from SI practitioners who a new integration of our work at a higher had somehow heard about the retreat and octave of understanding and embodiment. Reggie a passion for dharma teachings that are highly body-oriented, and in really wanted to be a part of it, and our team And of course they are, on a very simplistic came together quite effortlessly. level, a practice-building step also because conversations we’ve had over the years, there are many clients who will choose a I’ve always told him that, were I to teach at And what a team! Diana Newby, Robyn Certified Advanced Rolfer over a Certified his center, I would want to bring a team of Midori, Kia Satterfield, and Theresa Zordan ® Rolfer, or a dual-trained Rolfer / Rolf Rolfers with me and for regular Rolfing SI had all received their basic training at Movement practitioner over someone with sessions to be an integral part of the the Rolf Institute®. Ben Hanawalt and just a structural background. I think we retreat. To the best of our understanding, Arisa LaFond were graduates of the Guild are blessed that the Rolf Institute® offers integrating deep bodywork with Buddhist for Structural Integration. Each of these these trainings. In some cases they are practices has never before been explored or bodyworkers, without exception, is strong virtually the only opportunity to study undertaken in this way. in presence and sensitive in touch, and all of them resonate with the notion that

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Dr. Rolf’s vision of the Line may contain contractions in the patterns of the mind can may evolve into an eventual training for some kind of transformational mystery. We begin to let go and come undone, revealing “Buddhist Bodyworkers.” all bonded very quickly as a unit, supporting a deeper, more open dimension of being What it certainly currently entails is an one another beautifully, and during the that has been here all the time (that place invitation to the greater Rolfing community to retreat – in the spirit of the bands of Wild in the very center of our center that feels so contact me ([email protected]) West outlaws who would hide out in these right when we’re able to connect with it), if you’d like to be on one of the teams at mountains – we gradually became known but that has been blanketed over by those an upcoming retreat. In the meantime, as The Gang of Thieves (as in “we steal very tensions and contractions. Breath by I encourage you to contact any of the your pain”). The Gang participated in the breath, body can come more vibrantly bodyworkers I mentioned above if you’re morning and evening meditation sessions present. Mind can become significantly interested in exploring this short series, and worked on participants in the afternoon. quieter. And like Alice dropping through especially the final session seated in the rabbit hole, transformations to our We all met in Crestone for two days prior meditation posture. They can also guide awareness of self can begin to occur. And all to the start of the retreat for a pre-retreat you in the application of alignment, of this results from the simple application of training. During those days I spoke at relaxation, and resilience as you explore the the principles of alignment, relaxation, and length about how my approach to the dimensions of the Line through the posture resilience to one’s sitting practice. Hmmm practice of sitting meditation is a direct of sitting meditation. . . . sounds to me a whole lot like what reflection of Dr. Rolf’s teachings about Rolf was suggesting would be possible for the Line and her implications that an someone truly exploring the Line. Part 2: A Rolfer’s Experience embodiment of the Line would stimulate what she would refer to as “evolutionary As the retreat progressed, and as the Diana Newby energies” which, in turn, would result in practice kept deepening, I was able to some kind of evolution of human being. sit and watch, often with amazement, as It was an amazing honor to have these people returned from their SI sessions and meditations practitioners come through What we also did during that pre-retreat resumed their sitting posture in the hall. the door each day from the silence and training was to explore a four-session Cross-legged knees that had been at the allow me to work on their bodies. I couldn’t series that I’d put together specifically for level of armpits for decades came down to believe that although none of my group had this kind of gathering that would allow the floor. Heads that had hung down and ever experienced Rolfing SI, they each took participants to receive a hands-on session far in front of the central axis of the body to the work like a fish in water. Simply put, every other day throughout the retreat. The came back up and over the torso. Bodies they came into the session room knowing first session was a sleeve session combining that listed to the right or the left came back how to be “Rolfed.” elements of hours one, two, and three of over center. And, of course, it wasn’t just the Ten Series. The second session was a Their body awareness was tremendous. a shift at the level of body. As bodies kept core session combining elements of hours They breathed deeply into where I was relaxing into an upright sitting posture, as four, five, and six. The third session was working, they shifted and moved and holding patterns softened to allow more an integration session of sorts combining stretched to enhance the work, and they and more of the body to remain in motion elements of hours eight and nine and had a sense of their Line far beyond the in response to the breath, the practices – finishing up with a seventh-hour focus on limitation of language. They had an implicit and the experiences and releases that the the head and neck. The final session, from understanding of uprightness, and how to participants were having – just kept going bottom to top, was done with the retreat rest into it. In the initial sessions, they came deeper and deeper. The most common participants sitting on their cushions in to me with a number of aches and pains that response I received, over and over again, upright meditation posture continuing to are common in the context of a meditation during private interviews with participants, explore the practice of “breathing through retreat. However, as the week progressed, was along the lines of “why, WHY wasn’t the whole body,” which the Buddha each retreatant began to give his or her this taught to me thirty years ago?!” presents in all the earliest sutras (but which body life with subtle waves of motion as is rarely, if ever, explored or taught in any So . . . where do we go from here? I’ve the breath flowed through. They let go of of the current schools or lineages). already been tentatively invited to teach the “shoulds” of the dharma and honored two more of these eight-day retreats next that to be blissfully alive is to move. And The multiple, body-oriented focus that I year, one in Colorado in May, and another they quickly caught onto this concept. By bring to the practice of breathing through at a Buddhist center in New Hampshire allowing the subtle shifts and movements the whole body consists of the alignment in June. I have long believed that the while meditating and breathing with the of the upright torso, the relaxation/ Buddhist dharma and Rolf’s vision of the entire body, they could communicate to surrendering-of-the-weight-of-the-body- transformational dimensions of the Line me so clearly what was happening in to-gravity that alignment allows, the hold a missing key to each other’s path of their experience. It was truly a rewarding awakening of the felt vibratory presence of inquiry, and certainly the Buddhist world experience since it was an authentically the body, the understanding that every joint is starting to open to and embrace this collaborative effort. They came into the in a relaxed body can move – constantly, possibility. As there may very likely be sessions each day with the desire to deepen subtly – in resilient response to the force of an increasing demand from the Buddhist their practice. the breath that wants to pass through the world for this kind of retreat, the Gang of body like a wave passing through water. By As a result of the context within which Thieves will need to grow. Perhaps this paying attention to these somatic potentials, we were providing the SI sessions, many tensions in the tissues of the body and transformations occurred during the retreat.

44 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org PERSPECTIVES

People were ready to resolve some of the benches, and various things to support our into something less uncomfortable. It pain in their spiritual lives, utilizing body, bodies and our practice. We are encouraged often works, but another sensation arises mind, and soul. When coming from a place to move and support ourselves, as moving to replace it (and the chorus of emotions of such openness and vulnerability, it took is our nature as humans. “We are perpetual and commentary on it all). Discipline and very little guidance, and they transformed. movers, we humans,” Will reminds us. perseverance in your practice were how As mentioned, it was an honor to be with Though physically moving about the room you would arrive at a state of emptiness or them in their process and fascinating as a is not what I think the instructed intention freedom from disturbing emotions. This Rolfer to have clients accessing their Line was, this seemed to be what is happening. was the litany. It wasn’t until Will spoke as a result of their dharma practice. We finally settle, for the most part. I have of how meditation practice adheres to the an image of us all, our hunter/gatherer culture within which it lands that I was able Part 3: ancestors’ blood still coursing through us, to expand my attitude a bit and contemplate this little tribe, finding our place within this more deeply. A Retreatant’s Experience the community, collecting what we need Our culture asks us to work hard and to be comfortable as we go along, finding Jackie Ashley accomplish, to push through the challenges our place to rest within the space where that confront us to be able to succeed. we could commit to being. But we are I have been waiting a long time for this And this is how we, here in the West, stuck with this tribe, this group, like our retreat. Years . . . maybe a decade? practice meditation for the most part. ancestors, we need to work it out. I have But what about surrender, allowing, and Will Johnson is somewhat of an icon never had this freedom in any of the many curiosity? Where do they fit within that act for me. I have been teaching from his retreats I’ve experienced. Here I was able of discipline? Like the breath that moves book The Posture of Meditation for many to choose my seat, my place, gather more between the hard bone and soft striations of years to students in the first year of the than I had brought with me and within muscle. There is space there. Can discipline Masters in Somatic Psychology program that spot, I found and experienced even mean taking care of ourselves/bodies? I had at Naropa University. And I am finally in more freedom in the realm of “stillness.” to be shocked into relaxing/allowing by Will his presence and beginning an eight-day I had space. retreat to deepen, from my own personal simply asking, “Why be in excruciating experience, meditating with my body with Settling in, the teachings deepen into the pain when you can choose not to?” This his guidance. profound challenge of relaxation, letting resonated so strongly, not just with how I go, and listening to the body speak its relate to my body in practice, but with my I have expectations, hopes, excitement, needs, express its shimmering sensations, emotional states as well. Will also reminded and trepidation. And from my first journal and allowing the “primal contraction” us that it is a cultural condition to be lost entry – gratitude; the retreat is silent; it is a to release its hold on our being. “Primal and absorbed in thought and thus not small group of people of whom I know – no contraction” . . . I wrote this down present to our bodies. one. It is all ages and genders, its schedule numerous times. I explored this phrase As a somatic psychotherapist, I know that is full days of practice, and it is in the with Will’s initial set intention for our our experiences and memories are held in most beautiful of shrine rooms at Blazing time together: “We will find the places we our bodies, especially those that are extreme Mountain retreat center in Crestone, are holding/resisting and play with their and trauma-based. When we try and “just Colorado, with the vast view out across release.” This came to me as a subtle sense talk it out,” session after session, things the San Luis valley. One of my favorite of deep embarrassment in being a human don’t change that much or our experiences places in the whole world. And, as part of being, of being who I am. And the effort turn into debilitating illness or chronic the schedule, regular bodywork sessions. that takes in our culture. Many humans get health problems. These things have been I don’t actually get the profundity of this to this question in their lives, but we who documented and confirmed in the studies until I show up for one. practice meditation often come to it and on neuroscience and the biology of emotion. explore it in retreat. It’s hard work. Will I bring with me, as I begin to sit, a familiar And this is why a body-based meditation jokes with us, reminding us that “nobody aversion to people and a self-judging state of practice is so important at this time, in this throws us a parade for doing this . . .” And mind; embarrassment, jealousy and coming place. Because as I, and those around me, in this retreat, I experience and witness the off of a deep hurt by a family member; very began to lay down and surrender, healing Herculean effort it takes to allow ourselves familiar and rather disturbing. Some things happened. The body, when allowed to to surrender to our bodies as the primary just don’t seem to change all that much. relax, can release long-held emotion. It just teacher and guide in this quest. That, and the pain in my mid-back and right began – the crying and shaking of many of hip; here I am, again, practicing being with The Herculean effort manifests, for me, us. We were held and allowed, in the silence these old friends. in the invitation to lie down when my and support of flooding sunlight and Will I move about the first few days, trying to body aches or is tired. I always start my atop his huge pile of cushions, to rest. To find my place, indulging in my aversion students on the floor, on their backs, but experience the “unified field of sensation,” to wiggling, coughing, nose-blowing, and to just lie down when my body wanted to where there is no separation between our crying. As well as the beeps and hums of in a formal retreat? It’s embarrassing. So experience of body/mind/emotion/feeling. the sound system. And this is OK – really? many years of retreats where I was told or My tears were often those of humility and Lots of people are moving their cushions expected to work with my body’s painful gratitude, acknowledging the simplicity around the room each session, and as we sensations through breathing, exploring, and power of this simple act of meditation move about, we all collect more cushions, or just tolerating them until they transform and the invitation to its supine version. The

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 45 INSTITUTE NEWS simple act of allowing ourselves to rest. It ® was a hard paradigm shift, from the rigid, The Rolf Institute static, upright posture we are instructed to hold, to laying down. Despite my earlier attempts to move within the posture and Membership Conference 2013 my instructions to my students to move The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (RISI) held its Membership Conference August 9-11 within the upright posture, there is nothing in Boulder, Colorado. Below are two reports, one from a Rolfer™ and the Membership Chair, the more profoundly releasing than allowing other from a current Rolfing® Structural Integration student. ourselves to fully surrender to gravity and rest. Synopsis of the donations and was further supported by We walked in beauty outside, exaggerating the Hotel Boulderado’s complimentary food the bobbing of our heads to loosen that Membership Conference and beverages, which saved RISI $2,000. The holy sphere from its rigid attachment chef’s “divine pairings” were much noted to our necks. Our eyes were invited to By Audrey McCann, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Membership Chair by the foodie Rolfers in attendance and view vastly and in an unfocused way included: salmon paired with cucumber what was in front of us. As we did this, The Membership Conference, held at the infused water; pears with champagne; we could not get absorbed in thought. Hotel Boulderado, seamlessly unfolded chocolate mousse paired with port; and As with our experiences of sensations, an starting with an opening “meet and greet” coffee paired with chocolates! The “pairings” unfocused view allowed for our experience with food, cocktails, and piano music. We were a compliment to what we do as Rolfers, to be present-moment-based – the basis then gathered to listen to opening night pairing structure and function. for the experience of emptiness and self- plenary speaker Jeff Maitland, PhD and realization. Merging the fields of sensation, Festivities continued with a buffet, Advanced Rolfing Structural Integration sight, and movement. We were introduced networking opportunities, and the (SI) Instructor. His topic was “The Being to some of the ancient Tibetan practices traditional dance party with live music. of Rolfing® SI” and the audience sat in of Kum Nye, as taught by Tarthung Tulku. We danced late into the night despite hotel rapt attention as Maitland spoke about the These practices were created to help and management interrupting us twice to be interconnectedness and transformational support the body in long-term retreats. quieter and start wrapping it up! qualities of our work and how to bring that And we had four bodywork sessions. Here, “being” into our own practices. Sunday morning began with plenary again, I surrender to gravity upon a table, speaker Karl Humiston’s “Rolfing SI where a Rolfing practitioner lays her skilled Saturday morning’s plenary speaker and the Healthcare Wars: Tales from the hands upon my body to physically release Thomas Findley, MD, PhD, Certified Battlefront.” The talk centered on topics and elongate the muscles that were holding Advanced Rolfer, was met with interest of healthcare, career, psychology, and the me back and resisting my desire for further and thoughtful questions. Findley’s talk events in Humiston’s professional life that freedom. During these sessions, I would encouraged and challenged Rolfers of eventually led him to his career-changing go into dream states that took me though all experience levels to increase their decision to become a Rolfer and incorporate the rooms of my childhood home or on the interest in their own inquiries for research Rolfing work into his psychiatric practice. back of a running sorrel mare across the opportunities and data collection regarding vast expanse of Mongolia. After my body fascia work based on Dr. Rolf’s principles. Next, the Excellence in Research Award was sessions, my journals were dream entries. The morning’s breakout session speakers presented to Robert Schleip, PhD, Rolfing were Rolfers Karl Humiston (“The Peroneal instructor, and fascial researcher, with As our last day neared, I clearly deepened Foot-Pointing Spiral”), Tessy Brungardt Schleip linked in from Germany through into Will’s reminder of the eleventh-century (“The Hand in Detail” on arm and hand videoconferencing. Faculty colleague Tibetan teacher Tilopa’s original words disorganization), and Cathy Ulrich Michael Murphy presented the award about meditation: “Do nothing with the (“Fibromyalgia Considerations and the with words of appreciation for Schleip’s body but relax.” When we can do this, we Rolfing SI Method”). Afternoon breakout invaluable research on fascia and his naturally feel the dharma and we have presenters were Rolfers Brooke Thomas successes for the advancement of Rolfing the foundation for a full experience of our (“Practice Abundance: Jump Start Your SI for the present and future generations. own true nature. “Allow, notice, let go, Practice”) and Thomas Walker (“Accessing Attendees were also able to greet and and relax” – these are the pointing-out the Fluid Body, a Pathway to Wholeness”), thank Schleip via a panned camera view instructions of the great Tibetan masters. and Lidia Garner, RN, MS, CWCN, COCN several times during the presentation. Realization can occur through the body in (“Wounds: Types, Treatments, Healing and Schleip spoke about his research along these simple yet challenging instructions. Scar Management”). with the latest work being completed, and It happens without effort. And we often voiced his appreciation and gratitude to the miss it. Since this retreat, I now live in a The evening’s first event was a wine- and membership and attendees for the award. different place of understanding when I chocolate-tasting fundraiser to benefit the practice. I live in that place where I trust RISI library: to continue the work of Dr. Afternoon breakout session presenters those shimmering moments of subtle body Rolf, preserve the archives currently held in were Rolfers Ellen Freed (“The Layers sensation as the potential to awakening, and the library, and support the future growth of Our Body”), Georgette Delvaux, DC that surrendering to gravity and to rest is a of the library. The event raised $1,400 in (“How Understanding Your Clients’ Health gift not to be denied. Problems Makes you a Better Rolfer”), and

46 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org INSTITUTE NEWS Keith Economidis, MSOM, LAc (“Sinew What I Learned At My personal and honest statement about who I Channels and Fascial Planes: One Rolfer’s am and what I want for my future clients. ® Perspective”). First Rolfing Conference From Thomas Findley and Karl Humiston, Sunday’s closing presentation was yet By Tom Robinson I learned to think about how I could work another energetic speaker: Master Chen, with a much wider set of clients than I a Taoist teacher who operates a temple in I came to the 2013 Membership Conference expected, including veterans and even Estes Park, Colorado. Chen discussed the as a student. I was one week from beginning pedophiles. Findley talked about how importance of nurturing the health of the Phase II, and I’d completed about seventy- Rolfers gained official status as practitioners healer and outlined simple steps for the five hours of Skillful Touch over the previous of complementary medicine at VA deliberate and sacred care of ourselves as four months. I wanted to learn more about hospitals on the East Coast, accomplishing humans, Rolfers, and a healing profession. what experienced Rolfers™ were doing considerable changes in their work with Chen revealed that this type of focus on self- and see how it would help me with what I veterans. Humiston told how pedophiles care leads to a stronger practice and healing was doing. Well, it helped me much more he worked with did not realize the effect of ability for Rolfers and our clients. [Many than I expected, and I had expected a lot! I’ll their actions until Rolfing sessions helped Rolfers will know Stacey Mills’s paper discuss here what I learned. them into a sense of embodiment. “Self-care for Rolfers”.] Chen then led the From opening speaker Jeff Maitland, From Keith Economidis, I learned to think of audience in a series of simple exercises to I learned that you can give a talk that Rolfing SI alongside acupuncture as another increase energy, vitality, and general health. so engages your audience that it takes integrative modality. This was reassuring, One particularly nice feature of this participants to a renewed and united place. as I have been practicing Skillful Touch conference was the large number of students And when you’re really good, sometimes out of an acupuncture clinic. I thought who attended, and as one of the organizers you can do Rolfing Structural Integration (SI) Economidis’s breakout session offered the I was pleased that many Rolfers and faculty sessions on people over the phone. start of an ambitious review of how many members appreciated the presentations and different medicines and therapies can From Tessy Brungardt, I learned I could overall flow of the conference. complement, enhance, or replace established work out the Dupuytren’s contractures in allopathic approaches. We are already planning the 2015 my wife’s left hand, because I watched her Membership Conference, tentatively do it in five minutes to another Rolfer after And in the closing ceremony, I learned from scheduled for August 7-9. We are improving her very enlightening breakout session on Taoist Master Chen that I can run an internal the format and time frame so that there the hand. non-radioactive, full-body scan, to help will be two full lecture days presented diagnose whatever is going on in my body. From Brooke Thomas’ breakout session, in a format that will allow attendees to I learned that the first and best way to Tom Robinson has been a management consultant participate in every session offered. We look build my future Rolfing practice is to tell for thirty years, and before that a wilderness forward to your attendance. people why I’m a Rolfer, not what Rolfing guide. He received a PhD in Education from SI is about. What a relief! I’m now trying to Stanford in 1987. He received most of his Ten draft copy for a website that captures why Series from Jan Sultan in 1971-1972. Tom lives I’m becoming a Rolfer: this becomes a more in Seattle.

Congratulations to the New Graduates

ABR – May 2013 Faculty: Monica Caspari (Instructor), Johannes Freiberg (Assistant) Students: Lisa Barr, Luc Lippuner, Matt Lombard, Emily Savage, Max Treinen, Andrea Zeger USA – August 2013 Faculty: Ray McCall (Instructor), Robert McWilliams (Assistant), Merlin Madrid (Assistant) Students: Aaron Alexander, Jackie Ames, Stephané André, Sarah Berckman, Gerald Caffrey, Marnie Deford, Glenda Garcia, Tylan Hadlock, Glenn Janke, Michal Kapic, Rebecca Korfhagen, Jiro Kuroda, Myrian Luz Lopez Ortiz, Erik Mackelprang, Eric Maklan, Beth McNeill, Jill Motley, Ashley Quinn, Fawn Sewell, Rich Stone, Jeanne Vadnais, Emily Willis, Amy Willman ERA – September 2013 Faculty: Gerhard Hesse (Instructor), Students: Detlef Bickel, Anna Folkhard, Tanja Irle, Heinrich Langschied, Michael Lerch, Margarete Mate – Di Pasquale, Susan Michel, Claudia Trächsel

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / December 2013 47 INSTITUTE NEWS Class Schedule

BASIC TRAINING BALI ROLF MOVEMENT CERTIFICATION Phase I - Foundations of Rolfing BOULDER, COLORADO, USA Structural Integration UNITED STATES ® Phase I: Foundations of Rolfing February 17 – March 28, 2014 Structural Integration Instructor: Fernando Bertolucci Embodiment and Intervention: Grounding and The Lower Extremity January 27 –March 10, 2014 Coordinator: Adam Mentzell GERMANY January 20-26, 2014 Instructor: Mary Bond April 14 – May 26, 2014 Phase III Coordinator: Adam Mentzell The Jaye & Harrington Flow Weekend: September 1 – October 13, 2014 February 10 – April 3, 2014 The Aesthetics of Balanced Movement: Coordinator: Meg Maurer Instructor: Harvey Burns Flow in Our Work & Our Lives Phase I: Accelerated Foundations of March 7, 8 & 9, 2014 SOUTH AFRICA Instrutors: Jane Harrington & Vivian Jaye with Rolfing Structural Integration guest instructor Suzanne Picard Unit II March 16 – March 31, 2014 Instructor: Michael Polon Breathing, Walking and Being: April 7 – May 30, 2014 Embodiment and Intervention: June 22 – July 7, 2014 Instructor: TBA Movement Education for Instructor: Suzanne Picard Structural Integration Practitioners Unit III and Somatic Educators Phase II: Embodiment of Rolfing Structural Integration September 1 – October 24, 2014 March 16-21, 2014 & Rolf Movement® Integration Instructor: TBA Instrutor: Mary Bond

January 13 – March 6, 2014 ADVANCED TRAINING The Fundamentals of Instructors: Kevin McCoy & Michael Murphy Rolf Movement Integration: Principles Instructor: Rebecca Carli-Mills Enhancing Practitioner Skills LOS ANGELES, CA, USA May 12 – July 3, 2014 Part I: May 12-16 / 19-22, 2014 Instructors: Bethany Ward & Larry Koliha Part II: March 10-27, 2014 Part II: September 15-19 / 22-25, 2014 Principles Instructor: Jane Harrington Instructor: Jan Sultan w/Lael Keen Instructors: Carol Ann Agneessens & Suzanne Picard August 18 – October 9, 2014 CHARLESTOWN, WV, USA Instructor: Thomas Walker Perceptive Core Stability: Stability Principles Instructor: Carol Agneessens September 19-23, 2014 Work to Complement the Rolfing Series October 20 – December 18, 2014 October 24-28, 2014 June 25 – July 1, 2014 Instructors: Valerie Berg & Ellen Freed December 5-9, 2014 Instructor: Kevin Frank Principles Instructor: Kevin Frank January 16-20, 2015 March 7-10, 2015 Phase III: Clinical Application Instructors: Tessy Brungardt & Jon Martine BRAZIL of Rolfing Theory January 20 – February 28, 2014 Instructor: Monica Caspari January 20 – March 14, 2014 Instructor: Juan David Velez Anatomy Instructor: Michael Murphy March 24 – May 16, 2014 Instructor: Ray McCall Anatomy Instructor: John Schewe June 16 – August 8, 2014 Instructor: Libby Eason Anatomy Instructor: Juan David Velez October 20 – December 19, 2014 Instructor: Ray McCall Anatomy Instructor: Jon Martine

48 Structural Integration / December 2013 www.rolf.org Contacts

OFFICERS & THE ROLF INSTITUTE® EUROPEAN ROLFING BOARD OF DIRECTORS 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 ASSOCIATION E.V. Boulder, CO 80301 Patricia Pyrka, Executive Director Kevin McCoy (Faculty/Chairperson) (303) 449-5903 Saarstrasse 5 (262) 337-1530 (800) 530-8875 80797 Munchen [email protected] (303) 449-5978 fax Germany www.rolf.org Peter Bolhuis (At-large/CFO) +49-89 54 37 09 40 [email protected] (303) 449-2800 +49-89 54 37 09 42 fax [email protected] www.rolfing.org ROLF INSTITUTE STAFF [email protected] Nicholas French (Western USA/Secretary) Diana Yourell, Executive Director (214) 357-7571 Jim Jones, Director of Education JAPANESE ROLFING [email protected] Vanessa Gordillo, Assistant to Education Pat Heckmann, Manager of Membership ASSOCIATION Linda Grace (At-large) Gena Rauschke, Accountant Akiko Shiina, Foreign Liaison (215) 985-1263 Trace’ Scheidt, Enrollment Manager/ Omotesando Plaza 5th Floor [email protected] Financial Aid Officer 5-17-2 Minami Aoyama Minato-ku Tokyo, 107-0062 Benjamin Gunning (Central USA) Ray Viggiano, Clinic Coordinator Japan (414) 336-8107 Linda Weber, Office Manager www.rolfing.or.jp [email protected] Carah Wertheimer, Admissions Advisor Susan Winter, Manager of Marketing & PR [email protected] Ron McComb (Eastern USA) (503) 226-7653 AUSTRALIAN GROUP CANADIAN ROLFING [email protected] The Rolf Institute ASSOCIATION Michael Murphy (Faculty) 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Kai Devai, Administrator (650) 559-7653 Boulder, CO 80301 615 - 50 Governor’s Rd. [email protected] USA Dundas, ONT L9H 5M3 (303) 449-5903 Canada Maria Helena (Lena) Orlando (800) 530-8875 (416) 804-5973 (International/CID) (303) 449-5978 fax (905) 648-3743 fax +55-11 3819-0153 www.rolfing.org.au www.rolfingcanada.org [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Hubert Ritter (Europe/Past Chair) +49-30-4435 7473 ® [email protected] BRAZILIAN ROLFING ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Dayane Paschoal, Administrator Peter Bolhuis R. Cel. Arthur de Godoy, 83 Kevin McCoy Vila Mariana Nicholas French 04018-050-São Paulo-SP Brazil EDUCATION EXECUTIVE +55-11-5574-5827 +55-11-5539-8075 fax COMMITTEE www.rolfing.com.br Russell Stolzoff, Chair [email protected] Duffy Allen Valerie Berg Ellen Freed Jörg Ahrend-Löns, ERA Rebecca Carli, Movement Faculty Ray McCall, Interim FDRB Liaison Michael Murphy, Faculty Rep to the Board Suzanne Picard, Phase I Faculty Pedro Prado, ABR Jan Sultan, Advanced Faculty Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Boulder, CO OF STRUCTUR A L I N T E G R ATIO N Permit No. 782 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Boulder, CO 80301