tructural ntegration S ® I THE JOURNAL OF THE ROLF INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION: THE JOURNAL OF ® THE ROLF INSTITUTE FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 2 September 2017 Vol. 45, No. 3 COLUMNS Ask the Faculty: Working with Children 3 PUBLISHER ® The Rolf Institute of ROLFING SI FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN Structural Integration Rolfing SI for Babies, Children, and Families 7 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Robert Toporek Boulder, CO 80301 USA Furthering Ida’s Vision: Karen Price Speaks 12 (303) 449-5903 About Rolfing® SI for Children (303) 449-5978 Fax Marie Terrill and Karen Price Changing the Trajectory of Life 16 EDITORIAL BOARD Briah Anson with Anne Hoff Anne F. Hoff, Editor-in-Chief Shonnie Carson, Lineage Editor What We Have in Our Hands: When Parents of Newborns 21 Assent to the Rolfing Touch Szaja Gottlieb, Research/Science Editor Lina Hack Linda Loggins, Movement Editor Heidi Massa, Latin America Editor Considerations for Sessions for Newborns with Feeding Issues 24 Keren’Or Pézard, Arts Editor Rebecca Lisak John Schewe, Faculty Liason Developmental Torsion in the Long Bones of the Leg 27 Matt Walker, Asia/Pacific Editor Jeffrey Burch Naomi Wynter-Vincent, Europe Editor A Compilation of Practitioner Stories on Working with Children 30 Diana Cary Deanna Melnychuk, Patty Murphy, Felisa Holmberg, Lynn Cohen Szaja Charles Gottlieb, Cheryl Van Der Horn, Laura Barnes, Craig Ellis Mélanie Holt, Steven Radiloff, Heidi Massa, Karin Edwards Wagner, Lina Hack Linda Loggins, Allan Kaplan, and Max Leyf Treinen Dorothy Miller Meg Maurer PERSPECTIVES Deanna Melnychuk The Mystery of Consciousness Is the Mystery of the Body 36 Max Leyf Treinen Anne Hoff and Jeffrey Maitland

LAYOUT AND REVIEW 39 GRAPHIC DESIGN Into the Fibrillar Jungle with Dr. Guimberteau: Susan Winter A Review and Exegesis of Architecture of Human Living Fascia Szaja Gottlieb Articles in Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute® represent the CONTACTS 42 views and opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions or teachings of the Rolf Institute Cover photo of Dr. Rolf by Ron Thompson. Used with permission. of Structural Integration. The Rolf Institute reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to accept or reject any article for publication in Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute.

Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Institute® (ISBN-13: 978-0997956948, ISSN 1538-3784) is published by the Rolf Institute, 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103, Boulder, CO 80301.

Copyright ©2017 Rolf Institute. All rights reserved. Duplication in whole or in part in any form is prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

“Rolfing®,” “Rolf Movement®,” “Rolfer™,” and the Little Boy Logo are service marks of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Some Rolfers™ have made infants and children a particular focus of their work; others are led into working with kids after becoming parents; and others merely by happenstance – a client asking, “Can I bring my child in?” In this issue of Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute®, we are pleased to share some of the many stories and understandings that have come about through this particular application of our work. Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) for children goes back to Ida Rolf herself. She worked with many children as she developed and taught her work, and students in Rolf’s early trainings often saw her work with children firsthand. One of the children became the ‘model’ for the Little Boy Logo – used by Rolfers and the Rolf Institute to this day as an elegant symbol for the power of Rolfing sessions to align the body in gravity. Rolf gave particular attention to Rolfing SI for kids towards the end of her life when she initiated a project in Philadelphia that became the subject of a monograph, The Promise of Rolfing Children, and an award-winning documentary of the same name, both by Rolfer Robert Toporek. Since Rolf’s passing, it has become a tradition to host free or low-cost children’s clinics on May 19, Rolf’s birthday, as both a tribute to our founder and a chance to continue her legacy of working with children.

Little Boy Logo

We start our theme with contributions from Robert Toporek, Karen Price, and Briah Anson, who each have decades of experience working with infants and children. We then hear about work with newborns from Lina Hack and Rebecca Lisak, followed by Jeffrey Burch’s contribution on developmental patterns in the legs, and then a compilation of anecdotes and wisdom from more than a dozen members of our professional community. Besides the articles that comprise this theme on Rolfing SI for Infants and Children, we also share one of our Advanced Rolfing Faculty interviews, this time with Jeffrey Maitland. We close with a discussion, by our Research Editor Szaja Gottlieb, of the groundbreaking fascial work of French surgeon Jean-Claude Guimberteau.

Anne F. Hoff Editor-in-Chief

2 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org COLUMNS

depth, duration) of my touch. Or I simply Ask the Faculty work somewhere else. I also found that working with children Working with Children often requires working with the parents, Q: For most of us, our everyday clientele for Rolfing® Structural Integration particularly in the case of girls (mainly) and (SI) is largely comprised of adults coming in for issues of pain, posture, and/or boys with scoliosis. Parents are worried, body optimization. However, parents sometimes bring infants and children to concerned, and they would like to see their receive work, either for particular issues or to support their development. Can daughter or son “straight.” On the other you share something from your understanding or experience related to working side, the kids receive a clear message that with children? something is wrong within themselves, and sometimes they have a lot of confusion because they feel healthy but have to see A: I very much like working with children Another episode I remember very well doctors and finally meet this Rolfer who is and work with infants, children, and pre- was an eighteen-month-old boy who was going to change their body and they don’t adolescents. In my Basic Training, during walking with one foot inverted and, because really have any need for it. So I normally the auditing phase (yes, it was during of this, often stumbling. Here I used very tell the parents that the work will ‘work’ that time, the ‘Stone Age’ of Rolfing SI), helpful information from Anne’s teaching. better (or only) if the kid wants to change, Stacey Mills – our Rolfing instructor – had Sessions were about forty minutes, with and understands what to change. The kid organized an afternoon with children of about fifteen minutes of ‘real’ work – as may see that s/he has one shoulder lower different ages, from babies to children of the child sat on the floor playing with his than the other, but doesn’t feel crooked, eight to ten years. We did not receive many toys or looking at color books; as he sat in and then s/he has to wear a corset for the guidelines about what to do with those his mother’s or my lap; with me walking scoliosis which pushes her or him into kids; what I remember is that we basically behind him, waiting for him to pause . . a weird position, so s/he resists . . . and waited for the kids to come to us. The one . After five or six ‘sessions’, his foot was the fight starts. I start with a few Rolfing who approached me was autistic, so I spent straighter and, most important, he was not sessions where I aim to establish rapport some time making contact. stumbling anymore. and work to enhance the adaptability of Later, I attended a ‘children workshop’ In working with infants, I’ve always loved the child’s structure. When s/he starts to with Anne Koeller Wilmking, a Advanced the way they negotiate with me and my understand and embody the work, I ask Rolfer™, pediatrician, and homeopath. touch, without words. The boy I just the child to bring the corset. Then the work There I got a lot of information about mentioned, I remember once I was working is having the client sitting in front of the what to do with children and, most of in the area of his hip rotators (meaning him mirror and moving, shaping so that the all, what not to do: when it was not sitting on my fingers for a few minutes – or spine untwists, until he or she feels, sees, necessary to work because it was a simple seconds) – until he turned his head, looked and perceives the difference between what developmental pattern. For instance, for at me, and pushed my hands away. He if familiar and what is possible. Then I ask flat feet there is an easy test that shows if seemed to be saying, “It is done.” And it the child to put on the corset, feeling the the child’s feet are truly flat or not. Just ask was done. So I’m waiting for a sign of “Yes, places where it rigidly pushes the ribs or the child stand up on his toes and watch do it” in a smile, and respecting when the pelvis or lumbar spine. I invite the child to if the medial arch appears. We watched child communicates that “it’s over now” by, allow the corset’s push, without resisting, Anne work on kids during the workshop, for example, changing position. and evoke with my hands the sensation that and it was very inspiring. Recently I took we got before, the untwisting of the spine. Working with children who have gained a class with a Dutch osteopath, René With this, an armistice can take place. verbal skills has taught me a lot about Zweedijk, about working with babies. It their creativity; they describe how they Normally kids start and complete the work, was also very inspiring, even if I haven’t feel with superb and concrete clarity, as in but that does not mean that they receive the yet developed confidence in working with this exchange: Ten Series. I almost never follow the ‘Recipe’ newborn babies. with these young clients. I tend to work Me: “Do you feel any difference between But I did have the opportunity to try to put where the ‘problem’ is, with my Rolfing this part of your thorax where I just his teachings into practice; the youngest eyes and Rolfing touch, to help gravity to worked compared to the other?” baby I worked with was a six-month-old flow. A couple of times it has happened girl. How it came about was that an old Roberto: “Differences? Not at all!” that I ask a child, “Do you really want to client of mine came for postpartum work, continue? It seems to me that your mom Me: “Do you have images of your and I learned that her baby was only is wasting her money and time,” because thorax?” sleeping for very short periods, two to three I could not see or perceive any change hours maximum. I told her to bring the Roberto: “Of course: this is like the sun and/or interest in changing. There was an baby and that I would try my best based on and that like the moon.” unspoken conflict between the child and what I had learned from René. The baby felt the parents, and it was between us in the asleep in her mother’s lap during my work, What I found very often with children work, preventing the child from accepting and it seems she stayed quiet all day. I have is that even if there is a tough place in the work and receiving it in his or her body not heard more from them, because they their fascial system, it rarely hurts. If they to let go of a pattern. live in Belgium. complain, I stop and change something in the QQDDD (quality, quantity, direction,

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 3 COLUMNS

What really touches me is when one of these Umbilical shock / colic in infants: 1) An situations, recognizing the possibility of individuals comes back several years later, overlooked impact in infants (continuing umbilical shock and integrating a depth now a young man or woman. through adulthood) is the incidence of of motility around the umbilicus seemed umbilical shock. If the cord was wrapped to address their concerns. The umbilicus is Sometime working with adults, it seems to around the fetus through pregnancy, if the not just a physical manifestation. It is the me that I see and feel the memory of their environment surrounding the pregnancy connecting cord to our world, to our origins childhood in the shape of the cranium, in was toxic due to drug or alcohol abuse, and ancestry. It is a potent site along the the pattern of the breath, in the shape of rape, or other impacts, or if the cord is central channel and anterior midline of the the feet. cut before pulsing has eased, there may body. The umbilicus functions as a fulcrum Pierpaola Volpones be shock to the intestinal and respiratory for intestinal motility. Threading through Rolfing Instructor systems and often sleeping problems in the intestinal looping is the vagus nerve, Rolf Movement® Instructor the infant. 2) Umbilical shock is often providing neural communication to the at the root of colic and other intestinal entire system. When the umbilicus is free A: In most of my client intake interviews, problems continuing through adulthood. to function as the orienting center for the I ask about the birth process and the Around week five or six of embryological intestinal track and mid-gut development, it mother’s health in pregnancy. Particularly, development, the intestinal system begins ignites the system with potency and vitality, there are a few main issues that I may need developing outside of the embryo due to supporting instinctual knowing from the to address when ‘working’ with infants: the ‘lack of room’ within the abdominal brain within the belly and contributing to 1) birth-lie patterns / craniosacral strains; area. Through a process called physiological integrated wholeness. 2) breech babies, and medical intervention herniation, the mid-gut loop rotates about Breech birth, and medical interventions including cesarean births, forceps / vacuum 90 degrees counterclockwise around the in the birth process: 1) Vacuum extractions extraction; 3) umbilical shock (including axis of the superior mesenteric artery into have replaced earlier forceps interventions. wrapping) / intestinal distress (colic). I’ll go the umbilical cord. Around week ten, the Both are shocking to the fetus (and continue into more detail below. For the session, I’ll intestines return to the abdomen. I have to hold cranial/neurological impact most often ask the mother to lay down with found issues related to this process, as well into adulthood). Emergency measures the infant (supine) at her side as I work. as the shock of cord-cutting, to be present performed at birth often interrupt secure Mother and babe are one. in many adults as well as infants. When attachment and bonding of infant to mother. considering the elements and goals of a Birth-lie patterns and cranial strains: The oxytocin flow is often interrupted due traditional Fifth Hour Rolfing session, this There are always strains to the cranium to the drugs and pain of these interventions. embryological information can play a key as the fetus works her way through the In vacuum extractions, an abnormal force role in understanding the dynamics of an birth canal. Due to the unique shape of a is placed upon the fetal cranium. The great individual’s digestive concerns. mother’s pelvis, the fetus’ birth-lie position, cerebral aqueduct is sucked headward. medical intervention, or hours in labor, To go into this a bit more, I’ve noticed Membranous strains from this force may there can be extreme cranial pressures and/ that many adult clients have abdominal prevent the aqueduct from returning to or shock to the newborn. These pressures issues even though they may not identify its normal position and may interfere induce a shock response in the fetal their complaints as digestive disturbances. throughout the lifetime in the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid, cranium, and axial In palpation, I feel for tight, hard, or cerebrospinal fluid and healthy function of complex. An infant may have experienced knotted internal structures versus an easy the third and fourth ventricle. 2) I find that strong compressive forces accompanied motility spiraling around the fulcrum children born with C-section (cesarean) by a sense of ‘emergency’ in the birthing of the umbilicus. There is a difference births need to complete their passage room. If an infant’s cranium shows strain between toning of the belly musculature – though the birth canal. This may take the patterns, gently work to ease the vectors of transversus and obliques – and hardness of form of an infant wanting to crawl through impact the cranium reveals. Understand the intestinal wrappings within; these are and around the mother’s legs, pressing his or her birth-lie pattern. Gently work distinct layers. Surgical scarring, adhesions through narrow passages, or pushing his to reshape the cranial bones and gently from menstrual cramping or illness, head into physioballs or walls. Completion engage compressive force vectors, opening issues of anorexia/bulimia, or/and other of the head-to-tail relationship is crucial pathways that may be impinging on cranial medical interventions can impact intestinal for orientation through his lifetime. nerves needed for sucking, swallowing, resilience over time. Umbilical shock can 3) Breech births produce compressive forces and orientation to sound. The vagal nerve be an aspect of abdominal/digestive issues. on the temporal bones and may lead to complex and its branches need to have This ‘shock’ to the system is not necessarily ear and Eustachian tube problems and a clear pathway. (Compression of the tied only to birth, but can occur from a hip-joint considerations. occipital condyles to C1, occipital base variety of insults to the gut and respiratory to sphenoid, temporal bones, as well as system; and it is not limited to how we Carol Agneesens the sacral-occipital connection through process food or complications from medical Rolfing Instructor the spinal cord and vertebral column are traumas: we are nourished or starved in our Rolf Movement Instructor considerations in treating infants. I feel for emotional relationships; we have to ‘digest’ A: I see between two to three kids per the midline emergence through the system environmental stresses. (After the 2016 week in my practice. I started working from coccyx to fontanel. Often with that U.S. election, individuals were pouring in with children and babies in October 1971. intention the infant’s small and responsive for sessions with the complaint of feeling Dr. Rolf asked three of us, Ron Thompson, system realigns itself. nauseous and overly stressed.) In these Jan Davis, MD, and me to help with the

4 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org COLUMNS children models in the class. The first kid A: Based on my own experience, I have I have always thought that being a Rolfer was Ida Rolf’s model Timothy, four years never thought that one should avoid doing is a radical act in that it takes tremendous old; he had cerebral palsy. After several Rolfing work with someone in her family. presence and honesty and the ability to sessions of work, his father came in with (I have heard from others, however, that in leave one’s own needs and ego somewhere a list of twenty-seven or more things that some cases it is best to leave this work to else. It is a constant practice. To work on had improved as a result of the Rolfing others.) Training to become a Rolfer when people you love is even more of a practice work. Since then, Ron, Jan, and I have my son was thirteen was perfect timing. He in not having an agenda and in listening. all continued to support each other with had the banana-shaped pubescent posture It is a beautiful time of being close again difficult cases. and I needed to practice. I also enjoyed to a grown son, a husband in need, and the added benefit of being in close touch now grandchildren who constantly ask My most challenging baby was a three- with my son, who was slowly rejecting for me to do Rolfing work with them. month old, brought in by her grandmother. sustained physical contact. I proceeded to My ten-year-old grandson has asked me The baby had been two months premature do the ‘sacred’ Ten Series on him, and his at times to help him find balance in both and could not swallow – she was fed posture and appearance of maturity were legs when he is walking. They never say, through a tube inserted directly into her dramatically changed. The pictures (see “Give me a massage” – it is Rolfing SI that stomach. She had been hospitalized at Figure 1) were key for him: he could see, they understand. Children’s Hospital for about a month. in these fragile years of fluctuating self- After doing some upper respiratory work, Straying from the theme of Rolfing SI esteem, that he really did ‘look’ better. I did a frontal release, then went into her for children but keeping with the topic mouth and, with one finger, did an upper When doing Rolfing work with family, of Rolfing SI for one’s family, I was palate and vomer release, which helped one has to be ready for outbursts and present for the labor and delivery of both her breathing and helped to release her truth-telling, and be able to avoid being grandchildren, working with their mother olfactory nerve. I then worked the tongue drawn into the usual family triggers. My to ease sacral and low-back contractures. and gently assisted the jaw in hinging, son would yell out, “Mom you are hurting Providing Rolfing work to her throughout along with the facial intermedius nerve me,” grab my hand, and try to stop me. It her pregnancy meant listening to where the and glossopharyngeal nerves. My thinking actually was great information and taught strain was happening to keep her upright was that because she was unable to swallow me to work in different layers better than and adaptable to the growing shape of or vomit, I needed to work to connect anything else. her belly and pelvis. Knowing where to along her throat to ‘hook up’ the tenth avoid deep work (groin, belly, feet) and Since he went on to become a professional cranial nerve. There is compression and not triggering any early labor, but also soccer player, he taught me what was decompression of the skull in a vaginal being able to help get labor going, are all needed in the legs for agility and strength. delivery, and sometimes the complex of parts of the ability to work with pregnancy Now I understand better athletes and their the frontal, ethmoid, sphenoid, vomer, and labor. The rib cage undergoes drive and need for perfect and efficient and maxillae doesn’t align properly after tremendous strain and pressure. This is movement. The ruthless honesty of family birth. I was aided greatly by studying the a great place to keep ‘letting out’ as the kept me clear with my own work. work of Harold Magoun, DO, as well as pregnancy progresses. by A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth by D.M. Ranly. After about three sessions, the baby was able to swallow and suck and breathe normally. I once flew out West to help a three-year- year old who woke up crying from pain. I observed that he was happy while moving but was uncomfortable when lying down. The father said his son needed cranial work, and that’s where I started. I found that the boy’s parietal and temporal bones energetically and physically pulled my left hand down toward his first rib. I discovered the root cause, which was a high first rib and tight scalene muscles, which were contributing to the tug and pull on the parietals and temporals. I did some ‘first aid’, and worked for two sessions. He has slept normally ever since, and it’s been about twenty years.

Jim Asher Advanced Rolfing Instructor (Emeritus) Figure 1: Valerie Berg’s son after the Second (L) and Eighth Hours (R) of the Ten Series.

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 5 COLUMNS

And doing Rolfing work with my the infant’s shape; 4) an inherent calming brother, who has ALS and is completely rhythm; and 5) a sense of flowing motion quadriplegic, is fascinating. I have no idea and breath. A goal is for the movement what it is doing in terms of fascia, since to feel soothing for both caregiver and the motor neurons are dead and he cannot infant. A necessary pre-condition is for move. But the sensory neurons work, thus the practitioner to refresh his or her he can feel everything I do. His words to embodiment of ease with gravity prior to me are, “You have no idea how incredible the session and to work without judgment – it feels for you to touch me that deeply.” the entire experience and environment must be one of encouragement and acceptance. I am humbled and honored to be able to In a sense, the practitioner must cradle the look at my family’s bodies and touch deeply caregiver who is cradling and rocking the and quietly in a way that benefits body, infant. mind, and spirit. It is a gift that my family has access to, and it requires that I get quiet Sessions with pregnant women and new and pay attention to them in a way that mothers with babies offer rich opportunities doesn’t happen often enough. for artful engagement with key dynamics of gravity, movement, and relationship. I Valerie Berg encourage those with interest to pursue Rolfing Instructor this avenue of study and application – it’s A: I think it is important to consider that the meaningful work! fetus and infant experience gravity through Rebecca Carli the body and movement of the mother. Rolf Movement Instructor This sense of gravity provides the basis for a coherent sense of self. My thoughts are inspired by studies with Hubert Godard, the work of Esther Thelen, and parenting my daughters. Fully functional by gestational week twenty-one, our vestibular system is our most developed sense at birth. Almost instinctually, we cradle and rock infants to calm them; this also stimulates the vestibular Advanced Training system of both baby and caregiver. If we imagine dialogue to capture the infant’s Take It to the Next Level experience when cradled and rocked, it might be, “I am okay, soothed, safe, not falling down – I am alive, secure in my environment.” This sense of safety through movement Register Now awakens an early sense of orientation and autonomic regulation, essential for the AT1.18 development of self and agency. Movement touches us deeply inside, and the quality of San Francisco, CA the experience matters. Therefore, if I had to choose only one focus Tessy Brungardt when working with caregiver and baby, it would be the quality of the cradling & Valerie Berg and rocking experience. To some, this movement comes very naturally – to others, May 14-31 & not. Without awareness and intervention, October 1-18, we may unconsciously manifest the quality of our own early childhood experience. 2018 However, through autonomic-nervous- system regulation, gentle coaching, and www.rolf.org encouragement, this can heal and transform. for more info Some key areas to consider are: 1) the caregiver’s gravity center over the base of support in connection with the ground; 2) the quality of ‘listening touch’; 3) shaping the caregiver’s body to support and meet

6 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN ® rest of my time observing him at work, and Rolfing SI for Babies, discussing his and Dr. Rolf’s vision for the future of Rolfing SI. Dr. Rolf worked on many children, Children, and Families including members of her family – that is part of how the work developed. So it was Fulfilling Dr. Rolf’s Vision natural that I was also interested in what By Robert Toporek, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ the work could do for children. One of my mementos of Dr. Rolf is shown in Figure 1 – before and after photos that she gave me of Introduction One thing led to another and a few years later I ended up studying in Dr. Rolfs final one of her infant clients. Starting in 1975 with one of Dr. Ida P. elementary course. After the class, Dr. Rolf, Once I completed my internship with Dick, Rolf’s grandchildren, I have worked with Joe Heller, and a number of other members he asked me if I would be willing to work hundreds of babies, children, and whole of the selection committee introduced me to on his youngest son, Michael. Dick and families. My intention and commitment is and highly encouraged me to stay in Santa his mother had worked on his two older to see Dr. Rolf’s vision realized in our work Monica and take what at the time was called children, but he did not feel as though he and thereby create fundamental changes to Erhard Seminar Training (EST), now known had the emotional separation to take Michael the world we live in. In the last year of her as Landmark Education. Dr. Rolf had through the full ten-session series. Dick life, Dr. Rolf was no longer interested in taken the course and found it personally coached me in the beginning, giving the seeing how Rolfing SI could help someone as well as professionally beneficial and same advice he and Dr. Rolf often did: Do not stand up straighter, relieve chronic pain, began recommending it to everyone she try to fix anything, just follow the ‘Recipe’. or feel and function better. Instead, she trained. Werner Erhard, on the other hand, After going through all ten sessions with was interested in seeing how our work can was introduced to Ida and Rolfing SI and Michael, I had the confidence to begin doing impact the behavior of a group. This is why began having as many of his leaders as Rolfing SI with more children. I rarely work on a baby or child without possible go through the Ten Series. He having done Rolfing Structural Integration also substantially financially supported I moved to Philadelphia, began my practice, (SI) for one or both of the parents. In a number of Dr. Rolf’s projects and they and became very involved in the world of many cases, my work has traversed four became close friends. This connection with EST. Many of the people I came in contact generations, and begun with children as EST/Landmark proved to be critical to my with became clients, and I wound up early as one day old. success as a Rolfer, and especially my work doing Rolfing sessions on their children. with babies and children. I also worked on Werner Erhard’s mother The Beginning for Me and father, some of his aunts, uncles, and To get into this story, I have to go back in After Dr. Rolf’s final beginner’s class, I cousins, and most of the leaders of his time to how it all unfolded. moved in with her son, Dick Demmerle, and programs. From time to time I would do apprenticed with him in Turnersville, New a session on Werner. My work has had his My path to working with Dr. Rolf was not Jersey. He supervised me doing Rolfing SI full support. This became a critical part of a straight path. Following a two-year stint on three people a week, while I spent the my success – because these clients had a serving as a soldier in Vietnam, I returned to Charleston, South Carolina, and pursued a number of odd jobs throughout my twenties. During this time, I realized my commitment to study directly with Dr. Rolf, and become a Rolfer. Dr. Rolf did not work in a vacuum. I first met her in 1971 at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California while on a leadership development fellowship from The Ford Foundation. I was in Easlen’s leadership program and was learning how to lead encounter and Gestalt Therapy groups. This was all part of a bigger conversation called the human potential movement. She went there to work on Fritz Pearls. He was so impressed with the emotional results as well as the physical results that he began recommending people to her. This is where she began training laypeople. She trained a number of the Esalen leaders to become Rolfers. Figure 1: Before and After photos from Ida Rolf’s work on a baby.

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 7 INFANTS AND CHILDREN personal experience both through Rolfing Early that next year, Dr. Rolf and I did a to question whether evolution is part of the SI and their transformational work of demonstration project at my house to a DNA of all humans. Could this explain why, letting go of old patterns. I also took many room full of my clients, their children, and after Rolfing sessions, clients stand up and of EST/Landmark’s leadership development their friends who were interested. The say that they feel taller and lighter? There is programs and this helped me with my results were enormous, both physically and no doubt that Dr. Rolf would have had much relationship with Dr. Rolf and her family. psychologically, and we documented them to contribute to this conversation. After all, photographically, as well as psychologically. she said, “It is possible that we are seeing Around this time, Dr. Rolf returned to The project lasted about four weeks, we did the first conscious attempt at evolution that Philadelphia. I picked her up from the the ten-session series for eleven or twelve any species has ever evidenced” (Rolf 1977). airport and offered to become her East Coast babies and children. Ron Thompson did business manager. Over the next four years, We can see a thread of this type of inquiry the photography, Andy Crow was one of I provided her with administrative help, running through Dr. Rolf’s work. She the Rolfers, and a number of other Rolfers traveled up and down the East Coast, flew to was interested in how bodies organized contributed in many other ways as well. board meetings, and went to a conference in and responded to the environment, Los Angeles where she asked me to sit in for Throughout the project, Dr. Rolf kept including gravity, as seen below (all her at a dinner with Alexander Lowen and preaching that anybody at any age Dr. Rolf, quoted in Toporek 2012 on the Moshe Feldenkrais. During that time, I grew would benefit from a series of Rolfing pages indicated): to know Dr. Rolf as a person, and got to see work following the Recipe. The results The word posture, in its physical sense, just how much Rolfing SI meant to her life. In demonstrated by the babies and children has been commonly regarded as a static the last year of her life, all of her classes were receiving the work were obvious: the kids’ alignment of body parts, one above the held in my house in Philadelphia. posture, psychology, confidence, and well- other, rather like stacked suitcases or being dramatically improved, as did their boxes. Posture, in its broader sense, is The Children’s Project relationship with their parents. the momentary, ever-changing balance From 1975 to 1978, my practice grew Legacy of body components in space as they tremendously, and my work with babies relate to the force of gravity . . . at and children continued to expand. I still Dr. Rolf was supposed to finish the any given instant, and in any given wanted, however, to continue working children’s project, but around that time, she position (2). with Dr. Rolf. In 1977, she began talking was battling colon cancer. She did a small about doing a project to document and advanced class in my home, a few months In a healthy organism, proper balance promote the benefits of Rolfing SI for later, but she was unable to complete might be thought of as a resting state, babies and children. I begged her to do it the children’s project as she became too a capacity and preparedness to respond in Philadelphia, and she accepted my offer ill. A few days before she passed away, I appropriately and efficiently to a wide to help implement, manage and complete it promised her that I would complete and variety of stimuli (23). there. In a fundraising letter for this project, carry on the children’s project, which I have And she did not see the human journey to Dr. Rolf (1978) wrote the following: continued to do. being upright as evolutionarily complete: For the past few years, I have been After many trials and tribulations, I We are not truly upright, we are only wanting to do a special [project] which produced a monograph and a thirty-minute on our way to becoming upright. This would demonstrate the beneficial effects award-winning video, both entitled The is a metaphysical consideration. One of Rolfing [SI] on children . . . . Promise of Rolfing Children (Toporek 1981a of the jobs of a Rolfer is to speed that and 1981b). At the time, however, this did The purpose of the project is to gather process along. We want to get them into not move the meter with other Rolfers, good photographic material of ten to the place where gravity reinforces them so Rolfing work for babies, children, and twelve children showing the beneficial and is a friend, a nourishing force (17). families is still not fundamental to the changes that Rolfing [SI] produces in the teaching of Rolfing SI as Dr. Rolf had Partly in this spirit of inquiry, in 1984 I short period of time of three weeks. . . . envisioned. I hope that this article may help began videotaping every baby and child I For me, one of the greater satisfying and to change that. worked with. joyous areas of my work has been my Babies and Families work with children. I can think of no A Detour into better way to move us further down the Anthropology and Evolution Through all my years of practicing path in having Rolfing [SI’s] acceptance As my Rolfing career continued, my work Rolfing SI on children – those who are and recognition in the world expand than with babies and children continued to grow, developmentally ‘normal’ as well as babies to present to the world what Rolfing [SI] and I also had interesting adult clients. In and children with conditions like Down has to offer to the younger population. 1983, the anthropologist who discovered the syndrome, cerebral palsy, bowed legs, club Rolfing [SI] releases those traumatic link between apes and humans, Raymond feet, scoliosis, and other developmental incidents of birth and childhood that Dart, became a client. He distinguished that challenges – I keep believing the best time prevent the child from achieving complete as we humans evolved toward verticality, the to start is in the beginning. wholeness – physically, psychologically, size and shape of our skulls changed along Imagine placing your hands on the and emotionally. It provides for all with our neurological development. During abdomen of a newborn baby and getting children a “good foundation to stand on his sessions, we had amazing conversations in touch with a lifetime’s worth of patterns. and grow up from”, namely a balanced, about verticality and evolution. We began The patterns we see in our clients come from supportive, physical body. And that is 8 where it all begins. Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN generations ago, both physically as well as psychologically. By working on a baby we can interrupt the pattern before it can reinforce itself. (Usually, with adults, we initially are working on the reinforcement of patterns of tension, the ‘body armor’ that Wilhelm Reich speaks of.) The earlier we begin, the more profoundly we can create the promise of the ten sessions and the longer that baby/person enjoys the benefits. I oftentimes do the first fourteen sessions (Ten Series plus a four-session advanced Rolfing series) in a child’s first three years. Then from time to time with babies I do a maintenance session to deal with growth spurts and common injuries. Imagine that baby’s body relaxing and allowing your hands to communicate a sense of love and safety. Imagine the immense opportunity that lies beneath your fingers to make a lifelong difference in that baby’s Figure 3: All three of these families have been through at least ten sessions of Rolfing life physically, psychologically, and socially. SI. Each of their babies started receiving work in about the first week of life. Imagine the confidence and comfort you are feeling, the baby is feeling, and the parents are witnessing. Imagine the fascia beneath As my clients saw how my son turned late to transform the predictable future. your fingers melting into a new possibility. out, more and more parents wanted me to We all have predictable futures; we just work on their babies in the first few weeks have to look toward our parents to see A baby’s brain grows at a faster rate from of their lives. Somewhere along the way, I the patterns. I did Rolfing session on my birth to age five than at any other time in met a mother who asked me to do Rolfing SI mother, my father, my sister, and a few of its life. I began working on my son, Bryan, on both her and her daughter. She then my cousins. I worked on my son’s mother, from the first week of his life, and it made asked whether should bring her mother a few of her siblings, and her father, who a remarkable difference (see Figure 2). As a and grandmother. Each week, we had a suffered a severe brain injury late in his life. result, he grew up with amazing posture, family Rolfing session. Why work on a This allowed me to transform the patterns presence, and balance. All the things whole family? Because the past persists if I inherited, and allowed me to provide an Dr. Rolf had to say about Rolfing SI’s not interrupted. It is never too early or too unprecedented place for my son to grow potential for babies unfolded before my eyes. up, both physically and psychologically. Some of those babies and children from years ago have grown up, gotten married, and had me work with their babies. In Figure 3 you see three families I have worked on. In Figure 4 you see Akiva, who had his tenth session at four months of age. I had done Rolfing SI on his father as a baby, along with his father’s two brothers and sister (as babies), and his paternal grandparents; I have worked on his mother as well, but that has not yet translated into her side of the family getting Rolfing SI. I work on babies because it is beneficial for humanity as a whole. As soon as you free one body from a pattern of tension, it has a ripple effect throughout humanity. The benefits also last a lifetime. The Promise of Rolfing SI for Children

Figure 2: Rolfing work on my first newborn baby – my own son, Bryan If a baby does not get to experience Rolfing SI (left, with his mother Mary Murphy), and Bryan twenty years later (right). at a young age, there is already a pattern

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 9 INFANTS AND CHILDREN

As conscientious parents are all too painfully aware, not all children carry their bodies well. It is possible to read those timid, tense, or distorted bodies as expressing needs that are not otherwise being communicated. As parents, one of many concerns is to produce a balanced child. Rolfing SI is an effective, immediate means of addressing this objective. Stories of Some of the Children In addition to my Rolfing practice, I run a nonprofit organization manned mostly by volunteers aimed at distributing inexpensive refurbished computers to families, schools, and organizations. Justin Figure 4: Avika getting the First Hour at six days old; pictured with his (Figure 5) began volunteering when he was father David Shinefield who also, as a baby, received Rolfing sessions thirteen. He was diagnosed in the autism from me. spectrum; he was brilliant and enthusiastic about technology, but lacked social skills. taking hold – he is simply a younger version the increased load on these muscles. Over His body shook when he spoke, he did not of the adult client’s structure you would a lifetime, these bumps and bruises will make eye contact, and because his mouth meet down the road. Newborn babies, cause a body to lose its vertical alignment operated as fast as his brain, people tended they are simply younger versions of our and natural grace. not to listen to him. Over the next seven adult clients. plus years, he continued to volunteer, and Emotional trauma has a similar effect. If receive Rolfing sessions. I believe Rolfing SI From the moment we are conceived, I a child is yelled at often, he may carry his was part of what allowed him to develop believe flexors overpower extensors. Birth head tipped downward. Over time, this and flourish: he recently graduated from is a wonderful event, it is also the start of reaction becomes chronic, as the fascia Widener University and has a full-time dealing with life and gravity outside of the in the neck thickens. Unfortunately, this job; his social skills are off the charts; and womb. It is our first break in belonging, posture can become set and, as a result, he continues to demonstrate amazing and an introduction to the tension and the emotional feeling that caused it will communication and leadership skills challenge to survive. We inherit patterns persist along with it. Rolfing SI can work on of tension and posture genetically, specific releasing these past traumas and associated Lauren began her Rolfing session when to our family patterns. We must know patterns to help a child begin working with she was around three years of age. She ourselves in order to know the world, gravity, rather than against it. was diagnosed with Down syndrome at because the world begins in our selves. birth. (Her parents also received their initial Control, confidence, and understanding of We cannot overestimate how important it sessions, and later received four advanced how one’s body truly works – its limits and is, especially for children, to understand sessions.) Lauren graduated from a four- its strengths, a trust in its essential fluidity this concept. Through this knowing, we year college, majoring in dance and theatre. and resiliency – these are the aspects that can begin to understand the impact our She is now living in Ohio with her husband, give us confidence about the operation of our own existence can have on the existence of has a job, drives a car, and is living far individual selves. Through Rolfing SI, we others. We often forget that childhood is beyond the future that would have been can begin to fall into a more fluid existence charged with these concerns and traumas; predicted for her. Her parents attribute – one that honors the individual as a whole, these we can only dimly recall, or perhaps Rolfing SI as one of the key things that made and integrates all of our past trauma, and suppress completely. a difference in her life. our future radiance. Getting Rolfing sessions When a person experiences trauma, both at an early age helps babies and children Dominic was referred by his aunt, a Rolfer physical and emotional, the effect is felt address these concerns and gives children on the West Coast, for a serious case of toe- throughout the body and fascial tissue ease with their own bodies. It allows them walking. While I initially wanted to go off responds by shortening and thickening. to develop the confidence that they carry the map and try and fix the problem, I kept Over time, this pulls the body out of their own state of grace within themselves. hearing Dr.Rolf say, “Follow the Recipe”. its balanced vertical alignment, and an As their lives are just beginning to unfold, After his first ten sessions, he was better but unbalanced body will then compensate, there is no way to separate the physical child far from perfect. The next summer, he came causing more energy to be expended. from his mental and spiritual self. A child in for his four advanced sessions, and that When a child falls on his knee, he favors who slumps physically also slumps mentally made a difference. I recently had another the leg to ease the discomfort. Neighboring and emotionally. Conversely, a child whose session with him, and did a video interview. muscle groups are then used to support the body is balanced, and who moves gracefully He said, “Not only do I feel a lot better, but change in weight bearing. The fascia in this and confidently, reflects an inner grace kids do not make fun of me anymore or bully area thickens, or sticks together, to support and confidence. me. I am starting to stand up for myself.”

10 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN

“How do you feel?,” with a resounding to-earth, pretty cool dude.” To find out more “Muy bien!” This began a twenty-year about Robert’s work visit www.rolfingkids.org process of going to that neighborhood and and view the video and ebook resources in the making a difference. One of the kids in that bibliography below. first family just graduated from Millersville University. He is the first one in his family Bibliography to graduate college, and he is one of the only Rolf, I.P. 1978. Fundraising letter to the Rolf kids from his neighborhood to do so. Institute® membership, January 18, 1978. Conclusion Rolf, I.P. 1977. “Rolfing: The Vertical- Experiential Side to Human Potential.” Dr. Rolf noted that the birth process Document dated March 1977, Blackwood, generally distorts the body. Rolfing SI New Jersey. (Possibly the same article works to mature an individual in both published under this title in the Journal of physical and emotional ways. It helps Humanistic Psychology 1978;18:37-39; the people become more vertical, so that editor of this Journal has not been able to gravity is no longer the enemy. Through her compare versions.) practice, Dr. Rolf was able to bring greater well-being into her clients’ lives, and she Toporek, R. 2012. The Promise of Rolfing passed that gift on to me. My self-appointed Babies, Children and Families is the updated job is to now bring that to everybody and BEFORE AFTER version of his The Promise of Rolfing Children every bodyworker. (1981a) and is available at http://www. newbabymassage.com/the-promise-of- Figure 5: Justin at ages thirteen (left) and Robert Toporek has been a Certified Advanced twenty (right). rolfing.pdf as a free ebook download. Rolfer since 1975. He studied directly with Dr. Rolf during the last four years of her life, Toporek, R. 1981a. The Promise of Rolfing Another child was brought by his parent and also supported her in many other ways. He Children (book). Transformation News because he suffered from cerebral palsy and also studied with Dr. Rolf’s son Dick Demmerle, Network. See Toporek 2012 for details on had very stiff movements. His muscles were In 1978, at Dr. Rolf request, Robert helped the updated edition and the link for a free often so stiff that it was hard to even move pioneer her work with babies and children. He download. them. He wore braces and did not have has videoed and/or photographed Rolfing SI for Toporek, R. 1981b. The Promise of Rolfing good balance. Rolfing SI helped restore over 300 entire families since 1975, and has Children (film). Can be viewed at http:// the balance between flexion and extension done extensive long-term follow-ups. He is also tinyurl.com/promise-of-rolfing-children. in his body. He was better able to move in republishing and rebranding a book, Hands on a more balanced way, and his arms were Parenting: A Guide to Massage for Happier, Toporek, R. Other videos on Rolfing SI consequently not as stiff. His speech even Healthier, Smarter, Kids. Robert has studied for children at http://tinyurl.com/toporek- improved as well. personal growth and development for over youtube. fifty years. He describes himself as a “down- Two brothers, Jesse and Reginald, had a series of sessions, and each noted marked improvements in both their physical and emotional health. According to their mother, Reginald was previously disruptive, and had a bad attitude toward his brother. Rolfing SI, however, changed his disposition. Where he was once hyperactive, he became calm. Jesse experienced positive results as well. Giving to the Community Dr. Rolf always emphasized the importance of giving back to the community. As such, in 1997, I took my Rolfing table to one of the worst poverty-stricken, drug-ridden neighborhoods in Philadelphia (see Figure 6). Knowing no one, I set up my table on the sidewalk with a before-and-after poster and offered sessions. It was a mostly Hispanic neighborhood, and I did not speak Spanish. I discovered touch and healing are universal languages. The first kid got on the table, and Figure 6: Community work in a neighborhood that used to be called when I was done, she answered the question, the Badlands of north Philadelphia.

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 11 INFANTS AND CHILDREN

son, who’s ten years old, was walking next Furthering Ida’s Vision to him; he walked exactly like his father, that kind of lumbering gait. Children’s Karen Price speaks about Rolfing® SI for Children physical ability is often very important to parents: whether they have athletic ability, By Marie Terrill, Certified Rolfer™ and Karen Price, Certified Advanced Rolfer whether the parents are pushing them to be gifted, or whether the kid is uncoordinated. Author’s Note: Karen Price is a Certified Advanced Rolfer in Palo Alto, California. Karen has With Rolfing SI, you’re going to see been a Rolfer for nearly forty years and has specialized in Rolfing Structural Integration (SI) for balance, coordination, strength, athletic children for the duration of her practice. I had the opportunity to speak to Karen to ask her more skills improve. about her experiences working with children. An earlier interview (Price and Terrill 2016) focused on Karen’s research into Rolfing SI for children with cerebral palsy. Emotionally, you’re going to see more maturity, self-control, ability to self- Marie Terrill: Hi Karen, it’s good to speak organized input at an early age, then their regulate, and ability to introspect with with you again. I’d like to start by asking system has something to develop around children of all ages. Relationally, you’re you about your practice with children. that is functionally consistent within the going to see interpersonally that children’s What’s the youngest client you have worked context of gravity. relationships improve. In the study with with as a Rolfer? Stanford where I did Rolfing SI on children KP: Exactly. Yes. You’re going to see with cerebral palsy (Loi et al. 2015), we Karen Price: The youngest were a pair of improvements in function in every domain. saw how much more relational these twins that were thirty-six hours old. For example, physically they’re going to children became even though they were be better balanced; they’re going to be MT: Tiny. so compromised. With able-bodied kids, better coordinated; they’re going to choose which is what we’re talking about in this KP: I had worked with the mother all more optimal use patterns rather than just article, their interpersonal relationships through pregnancy, and then I went to the choosing a random one, or rather than also develop very positively. They are more hospital and worked on the babies. I still see mimicking their parents. There are great collaborative and cooperative rather than them from time to time. They’re fifteen now. photos in Ida’s book (Rolf 1977) of children competitive or aggressive. standing exactly like their parents. MT: Wow. Karen, from your perspective, A simple example can be of a school-age boy why give Rolfing sessions to children? MT: Yes, I have seen that. It’s profound. who is skinny, shy, and hunched over. He’s KP: That’s a great question, and I think one KP: If you watch children move you can see kind of nerdy, he wears glasses, and the kids that a lot of practitioners get asked, I know this imitation. I was watching Donald Trump tease him and bully him and he’s shrunken that I certainly do. Even my child clients ask walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and his and afraid. After he gets Rolfing SI, me that. We have this idea that children are perfect and don’t need work. They have a lot of energy, they can move around reasonably well, so why work on them? I think there are two main points: the first is understanding that we are working with a developing structure; the second is understanding that our work is to continually balance the body in the field of gravity. As we grow, there are many factors at play that affect how we develop. Focusing on the physical, there are both genetic and environmental factors. Some of the environmental factors include birth trauma, how we are handled later as infants and young children, and the falls and spills we take. And of course all this is happening as our bodies grow and change within the larger context of the gravitational field. Rolfing SI is a way to offer organized input into the structure itself as it grows and develops in gravity. This goes on to influence and improve function as well. MT: It sounds to me like it’s a developmental issue. As children grow, they are continually incorporating new input from their changing structure as they move in the field of gravity. They’re growing into themselves, Karen Price initiating touch with a young client and if we, as Rolfers, can give them in 1979.

12 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN he’s taller and more upright, he moves in a confident and balanced fashion. He’s still got his glasses but it doesn’t matter, and the other kids treat him more positively. MT: This is fascinating. Could it be that Rolfing SI gives children the ability to experience the internal sensations of their own body (interoception), essentially giving their inner landscape more weight, which then balances the effects of the constant external, environmental input (exteroception)? KP: I agree with you, and I think that’s a great way of phrasing it, and that this circular process then feeds on itself. Both the interoception and the exteroception are at constant play within the person. Another concept is introspection, which is related, but different. A lot of the emotional content or issues that can arise with Rolfing SI are not made conscious in young developing children, because the introspective ability doesn’t really come about until adolescence. Balancing in gravity: the child experiences Rolfing SI Children who don’t yet have the capacity through the context of her natural movements. for introspection will still make very good emotional changes, in part because they can MT: Right. A lot of what you’re describing KP: Exactly, right. bypass the whole story about it. are preverbal processes. Like you said, the MT: Let’s talk a little about gravity, a basic MT: This makes sense. self-reflection process does require more tenet of Rolfing SI. maturity. It requires the individual to be a KP: Children know they feel better. They little bit further along developmentally. It KP: Great. Having met Dr. Rolf, and can say, “Yes, I feel better,” or, “I feel lighter, sounds like what Rolfing SI can do is offer listened to her speak, I’d like to include I feel more balanced.” But I think that children an experience that changes their this quote from her which captures the the circular process you described runs visceral and internal representations that importance of gravity in our work: somewhat below consciousness. are pre-language but can certainly be felt. Rolfers make a life study of relating MT: It does, yes. We all know what it feels like when we have bodies and their fields to the Earth and a need or an experience that is coming from its gravity field, and we so organize the KP: They just change. It’s like pruning a the inside and it takes a little bit of time to body that the gravity field can reinforce plant, where they grow along those lines. put it into words or figure out what it is. And by doing this when they are young, the body’s energy field. This is our we are also preventing future problems KP: Exactly. Yes. There was an original primary concept (Rolf 1978/1990, 86). from developing. We as SI practitioners work on children, The Promise of Rolfing I feel that the emphasis now in Rolfing SI can see the germs of future structural Children (Toporek 1981), which was what has become to focus on one system of the issues as we observe children’s structures Ida ended her career doing in the ‘70s. body, for example, the neural and nervous and movement. In addition, it’s very There’s a boy who sums it up by saying system, viscera, osteopathic work, or empowering for children to know and take “Legs feel good, body feels good.” With craniosacral work, et cetera. Those are all responsibility for their own body in this children, since they are much more body- working with subsystems of the whole. way. They’ll know when they need to get based – which is why Rolfing SI is so So practitioners are only focusing on one Rolfing SI and they’ll tell their parents, “I effective – when their body feels good, system. That’s all fine and it’s valid and it need to see Karen.” they’re happier. When a child is happier and gives symptomatic relief, but that doesn’t eating better and sleeping better and doing balance the structure in the gravitational MT: Wow. his homework and chores, the whole family field. KP: Sometimes it could be a physical thing, functions better. To sum it up, the benefits like, “Oh, I sprained my ankle,” but a lot of and goals of working with children really MT: So what you’re saying is that by times it’s deeper than that, and they can’t are to give them the best possible structure focusing on just one system, it’s more articulate it, but they just know, “I have that you can, given whatever limits they of a palliative practice rather than an to go.” have and that we all have as humans. integrative one. MT: Absolutely. MT: Right, and whatever environmental KP: Yes. I think the most important thing factors are present that you can’t control, is for us to hear what Dr. Rolf said, in a KP: They know when they need a session. all those things. different quote, “Gravity is the therapist.”

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 13 INFANTS AND CHILDREN

We’re all in the gravitational field, but we KP: I meet each child where he is. I look at with Rolfing SI or they know someone don’t think about it. It’s like a fish in water. “What does that person present?” Generally whose child has had Rolfing SI and their Gravity is either supporting you or tearing speaking, preadolescent children will need child has a similar issue, or it just sounds you down. When you finish a good Rolfing less pressure, and you’re working more like something that would be good for their session, whether it’s a child or an adult, with broader sheets because they’re not as child. The child is often not coming of his the standard response is, “I feel lighter.” differentiated. In adolescence is when a lot own free will for the first time, so I very That lightness is because the body is more of the differentiation takes place. There are much need that child to be on board for the balanced in gravity and therefore can some really lovely quotes from Ida Rolf in second time. Even if it’s a baby or a young receive more support from it. That lightness her book, Rolfing and Physical Reality (Rolf preverbal child, getting his permission, of being, if you will, also translates into 1978/1990) about this differentiation. With nonverbally, to work with him. what we were talking about before, the younger children, the smaller they are, the Conversely, I’ve had times where the kids emotional balance, and maturity, and the lighter the touch, especially with babies. really want to come, and for whatever increased fluidity in relationships. But, again, there may be times when you reason the parents don’t bring them. That’s really do have to get in there, surprisingly MT: That’s beautiful. a drag, obviously, because they can’t get enough, for their size. there by themselves. KP: With children, this concept is MT: This makes a lot of sense. We adjust important. As we are working with a MT: Wow. our work according to what is before us. developing structure – because they’re KP: One way to sum it up, is that children young and plastic and the fascia is much KP: Meeting the child where he’s at are not just little adults. They’re constantly more moldable than in an adult – you can includes getting his permission to work changing. They’re constantly developing. bring it to more balance easier and quicker. on him. Generally speaking, when a child I have followed many children from You can take something like a lordosis comes for his first appointment, it’s because either babies or young children through or even a scoliosis — Rolfing SI is very the parents are bringing him. Sometimes to adulthood, and the needs, the sessions, effective for children with scoliosis —and when a parent tells the child he’s getting the desires, everything keeps changing. As balance it not just intra-segmentally, each Rolfing SI and what it’s about, the kid will their Rolfers, we keep the ongoing movie of segment to itself, but within the larger field immediately say, “Oh, I need to do that. their lives in our minds. So as we’re working of gravity. That’s why Rolfing SI works. I want to do that. Please bring me in.” with a three-year-old, we’re projecting Sometimes children hear about it from their MT: Tell me about your approach to the forward into seeing how that body is going friends and come in, but usually it’s the question “How do you do Rolfing sessions to develop over time and space. And when parents bringing the child. This is because on children?” they are older we remember them younger. either they’ve had a positive experience With an older child, you see, “Oh, yes, we got those legs really lengthened out when they were three, and now they’re able to do all sorts of things at ten that, if they had not had Rolfing SI, they probably would not be doing.” It’s important that practitioners understand this development from several points of view, which we will discuss in a minute. MT: Fascinating. That’s definitely an interesting contrast for Rolfers who work mainly with adults. Adults experience change, for sure, but it’s not taking place at the accelerated pace of childhood growth and development. KP: Exactly. Right. It’s fun, too, to be a part of their lives and of their development as they go along, and listen to what their concerns are. For a lot of children it’s talk therapy as well as a physical therapy. I leave that entirely up to the child. MT: Right, what they want to talk about. KP: Yes, it’s what they want, if they want to talk or not, or what they want to talk about. But for a lot of kids it’s a very safe place, and Spiderman participates through play. Karen meets the client through as I’m doing the bodywork, the emotional his context. issues come right out. Children process a lot faster than adults.

14 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN

MT: And how do the parents typically Understanding brain development is In conclusion, understanding the trajectory respond to the changes they see in their also important and how it relates to and many stages of child development children as a result of your work? developmental milestones. There is a will enable the practitioner to be more tremendous neurological pruning going effective in meeting the child exactly where KP: The parents are very grateful. They on in the first five years. An excellent book he is. For example, if a young child is in know that I have their child’s best interests to learn more about this is What’s Going On the pre-operational, magic stage, I will at heart and I’m trying to help them. In There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop use very different language during the Generally, the parents are easy to be around in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot, session to connect with him, compared to and communicate with. Even in instances PhD (1999). a school-age child who is in the concrete where the family and I speak different operational, mythic/rational stage. With languages, we manage to communicate Similarly, two books by Louann Brizendine, the pre-operational child, I use language with no problems. For example I had a four- MD, The Female Brain (2007) and The Male and concepts that pertain to magic. I might year-old client who was translating between Brain (2010), both discuss how hormones give such clients a wand and we wave Mandarin and English, and another four- affect the brain. There are some great wands together. They love it because it is year-old child who translated between chapters on children and how the hormone age-appropriate, that’s their worldview, Spanish and English. Touch transcends a profile our brains are bathed in affects brain and I also get them to participate in the lot of barriers and divisions. development – as early as when we are in movement of the session. utero. Both follow development throughout MT: I’m glad you said that. I completely the life span, so it’s interesting for adults MT: Children are definitely not just little agree. Karen, this is all quite profound and the aging process as well. adults. They are their own creatures and your experiences are valuable to the traveling along a constantly changing Rolfing community. Do you have plans Then there’s the standpoint of cognitive developmental trajectory from which their to write a book one day? Everything that development. Jean Piaget is one of the leading unique minds and bodies arise, which are you’re talking about feels like it needs to experts in the field surrounding discussions not like adult minds and bodies. Karen, be captured and passed on. such as how reality is constructed within thank you so much for taking the time to the developing mind of a child. Much KP: I don’t actually have plans to write a speak with me about Rolfing SI for children. of what we currently know about child book now, but I feel like I am now available Your contribution to the field and furthering psychology and the timeline and stages of to teach and/or to mentor. I’ve been Ida Rolf’s vision of Rolfing SI for children progressive pediatric intelligence is due thinking about ways to develop a training is an incredible achievement and benefit to Piaget’s work, including concepts such program of Rolfing SI for children. This is to the community, not to mention the as pre-operational, concrete operational, a vast subject, and teaching approaches immeasurable benefit to your clients and and formal operational thought. Piaget’s for children must be considered carefully their families. We are lucky to have you. work is particularly important for – particularly in a classroom setting. If the guiding our interactions and conceptual Karen S. Price graduated with honors from instructor is teaching to a group of students language with children to ensure we are Northwestern University in 1974. After and the Rolfing subject is a small child, there engaging with them at an appropriate receiving Rolfing SI in 1977, she began her are important aspects to consider. If you developmental level. Rolfing training in 1978 and graduated from have five or six people watching, even if The Rolf Institute® in 1979. She received her they’re quiet as a mouse sitting in the corner, Lastly, Jean Gebser’s work on worldviews Advanced Rolfing certification in 1988. She is a it really changes the energy in the room and is important to understand. In this regard, long-term meditator, a Registered Yoga Teacher the work itself. But I would somehow love I feel ontology does recapitulate phylogeny. (RYT-200), and a Certified Yoga Therapist to pass on my knowledge through teaching. Gebser’s work also gives us a common (C-IAYT). Karen has maintained a private platform where we can understand how MT: Since a training program on how practice in the same location in Palo Alto, the worldview of the developing mind to do Rolfing SI for children doesn’t yet California for thirty-eight years, specializing incrementally builds on itself, incorporating exist, and knowing how important it is for in work with women and children. For more and growing from each stage. According practitioners to understand the pediatric information on Karen, please see the bio on her to Gebser’s work, we all start out at the developmental process, what resources website rolfingchildren.com. archaic stage, move through the magic would you point Rolfers towards if they stage, then into magic/mythic, mythic, Marie Terrill is Certified Rolfer, Certified have an interest in, or already are, doing and then finally incorporating rational. Structural IntegratorCM, and yoga and Rolfing SI for children? Gebser demonstrates the emergence of movement instructor in Eugene, Oregon. KP: Great question, I’m glad you asked. an integral consciousness where the time She incorporates aspects of body awareness First, practitioners need to be able to and space of ‘objectivity’ no longer offer and therapeutic movement when working recognize what is normal and age- an adequate description of the conceptual with clients. Marie blends her work with an appropriate movement, structure, and world or worldviews. This is incredibly ongoing interest in the connections between function throughout the age spectrum relevant for clients who are children since, clinical practice the scientific field. Marie from infant to adults. This includes being depending on age, they may not yet have a studied molecular biology at The Evergreen familiar with developmental milestones, rational worldview built largely upon time State College and has ten years of experience such as rolling over, crawling, pulling to and space. in the field of functional neuroscience, with a stand, walking, etc. And further, knowing specific focus on epilepsy and epilepsy research. For further reading on the concept of whether, when, and how to intervene. She currently serves as Secretary to the Rolf integral development, see the extraordinary Institute® Research Committee. Her website is work of Ken Wilber. www. mindbodyrolfing.com. www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 15 INFANTS AND CHILDREN Bibliography Brizendine, L. 2010. The Male Brain. New Changing the Trajectory of Life York: Harmony Books. By Briah Anson, MA, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, BCSICM, Rolf Movement® Practitioner, As Told to Anne Hoff, Certified Advanced Rolfer Brizendine, L. 2007. The Female Brain. New York: Harmony Books. From Anne Hoff: As Editor-in-Chief of this Journal, planning a theme on Rolfing SI for infants and children, I felt it was important to include Briah Anson among the Rolfers who shared their Eliot, L. 2010. What’s Going On In There?: perspectives. I was familiar with Briah’s work from her book and video on working with children How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First (see bibliography), and knew that she had decades of experience to speak from. I was appreciative Five Years of Life. New York: Bantam Books. that she could take some time from her current studies to share her views. As she was so thoroughly Loi, C.E., et al, 2015 Sep 10. “Myofascial prepared, I just began recording and let her start her ‘download’. Structural Integration Therapy on Gross Motor Function and Gait of Young Children Introduction with neurologically disabled children and with Spastic Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized adults for over thirty years, writes about Controlled Trial.” Frontiers in Pediatrics, I’m often asked by parents and other a person’s lifetime relationship to gravity ® 2015;3:74 professionals why I do Rolfing Structural in Sensory Integration and the Child. This Integration (SI) with children. In a nutshell, relationship begins by the ninth week Price, K.S. and M. Terrill, 2016 Jun. “The this is why: Rolfing SI for infants and Implications of Statistical Significance and of pregnancy with the development of children helps their healthy development sensory receptors in the inner ear called Clinical Relevance.” Structural Integration: and maturation by stimulating and The Journal of the Rolf Institute® 44(2):29-32. the vestibular receptors. In the ninth week, facilitating the integration of all body the vestibular nuclei in the brainstem that Rolf, I.P., 1978/1990. Rolfing and Physical systems by working with the connective process the vestibular sensory input appear; Reality. Rosemary Feitis, ed. Rochester, tissue. This unique approach recognizes our they begin functioning by the tenth or Vermont: Healing Arts Press. lifelong relationship with gravity, the need eleventh week. for balance within the human structure, Rolf, I.P., 1977. Rolfing: Reestablishing the the relationship of the body and emotions, By the fifth month in utero, the entire Natural Alignment and Structural Integration and the importance of touch in connecting vestibular system is well developed, and, of the Human Body for Vitality and Well-Being. us with others. together with the tactile and visceral Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press. systems, provides most of the sensory My experiences with children, many of input to the fetal brain. Movement of Toporek, R. 1981. The Promise of Rolfing whom I’ve been able to track from infancy the mother during pregnancy stimulates Children. Transformation News Network. to older child or teenager, has shown me this vestibular system. Following birth, how correct Dr. Rolf was in many ways. the infant is comforted and soothed by As growing children lose noticeably holding and rocking, which continues to awkward postures, they gain self-esteem stimulate the vestibular system, developing and confidence – which really shows when the young infant’s sense of balance and its they enter the teen years. The kind of touch connection with itself and others within the that we are trained to offer is one that field of gravity. newborns and children find reassuring, and the connection between touch and nervous Rolf understood the complex interactions system development becomes obvious of these systems and their relationship to – troublesome emotional trajectories gravity. “We want to get people into the do actually get changed. That there is a place where gravity reinforces them and relationship between balance in the human is a friend, a nourishing force” (quoted in structure and behavioral development is Toporek 1981, 9). The vestibular system also obvious, and it’s so very rewarding to unifies all the sensory functions, forming have the ability to correct that relationship our primary input for relating to gravity. at the very beginning of life. It does indeed Rolfing SI works with this vestibular system change the path that both children and their through touch and by organizing the parents can travel. connective tissue. “Since both our nervous The Child and Gravity system and our skin come from the same origin, tactile stimuli have a primal point Rolf paid special attention to children in neural organization. Touch sensations throughout her lifetime. Her knowledge flow through the entire nervous system and understanding of the function of and influence every neural process to some the connective tissue, and the body’s extent. The interface of the neurological relationship to gravity, gave her the wisdom systems and the connective-tissue system and incentive to work with very young open up the communication of the body infants and small children. Dr. A. Jean as it moves towards greater organization, Ayres, an occupational therapist working balance and healthy maturation of all systems” (Ayers 1989, 39).

16 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN The Little Boy Logo name of Lynn G. After her first trimester, I child grew some more. About a year later worked with Lynn through the rest of her they brought the baby back and there were I also want to mention the history of the pregnancy. Adrian was born in a posterior no problems, the baby was very receptive ® ‘Little Boy Logo’ used by the Rolf Institute position face down. This caused quite a bit to receiving the work. I think we have to as it has a direct bearing on our work and of stress on his head and neck. His head listen to that. I learned a lot about how to its importance to children. People have was rather cone-shaped and bruised for a be receptive to each client from Stacey Mills wanted to create a new logo, but this one few days. For the first three weeks after he who was a Rolfing teacher from Hawaii. has deep meaning for us as it is rooted in was born, Adrian was uncomfortable and I will always have the parents bring in the principles of what Rolfing SI is all about. cried constantly unless he was nursing or a child, whatever age they are, and do a The logo is a reproduction of the before and sleeping. After three weeks Lynn brought consultation session. During that session after photographs of four-year-old Timmy him to me for Rolfing work because she I take a life history and explain to both Barrett who was diagnosed with Leggs- suspected birth trauma and hoped this the parent and the child, at their level of Perthes disease in 1959. Timmy’s body work would address that. During the first understanding, what Rolfing SI can do. I segments are shown as building blocks to session, Adrian seemed to be in great pain show them before and after photographs clearly demonstrate the striking structural whenever I touched his chest, neck, or of children from the Rolf Institute, and changes in his vertical alignment following head. But when I finished the session, the even do a short demonstration of my work Rolf’s Ten Series. Timmy’s mother made the look on his face was incredible. He was with them. courageous decision to choose the Rolfing totally relaxed and relieved. Everywhere Robert Toporek’s monograph called The process rather than following conventional they went that night, people commented Promise of Rolfing Children (1981) has some medical practice. on what a bright-eyed baby he was. He great before and after photos, and then didn’t whimper or cry again, and finally Not only did Timmy regain his health and photos from one, two, and three years later fell asleep. grow normally, but was able to participate with no additional work. The Rolf Institute in very strenuous and demanding physical When he was five weeks old, they brought also published a monograph in 1970 that activities. At age nine, he began to learn him in for a second session and they were has some wonderful photographs. I show and enjoy surfing, eventually winning amazed at his behavior. “He seemed to them all of that so they have the visual, championships through high school know Briah,” Lynn said, “and allowed her and I do a little work on the child’s arm and college, and going on to become a to work quietly on his body. When she came or wherever. I tell the parents that I will professional carpenter. [Editors note: Tim to sensitive parts, he would cry out but work with the child if there is agreement later took his stepfather’s surname, Law. sigh in relief as she released the area. He coming from that child. Children seem to Tim Law passed recently, and we hope loved and seemed to be relieved from pain inherently know whether they want to do to have his story in an upcoming issue.] and discomfort”. this or not. As an example, I have a woman This is what the logo represents for us – a that I’m currently working with who is reminder that restoring the vertical, as early Frameworks for about three-quarters of the way through the as possible, opens potentials that were Working with Children Ten Series. She wanted her eight-year-old previously closed. As far as age, I don’t give people a schedule son to have work, so she brought home a I want to go on to say that Rolf realized as to when to bring children in for sessions. brochure that had some pictures. The boy that a child’s posture was more than an I feel it depends on what’s going on with the looked at the Little Boy Logo and said, “I aesthetic concern. It is a visible indicator of child and with the parents, their knowledge want to do that. That’s exactly how I want how the connective tissue is molding itself of Rolfing SI, and their own sense of timing. to look.” I still had her bring him in for my into its unique patterns of muscular use usual consultation session in order to build or disuse. She understood that emotions I have worked with day-old babies. There some trust and connection. He wanted his and muscular tone were connected. Both is this family with three children that I mother in the room with him during his Ayres and Rolf understood that a person’s completed a Ten Series with, and the mother Rolfing sessions, which is fine. She reads sense of emotional well-being and security became quite an advocate. She wanted me and stays uninvolved in the sessions. So far, is directly related to the relationship with to come the day the baby was born. I went I’ve done three sessions with him. Just this gravity and to early touch experiences. to the hospital and did a session on day one. week, his mother came in for her session Ayres (1989, 40) suggests that touch is not That child just did really well with it. I had and commented on how much more self only necessary for neural organization, another who did a water birth and wanted confident he is. me there at the birth so I could work on but also that, “The child needs a lot of Typically, up to the age of around four or touch sensations to develop the emotional her daughter right after she was born. It really depends on the parents – what their five children want their mother in the room security needed for later independence . . . for maybe a session or two. If they’re okay Holding and touching a baby will help experience with Rolfing SI is, or sometimes stories they’ve heard from me about how without their mother it’s great, because him develop and organize the emotional then they really focus with me and they processes of his brain, so that he can this can help children. They decide. I think that’s really important. feel so grown up being there on their own. function well as an independent adult.” But if a child puts up a little bit of a stink, A Story Only one time in thirty-eight years have I make sure that the parent is there but is I had a baby brought for a session and it engaged in reading or doing something One of the examples in my book on Rolfing SI started screaming. I told the parents that I so they’re not engaged in the session – for children (Anson 1991, 47 and 49) is about didn’t think the child was ready for this, and just being there. After a few sessions the Adrian, the infant son of a woman by the that maybe they needed to wait until the

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 17 INFANTS AND CHILDREN parent might say, “Do you want to just go sessions, and then I did a session every two the Rolfing table with her legs really in there with Briah?” And usually the child months for a year. This is what the parents straight. Her mother reports that her will say, “Yes.” But again, giving children wanted to do, and it made sense to me. Now development on all levels, physical, mental, the lead, giving them the choice is really, I do a session every four months. and emotional, is more mature than a really important. Giving them the choice typical three-year-old, and that socially The next picture, shown in Figure 2, was whether to get work or not, to have a parent she’s able to communicate with all ages. She taken this week, showing her laying on there or not, just to make it as comfortable can now walk and run without falling, her as possible. legs are completely straight, and she seems to exhibit an excellent ability to reason, Typically, I work a good hour – even with learn, and remember. Her parents attribute an infant – very slowly and systemically. this to her Rolfing work and have decided My purpose is in getting them organized, to continue her Rolfing sessions throughout getting that stimulation in there, particularly her childhood. getting the legs and the feet organized, because all of that hooks into the gut. So A number of months ago they brought in often all of these young infants and children the little sister, Kimberley, when she was have issues with digestion, particularly if eight months old. For whatever reason, their colon hasn’t fully developed. This will she just started to cry and object. In other show up as issues with colic or spitting up. A words, I could only do about thirty minutes lot of times they just need that organization of work. They brought her in at thirteen and the Rolfer has to remember that its not months for a second session this week. She just in the gut, you have to start right there was really happy to be there, and I was able in the feet and legs and get that organized, to work a full hour. I worked pretty deeply then work up through the whole abdomen. everywhere including some mouth work, By the time I get up through the abdomen and she was very accepting of both the work and diaphragm, they’re a lot more relaxed. and me. The mother reported that even after that half-hour session Kimberley became As for what work to do – whether to do calmer. She walked at ten months with good the Ten Series or other work – the parents’ balance, and that socially she’s very happy involvement is important. If the child is and at ease with others. The parents feel that age four or over and they want their kid the Rolfing sessions and homeopathy have to go through the Ten Series, I’ll take them changed the trajectory of their kids’ lives. through it. If they just want to do a session These girls had conditions that are usually or two or three, that’s fine too. There is also Figure 1: Jovie Johnson at fifteen months treated symptomatically and often cause a what the child wants. A lot of times a child old before Rolfing SI. lot of discomfort with not much result, but says, “I want to go do that. I want to do they made the changes without pain and that,” and then the parents follow through with major changes to their whole lives. with that. Another thing I’ve experienced is that often when I’ve worked with a mother Another child whose history I’d like to and the changes have been dramatic, she mention is a baby named Seth (Figure 3). wants all her children to have this work, At age one month, he was referred to me and the husband even comes in. I’ve ended by a classical homeopath because he was up doing lots of families that way. spitting up constantly and having non-stop hiccups. As a result, he cried a lot and had More Stories constipation that lasted two or three days from My Practice at a time. I spent thirty minutes of that first I also want to share my experience with session just organizing his legs. I almost Jovie and her younger sister, Kimberley. never go to the place that’s hurting first. Jovie was referred to me by a classical Instead, I ask myself where I can enter the homeopath at one year, three months. She system and get some organization and feed was born with a condition called metatarsus that into the rest of the body. adductus. Her feet were really turned in – The rest of the session I spent on gently almost clubby, thick and tight – and her legs freeing up his abdomen, his diaphragm, very bowed. This is an issue that comes up a ribs, shoulders, and finished with some lot with children where a pediatrician wants neck work. After that first session Seth slept to put them in corrective shoes or braces through the night, his hiccups ceased, and because they were born with really bowed his bowels started working normally. They or turned-in legs. Jovie’s parents wanted to brought him back a week later and I worked try something different. At that point, her deeper and with more general organizing. legs were very bowed – see Figure 1. I did a Figure 2: Jovie Johnson at three years All was well for two months, and at three session every two weeks for a total of three and four months, after Rolfing SI. months they brought him in to do one more

18 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN

are tracking better. He’s letting others hold that he was dumb. His mother said that him besides his mother. That’s the impact of he was a restless, impatient, and easily three sessions over a period of three months frustrated little boy. (Figure 4). They worked with a pediatrician who I think that treatment always has to started him on medication. This allowed be individualized, but again, holding him to focus and complete his schoolwork, those basic premises of our work and but the side effects (stomach upset) made remembering its basic guiding philosophy his parents think that medication wasn’t – that we are teachers, educators; that we’re a good long-term solution. The mother helping a person get aligned in gravity, and had done some reading about alternative know that gravity is the therapist. I work treatments for kids evaluated for ADD, and with that kind of intention, and I think the she felt like Rolfing SI could help. She found kind of intention we hold is critical. the idea of balancing the body and the mind through neuromuscular integration Asthma, ADD, ADHD an intriguing concept that seemed to make I want to talk about another issue that’s intuitive sense. The fact that it’s a holistic common with young children – severe approach to the issue seemed like they asthma. I worked with this one little boy, were making a positive investment in Joey’s age four, who had severe asthma. His future. father was a doctor and not into holistic That boy was not excited to come see me health, but the mother was into everything at first. They had taken him to so many holistic. They were constantly taking him different therapists, and he wasn’t feeling to the emergency room of the hospital good about his situation, so he didn’t want Figure 3: Seth at one month at his first with all these really bad attacks. He had to go see one more person. After the first few Rolfing session. a horrible sway back, stooped shoulders, sessions he was expressing a lot of anger; his concave chest . . . his neck and head also mother said that little things would set him session as less severe hiccups had returned. hung forward and out in front of him. off and he could be angry for much of the A week after that third session his mother The mother felt that the asthma had postural evening. They started seeing a real change reported that his legs are much stronger, implications that could be corrected and she after the third session. His resistance to the he is holding his neck and head up, and he was tired of watching all these adrenaline Rolfing sessions started to change. They is no longer holding his hands clenched. shots and their side effects. So they made noticed changes in his behavior: instead He’s more content, grabbing things with changes in the environment by making of becoming impatient with his friends if his hands, sleeping longer, and his eyes the house as allergy-free as possible – no things didn’t go exactly his way, he started cats, diet changes, nutritional supplements, to become more tolerant and cooperative. exercise programs. At age four he had Not only did he start to work things out the complete Rolfing Ten Series. After the more, he also started sharing more – both last session, he was so much longer. The big issues for these ADD kids. asthma has ceased to be a problem. She He eventually said that school improved brought him back four years later and I did dramatically for him. While the medication three sessions. With those additional three allows him to focus much better in school, sessions he became really straight – he filled I believe the combination with Rolfing SI out and changed into a little mesomorphic has been tremendous. Everything seemed boy. His psychological behavior shifted as to start clicking. His reading and spelling well. There was a lot of conflict between the improved dramatically – he is now spelling parents, and I think he was carrying and so well that he’s qualifying for the most expressing a lot of that. After the Rolfing difficult spelling words most of the time and series he just became a joy to live with. he’s very proud of his accomplishment and Another situation that comes up a lot is grades. By the seventh session, although ADD and ADHD, and I want to talk about he still got angry, the anger seemed to a little boy by the name of Joey. He was dissipate more quickly and he seemed to seven years old and had been diagnosed process it faster on his own. He not only with ADD and ADHD. Joey was already was more cooperative in seeing me, but he telling his mom that he was dumber than was more cooperative with everyone in the the other kids in class, and the parents were family. After we’d finished the Ten Series very concerned about how the challenge in he was straighter and taller – his parents school would affect his self-esteem. He was were amazed at the dramatic differences also having difficulty in reading and was in him after three months. The alignment Figure 4: Seth at age three months. assigned to work with a reading specialist of his shoulders, legs, and overall posture that only served to further fuel his belief was astonishing. He actually looked and

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 19 INFANTS AND CHILDREN acted more mature, and he’s started to look. They’re already being picked on with some school, and she also couldn’t sit cross- fill out, making some of his slim pants comments like, “Hey, your butt sticks out.” legged. Chiropractic didn’t help, that’s why become more difficult to button. He now An example is a girl, Ami, whose mother the parents turned to Rolfing SI. She had enjoys participating in sports, he’s running had a hugely anteriorly tilted pelvis. The been on crutches for about four years – that track this spring, and he feels some of mother realized that her little girl, who was was the therapy, to put her on crutches until his fast running can be attributed to his in the third grade, had the same body, and her bones built back up. She also had a bad Rolfing work. she didn’t want her daughter to look like limp and would get into a great deal of pain her and have the same problems she had – just going to the grocery store. She had a Joey still remains a driven little boy, but Ami’s pelvis was tipped so far forward she little baby face and baby body. there has been a shift in his personality. would soon have her mom’s pains in her He’s more reasonable, cooperative, and We did the Ten Series and it seemed like back, neck, and shoulders. articulate. He’s become less impatient, more overnight she became a young woman. She tolerant, happier, and is more enjoyable Ami told me once, “When you’re young you lost the round belly, it became flat, and her to be around. His tremendous success in don’t think about your body. I’m glad my toddler walk became graceful. The limp school has taken him from feeling dumb mom realized the problem I had and had went away and when her face lost baby fat to having confidence in his abilities to read me [get Rolfing sessions] before I became she just glowed. She still had pain when and write and be successful. His mother self-conscious about my body. If I had she walked, but only limped when she told me that, “Above all, he is very proud grown up without any professional help, was really tired. Her crooked feet became of his accomplishments with Briah – his just look at the way my body was going. I straight and flat, and her back straightened straight posture, his perseverance through think I would have had problems with my out. It was amazing. A year later I did three the Rolfing process. And then he’s most self-confidence and self-esteem” (Anson advanced sessions that enabled her to get proud of the Rolfing pin that Briah gave him 1991, 91). She went through the Ten Series on the volleyball team, something she at his completion” (Hofstad 2004; I’ve had and her structure almost completely came never thought she’d be able to do. Then she little brass Little Boy Logo pins made that up. Her legs were angling a little bit forward started dancing! I give to little children when they finish.) but her back was pretty straight. Her pelvis She used to have a lot of anger: she had That’s an experience of one seven-year-old was still tilted a little bit. Then her mom been angry with her parents for getting a with ADD, ADHD – but I’ve seen a lot of brought her back eight years later, and I divorce, and angry at the bone disease that that. Even kids who were suspended from did only one session. She had continued to made it impossible to run and play like multiple schools, after Rolfing sessions they grow beautifully. She is a great example of other kids. It made her angry at the world. just seemed to settle and not be a destructive the promise of Rolfing SI – if you organize I think sometimes this anger gets stored in influence around them, not be difficult to the basic segments and let gravity be the the body, and it’s really hard to eliminate live with. therapist, people continue to unwind along because it’s stored so deeply. Her mother the vertical axis of gravity. She just had While I’ve mentioned specific conditions called it poison in every cell. After the Ten so much poise and self-confidence it was here, when talking to parents, I don’t focus Series, even though she couldn’t run as fast beautiful. She grew up to be athletic with on any condition or feed any expectation. or jump as high as other kids, she could still no trace of self-confidence issues. I say that it’s been my experience that do everything. She’s no longer an angry children become able to mature no matter I have a great big mirror in my office, and person, she’s lost her allergy problems, and what conditions they are diagnosed with. when the kids get off the table, the first somewhere along the line she developed all I say that all these different conditions also thing they do is look in the mirror. Most that beautiful poise. manifest as muscular tension in the body, adults are not good at seeing anything, but Her doctor was really surprised that she had and by just freeing them up through their these kids notice how they look. And then healed and had so much more movement, connective-tissue system and organizing the parents will see how they’re doing. but I’ve seen that with a number of kids that and balancing them with gravity, just I feel strongly that self-esteem starts in the were around her age and had severe joint like we’ve seen with adults, there seems body. When you first start seeing a little problems. They weren’t growing right, and to be a shift in their development and zigzag, or you see a body that is clearly in every case their bodies were just like a organization. Then I say that we just have at war with gravity, that self-esteem is huge zigzag with the pelvis really tipped to do the process and then wait and see. I crumbling along with the structure. What anterior, and they just didn’t have any always go back to those basic premises and we are doing as practitioners, as Rolfers, integrity or organization. They were tired, speak to experiences that I’ve had. I also say is getting these kids a matrix of support they were in pain, they felt ostracized at that every child is so individual, we can’t around which they can grow. school, and going through the Rolfing work know what’s going on completely, we just turned everything around. organize the system and see what happens. Physical and What I do know is that I can help them get Emotional Transformations Sometimes you see children who aren’t balance and organization. athletic turn into little marathon runners Another child I worked with, Erika, is a little and champion skateboarders. You would Self-Esteem girl who was diagnosed with Leggs-Perthes have never, ever thought that was in them. Let me speak to the issue of self-esteem. It disease at age eleven. It’s a bone disease in It’s like Rolf said, this is about opening up has become clear to me that even by age both hip joints with malformation – the your human potential, your vitality, and three or four kids already have a sense same condition as Timmy, the model for we don’t know what’s in there waiting to of self-esteem based on how their bodies the Little Boy Logo. Erika loved to dance be expressed. Rolfers can be that agent of but she couldn’t do that; she was missing

20 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN freeing it up and organizing it, and then Personal Empowerment (1991). She also Bibliography the child’s own vital force can shine and produced and directed Growing Right With come through. Rolfing (1996), a documentary featuring her Anson, B. 1991 Rolfing: Stories of Personal work with children under the age of four. Briah Empowerment. 1st ed. Berkeley, CA: North Scoliosis has a private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota. Atlantic Books. I also want to address the issue of scoliosis. Continuing her evolution as a healer, Briah Ayers, A. J. 1989. Sensory Integration and An example is Olivia, who at age eleven completed her training and certification the Child. 1st ed. Los Angeles, CA: Western started developing a really bad scoliosis. in 2001 as a practitioner of Frequencies of Psychological Services. I did two full Ten Series and more over Brilliance – a form of quantum energetic Hofstad, C. 2004. Personal communication. the years, and the parents kept bringing bodywork. To date she has completed twenty- her in, but I told them that I felt this was a five levels of this transformative healing work. Rolf, I.P. 1978. Ida Rolf Talks about Rolfing and case where no amount of chiropractic and Briah is also presently pursuing a four-year Physical Reality. R. Feitis, ed. 1st ed. New Rolfing SI was going to help her maintain program in classical homeopathy at The York: Harper & Row. or hold that alignment. It was so clear to me Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy in Toporek, R. 1981. The Promise of Rolfing that they needed to consider surgery – and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Children: A Pilot Project (monograph). it’s the only time I’ve really, clearly said that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Transformation to a parent. I did a lot of research and found News Network. a surgeon here in Minneapolis who seemed to be very successful with these kids. At age twenty-five, Olivia had the surgery and was able to have very dramatic changes in her curvature. Before getting bodywork she had a 105° curvature, and after collaborative What We Have in our Hands work with me and a chiropractor, and then ® the surgery, she had a 40° correction. The When Parents of Newborns Assent to the Rolfing Touch neurosurgeon said he had never seen that By Lina Hack, BSc, BA, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Somatic amount of change – the best he had hoped Experiencing® Practitioner for with the surgery was a 20° correction. She gained three inches in height. It isn’t often that a newborn person meets little form, inviting ease during the active After recovery she had almost no back pain a pair of hands that offer Rolfing Structural structural unfolding. Integration; yet when this meeting does and could live a normal, healthy life. She The Sequence of a has matured and gained in self-confidence, happen, growth assistance that can gently Session with a Newborn which was really impacting her life. I did guide the structural accomplishments that a little bit of Rolfing work with her when are actively expressing can be offered to this Working with a newborn requires being she was in recovery – just some scar tissue fresh human organism. The newborn baby adaptive. Consent is important. Parental work. That’s the most severe case that I’ve is still pulsing like a singular pouch of fluid consent may include a conversation about worked with, but I’ve certainly worked with in the primary curve shape of the womb. how their baby’s structure is doing in the a ton of kids with scoliosis. Birth is a big structural imprint on its form, early days of life and what help they wish clearly palpable to the Rolfer’s hands in the us to offer. Newborns give their assent to Conclusion first days of life. A newborn experiences some Rolfing touch when they settle with the open air, and it is gravity as a force that I want to finish with this quote from our contact. The treatment table is our arms initiates a new set of structural directives in Dr. Rolf: “Our way is more basic because we and our ribcage. The first thing we offer is all of the cells – a quest for length. understand that structure is determined by a gentle hold and our heart beat. If baby the relation of the body to the gravitational Some of our most treasured stories about settles, then we may begin. field. We are the only group that recognizes Dr. Ida Rolf are the ones about how she Newborns give various levels of eye contact that in order for a living body to be at ease was drawn to work with children. I can while receiving work; the best markers may in its spatial environment on earth, gravity only infer that she must have felt in her be to track facial expressions, breath rate, must be able to deal positively with it” (Rolf own hands the fresh responsiveness of and body gestures. Our direct touch will be 1978, 35). Sometimes we hear that and think developing tissue. It inspires a conversation with soft sensitive finger pads – the working it’s a bunch of words, but it is the basic of support, a welcoming to the world, surface being as small as the inner loops of foundational premise that should guide our and a sense of prevention. We can offer our fingerprints. Imagine the principles of intention as we work – whether with babies, relief from the myofascial hooks acquired the Ten Series in miniature. It is beautiful to children, teenagers, anybody. We’ve got to during development and birth. We can give a broad whole-hand touch with only hold that intention. support comfort to allow bonding time one or two fingertips actively working. with caregivers. Length is a transition Briah Anson, MA, is a Certified Advanced through the whole human lifespan. In the For me, I start by giving baby a hug and Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner with first days after birth, the Rolfer can facilitate a hum for a hello. Then I place a whole over thirty-eight years of experience. She is the ‘breath of life’ sweeping the whole hand on his or her back, which will cover a pioneer in the field of Rolfing SI, and the and hold the entire spine. I listen to this author and publisher of Rolfing: Stories of fresh midline; wait for settling; and track

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 21 INFANTS AND CHILDREN all changes, actively supporting the dance. a periphery, interacting with the outside a middle, to the distinction of a head and Babies will show us how they are feeling world. We can help the baby feel its whole a pelvis. Hold a newborn (one hand head, in their bodies. singular self – its periphery newly in the air. the other hand pelvis) and feel for breath. This embryologic morphology starts the I allow myself to be curious about the baby’s Now, of course, that one spherical fertilized gravitational line, but it is still all folded up. spine. I will hold the precious head in one cell rather efficiently became many cells – hand; with the other hand, I slowly place a well-organized bubble of cells. Within This future verticality is further matured two fingers on either side of the spine, often the bubble of cells, two distinct sheets when the dorsal cells form a valley of starting mid-thorax, feeling for the heart. of cells differentiate: the ectoderm and cells from the tail to the head; a line of I sink some contact into the transverse the endoderm. After the sphere, humans involution that will become the head and processes, offer some eye contact, and develop a back body and a front body . . . spine. This is the midline. The human invariably the little person will give me a a brief moment with no middle (van der midline is a symphony of complexity that gesture about how that feels. I support that Wal, 2010). Fast forward to the baby we pushes ectoderm into the endoderm – a gesture, follow the dance, wait for settling, are holding, its front and its back will long bubble of ectoderm living deep inside and come out. Then I allow intrinsic gesture have distinct qualitative differences in the endoderm, becoming the brain, the to express to completion. our hands. The embryonic ectoderm has spinal cord, the peripheral nerves, and given rise to many different types of tissue: the bones that protect them. The midline I will offer length where it makes sense, the skin envelope around the form being has a directionality into the center of the honoring the flexion and extension one and the whole nervous system being back and pushing forwards to the front. movements. It’ll look like a complex wiggle another. The embryonic endoderm also That little newborn has a visible midline in by the tiny person: a right sidebend, a left gives rise to many different types of tissues: the front (recognize that we are seeing the sidebend, a curl forward, a backbend, and most notably all the organs of digestion, front of the back). We want to help gravity spirals of variation. Keep in mind that space respiration, and circulation. We can feel that organize the verticality and horizontality offered to this new spine will support and developmental division all in one hand with here. If we can smooth out the midline on encourage all the organs to occupy fresh a person who is two days old. the second day of life, we are preventing the territory. This will commonly support kinks and hooks from becoming familiar baby to pass some gas, have a poop, take The embryo quickly develops the mesoderm habits. If we can help the midline express grand breaths, and make random limb layer of cells, a layer that is quite important its palintonicity at each segment, we create movements. It does not take long for a lot to us Rolfers because it is this tissue line the opportunity for the form to fully express of work to take place – being done in ten that gives rise to the connective tissue its intended majesty. minutes is common. wrapping all the organs and internal forms, including becoming the skeleton A Note About Birth The Physicality of of the little body (van der Wal 2014). The In Utero Life Becoming meso cells weave lines of connective tissue Having held a range of babies with diverse a Newborn Life across open fluid spaces like a spider birth stories, I have felt how the method of weaving a web. Eventually those fibers birth impacts the structure of the newborn. Imagine the form of a baby two days before become fabric; they make interconnected When I gave birth by scheduled C-section, birth and contrast that with the same baby shapes, and they can be conceptualized as I saw that my little guy showed up having two days after birth. The primary curve of a mammalian-shaped matrix transmitting no length at all because he didn’t experience whole-body flexion is what this structure mechanical and fluid forces through the the squeeze of the birth canal. His body knows best. Embryological development whole embryo. Holding a newborn takes experience was being in a forward-curve can inform our hands about where to a great softening of our working hands to form in utero, unzipped surgically; neonatal offer our directionality of support. The make contact with the embryologic fascia. physicians worked to inspire his first newborn baby has transitioned from a A worthwhile intervention is feeling the breaths and he was wrapped up in a fluid environment to an air environment, fascia of a newborn, connecting sensory forward curve for mother’s arms. His form from a confined space to open space, functions with proprioception circuitry benefitted greatly from structural touch. from supported umbilicus nutrients to through touch. independent visceral function. Every tissue Contrast that with three weeks ago, when line of a newborn is a vibrantly growing Once the human organism has a front my close friend gave birth in a pool in her structure, a moving fluid form starting the (endoderm), a middle (mesoderm), and living room with four hours of labor. This long journey to uprightness. a back (ectoderm), the ball of fetal cells new little guy had the squeeze Mother needs nutrition from mother. The baby’s Nature has always intended, and this The two days before birth is a completion early vascular system meets the placental newborn self had a body experience of moment – the embryo has completed the vascular system at the embryonic location structural length imprinted into his fascia movement of coming into existence (van that is the baby’s tail, the root, the pelvic by the birth process itself. Yet that squeeze der Wal 2010). When we hold a newborn in base (van der Wal 2010). The maternal blood was asymmetric; the umbilical cord was our hands, we are feeling the forty weeks nutrition first enters caudally, establishing caught on his shoulder; and he still had the (give or take) of embryological growth that the next level of organization: caudal - twist of birth imprinted on his form when is complex beyond imagination. The first cranial (cephalad). Later this blood supply he was two days old. form the embryo expresses is the sphere, connection moves ventral and superior to the single ovum fertilized. The newborn Every birth story is unique with a high become the umbilicus connection. From the in our hands is a sphere with a center and variability of trauma levels. The structure of sphere, the human has a front, a back, and any newborn will tell the story of how entry

22 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN into the world impacted its form. Rolfers and-digest paradise that is parasympathetic classically: three-dimensional breath space. working with newborns can support the function. It is the bond with caregivers that Her diaphragm had gotten disorganized new tissue to breathe, to sidebend, to soothes (Porges 2011). with the pressure change of birth; her tremble, to gesture, to contract, and then experience of breath was one of not being Rolfing training has attuned us as touch to lengthen. We are helping them make able to access her diaphragm. Simple therapists to listen to where an adult’s room for all the bags holding all the various holding of her diaphragm, laterally, brought overwhelm (leading to chronic pain) is organs. We can help them make room for awareness and comfort. At first, she could coming from. The same listening can the food moving through their digestive manage small, organized inhale-and-exhale draw out some information for parents system. We can follow their cues down the cycles. Then with broad contact, we brought of a newborn. We will notice if it is the road to comfort. her breath into her upper abdominal cavity, fabric that the new little person is trying gathering her tissue towards the midline, to wiggle away from; we will notice the Development as and inviting breath to return to the space startle when the furnace kicks on; and we a Dynamic System that had been occupied by baby. And will understand the lumbar shortening slowly, with lots of time, we invited her When we have a newborn in our hands, and face grimace associated with a kink in breath into her pelvis; the sacral movement we are witness to a person who is in the the small intestine. If we have clients with of breath emerged, and her breath cycle process of dynamic growth. Developmental colicky infants, we can offer quite a bit of deepened to a resting state that she had psychologists describe the dynamic systems insight with our Rolfing lens. And we offer not experienced since giving birth. The perspective of growth where the child is our touch to smooth the rough edges of impact of this touch support was profound; seen as an integrated system, its mind, physicality so the caregivers and child can it brought ease to the difficult transition of body, physical, and social worlds working get to the important business of bonding. together to acquire new skills in a constant fully formed baby inside the body to baby motion of cellular development (Berk and Work with Mother outside the body. Meyers 2015). Rolfing touch can smooth as Well as the Newborn Conclusion out the acquired snags from birth and the When I told my friend that her baby boy hooks that tissue has grown around in the Holding a two-day old baby in our Rolfing had inspired this article, she reminded me forward flexion of the fetus. In the spirit hands is a weighty moment – a whole to write about the work I did with her in of prevention, we offer an accelerated client in a small package. We help when we the first days after she gave birth. She had education about gravity in the open air. honor the life force that has arrived, we feel the birth story already mentioned and that the story of the form, and we support the When newborns cry, it is because they are all us mothers dream about: at home, in a wiggle of growth taking place. Our training experiencing an overwhelm of sensation pool, with midwives, during the day, not will guide the structural length the tissue of one type or another. Parents will be that long a labor, and a healthy newborn. is destined to find. To do a session with a focused on the basic questions: Are they However, her system had distinct difficulty newborn we can work with baby on the hungry? Are they clean? Are they safe? Yet with the adjustment between having a mom; yet personally, I find greatest effect simply feeling the world can be the point of lot of pregnant pressure pushing on her when my skeleton is the treatment table. We overwhelm. The fabric on the skin might be organs one day and the absence of this hold embryological organization when we lighting up all touch sensors on the skin in pressure the next day. Her system became hold a newborn and we can make contact a way that is loud to their nervous system. momentarily disorganized; the experience with these growth stages. We are working Sounds in the environment, like the furnace was upsetting and alarming to her. She felt with the imprint of birth, and the client will or the air conditioner, might be experienced like she couldn’t breathe. I am so glad she teach us what the birth was like. A newborn as a loud threat they can’t seem to escape. reminded me that of the mom and baby human is developing within a dynamic Milk passing through the digestive system pair, the first I worked with was mom. system of growth; all layers of being making for the first time has a lot of uncomfortable daily leaps towards uprightness. Our role sensory details to it. Two days after baby was born, I was eager as structural integrators is to ease the to meet this new little fellow in our tribe; Sensory overwhelm gets in the way of transitions in the tissue and to smooth out but it was my friend’s form that was calling the baby bonding with its caregivers. The the structural unfolding from the fetal life. the most for some Rolfing work. I promptly human animal is ready to be received by got the table set up in her house and got Lina Hack has been a Rolfer for thirteen years in others at the moment of birth, ready for to work. Her system was very clear; she Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Along with the smell of parents, ready for the sounds was living in a pregnant body that had her private practice, she also presents workshops of parents, and ready for the love bond. successfully birthed the baby. I treated to colleagues about the neuropsychology of stress Sensory overwhelm sets off the arousal her like a pregnant mom: sidelying, slow, states and structural anatomy in the context cycle, increased heart rate and breath rate. emotional attunement as a primary focus, of yoga instruction. She has been integrating In adults, sensory overwhelm will set off and interventions completely invested in motherhood and professional identity for ten the arousal cycle, too – sounds of tires settling her nervous system. years; she reports it is a good life. screeching, for example. But as adults, we have skills to assess risk and sooth ourselves I had the benefit of knowing her pregnant Bibliography when we recognize safety – the car stopped form very well as we see each other every Berk, L.E. and A.B. Meyers, 2015 Infants and in time and did not hit the squirrel, all are day, and I had known that her short torso Children: Prenatal through Middle Childhood. safe. Newborns do not have the neural had required the uterus to fill her abdomen New York, NY: Pearson Education. mechanisms to relax back into the rest- firmly up to her diaphragm. So, I started

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 23 INFANTS AND CHILDREN

Porges, S. 2011 The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Considerations for Sessions for Attachment, Communication, and Self- regulation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Newborns with Feeding Issues Van der Wal, J. 2014 “The Fascia as the Organ By Rebecca Lisak, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement® Practitioner, of Innerness – an Holistic Approach Based Alexander Technique Teacher upon a Phenomenological Embryology and Newborns commonly arrive in our offices Some babies present with a visibly short Morphology.” (Available at http://tinyurl. with feeding issues. Problems transferring lingual frenulum, a ‘tongue-tie’, which looks com/ydeghee7. Retrieved 8/2/2017.) milk can show up as pain for the nursing like a short, posteriorly humped tongue. Van der Wal, J. 2010. Embryo in Motion: mother, as a baby who grows increasingly With anterior ties, the tip of the tongue can Understanding Ourselves as Embryo. DVD frustrated and upset during feedings, or have a heart-shaped indentation due to the of June 3-6, 2010 seminar. Portland, when a baby’s weight gain is insufficient frenulum pulling the tongue down along Oregon: The Portland Branch of the for healthy growth. As trained Rolfers, we the midline. Tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, Anthroposophical Society of America already have a facility for working with can sometimes be diagnosed based on (www.portlandbranch.org). the most important consideration in babies appearance but is usually diagnosed by who aren’t functioning well – helping assessing function. Posterior tongue-ties them to receive more reliable support so are usually not obvious enough to make that the pull of gravity enables the baby’s a defensible diagnosis based on visual intact reflexes to function in their most or manual inspection. There are several coordinated fashion. assessment tools used by pediatricians and lactation consultants to evaluate for Difficulty feeding is an urgent situation, tongue-tie. Some indicators that the tongue especially if the mother wishes to breastfeed. is restricted are feeling the baby using the Lack of efficient transfer of milk from the jaw or gums to clamp the nipple, hearing breast results quickly in lowered milk clicking sounds during nursing, or seeing supply, which can be very burdensome cheeks dimpling in an attempt to stabilize to increase, if it can indeed be increased the mouth on the nipple. When the baby enough to meet the baby’s nutritional needs. latches a finger or the mother’s nipple, one Mothers can suffer with clogged ducts if feels a flicking movement of the tongue, not the baby isn’t able to drain the breast, and a smooth wave motion from front to back this can lead to a painful case of mastitis, of the tongue. Lateral movement of the which may require antibiotics. Damage to tongue appears restricted, with the tongue the nipple from improper latch can cause needing to twist to reach the corners of the pain and occasionally infection if the latch mouth. The tongue might not extend past coordination does not change to prevent the lower lip without the tip being pulled continued damage. under. The normal newborn tongue should Bottle-feeding while working out nursing be able to extend at least halfway up to the problems requires different coordination palate with the mouth fully open. Tongue- from the baby than breastfeeding. Getting tie commonly presents accompanied by milk from a bottle is significantly easier, gassiness and reflux or back arching. so the baby is losing opportunities to Tongue-tied babies can undergo frenotomy develop good suckling coordination and or ‘revision’, which alters structure by may develop a strong preference for the using surgical scissors or a surgical laser bottle. When a baby is unable to latch and to cut the frenulum either at midline or at also resists the bottle, hospitalization may the underside of the tongue (Genna 2013, be required to ensure the infant’s healthy 209). It is useful to work hands-on with weight gain. baby prior to any revision to the tissue. When the mother reports nipple pain with Sometimes function improves enough nursing, it’s important to ask a follow-up with your work to get the baby’s nursing question to guide your approach: does on track. The frenulum can be more or the pain change when the baby’s position less elastic independent of its length, and changes? If the pain is always in the same increasing elasticity in the muscles in the location regardless of the orientation of the floor of the mouth can help coordinate baby on the breast, the solution might be nursing function despite a short frenulum work on the mother’s ribs and diaphragm in (Genna 2013, 27). Choosing to have an order to rebalance her body after the intense infant’s lingual frenulum revised is not flexion patterns utilized in vaginal birthing. a decision to take lightly: the procedure requires ‘stretches’ to be performed daily

24 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN by the parent to break apart any fibers that face (torticollis), or of the shoulders due to nutrition; we have to offer the background are reattaching. This is often upsetting for one getting briefly stuck in the birth canal. support of a secure surface and provide the baby and the parent and can lead to Compression forces from sharing space in stimuli for the innate reflex action to occur. oral aversion behaviors by the baby. It is the womb with fibroids or from intense You will likely handle the baby in several not uncommon for the procedure to seem contractions of induced labor can be strong positions, including holding the baby to provide little or no improvement in enough to have overpowered the baby’s upright against your chest or shoulder (you milk transfer. ability to spring back. Via your hands, you may work this way for the entirety of the can offer the infant the means whereby to If your hands-on work and parent education session if the infant is suffering from reflux). return to full volume. Detailed information alone is going to help the baby’s system Picking up a baby is a complicated matter! about relevant anatomy and interventions become adaptable enough to resolve feeding Your specific (and possibly narrated for the are best offered in a class format. issues, you will make a clear positive impact benefit of the parents) attention to providing in a session or two. It is essential to work Tone is the first thing to assess when working a continuous feeling of secure support for with the infant following revision, since the with an infant. It is the basis for all function the baby’s structure will educate parents baby has been busy learning compensatory in the gravitational field. Bonnie Bainbridge and reinforce the baby’s sense of safety. patterns to work around the structural Cohen writes, “Low tone indicates that we When moving a baby, give clear attention to restriction. Your hands-on work helps to are having difficulty meeting the force of your own sense of support. Help the baby update the coordination patterns to match the earth’s pull; high tone indicates that experience changes in location and body the current structure. we are overreaching to the pull of gravity; position as coherent shifting of points of an even, balanced tone indicates that we contact, not a ‘rest here, now-I’m-going- Babies diagnosed with ‘disorganized have a comfortable relationship or balance to-move-you, now rest again’. Movements suck’ without structural restriction with the earth’s force” (Stokes 2009, 16). don’t start and end; they come out of and benefit markedly from Rolfing® Structural Balanced tone we call ‘yield’, a continually return to integrated yield. Encourage the Integration within a session or two. Rapid renewed relationship of fully resting yielding that is continuously operating in improvement occurs as tissues normalize to without collapsing or losing buoyancy. the background for newborns by providing balance each other. This is not a Ten Series Aposhyan (1999, 64) states that “yielding continuous support that invites the baby to (rarely, if ever, indicated for a newborn; is a quality of resting in contact” and deeply rest toward ‘ground’: the table or many of the goals of a Ten Series are stresses that the recognition of the contact your arms and hands. Position the infant either already functioning well or are not (feeling the surface one is contacting) is in varying ways, including sidelying and developmentally appropriate for a pre- key. “Yielding forms the ground on which on belly, so that different surfaces of her walking infant). Babies with apparent the baby rests and organizes how the baby body have the opportunity to contact the limited motivation to seek out the nipple rests. For yielding to emerge fluidly, the supporting surfaces. and draw in nourishment are generally parent-child relationship must be secure the most difficult to help. This ‘lazy Educating and encouraging parents to enough that the baby can sense the parent’s suck’ is more commonly associated with provide increased support for the baby will underlying support, which allows him to neurological impairment. It is often seen help them provide the best foundation for yield his weight to that support. Yielding in babies with low tone. In newborns, their infant’s development. It’s delightfully provides the stable background from which balanced tone is characterized by a distinct convenient that the parent’s attention to all other movements up and away from the flexion preference of limbs and spine: his/her own comfort and sense of resting earth emerge” (Frank 2011, 25). The ability an orientation around the navel, where and ease is exactly what the baby needs of a caregiver to yield and to offer secure the baby was connected to the mother in to perfect her ability to yield into support, supportive surfaces while handling a baby utero. If nursing and flexion tone don’t which underlies her increasingly more is imperative, as a parent’s arms are ground improve markedly in a session or two, it’s complex movement. for a baby much of the time. wise to advise the parents to talk with their Having a space well-appointed for pediatrician about getting a referral to Early When working with a newborn, it’s essential nursing provides an opportunity for you Intervention (if they are in the U.S.). This to provide good quality support that allows to encourage increased ease in the mother, is a free program sponsored by most states the baby to freely yield. You can realize a thereby improving the security of trust that provides in-home physical therapy deep sense of yielding into the support of in the relationship between parent and and occupational therapy assessments and the surfaces you are touching as you handle baby. The mother should be able to recline treatment for infants who qualify, so the baby. A baby’s physical tone and ability to with feet supported (I use a small seiza infant gets regular focused instigations to yield and receive support impact its ability bench and a firm, cushioned arm chair). get reflex behavior working. Your skilled to organize an efficient suckling pattern. Encourage a generous slumping down in hands-on help with detailed anatomical When a baby doesn’t feel a secure sense the chair, with pelvis posteriorly rotated, considerations including cranial nerves is of support that he can rest into, he will so she is sitting more on her sacrum than invaluable alongside in-home therapy. attempt to provide ground for himself by on her ischial tuberosities, with her back contracting to try to stabilize from within. Sometimes imbalances obvious to the supported by the chair. The baby then rests This internal bracing interferes with the trained vision of a Rolfer are affecting on the mother’s torso in a longitudinal coordination of reflexive activity such as coordination of suckling and swallowing. or oblique position (position depends on seeking the nipple with the mouth and This could include the baby not being able what feels most comfortable for mama suckling. We don’t have to teach the baby to open her jaw enough to get a deep latch, and baby), so that maximum contact is to suckle appropriately to bring in optimal or displaying asymmetry of the neck and made between the baby and the mother’s

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 25 INFANTS AND CHILDREN body or surrounding support. The baby’s and stimulating the rooting reflex prior to these are best presented in a class. You belly contacting the supporting surface offering the bottle nipple. “Infant grading already have, however, excellent training stimulates a toning up of the front side of (smoothness) of motions generally depends in the most essential quality needed the baby’s body (physiological flexion), on stability . . . When prone on the semi- as a foundation for all developmental which facilitates the functioning of the reclined mother’s trunk or abdomen, movement: a robust, generous conception reflexes that get baby to the nipple and infants are capable of remarkably accurate of gravity as support. A newborn’s needs coordinate deep and effective latching. Our movement.” (Colson et al., 2008 as cited by are simple. Can we as practitioners become beloved gravity connects baby to mama. Genna.) This is true for bottle-feeding as simple enough to allow him to activate his Mama generously rests into support, and well as breastfeeding. innate reflexes in a coordinated manner? pillows are provided to maximize the Offer hands-on support to the caregiver Rebecca Lisak is a Certified Advanced Rolfer, mother’s ability to yield into gravity/chair/ giving baby a bottle or to the mother while Rolf Movement Practitioner, craniosacral sofa. Until feeding is well established, nursing. Touch the parent, especially while therapist, and Alexander Technique teacher. avoid feeding positions that require baby she holds baby. Communicate support She comes to movement education from a being held on his posterior side as this from ground through your own balanced performance background (music, theatre, interferes with reflexive movements that aid awareness and structure. The way to affect and movement). feeding. Mothers will often deny the need a baby’s coordination system is by working for personal comfort; use the opportunity with the baby’s gravity response system, Bibliography to remind her that she’s establishing which is best done by addressing the patterns that support her baby’s ability to Aposhyan, S. 1999. Natural Intelligence. parent’s gravity response system, which is utilize innate reflexes for feeding as well as Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. only done by accessing your own. allow the mother to deeply rest. This semi- Colson, S. 2012. “Biological Nurturing: reclined position improves reflex behaviors Working with babies demands that you The Laid-back Breastfeeding Revolution.” in both the mother and the newborn show up with the ability to renew a sense Midwifery Today 101. (Colson 2007). of clear yield and returning to line. Your organization of weight to allow flow in Frank, R. 2011. The First Year and the Rest of If the baby produces jerky, flinging, or movement is your most powerful tool when Your Life. New York: Routledge. thrashing movements when attempting to handling and touching newborns. Sessions latch, this is a sign that the baby doesn’t Genna, C. 2013. Supporting Sucking Skills in with babies are often chaotic: babies may have enough physical stability to be able Breastfeeding Infants. Woodhaven, NY: Jones express distress; parents arrive stressed to rest into the support of gravity. These and Bartlett Learning. and sleepless. You may have both parents reflexive movements that you see aid the plus a grandparent or two show up at your Stokes, B. and T. Verny 2002. Amazing Babies: baby in finding and latching the nipple office. Your ability to access ground and Essential Movement for Your Baby in the First when the baby is appropriately supported. support for optimal ease and flow will be Year. Canada: Move Alive Media. Keep in mind that by the time you see a challenged by having to include several baby with feeding issues, the parents have people, all of whom have complex feelings been struggling for some time. It’s not about the intense experience they are living uncommon that mothers of babies who are through and the recent intensity of the birth having difficulty feeding are attempting experience. Many needs may appear during breastfeeding, then pumping, then giving the short time you spend with the family. baby the pumped milk in a bottle, then The baby may cry, the mother may cry, burping/changing/attending to baby, then and you want to be flexible enough in your washing bottles and pump parts to prepare approach to be able to offer interventions for the next session. Often these sessions last that generate clear results, while assessing three hours and have to be repeated every and honoring the needs of the relationships three hours. Babies with feeding issues within the family. Some parents are okay often also suffer with reflux or gas pain and with their baby crying a bit while you’re can be unrelentingly fussy. They can cry working; some have a deep need to more often than not. Parents are exhausted comfort their child immediately. Your as well as worried and feeling helpless. It’s skill in returning again and again to your hard to ‘know what to do’ when behaviors own support during all of the interactions that are supposed to be innate don’t seem creates the opportunity for the parents to be working well. Your coaching and and the baby to rest into a deeper sense reminders that the parents let go of anxious of security in the midst of challenge. Your activation and release into support help inner organization creates the space for an create a foundation for optimal functioning. improved quality of support to emerge in the relationships between the parents and Bottle-fed babies should be handled the their baby. same way, with attention given to comfort of the parent, maximizing skin contact There are many detailed anatomical between the baby’s front side and the considerations to investigate during a caregiver’s, switching sides mid-feed, session to help feeding problems, and

26 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN

joint with respect to the axis of the knee Developmental Torsion joint (between 5 degrees and 18 degrees) is considered normal. In their developmental journey the knee and ankle joints may be in the Long Bones of the Leg briefly parallel to each other at age five or six. About 80% of this rotational journey Assessment and Perspective on is complete by age eight, but not fully complete until physical maturity in the late an Aspect of Child Development teens or early twenties. By Jeffrey Burch, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ Abnormal Development Introduction Nomenclature Ambiguities Development that differs from the norms in starting place, pace of change, and/or final This article describes normal and abnormal The term ‘tibial torsion’ refers both to the orientation is considered abnormal. developmental changes in orientation developmental process of twist along the of joints in the legs. Knowledge of these length of the tibia, and the final state of the Starting place: At birth there may be more developmental pathways is essential relationship between the axes of rotation or less internal rotation position of the for working with children. It provides of the knee joint and ankle joint. When axis of ankle joint than the normal range the practitioner with valuable insight to reading the literature on this subject, be (5-12 degrees of internal rotation at birth is where each child is in this developmental alert to this potential source of ambiguity by considered normal). sequence, allowing reasonable expectations understanding which aspect of tibial torsion Pace of change: The rate of change of to be set for structural work, and may point is being discussed, and read between the the relationship between the axes during to abnormal development beyond the scope lines for disambiguation. When speaking growth may be slower or faster than of the practitioner, requiring referral. While and writing on this topic, it is important typical. Occasionally there is a complete there is a general developmental pathway, to provide clarity on this distinction. failure of tibial torsion where the adult has there is substantial individual variation. Similarly, ‘femoral torsion’ refers to both the the infantile state of ankle axis internally Understanding this developmental progressive developmental twist along the rotated with respect to the axis of the knee variability and the ability to assess the state length of the femur and to the final state of joint. Rate of change may be more rapid of development helps set realistic goals for this relationship. than typical depending on the starting point structural integration for adults. and may result in greater than normal tibial Relationship Between torsion in adulthood. This article describes methods to accurately the Knee and Ankle assess the present state of relationships Axes of Rotation Final orientation: Final degree of tibial between the axes of the ankle, knee, and torsion at maturity may be more or less hip joints. For children who are far from the Normal Course of Development than the normative values of 5-18 degrees center of the bell curve in these dimensions, The knee joint and ankle joint are both hinge of external rotation of the axis of the ankle orthopedic referrals may be indicated. If a joints. Each of these two joints has one axis joint with respect to the axis of rotation child is seen at intervals during the years of rotation and very little other movement. of the knee joint. This final position is the of growth and development, his progress In standing, the axis of rotation of each sum result of the starting position and the can be tracked from year to year providing joint will normally be close to parallel rate of change. While the two legs of one a fuller picture. to the ground. However, when viewed person never have identical tibial torsion, During growth, the long bones of the leg from above or below, the axis of rotation it is desirable that they not be greatly change progressively between birth and of the knee joint is usually not parallel to different from each other. Differences maturity; the femur and tibia twist along the axis of rotation of the ankle joint. Dr. of greater than 7 degrees of final tibial their length, progressively changing the Rolf’s statement that these joints should torsion between the two legs may be angular relationship between the axes of operate in parallel is simply false and has biomechanically problematic. the ankle joint and knee joint. Similarly, frustrated and confused generations of Relationship Between the this same relationship exists between structural integrators. Knee Axis of Rotation and the axis of the knee joint and a plane At birth, the axis of rotation of the ankle through the superior end of the femur. the Plane of the Superior (talocrural) joint is normally internally Although developmental rotations have a Portion of the Femur rotated with respect to the axis of rotation recognizable path, both the starting place of the knee joint. Ten degrees of internal Normal Development and pace of change vary substantially rotation of the ankle joint is considered from person to person, even between the Since the hip joint is a ball-and-socket average, with a range of 5-12 degrees. As two legs of the same person. The resulting joint, the angular relationship between the the tibia elongates during growth, it twists orientation of the joints varies widely joints at the two ends of the femur must be along its length so the axis of rotation of between people and is never identical for assessed in a different way than the angular the ankle joint progressively shifts from the two legs of any individual. relationship between the two ends of the internal rotation toward parallel (and tibia. The standard method is to consider a usually beyond parallel). In adulthood, any plane through the center of the ball of the amount of external rotation of the ankle femur – the greater trochanter and superior

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 27 INFANTS AND CHILDREN quarter of the shaft of the femur. Extend may have an equilibrium position in the abducting the metatarsal group with the this plane inferiorly past the knee. Note the acetabulum with any degree of internal or other hand. relationship of the axis of the knee to this external rotation permitted by the structure plane. Rarely will the axis of rotation of the of the acetabulofemoral joint. This is a sum Assessment knee be parallel to this plane. of tensional forces spanning between the Assessment of components of internal femur and the hemipelvis. The practitioner At birth, the axis of the knee joint is usually and external rotation of the leg is done can readily assess this factor by slowly internally rotated about 40 degrees. 30-45 in segments that are then added together internally and externally rotating the degrees is a normal range. Just as with the to arrive at an understanding of the big femur and looking for the neutral point tibia, the femur rotates along its length picture of torsional relationships in the where the least effort is required to roll in during development, classically ending at legs and feet including toe-in, toe-out, either direction. 15 degrees of internal rotation, with 5-20 and knee orientation. Each piece of data degrees considered normal range. Internal Direction the Acetabulum Faces must be considered in light of the others to rotation of the axis of the knee with respect understand the structure of each person’s Consider a plane lying on the rim of the to the plane described through the upper body. From this assembled understanding, acetabulum, and then a perpendicular line part of the femur is called anteversion. realistic expectations can be made for to this through the center of the acetabular The whole normal range of development treatment, and in some cases, orthopedic cup. What direction does this line point? is within the anteverted range. If the axis referral may be necessary. Normally this line has an antero-inferior of rotation of the knee is externally rotated orientation. The fact that the superior Global Visual Assessment with respect to the plane through the border of the acetabulum is lateral to the superior part of the femur, this is called Have the client stand naturally. How do inferior border is important for weight retroversion. Femoral retroversion is by his feet land? If you observe the client to bearing. The anterior portion of the rim of definition abnormal. This developmental look down and carefully place his feet, ask the acetabulum is normally medial to the torsion is about 50% complete by age him to shake it out and let his feet land posterior edge of the rim, but by a variable eighteen months, and 80% complete by naturally. Visually assess each leg and foot amount. Added to the tibial torsion and age eight, and not fully complete until separately. As an initial reference, consider femoral torsion, this acetabular angle adds physical maturity. a frontal plane through the anterior spines a variable amount of toe-in to the final of the iliac crests and a midsagittal plane Abnormal Development stance. Like internal rotation of the knee perpendicular to this through the pubic joint axis with respect to the orientation of Starting place: Although uncommon, it symphysis. Extend both planes to the the superior part of the femur, this normal is possible for there to be greater than floor. For the purpose of this examination, position of the acetabulum is referred to as 45 degrees of anteversion at birth. It is ignore relationships superior to the pelvis. anteversion. Like anteversion in the femur, similarly uncommon but possible for the See the relationship of each foot to these acetabular anteversion varies from person degree of anteversion at birth to be less planes. Compared to the midsagittal plane to person and may not be the same in the than 35 degrees. through the pubic symphysis, each foot two sides of the pelvis. In hip replacement may be internally rotated, straight ahead, Pace of change: The progressive external surgery, cup placement is considered or externally rotated. It is not normal for rotation of the axis of the knee joint with critical and 15 degrees of anteversion per the two feet to be in the same position respect to the plane through the superior side is considered ideal. This dimension relative to the sagittal plane. Be alert to the part of the femur may be normal, too fast, is not assessable by the manual therapist forefoot adduction or abduction situation too slow, or nonexistent. but requires radiology. (For a review of the mentioned above. Note these results. literature on this topic see Wan et al 2009.) Position outside norms for developmental Standing Hip stage: At any stage of development and Metatarsus Adductus Rotation Assessment in maturity, femoral torsion position may and Abductus be incorrect. A high normal or excessive Sit behind the client and place your right In the foot the five metatarsal bones may anteversion at birth may be compensated hand to stabilize the right knee. With be collectively held in either adduction or by a faster rate of developmental your left hand take control of the left iliac abduction with respect to the row of three torsion, or exacerbated by a slow rate of crest and slowly rotate the pelvis on the cuneiform bones plus the cuboid bone. developmental torsion. Similarly, a low right femur first toward internal rotation, This can give an impression of toe-in or normal or insufficient initial anteversion rest back to neutral, then slowly toward toe-out, but must be assessed separately will interact with developmental torsion external rotation. Note the range and ease of and not conflated with either the orientation rate for better or for worse. movement. Trade hands to similarly assess of the ankle (talorcural) joint axis or rotation in the left hip. Additional Factors the orientation of the hindfoot. Forefoot adduction or abduction can be assessed Assessment of Tibial Torsion Position of Femur in Acetabulum by first observing the apparent angulation These instructions are for the right leg; reverse The sum of the tibial torsion and femoral (medial or lateral) of the metatarsal group them for the left leg. torsion in each leg are major factors at the metacarpophalangeal line, and determining the toe-in or toe-out position then mobility testing this set of joints by Have the client lie comfortably supine on of the foot. There are two additional factors stabilizing the cuneiform and cuboid group the table. Ask the client to relax. contributing to this position. The femur with one hand while slowly adducting and

28 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN Visually assess apparent degree of turnout Assessment of Femoral Neck the amount of femoral anteversion. Less of each foot. It is typical for the feet to turn Position in Acetabulum commonly, the knee will rise straight up out when supine, but they may be straight and Preparation for or deviate laterally showing the degree of ahead or turned in. The two will only rarely Assessment of Femoral Torsion femoral retroversion. Note this direction have the same degree of turn out or turn in. and degree. How does the degree of turn out or turn in These directions are for the right leg, reverse Now assess the left leg. compare with the standing position? for the left. Sit at your client’s right side facing his With the client comfortably supine, sit Summary of Assessment lower leg. facing the client’s right thigh. Place a relaxed You now have several pieces of data for right hand under the right knee initially as a each leg: Place your left hand under the client’s right monitoring hand. With your left hand locate knee. Slowly flex the knee about 20 degrees the greater trochanter. Locate the antero- • Position of femur angled from in the orientation from where it lies on the posterior center of the greater trochanter. acetabulum as anteverted, retroverted, table (whether the knee is in neutral or On the center of the greater trochanter or straight lateral rotated lateral or medial, the practitioner make a slow strong medial push exactly • Femoral Torsion is lifting and flexing the knee without parallel to the plane of the table. As you reorienting the knee joint). Note the path of push, observe whether the femur rotates • Tibial Torsion the knee compared to a line perpendicular internally, externally, or does not rotate. If • Forefoot adduction or abduction to the table. The knee will most often travel the femur does not rotate, this means the angled lateral to the vertical, but may travel neck of the femur is parallel to the plane of With this collection of data you are now in vertical or angled in toward the midline. the table, in the frontal plane. If the femur a position to understand how foot position, Return the knee to the table, leaving your externally rotates, this means it was sitting whether pointing in or out, relates to knee hand under it. externally rotated. Similarly, if the femur tracking, and how both of these relate to With your left hand under the knee internally rotates when you push straight how the femur is sitting in the acetabulum internally or externally rotate the femur so medially on it, this means it was sitting with respect to internal or external rotation. the knee may be able to flex upward closer internally rotated. At birth, given the ideal numbers of 15 degrees of acetabular inversion, 40 degrees to a vertical. Again bend the knee up about If the neck of the femur is found to not be of femoral anteversion, and 10 degrees 20 degrees. Note how close to a vertical path parallel to the plane of the table, use the of internal tibial torsion, this sums to 65 it travels. Let the knee down. right hand under the knee to rotate the degrees of internal rotation per leg. It is femur to an approximation of parallel to the As needed, make a succession of rotational clear how babies are toe-in at birth. By table and maintain it in this position. With adjustments to the position of the femur age eight when 80% of the developmental your left hand again, push medially on the until the knee can be raised perpendicular rotation should have occurred, this should center of the greater trochanter to observe to the table. Then, lower the knee to the be reduced by 38 degrees per leg to 27 whether the femur rotates or not. If the table and use your left hand to maintain degrees per leg. In adulthood, if we femur does not rotate you are ready for the this rotational position of the femur. While take an average of 12 degrees of tibial next step. If the femur still rotates when you maintaining this femur position place your external torsion and 15 degrees of femoral push medially on the greater trochanter, right hand on top of the right foot with anteversion, that sums to 3 degrees of toe- make further rotational adjustments with your second metacarpophalangeal joint in per average leg. If 8 degrees of toe-out is your right hand on the distal femur until on the talus, the palm of the hand distal to desirable in stance, that means the femoral you arrive at a state where a straight medial that on the top of the foot, and the fingers neck sits 11 degrees externally rotated in push on the greater trochanter does not and thumb wrapping around the ankle to the acetabulum. give good control of the talus. With this rotate the femur. Note the direction and grip, dorsiflex the ankle and specifically degree of correction you had to make There may be wide variation in all factors move the talus on the mortice. Do not allow to achieve placing the neck of the femur and compromises must be considered to movement in any joint of the foot distal parallel to the table. This is a measure of achieve the greatest ease and comfort for to the ankle (talocrural) joint. Particularly how the femur sits internally or externally each individual. For example, if the sum of avoid movement in the talonavicular joint. rotated with respect to the acetabulum. torsions in the legs would give a strongly As you make this dorsiflexion, note the Compare this with your observation of toe-in position, then insisting on standing direction of travel of the foot with respect rotational range in standing. and walking with the feet parallel could leave the hip joint persistently operating at to a line perpendicular to the table. Use the Shift your left hand to grasp the greater the end of the range of motion, which would table as a plane of reference. The angular trochanter. Using both hands prevent be hard on the joints and require substantial deviation of the path of the foot from the further rotation of the femur. While muscular effort to maintain. vertical is the tibial torsion of this leg. It may maintaining the femur precisely in this be either internally or externally rotated, or rotational orientation with the neck parallel Standing a little toe-out is considered rarely perpendicular to the table. Note the to the table, use your right hand to flex the normal by giving a wider base of support direction and degree of this angular path. knee about 20 degrees. Observe the path of and providing more stability for the Now assess the left leg. the knee compared to a line perpendicular structure. From a slightly turned-out stance to the table. The knee will usually travel it is also more efficient to start walking in a angled toward midline demonstrating turn. When the feet are parallel, the foot on

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 29 INFANTS AND CHILDREN the side the person wants to walk toward Kim, H.Y., et al. 2017 Sept. “Correlation of Suzuki, D. et al. 2017 June 20. “Three must be picked up before the person can Torsional Values Measured by Rotational Dimensional Orientation of the start walking to that side, left or right. On Profile, Kinematics and CT Study in CP Acetabulum.” Clinical Anatomy. the other hand, with the feet a little turned Patients.” Gait and Posture 57:241-245. Waisbrod, G., et al. 2017 Apr 12. “Abnormal out in standing, it is possible to initiate Rolf, Ida P. 1977. Rolfing: Reestablishing the Femoral Antetorsion – a Subtrochanteric walking to one side more quickly and Natural Alignment and Structural Integration Deformity.” Journal of Hip Preservation with more stability. This element of agility of the Human Body for Vitality and Well-Being. Surgery 4(2):153-158. provides both comfort and safety. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press. Wan, Z. et al. 2009 Jan. “Imaging and Conclusion Roskopf, A.B. et al. 2017 April. “Femoral Navigation Measurement of Acetabular Each person is unique, like a snowflake. and Tibial Torsion Measurements in Component Position in THA.” Clinical Accurately assessing the unique positional Children and Adolescents: Comparison of Orthopedics and Related Research® 467(1):32- relationships of the joints in each person’s MRI and 3D Models Based on Low-dose 42. Available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ legs and understanding the developmental Biplane Radiographs.” Skeletal Radiology pmc/articles/PMC2600979/ (retrieved basis of these unique relationships creates 496-476. Vol 62B. 8/2/2017). realistic goals for soft-tissue manipulation and movement awareness education to provide ease and grace for that child or adult. A Compilation of Jeffrey Burch was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1949, and grew up there except for part of his teen years in Munich, Germany. He Practitioner Stories on was educated at the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and the University of Pavia, Italy, earning bachelor’s degrees Working with Children in biology and psychology and a master’s degree in counseling. Jeffrey received his ® Another story. The mom was concerned that Rolfing® Structural Integration certification Three Stories on Rolfing SI her bright, happy daughter, age eight, was in 1977 and his advanced Rolfing certification for Babies and Children ‘knock-kneed’. She told me that Carol (not in 1990. He trained extensively in cranial her real name) could not run and play with manipulation with French osteopath Alain By Deanna Melnychuk, Certified the other children: because of her knees, Gehin, and in craniosacral therapy with the Advanced Rolfer™ she would stumble and fall, and she was Upledger Institute. Jeffrey trained to the I waited in vain for my very pregnant client very self-conscious. She would sit and play instructor level in visceral manipulation under to show up. She regularly came for Rolfing with her dolls and not join in games that Jean-Pierre Barral and his associates. He has Structural Integration (SI) as it helped ease involved running and quick movements. made substantial innovations in visceral her back. I called; no answer. Eleven days manipulation, particularly for the thorax. later, my client comes in carrying a baby Carol was very quiet. As I worked and we Jeffrey has also developed groundbreaking new car seat with her brand-new son. He had established rapport, we devised a way for joint-mobilization techniques. He practices decided to come early and so was very her to tell me when it “hurt too much.” in both Eugene and Portland, Oregon and teeny and looked like a doll in the too large She would hold up fingers, one to five, offers continuing education courses at seat. He was all scrunched up and crying. and when all five fingers came up, I was to several locations including Eugene, Oregon; stop. I actually did the Ten Series with her, Longmont, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; and Now the mom was delighted to show me spending time each session on her legs. Newton Massachusetts. For more details see why she had missed our appointment, and It was only about four sessions in when www.jeffreyburch.com/biography. I very carefully took the wee one out of his her mother reported that Carol was at the car seat and to my table. Laying him on his rocky beach and running with her friends. Bibliography back, I kept my hands under his little body Carol’s personality also blossomed, and and so very gently – like a butterfly’s touch Farby, G. 1997, “Normal and Abnormal she begin to tease me and tell me about her – I put slight pressure on either side of his Torsional Development of the Lower activities – a completely different child from spine. My middle fingers nearly reached Extremities.” Acta Orthopedic Belcica the one who initially would barely talk to from his head to his sacrum. 63(4):229-232. me. Giving her legs gave her a whole new He stopped crying, he relaxed, and his body outlook on life. Faulks, S., 2017 May. “Spectrum of Diagnosis said, “Wow! That helped a lot. Thanks.” His and Disposition of Patients Referred to a My last story comes from when I was a mom said, “What did you do? He has been Pediatric Orthopedic Center for a Diagnosis new Rolfer, still living in Boulder, and the crying nonstop.” Well, his birth had come ® of In-toeing.” Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics Rolf Institute had a clinic for children on unexpectedly two weeks early and was very Vol 00. Dr. Rolf’s birthday. My first two clients were fast – he just had not recovered and had not brothers – one was five and the other about had a chance to stretch his back. I will never two and a half. The mom told me both of know what prompted me to hold him that the boys had backaches. When I looked at way. I just did. Success! the five-year-old, his left foot splayed out, 30 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN and he walked with a limp. I could not see on him however I wanted. Another baby Brown Syndrome: A a bony cause and proceeded to work on legs would let me work on her a little bit but and hips. He promptly fell asleep. would get frustrated after a couple minutes, Disease or Just Dis-ease in so I’d work on her while she was nursing. I told his mom that while he slept, we would the Body? Sometimes they’ll give me five minutes, work on her other child. Amazingly, when sometimes they’ll give me twenty minutes. By Felisa Holmberg, Certified Rolfer he got up and walked, he looked exactly like his brother. When I mentioned this to Brown Syndrome is a mechanical problem their mother, she said, “Oh, the boys copy of the eye where a tethering of the superior the way their father walks, and he has a oblique muscle/tendon and trochlea causes severe scoliosis.” Then, ten minutes into this the eye to deviate. (For details on this session, the little one fell asleep. condition, see https://aapos.org/terms/ conditions/29.) Some children are born with When we woke the five-year-old and had Brown Syndrome, while some develop it him walk, he walked normally. As they left, later. The birth process can cause trauma; him walking and the mom carrying the little even what’s considered a normal childbirth one out, I was still in shock – at how the can leave the head out of balance. Other boys had developed their dad’s pattern, and children fall and hit their heads, receiving at how a few minutes of Rolfing work and head trauma; this may seem mild and the mom’s new awareness made significant not be treated. Yet as Rolfers we know changes, both in the moment and probably that adhesions form in areas of the body for the rest of their lives. that experience trauma, so why not in the Deanna Melnychuk went from a Canadian head too? college instructor (Algonquin College) to A client going through the Rolfing Ten manager in a computer operations department Series started talking to me about her (Northern Telecom) to Certified Advanced ten-year-old son. He went from being an Rolfer. She has enjoyed the past twenty-three advanced student to doing poorly in school, years practicing Rolfing SI on the citizens becoming overly emotional, and he was of Phoenix, Arizona. Now beginning semi- getting worse over time. He even stopped retirement by dropping to three clients a day, playing chess and other things he once she is eagerly looking forward to adding new Figure 1: Patty Murphy and her son Liam. loved to do. He had been diagnosed with skills to her lifestyle. ‘Throwing’ pots (it looks Brown Syndrome. I asked if he was born easier than it is) and practicing chi gong are two with it and she said no, he developed this activities she is looking forward to mastering. I think prior to having a child I wouldn’t condition around the age of two. She can be heard to say: “Rolfing SI was the best have recognized the difference between career move . . . the most fulfilling and satisfying working with a practitioner who has kids As the story unfolded, I learned that he job I ever had.” and one who doesn’t. Now that I am a had fallen out of a mobile home (the steps parent, my understanding of how to deal had been removed during a construction Working with Kids with kids and how to work with them project) and landed on concrete, head first, has changed. It’s made a huge difference. resulting in a concussion. He was one year By Patty Murphy, Certified I understand how to talk to them and old when this happened, and he developed Advanced Rolfer how to work with them. Since having my Brown Syndrome within a year. I asked her son, I’ve had a lot more kids come to my I had worked with some kids before having to bring him in to see me. As soon as I put practice, ranging in age from a couple of my son, but my understanding changed my hands on his head, I felt a pull that I weeks, to teenagers. Just like any client who once I had my own child (Figure 1). interpreted as his brain being pulled out of walks through the door, each one is unique balance. I connected in to the fascial strain I worked on my son when he was an infant and special in his/her own right; we need and it slowly began to release. It took a full as he was born with a bit of torticollis to adapt to them and meet them where session, but at the end of the session, I no (which I’m finding comes across my table they are. I think working with pregnancy, longer felt the pull and his eyes were in a bit now that I’ve worked with him). It postpartum, children, or babies is no normal position. His mother later reported wasn’t overly obvious, but enough that I different than working with other clients, that he was no longer having issues at noticed it: a lift in his right shoulder, and he although it might be harder to meet the school or being overly emotional. The would turn his head differently from side to client where he or she is at without having Brown Syndrome symptoms were gone. side and always had a preference. My son is firsthand experience – but that’s not to say Since then, I’ve also had the pleasure of a fidgety little guy and I could only work on it can’t be done. reversing these symptoms in a six-year-old. him when he was nursing, but every child Patty Murphy has been practicing for ten years is different with how they respond to the Brain and head injuries are among the most and has recently opened her own Wellness work, and how long they will let you work common injuries suffered in auto accidents. Center in Patchogue, Long Island, New York. on them. Some will lay still for you, and Closed-head injuries, whether a mild injury She practices full-time while balancing life with some are just nonstop movers, so you do or a traumatic brain injury, can deeply affect a three-year-old and preparing for a new arrival it however it works. One client, who was one’s life. (I developed profound personal in February. about five weeks old, would let me work understanding of this after myself being in www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 31 INFANTS AND CHILDREN a car accident.) These injuries can include I did not know anything about archery at some point in time I plan on writing an adhesions that affect how the brain is previously, but as I learned about its article entitled, “Artchery, Tensegrity, and balanced and can also leave nerves and emphasis on form and particularly balance, Rolfing Structural Integration.” arteries compressed and unable to function I knew Rolfing Structural Integration Szaja Gottlieb first received Rolfing sessions in optimally. Such adhesions may affect not would be a perfect accompaniment. I 1978, which resulted in him becoming a stone only the eyes, causing issues like Brown did a ten-session series with her last sculptor, which, in turn, led to his becoming a Syndrome, but also the entire body. There is summer, taking pictures before and after to Rolfer in 2001. He lives with his wife Ko and often no apparent physical injury, but there record the noticeable improvement in her daughter Judith in Los Osos, California and can be bruising and inflammation from the postural alignment. practices in San Luis Obispo. impact causing the brain to hit the inside of Archery requires tremendous strength the skull, and can lead to fascial adhesions and stability as it is unique in being a sport that affect how the brain is positioned. The Story of “The of immobility (see Figure 2). From my This can have a subtlety that a medical background as a Rolfer I began analyzing Really Shitty Friend” doctor might not necessarily consider, but the sport through tensegrity principles. the injury still can put micro-tears in the By Cheryl Van Der Horn, Certified If the archer was not loading properly connective tissue, just as with an injury to Advanced Rolfer – dispersing rather than concentrating any other part of the body. From this there – then the local muscles of the shoulder A woman I work with at a different job can be a broad scale of issues and severity, (trapezius, rhomboid, rotator cuff, etc.) had been telling me how much trouble her including mild to severe memory issues and would overwork. As a Rolfer, I emphasized four-year-old daughter had been having emotional and noise sensitivity. that an archer shoots with the lower body, intermittently with bowel movements. We Besides Rolfing SI, I’ve studied many the legs, as well as the shoulder girdle. had been trying to get it together to do a modalities like visceral manipulation and session, yet things never seemed to fall into craniosacral therapy, and it is difficult to place. Finally one night in November, our put into words the amazing teachings last evening in Boise, Idaho at a conference, I’ve received from Advanced Rolfers and we were all eating dinner together (mom, osteopathic manual practitioners trained dad, kid, and another coworker). At some in Canada. However, even with all the point the girl crawled into my lap and wonderful teachers and training from proceeded to draw things on the placemat these folks, horses have been my greatest with the crayons she had been given. teachers – teaching me how to listen on I felt her abdomen and everything felt many levels and allow the body to ‘talk’ to surprisingly happy. Her glutes, however, me. (In my article “Horse Listener” in the were quite a different story. I worked June issue of this Journal, I discussed my on her a bit while we all enjoyed some work with horses and how they have taught conversation. This was a close-knit group me how to become a better human being.) of colleagues having a last meal together This is part of the subtlety that has helped before the four-month winter break ahead me with cases such as these children with of us. I didn’t think much more about it. Brown Syndrome. The next day I flew back to Seattle on my Felisa Holmberg works and resides in way home to Alaska. When I landed there I had a text from my colleague describing the Missoula, Montana and also offers services Figure 2: The archer. in eastern and western Washington State. rather eventful drive they were having from Her websites are www.therolfer.com (Rolfing Boise to Yreka, California – one that entailed SI and horse work for bodyworkers) and Naturally, as a result of shooting hundreds quite a few unscheduled stops and running www.horseshopeforhumanity.com (horse work of arrows, Judith’s complaints centered on through quite a bit of toilet paper and clean for personal growth). the repetitive motion of elevating her right undergarments, and squatting in the cold shoulder before arrow release. When she along wide open expanses of highway. complains, I simply palpate and squeeze Mother, father, and daughter endured Children and Athletics: her shoulders from behind, which tells me the long day, and when we reconvened just how bad it is, and also whether she is The Archer the next spring it was confirmed that loading or shooting according to tensegrity the girl had had very little bowel trouble By Szaja Gottlieb, Certified Advanced principles, and then proceed to the table. Rolfer over the winter, notwithstanding the Surprising, too, is that a fifteen-year-old varied diet while spending holidays with My daughter Judith, fifteen, is a serious neck can temporarily feel like that of a fifty- different branches of the family. After this archer who for the past year trains every year-old. Suffice to say, the need for manual incident I was lovingly called, “the really day for about four hours and has gone to therapy is ongoing and will be throughout shitty friend.” tournaments in Florida, Michigan, Arizona, her career. and Nevada. Her coach is in South Korea, Cheryl Van Der Horn has worked seasonally From experience, I believe a perfect time and she and my wife travel there twice a with wildland fire fighting 1990-2017, and as a for an individual to get Rolfing SI is in year for about six weeks. ski patroller 1990-2003. Rolfing SI entered her adolescence. I should also mention that life in 1992, however she did not get around to

32 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN studying it until 2005, as she was collecting Other than that, a session with a child is I actually prefer working on kids ten to those ‘years of life experience’ the Rolf Institute® a lot like a session with an adult: observe, thirteen years old. They can talk to you, wanted in lieu of the college degree. She had ask questions, invite shortened fascial lines tell you where they feel something or not, the great privilege and enjoyment of taking her to regain functional length, observe again. where they need the work. I like developing Advanced Training in 2015 in Brazil from Lael a relationship with them. There’s also less Laura Barnes has been a Rolfer since 1995. Keen and Karen Lakritz. Cheryl’s life has been pressure from the parents! One of my She got hooked on SI when she was a student’s a study of nature and humans, which began as clients’ brought her twelve-year-old son model in a 1988 Practitioning class taught by an external exploration and continues as an who was born with spina bifida. He was a Emmett Hutchins. About twenty-five weeks internal journey. little socially awkward, and she wasn’t sure later, her second baby was born – nine pounds, he would let me touch him that much, but ten ounces – in well under five hours. Empowering the we bonded well and he looked forward to his mini sessions. He did martial arts and New Bodywork Client A Calling had been hit in the head and was getting horrible headaches. He was happy the By Laura Barnes, Certified By Mélanie Holt, Certified headaches went away after a couple of Advanced Rolfer Advanced Rolfer sessions, but he kept coming because it When I work with children, a parent is When my older brother was a toddler, a made him feel better everywhere. usually in the room (until the kids are old doctor told my parents that he needed a enough to drive Mom’s car to the session lift in his shoe because he had a leg-length When I lived in Seattle I organized two and pay with Mom’s credit card), so it’s difference. Fortunately they knew better children’s clinics. I have participated in an opportunity to explain to both that and brought him to an osteopath who several clinics here in Portland, and my goal bodywork like this is a resource available to adjusted his pelvis, and that was the end of for this fall is to organize a children’s clinic them throughout their lives, and to educate it. This family story is the reason I always geared toward low-income families. There’s them with a framework for the therapeutic knew I wanted to work with kids. Even a strong racially and culturally diverse low- relationship. And that always includes before I graduated from the Rolf Institute, income population in North Portland where telling them that whenever they are I was thinking about organizing children’s I live and work, and I want to reach out to receiving bodywork, or other physical care, clinics. the community and bring them something they can set their own limits. I tell them that they otherwise can’t afford. they can always decide what’s comfortable As a brand-new Rolfer, I decided to work on kids for free, thirty-minute sessions. I Mélanie Holt is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and what’s working. If it hurts in a bad with a practice in Portland, Oregon. She grew way (‘new pain going in’ rather than ‘old didn’t feel good enough at it to charge, and I always thought about work on kids as up in France under the influence of truly holistic pain coming out’), the client can always osteopaths. After a fun but useless BA in English say “No,” even if the professional says community service. I was always amazed at how few people took me up on it. literature and translation, she moved to the something like, “This will help, just count Alps to surrender to her love of the mountains. to ten.” Regardless, the client can always I will always remember one of my first Life and love brought her to the U.S. in 2006, say “No.” (Well, dental appointments babies, Max. He was born with inverted where she discovered Rolfing SI and was finally are a special case. It’s hard to talk about organs and his stomach outside his body. given a chance to do something meaningful. She serious dental work as ‘good pain’ with a He’d had multiple surgeries obviously, believes in the transformational power of SI and straight face.) The message to the client is: and was doing a lot of physical therapy is dedicated to helping her clients discover how “You are always the boss of you. If you’re not (PT). I was very nervous, his mom was an they can become who they want to be. sure who’s the boss, just look at which way the emotional wreck (for good reasons). I did money is going. If you’re paying someone else what I could; I wasn’t even sure where to Impressions on for bodywork or other care, you are the boss.” start. I worked on his abdomen very gently, This message is important to kids getting around his scar, in his neck. He never cried. Working with Kids I saw him maybe three or four times. And bodywork for the first time, and I also offer By Steven Radiloff MA, MT, Certified at some point his mom said that in one this point of view to adults on the table Advanced Rolfer sooner or later, even if their kids aren’t session I had helped him more than all the there. Practicing in south Florida for years, months of PT combined, and he wasn’t even I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of I worked on a lot of baby boomers, very screaming! I don’t know why they stopped kids over the years, ranging from about few babies. Clients slightly older, members coming. Now a parent, I can imagine she one year into the teens. Many of my clients of ‘the greatest generation’, tend to follow was overwhelmed with appointments. But have brought their kids in for me to see directions from a professional without I thought that if I, a brand-new Rolfer with and evaluate for particular or potential question, so I like to offer them the same very little experience, could make so much problems and growth issues. The work is perspective on self-determination that I difference to a little guy who needed it so not in the classic sense of a Ten Series, but would to children and teenagers. Especially bad, then we were onto something. I still certain, and mostly gentle, alterations in if the client has a challenge like scoliosis or work on kids for free, and yet I still barely movement and function. Sometimes, with some other condition that might result in a see any. a child old enough to comprehend, I’ll make some suggestions about sitting at the need for frequent work, they need to know Even though working on very young computer, or their reading environment or about their resources and their rights. children is important to help in their athletic endeavors, etc. And, I have done development, and I enjoy that part of it,

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 33 INFANTS AND CHILDREN quite a bit of direct, hands-on manipulation and he was right – but something more foot when he had the casts), but also to when necessary. than ordinary SI was needed. Because her help his little body endure the orthopedic symptoms were oral, I taught her a series interventions. His mom said that he got One has to be very comfortable and of oral exercises I had learned from our fussier during the week until it was time for confident working with kids. I really enjoy colleague Beatriz Pacheco of São Paulo. The his Rolfing session, which reset his mood it, and fortunately kids take to me easily, exercises improve basic oral reflex functions and his sleep. even if they’re initially shy or intimidated. (sucking, swallowing, breathing, chewing); Some have even asked their parents when Whenever I came up with a useful and when those get better, the entire they could come in and see me again – I intervention for him, I would teach his mom structure and function get better. I taught was a little surprised by that at first but, as how to do it at home. This included tissue the exercises to both the girl and her mother, you know, kids are very sensitive and have work and movement retraining. She quickly who did them together. The mother, who strong intuition when someone is in close learned to observe his movement patterns at one point reported to me that the girl as proximity. I don’t have a set rule and treat and create her own interventions, so the an infant had had difficulties sucking at each child individually, but most often I benefit of our work was greatly multiplied. the breast, observed that the girl’s speech won’t get into any significant work until the was much clearer following our work. The As he got a bit older he started to resist child is about thirteen or fourteen. girl was symptom-free after an abbreviated intraoral work, so I consulted with a local series of five sessions. midwife, Carol Gray, who teaches classes on Creativity, An Open Mind, gentle bodywork for babies and moms. She Heidi Massa, a Brazil-trained Certified Advanced suggested playing ‘the mouth game’: offer and Realistic Goals Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner, has touch on his face, then lips, and so forth, been guiding the somatic adventures of the By Heidi Massa, Certified Advanced only continuing until he gives any sort of a ® discerning, the curious, and the brave since Rolfer, Rolf Movement Practitioner “no” response (which includes puckering 1994. She has served on the Rolf Institute’s up, turning away, or fussing); when that Children’s concerns are often Ethics and Business Practices Committee for happens, the game is over for the moment, developmental. Their bodies haven’t had twenty years, and been an editor for this Journal but you can play again a bit later, again only time to harden functional lesions into since 2000. structural fixations — and the kids aren’t going as far as he allows. The principle is to reinforce his right to decide what happens showing up for the ‘shits & giggles’ of A Holistic Approach to self-discovery. Instead, their parents often to his body, especially his mouth. We didn’t bring them in for specific perceived deficits; a Client with Club Foot always get intraoral work done (maybe and addressing them requires creativity, an a third of the time he would allow half a By Karin Edwards Wagner, Certified open mind, and modesty about what we can minute of work), but we accomplished Advanced Rolfer realistically achieve. something much more important. I believe A baby with club foot (Figure 3) started that this way of interacting remapped his Sometimes the best we can do is to try to coming to see me when he was two weeks sensory and emotional experience of his educate the parents to biological reality. A old. The parents decided to do the standard mouth in a way that will have lifelong physician from India once brought me his orthopedic route as well, so he had a series benefits. Potentially this may impact his daughter – a healthy and pleasant nine- of casts, then boots connected by a bar, relationship with both food and intimacy. year-old who was training to be competitive and ultimately a small surgery to cut his in a traditional Indian dance form. Her As a toddler, he had a minor Achilles Achilles tendon. My task was to help with teacher had told the father that “something tendon surgery. We used Peter Levine and the club-foot pattern as much as I could was wrong with” the girl’s back because Maggie Kline’s book Trauma-Proofing Your (though I couldn’t work directly on his when she bent both knees, her lumbars Kids to prepare him to feel confidant and would hyperlordose. The father brought the girl to me to be “fixed” before she traveled to India in six months to compete against sixteen-year-olds. I advised the father, “You’re a physician. Maybe you’d like to look into how old kids are before certain nerves myelinate — and give that some thought before you ask her to compete against girls nearly twice her age.” Since I failed to “fix” the daughter, I never saw them again — thank God. But sometimes we can indeed address the developmental issue. A father familiar with Rolfing SI brought me his fifteen-year-old daughter who had been diagnosed by various oral experts as having an arthritic temporomandibular joint that required surgery. The father just didn’t believe it – Figure 3: Karin Edward Wagner’s infant client with club foot.

34 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org INFANTS AND CHILDREN secure during his medical experiences. was shorter than that of adults, I could only basis, it’s up to me to see what I see, and This included using medical masks during work for ten to fifteen minutes, and then had see what I can do within the scope of one playtime so they wouldn’t seem so strange, to let him crawl around on the floor and play. short intervention. What mostly stands out and spinning games to develop a positive The day that he went to sleep on my table in my memory is a ‘session’ I did with a association with the dizzy feelings that can while I was working was a day to remember! baby who did not kick. In this case the mom result from anesthesia. He was too young to had brought her baby in “just because,” I learned that patterns in children are spin himself in circles, so I held him while and it was up to me to find something to less entrenched, and change can happen I spun around until we both were dizzy. work on. When I pointed out that the lower quite quickly. This boy soon became very Initially he fussed but quickly realized that girdle was quiet, while the upper girdle was receptive to receiving the work, and when he liked it. It was fun to watch his eyes dart quite active, the mother became intrigued. I let him play during a break he would back and forth right after we stopped, as When working with any kid, it’s important shriek with happiness (being preverbal), his brain tried to sort out his visual field. to make a connection: talking, making eye- and his mother and I both laughed. When He ended up liking spinning so much that contact, and gauging timing and pressure I finished the series with him, he was much we would use it to take a break if he was are essential in working with any client, and more balanced in crawling movements, getting fussy during sessions. especially so with a nonverbal one. Mostly, using both sides equally, and could easily I recall working with this baby around the The surgeon who did the Achilles operation pull up on furniture. I had no doubt that lumbodorsal hinge and continuing the said that in his experience, children he would have a much easier time learning work down into the lower girdle and a bit who receive SI along with the standard how to walk. up the spine. After only a few minutes, the treatments have better results than kids A side note is that my husband and I were baby was kicking and waving his arms and who just do the Western medicine methods dating during this period. When asked why grabbing his feet, surprising the mom who alone. This child is now almost three. He he became interested in me, he replied, hadn’t realized that her baby hadn’t done is still wearing the boots and the bar at “Because she makes children scream!” this before! night, but he has been sleeping better. His orthopedist said he is doing so well that he Linda Loggins is a medical technologist certified With young kids, it’s really important to can get checked twice a year instead of the by the American Society of Clinical Pathology connect, and it’s sometimes very important standard four times a year. He also receives (ASCP) and a Board Certified Structural to make the session fun or entertaining, Rolfing sessions two to four times a year at Integrator. She graduated from the Rolf Institute because they can otherwise get ornery, this point. in 1993, became a Certified Advanced Rolfer completely disengaged, or uncooperative, in 2002, and completed her Rolf Movement making the work somewhat superfluous. Karin Edwards Wagner is Certified Advanced certification in 2006. She graduated with a Some kids are into the work, and some Rolfer in Portland, Oregon, and has a black master’s degree in public health in 2014. aren’t. I was working on an entire family, belt in Ki Aikido. She has organized more than from grandma down to kids, and one of ten annual children’s clinics with local Rolfers. the boys just was not interested. I simply She teaches short classes for the public on the It’s All About Rapport told him that he had the choice of doing nervous system and on the use of mindfulness, and Relationship it or not, and to simply tell his parents if it movement, and social connection to heal trauma. wasn’t something he was interested in. The By Allan Kaplan, Certified Advanced Rolfer relief of getting permission to stop really An Opportunity helped him accept the work he’d had up Working with kids has always turned out to that point. for the Two of Us to be more fun, interesting, and less of By Linda Loggins, Certified Advanced a challenge than I had ever anticipated. The connection is important, and can really Rolfer, Rolf Movement Practitioner Being someone without kids, who has make or break the value of the work. One always pictured himself more comfortable delightful, bright six year-old would chat Early in my Rolfing career, I had the as an uncle than as a father, the concept with me about all sorts of things: her riding opportunity to work with a two-year-old of working with kids always seemed lessons, school, and what I was doing. She boy with mild cerebral palsy. His mother daunting. That is, until kids actually started would tell her mom when she felt she was was concerned that he favored one side coming through my office. In the office, at ready to come back. I would gratefully have when crawling, and he was just beginning least, they became little humans, rather many more like her than lots of adults! to ‘pull up’, which meant he would soon than aliens, and often more pleasant to deal With her, it was great to have her mother in begin to attempt to walk. She had read with than many adult clients I’ve seen. Key, the office. While many parents are patient about Rolfing SI, and met with me to in my mind, is establishing and managing and may ‘disappear’ into a book during discuss if it might improve his coordination. the relationship with both the child and the session, others can be overwhelming I told her about a study done with Rolfing SI the parent. and try to manage things. I can run out for children with mild cerebral palsy in the of patience with these parents, and try to 1970s, and I gave her a copy of the paper Mostly, moms have brought in babies with get the message across that this is the kid’s written about the results. She decided curiosity about a condition that medical session, not theirs. I have asked some rather to proceed, even though I told her I was doctors have had no concrete answer for, directly to let the kids answer questions and inexperienced with working with children. and see what last-ditch magical cure a speak for themselves, rather than having Rolfer might provide. Little babies I’ve Her son was initially resistant to receiving the parent butting in, and have asked seen mostly at free children’s clinics we the work. He squirmed and fussed, and I others to leave the office. Usually there’s local Rolfers used to do. On a one-shot soon learned that because his attention span a good rapport between parent and child, www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 35 PERSPECTIVES and it’s not so tough to strike a balanced to a question like “What is Rolfing SI?,” I Rolfing work with children, we recognize relationship all the way around. I prefer that encourage myself to discover the interests in the most striking terms that our highest a parent stay in the office, especially when and background of my inquisitor. Then, responsibility is not to fix our clients. I work with girls, but more times than not, together, we can re-approach the question Neither is our office to impart knowledge once the parent sees what’s going on, he or on his or her own familiar terms. Therefore, to, nor impose beliefs upon, them. Instead she develops a trust and often hangs out on on a good day, an answer really belongs to it is our sacred task to learn from them; to the waiting-area couch or drops the kid off both of us, and adaptability has emerged as sit at the feet of masters and allow their and goes shopping. a living experience even before any work bodies to convey the ambition of their souls. on the table. Then we may offer ourselves in service and It may be obvious to some how to engage become disciples of life. To quote Novalis, kids, but establishing rapport can sometimes “What is Rolfing SI?” Without a ready-made “Wherever children are, there is the be very elusive. Yet once there’s a common response, this question is a pluripotent Golden Age.” ground established, walls drop, and trust prompt. Like every child, such a question is created. Many years ago, a young boy bears infinite possibilities and could unfold Max Leyf Treinen is a Certified Rolfer and came in and it turned out his love was in innumerable directions. Indeed, in Rolf Movement Practitioner at The Way of the music, and we talked Beatles for several the most fundamental analogy, the child Elbow in Anchorage, Alaska. He is a writer and sessions. It’s no surprise that it’s the same represents just such an open question. is working towards his PhD in the Philosophy, with adults. I remember one client, who had The child is a walking incarnation of Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the had many sessions and a close relationship the beloved principle of adaptability. In California Institute of Integral Studies. with a previous Rolfer. I was immediately put off by her abrasive personality and bossiness, but halfway through the session we discovered that we had both traveled to Munich, and we talked about German The Mystery of Consciousness beer for the rest of the session. She has since become a favorite client. It’s all about rapport and relationship. Is the Mystery of the Body Allan Kaplan was certified in 1988 and has An Interview with Jeff Maitland practiced in Seattle ever since. He did his advanced certification in 1991, and again in By Anne Hoff, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ and Jeffrey Maitland, Advanced 1999, and assisted Basic Trainings in Boulder, Rolfing® Instructor Colorado in the 1990s. He studied osteopathy at the Canadian College of Osteopathy, studied Anne Hoff: Let’s get some background some seven or eight years later that I with and assisted Didier Prat DO teaching first, Jeff. What brought you to Rolfing realized that that experience put me on visceral manipulation, and currently continues Structural Integration (SI)? How many this very important path of the body. I was his visceral studies with Jean-Pierre Barral DO. years have you been doing it, and what looking for help with my low back, and made you become a Rolfer in the first place? found something wonderful as well as something that fixed my back. “Rolfing SI . . . Jeffrey Maitland: I was certified in What’s That?” 1979, so I’ve been here a long time. What When I got my first Rolfing session, I felt got me into Rolfing SI was . . . I usually tell like I had meditated for three days in a By Max Leyf Treinen, Certified Rolfer people it was low-back trouble, debilitating row. I couldn’t believe that somebody and Rolf Movement Practitioner back trouble. But I was also into Zen, and could mess with my body in that way and “Rolfing [SI] . . . What’s that? To find oneself was a professor of philosophy at Purdue in an hour session make me feel like I felt at the ‘gunpoint’ of such a question is likely University at the time, and the path of Zen when I meditated. I came home from that no unfamiliar experience. As tempting led me to Rolfing SI I believe. I had a very experience thinking, “This is incredible” . as it would be to have a pat answer that interesting experience while meditating . . then I thought, “I wonder if I could do I could whip out of my back pocket like at a Zen retreat. We meditated close to this work” . . . and then I thought, “Yeah, a bulletproof cue card, a response of this twenty hours a day for seven days – very I could this work” . . . and then I thought, sort would fail to embody at least one of intense. We were chanting Hakuin’s “The “Yeah, I’m going to do this work.” the five pillars of Rolfing SI (the Principles Song of Zazen” in English. The last two AH: You gave up being a tenured professor of Intervention). Indeed, in this case, as in lines ended with, “This very place is the to do Rolfing SI, right? Did you have so many others, the how of the answer is no lotus land of purity, this very body is the any doubt about leaving a job with such less crucial than the what. For this reason, body of the Buddha.” I had a very clear, security and a clear path laid out before in an attempt to embody the principle of unequivocal understanding of what it said – you? Did you have any doubt about leaving adaptability, and not merely to talk about not an intellectual grasp, but a whole-being academia and going into this wild and crazy it, I have challenged myself to resist the knowing/experience. unknown field with an uncertain income? temptation to respond with a ready-made The felt knowing of the body of the Buddha formulation. I flatter myself that what I JM: Yeah. My wife reminded me yesterday showed me the path all these years. It was forfeit in convenience, I compensate with that I came home from that first session not until I looked back on this realization connection. Without a prefabricated answer and said, “You know, I can help more

36 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org PERSPECTIVES

from nothing. “Continental” didn’t sound to know each other better and hit it off. In rigorous enough, so I said “analytic,” terms of influence, I learned the most about but I didn’t know what I was doing. I how to teach Rolfing SI from working with was so ignorant. I went to the University Jan, the consummate teacher. of Minnesota, and studied the analytic AH: Talk about the transition from being a approach. I was then offered a position Rolfer with your own practice to deciding at Purdue where I returned to the study to join the faculty. How did that come of continental philosophy. I specialized about? You had experience teaching, in aesthetics using both analytic and you’d been a philosophy professor, so continental philosophy and taught a wide there was something sort of natural about range of classes such as the philosophy of that trajectory. love and sex, the philosophy of the body, aesthetics, Nietzsche, etc. JM: The flow from professor to Rolfer to Rolfing Instructor felt perfectly natural. I AH: I don’t know much about philosophy, thought, as I was learning to be a Rolfer, Jeffrey Maitland but the little bit I know it seems like that it would be useful to teach Rolfing SI, the phenomenology side has a close because when you teach something, you relationship to the body, to the body really learn it. But I hadn’t really put much and to consciousness, because it’s the thought to the idea, except to note, “Well immediate experience. here I am starting all over again, learning JM: Yup. It is bizarre: for centuries, Rolfing SI from the ground up. It’s going philosophers have been completely to take me awhile to get to a point where I fascinated by the mind and have simply left really understand it.” I was thinking I have the body out. Nobody talked about the body years to go here, and I better wait until I feel except to denigrate it until the pioneering really comfortable with the idea. work of phenomenology, especially After I became an Advanced Rolfer, I was Merleau-Ponty. The tradition never really invited to become a teacher. Well, that understood its significance and ignored it. surprised me, and I said, “Let me think But this way of thinking is changing. Today about it.” I thought about it for about it we are seeing a convergence of interest in for about a year. Finally I decided that it the nature of consciousness on the part of would be a good idea. I think if I hadn’t been Anne Hoff neuroscience, biology, phenomenology, invited to teach, I wouldn’t have taken it on. and analytic philosophy. In my book I recognized that this was difficult work and people with this work than teaching them Embodied Being, I argue that the mystery of it was going to take years to learn how to philosophy.” And later, I remember later consciousness is the mystery of the body. really do it right. driving to my Rolfing office one shiny AH: Also in the world of Buddhism, as September day, and I was thinking, “I AH: What could you transfer over from I understand it, there’s more orientation don’t have to go back to Purdue anymore. teaching philosophy to teaching Rolfing coming in towards the question of the body. Thank god, I can do something other than SI, and what did you have to develop that the academic thing.” I was so sick of the JM: Yeah, it’s always been a part of the was different? academic climate, I couldn’t wait to get Indo-Tibetan tradition. Now we’re looking JM: Zen introduced me to the ocean of out, and then Rolfing SI appeared – it was forward to the interface of neuroscience, sentience that we are. Zen also taught me my ticket out. I was excited. I felt so much philosophy, phenomenology, and how to perceive it through our feeling excitement and power in the decision to Buddhism. nature. Rolfing SI was a gift that allowed practice Rolfing SI that I didn’t look back AH: What can you say about your first me to explore how our feeling nature is a or worry very much. But to be clear, what Rolfer and his or her influence on you? way of knowing. I gave up in leaving the university was the climate of the university: I did not give JM: My first Rolfer was Jan Sultan. I had I remember a faculty meeting in which up philosophy. three sessions with him, and it was his we struggled, sweated, and pulled our hands that turned me loose and allowed hair out over a particular problem, made AH: What was your area of philosophy? me to see that my calling was Rolfing SI. I a decision, went to lunch, and came back JM: I went to Penn State as an only had three sessions, and I didn’t get to to discover that everyone was saying the undergraduate, which was primarily spend much time with him, but I really fully same thing – that it didn’t feel right. Then oriented to continental philosophy. I appreciated his approach – even though I we decided to go through the whole thing stupidly thought they were kind of wooly- had no idea what he did, how he did it, again, and we retracted what we had done. headed at the time. My advisor asked me what he worked on. I knew nothing, but I We changed our minds based on how it felt where I wanted to attend graduate school, was just as excited as I could be about it. He to us. My god, you almost cannot imagine and whether I was interested in continental had an influence that way. Later on, when that happening at the university. or the analytic approach. I thought, “I don’t we talked together, and I was coming along Today, after having been involved with have a clue . . .” I didn’t know nothing and assisted him here and there, we got Rolfing SI for many years, I want to see

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 37 PERSPECTIVES more intellectual rigor and respect for logic, imperturbability you are like a highly or incompatibilities. I was convinced that because the conceptual understanding of accomplished jazz musician. You now I could weave their ideas together in a Rolfing SI is every bit as important and understand it in your bones and you hold coherent whole. Had Emmett and Peter powerful as the felt understanding of it. it as through it were part of you. It comes stayed with us, I would’ve done just that. Actually, I am looking for the integration of to full presence by being lived and seen Sadly, Emmett and Peter left [to form the these two functions and seeing it more and by you. When you work like this, you are Guild for Structural Integration], and I saw more, thanks in part to this Journal. I am inspired. As Nietzsche said, “The body is no reason to continue. still reminded of de Tocquevilles’ comment: inspired. Let’s keep the soul out of it.” AH: What do you see as the philosophical “There is not, I think, a single country in the In a very real sense, you don’t fully side of ‘the split’ that led to Emmett and civilized world where less attention is paid understand the formative principle of Peter leaving, or the philosophical elements to philosophy than in the United States.” Rolfing SI if you’re following a recipe. You of those three people who came down with AH: Definitely! Let’s talk about the understand something, of course, but you their own transmission from Ida? Principles of Intervention – you and Jan really don’t fully understand the soul of the JM: They all have a profound – how developed that? practice until you can do it without a recipe. can I put it – way of being that is Rolfing (This does not mean that the work of basic JM: We worked together on that during SI-imprinted. They were clearly ready, Rolfing SI is inferior.) an Advanced Training in North Carolina. willing, and able to impart this mysterious AH: I would add that you don’t even really and powerful thing we call Rolfing SI to AH: To me, the Principles of Intervention understand the Recipe, because you don’t their students. They lived it in their bones, are an important bridge. In any tradition, understand the inherent order from which and their clients responded to their way of there’s always the risk that when the it’s working. working. When I look at Rolfers, I try to founder is gone, and there’s no longer see whether they manifest the essence or that direct transmission, the tradition JM: Yeah, that is a good way to put it. way of being (god, it’s so hard to find the can become stale because of a lack AH: I would argue that even if you knew words for this) that is the living presence of of understanding. the Principles but only did the Recipe (for Rolfing SI. People mistakenly refer to it as a JM: Yup. whatever reason), it would come forth blueprint. Goethe says it best: he calls it the in a different way because you would be ur-phenomenon (the inner formative power AH: The way I see the Principles of understanding the inherent order by which of a thing that makes it what it is). Intervention is that they kept future Rolfers it’s unfolding. from just doing the Ten Series over and over Emmett was interested in what is generally and over, and not really understanding JM: The Recipe, to my mind, is one of the known as occult metaphysics and the what they were doing. They bridged to clearest and most profound examples of geometric taxonomy. Emmett gave many a more holistic understanding of our an organized, precise set of strategies and interesting lectures articulating the meaning work, deconstructing it into elemental tactics for how to bring about order in the of the Recipe via astrology and numerology, principles that really showed the depth of body. The Recipe is generated from the which was helpful and useful. He also understanding that Ida Rolf was coming Principles of Intervention. Strategies and worked out how to use the geometric from – whether she knew it or not – when tactics are not principles. taxonomy, teaching how to see the body she created the Ten Series. The Principles in terms of lines, blocks, cylinders, and AH: Did you have an opportunity to meet gave us the way out of being stuck with more. Those things were all effective in his Ida Rolf, or had she already passed? just the Ten Series and an incomplete hands. The Recipe became a kind of sacred understanding. JM: She passed when I was between ritual that was not to be broken. I liked auditing and practitioning. I was really Jan’s down-to-earth nuts-and-bolts and JM: Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s sad I never got to meet her. It also put me attention-to-detail approach to Rolfing SI. exactly what it does. Once you see how to in an interesting position, because people There’s a lot more to him and his teaching do Rolfing work without the ‘Recipe’, you would teach by telling Ida Rolf stories. Well, than that, of course. And Peter Melchior have really arrived as an Advanced Rolfer if that’s how to teach, and I don’t have any was like your consummate intuitive jazz – you live the work and the work lives in Ida Rolf stories to tell, I am in trouble. I musician. He would tell stories and teach you. You know what to do as if by instinct. decided, “Well, I can’t talk to Ida, but I’m by indirection. I learned how to incorporate If you 1) know the Principles, and the going to take my training with the three or a lot from all three. whole principle-centered decision-making four people that were really close to Ida and process, 2) have a thorough grasp of the After I became an Advanced Rolfing the ones she first picked to teach her work.” taxonomies of assessment, and 3) acquire Instructor, I had the privilege of teaching People told me that was Jan, Peter Melchior, highly developed perceptual skills, it’s some Advanced Trainings with Michael and Emmett Hutchins. So I picked them to disclosive of the practical and theoretical Salveson (hence learning from him), and he work with, because I figured at least from core of Rolfing SI. It’s not a bunch of added some refinements to the Principles. the three of them, I’d be able to figure out theoretical ideas floating around in your By the way, the ur-phenomenon of Rolfing SI what Ida was about. head. It’s a clear unified experience of doing lives in Michael too. what needs to be done. There were differences between those three AH: From Rolfing faculty to Advanced guys that sometimes resulted in some At this level of work, your body often faculty, was that just a natural progression heated arguments. But when I looked at knows what to do before your head does. for you? it, I did not see any real contradictions When you reach this level of clear-minded

38 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org REVIEW

JM: It was a fairly easy ride for me because non-formulistic Rolfing SI turns on the expert in soft-tissue manipulation. He has spent I was thoroughly fascinated and excited to distinction between the two rules. (You can most of his adult life deeply investigating Zen be there at this level exploring Rolfing SI read the full story about the Principles and practice, philosophy, and the nature of healing. with these teachers – and 150% ready to how they are employed in Chapter Four of He has practiced Zen over forty years and is go. When I was thinking about all of this my latest book, Embodied Being.) Once we a Zen monk. He is also a Certified Advanced stuff, I used to play a little game. I would got that, we saw the rest of it. Jan and I set Rolfer, an Advanced Rolfing Instructor, pretend that Ida Rolf, or some omniscient to work on it. a former tenured professor of philosophy Rolfer, would come into my Rolfing room at Purdue University, and a philosophical I was just remembering when we were and say, “Stop what you’re doing and tell counselor. In addition to teaching Rolfers, in the thick of figuring out the Principles, me exactly why you’re working there, and Maitland also teaches workshops and classes in we got so excited that we’d talk after class what you intend to effect.” What it taught myofascial manipulation to physical therapists, for hours sometimes. I remember once I me is that I didn’t know anything. I couldn’t chiropractors, and other healthcare professionals, was trying to go to bed or watch TV or answer those questions, so I was more than as well as workshops in perception and energy. something, and Jan came bursting into my ready to begin this project of trying to create Maitland has published and presented many apartment, and he says, “Turn that off! I a non-formulistic approach. papers on the theory of somatic manual therapy, had a great idea.” Zen, philosophy, and Rolfing SI. His research, AH: Did that come about when you were AH: Wow, it sounds like it was a very, very articles, and book reviews are published in already Advanced faculty? Or did you teach alive environment. numerous professional journals. He is the author the old Advanced Series for awhile? of four books: Spacious Body: Explorations JM: Yeah. It was an exciting moment! JM: We hadn’t even begun doing the in Somatic Ontology; Spinal Manipulation non-formulistic approach when I was AH: Are faculty meetings and faculty Made Simple; Mind Body Zen (written at training. Michael and Jan had initiated the interactions still so juicy these days? the request of his Zen teacher); and Embodied investigation, opened the door and made Being. He lives and practices in Scottsdale, JM: It’s typically only juicy when we some headway. But we had no way to Arizona. discuss or demonstrate some aspect or sequence the work, to justify why you’re discovery about the work. Anne Hoff is a Certified Advanced Rolfer in working where you’re working, to be able to Seattle, Washington and the Editor-in-Chief of answer the three questions of What do you Hokaku Jeffrey Maitland, PhD, is internationally this Journal. do first? – What do you do next? – When known as an author, instructor, innovator, and are you done? AH: Were those your questions? JM: They came from me. What do you do first, what do you do next, when are you Review done? AH: Did that arise out of your own practice Into the Fibrillar Jungle of thinking about the work and trying to understand what you were doing? with Dr. Guimberteau JM: Yep. At the core of the principle- centered approach is a distinction between A Review and Exegesis of two kinds of rules: constitutive rules, or rules that define the game, and strategy rules, Architecture of Human Living Fascia which are rules of thumb. Strategy rules Reviewed by Szaja Gottlieb, Certified Advanced Rolfer™ are like suggestions for how to move your piece when you come up against recurring I was not excited to receive the assignment into Fascia,” by Tom Myers. Rolfer Brooke situations. If you break a strategy rule you to review Jean-Claude Guimberteau and Thomas also did a excellent interview with are still playing the game, but if you break a Colin Armstrong’s Architecture of Human Guimberteau on her podcast The Liberated constitutive rule, you’re outside of the game Living Fascia: The Extracellular Matrix and Body (www.liberatedbody.com/podcast/ and no longer playing it. The distinction Cells Revealed through Endoscopy, published jean-claude-guimberteau-lbp-059). There comes from a book in which the two rules by Handspring Press in 2015. After all, there was also the very popular YouTube video, were used to articulate utilitarian ethics. has been an enormous amount of coverage “Strolling under the Skin” (www.youtube. When I remembered this distinction, I on the French surgeon’s groundbreaking com/watch?v=eW0lvOVKDxE). What more also saw how it applied to our struggle to work since he first appeared at the First could be said? free ourselves from formulistic Rolfing SI. International Fascia Research Congress When the French surgeon appeared at the With this distinction between two kinds (FRC) in 2007 at Harvard University. first FRC, his video recordings from twenty of rules in hand, we can answer the three An issue of Massage & Bodywork in years of intratissular endoscopic research questions. The Principles of Intervention September 2016 published an article carried out during 1,000 operations had the are the constitutive rules that define the by Guimberteau, “The Living Fascia,” effect of a bright comet streaking across the practice of manual therapy and guide summarizing the main ideas of his book, night sky, lighting up the entire landscape us in sequencing our work. The birth of with an accompanying article, “Insight

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 39 REVIEW of fascial research. He has presented at writers to include the informed reader, number of vacuoles together form a system every FRC since. While other scientists offer ensuring that the book would not remain that Guimberteau calls the MicroVacuolar their papers and describe their research, just the domain of the expert. The book is Collagenic Absorbing System (more on it is the indisputable images taken from accessible to the informed layman because this later). Guimberteau’s video presentation that the authors created a running format like leave an indelible mark on the audience, an outline or subtext highlighting the Tensegrity images of fascia not in vitro but in vivo. significance of the information presented. In 1998 Harvard microbiologist Donald I was an attendee of the most recent FRC • Every chapter begins with a summary E. Ingber published an article in Scientific in Washington DC in 2015 and have, in of the forthcoming information. American espousing the view that cells the past few years as a contributor to this “Key Statements” highlighting the were designed in accord with tensegrity Journal, taken on a number of science- significant concepts the authors want to architecture, which allowed sensitivity oriented reviews. The irony is that science is communicate are dispersed throughout to mechanical pressures to regulate actually not my forte: my title as Research/ every chapter. The first chapter, “Tissue biochemical processes. The title of this Science Editor for this Journal is a running Continuity,” is fifty-eight pages and there article was “The Architecture of Life.” The joke with my brother, who is a physiologist are fourteen key statements interspersed title of Guimberteau and Armstrong’s book / biophysicist researcher and who has just in it. An example of a key statement is, is Architecture of Human Living Fascia. Did the published a book called Piezo Channels. I “At the mesoscopic level, the observation authors have Ingber in mind in publishing knew that reviewing a technical book like of note is the continuity of tissue.” his book? I don’t know for certain, but it is Architecture of Human Living Fascia would reasonable to believe so. One of the main • There are also the six “Red Thread” require more than the usual effort, my only concepts of each is identical: the human questions; presented early on and solace being that it is not a tome but a thin organism, whether on the cellular level or dealing with larger issues, they are a book of seven chapters and only 204 pages. on the tissue level, operates as tensegrity running commentary throughout the I emerged from my engagement sixteen structures – that is, structures of continuous book. Questions such as, “How is this pages and 5,000 words of typed notes later. tension and discontinuous compression, tissue continuity structured, and how highly responsive to changes of mechanical I cannot overstate the brilliance of this book, do these fibers ensure tissue cohesion?,” pressure in their environment. If we now add not only in terms of its concepts presented, “How do they come together to create a third name, Stephen Levin (interestingly but also in terms of its organization and a structured form?,” or “Can nature another surgeon), who applied tensegrity presentation. From the outset this is a restore harmony to the multifibrillar principles to the biomechanics of living book aware of its mission. The front network when it is subjected to forces organism, fathering the term ‘biotensegrity’ cover displays what looks like a rising that exceed normal physiological limits, in the 1980s, we have a complete picture of planet, a tensegrity dome composed of as in pathology or as a result of trauma?” tensegrity principles operating at cellular, fascial fibers, lit by a distant source like • The book comes with a DVD of images tissue, and biomechnical levels – or, put a star or sun. One could almost hear in and video that correspond to those another way, micro, meso, and macro levels. the background the 2001: A Space Odyssey presented throughout the book. One must note that repetitions of the same theme of Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard forms at different levels of scale is the very Strauss announcing the discovery of a new • Finally, at the end of every chapter there is definition of fractals. world. To be clear, from my point of view, a commentary by a renowned researcher there is BG and AG – Before Guimberteau or manual therapist, many already What is common to the points of view of and After Guimberteau. The surgeon’s known to the structural integration the three, which should warm the cockles revelations sweep long-held conceptions community, such as Robert Schleip, PhD; of every Rolfer’s heart, is the recognition about fascia into the dustbin of science Dr. Tom Findley; and Tom Myers, author that gravity is the primary force affecting history and introduce ideas so stark that of Anatomy Trains. structure and function. In Chapter Five, even the means of discussion, words and Guimberteau and Armstrong comment All these teaching aids equip and support image metaphors, have to be reinvented. that living tissue is under the influence the reader for this excursion, this safari Who, after reading Guimberteau, can say of different physical phenomena – tissue if you will, into the fibrillar jungle, led “connective tissue” without wincing at tension, temperature, capillary pressure, by Guimberteau. I use the word “jungle” the ridiculousness of that idea, the term gaseous exchange, etc. – but that the because the world presented is not “constitutive tissue” instead resounding in primary force that affects living tissue is constituted of the solid, linear anatomical one’s brain? Guimberteau and his colleague, gravity. “We must remember that the main structures we were taught in Biology 101. Colin Armstrong, an osteopath, are well force that living tissue has to deal with Instead, it is the chaotic, disorderly, fractal, aware of the moment, and this book is is gravity.” fibrillar universe of fascia. Cell-centered written to help the reader cross that great biology disappears along with the familiar While we, as Rolfers, accept the centrality divide between old and new. Despite its anatomical emphasis on bones, muscles, of gravity unquestioningly, the role of monumental significance in the field of organs, tendons, and ligaments. Taking gravity in human evolution has been an fascia research, the strength of the book is its their place is the extracellular matrix and ongoing argument as far back as the late simplicity, its factuality – which, I believe, fascia, the interstitial stuff of life, the basic nineteenth and early twentieth centuries would have endeared it to Dr. Rolf. unit of which Guimberteau refers to as the when Darwinians warred with D’Arcy Despite its high degree of technical details, microvacuole, volumetric, geometric units Thompson as to the morphogenesis of there has been an enormous effort by the of fibers and fluids. The seemingly endless organisms, how organisms acquire their

40 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org REVIEW shape – whether from adaptive evolution, structures such as the icosahedron, which Informed Touch which Thompson thought was valid but Ingber had observed at the microscopic inadequate, or, as Thompson emphasized, level. Notwithstanding, Guimberteau There are many vectors contributing to mechanical forces determining shapes realized that only a tensegrity-type structure the informed touch of a manual therapist. and forms that are commonly found in – in this case as applied to a living thing, Besides the personal components, there is the inorganic and the organic world. a biotensegrity structure – could explain training, practice, and exposure to ideas Fast forward to the present time and this 1) the tension exhibited by the fibrils at and information. As teachers know, it is debate continues in modern form between rest, commonly referred to as prestress often particularly difficult to transfer ideas determinist geneticists versus another in tensegrity-like structures, and 2) the and information from the cerebral realm school of scientists, such as Guimberteau response of the MVCAS of spreading load to the tactile one. I have heard more than and Ingber, who emphasize mechanical throughout the system as stress increased. once the rhetorical question, “But how forces such as gravity as being critical in The resultant picture was startling, an do we get it into their hands?” The link biochemical processes in all organic life. organism maintaining equilibrium based perhaps is image, which can be described upon the chaotic unpredictable but highly as an embodied thought. Image is behind Guimberteau’s Journey adaptable behavior of the microvacuole the power of Guimberteau’s work. While all of his thoughts and concepts are available Guimberteau’s journey from surgeon to system. Guimberteau classified the function to be read and understood, they would be researcher occurred in a happenstance of these similar but not identical forms as insufficient without his images of what manner as is common with great discoveries. dynamic fractalization, its purpose being lies beneath our fingertips. Guimberteau He was simply curious about phenomena metabolic efficiency and maximization of presents a new world of fibers and fluids. he observed but could not explain. The the exploitation of space. Many commentators like Schleip and first of these was that when an incision Unfortunately, disequilibrium in the Findley have remarked on the change in was made into the subcutaneous tissue, multifibrillar network is a fact of life similar their work, in their touch, after absorbing bubbles would froth as if there was a to the law of entropy in physics. In the Guimberteau’s research. This challenging pressure differential between outside and sixth chapter, Guimberteau and Armstrong book provides a personal passage for the inside the body. When traction and force are explore various types of these dysfunctions, reader of, first, exposure; then immersion; applied by grasping and pulling the tissue which we as manual therapists often come and finally a kind of baptism to enter a new with forceps, more microbubbles appear. across in our work. Even minor injuries world. Architecture of Human Living Fascia Guimberteau’s conclusion: there seemed to and wounds over time produce scarring is a personal passage requiring effort and some kind of pressurized hydraulic system and adhesions. The result of the body’s a willingness to shift point of view. For within the body. repairs often are neither perfect nor pretty, those who make the passage to this new The second phenomena related to the but certainly suited to literary metaphor: world, “Welcome.” behavior of the fibrils and microvacuoles “We see what can only be described as a themselves. As a hand surgeon he was fibrillar apocalypse, with distended fibrils, interested in the movement of the tendons interwoven like the broken masts and in relation to the surrounding ‘connective’ rigging of a ship after a shipwreck, with tissue and was shocked when he observed, thickened ropes composed of collagen type using endoscopic images and video, that 1 fibers scattered all over the place.” Other the behavior of the layers of ‘connective’ than trauma, there is also degeneration of tissue was not uniform with the movement the fibrillar network simply from aging of the tendons. The fibrils responded to or weight loss. The internal tension of our the movement of a tendon unpredictably, bodies slowly but surely gives way to the stretching, widening, shortening, and external force of gravity. even at times splitting into additional A bright note within all this is Guimberteau fibrils – behavior that a linear point of view and Armstrong’s confidence in the ability would have to label ‘chaotic’. Guimberteau of the bodyworker to affect the fibrillar observed that when load was increased network; they state, “It is no longer possible locally, force was dispersed through the to argue that manual therapy has no effect fibrillar network. He then came to the on subcutaneous tissues.” Of course, realization that the ‘connective tissue’ was exactly what is happening under our hands actually a body-wide system cohesive when we engage the fibrillar network is unto itself like the lymphatic or vascular still uncertain, and open for discussion and system. He named it the MicroVacuolar controversy. The advice for the bodyworker Collagenic Absorbing System (MVCAS), in relation to scars and adhesions, however, and, significantly, it behaved like a is instructive: mobilize a damaged area as tensegrity structure. early as possible to enhance the potential While the fibrils of the microvacuoles did for the tissue’s return to health, i.e. elasticity outline various polyhedral shapes, the and flexibility. resultant geometric forms were not identical with ones usually associated with tensegrity

www.rolf.org Structural Integration / September 2017 41 CONTACTS

OFFICERS & THE ROLF INSTITUTE® AUSTRALIAN GROUP BOARD OF DIRECTORS 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 The Rolf Institute Boulder, CO 80301 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Richard Ennis (At-large/Chairperson) (303) 449-5903 Boulder, CO 80301 [email protected] (303) 449-5978 fax USA www.rolf.org (303) 449-5903 Amy Iadarola (Western USA/Secretary) [email protected] (303) 449-5978 fax [email protected] www.rolfing.org.au Hubert Ritter (Europe/Treasurer) [email protected] [email protected] ROLF INSTITUTE STAFF [email protected] Christina Howe, Executive Director/ Nicole Black-Gonthier (At-large) Chief Academic Officer [email protected] Eve Katz, Office Manager BRAZILIAN ROLFING® Ellen Freed (Faculty) Jeannine Lee, Clinic Coordinator ASSOCIATION [email protected] Colette Cole, Director of Membership Dayane Paschoal, Administrator & Placement Services R. Cel. Arthur de Godoy, 83 Les Kertay (Central USA) Mary Contreras, Director of Admissions Vila Mariana [email protected] & Recruitment 04018-050-São Paulo-SP Pat Heckmann, Director of Education Services Larry Koliha (Faculty) Brazil Samantha Sherwin, Director of Financial Aid [email protected] +55-11-5574-5827 Susan Winter, Director of Communications +55-11-5539-8075 fax Cosper Scafidi (Eastern USA) & Education Systems www.rolfing.com.br [email protected] [email protected] Keiji Takada (International/CID) [email protected] EUROPEAN ROLFING® ASSOCIATION E.V. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Laura Schecker, Executive Director Richard Ennis Saarstrasse 5 Amy Iadarola 80797 Munchen Hubert Ritter Germany +49-89 54 37 09 40 +49-89 54 37 09 42 fax EDUCATION EXECUTIVE www.rolfing.org [email protected] COMMITTEE Russell Stolzoff, Chair Carol Agneessens ® Tessy Brungardt JAPANESE ROLFING Larry Koliha ASSOCIATION Meg Mauer Yukiko Koakutsu, Foreign Liaison Kevin McCoy Omotesando Plaza 5th Floor 5-17-2 Minami Aoyama Minato-ku Tokyo, 107-0062 Japan www.rolfing.or.jp [email protected]

CANADIAN ROLFING® ASSOCIATION Beatrice Hollinshead PO Box 1261 Station Main Edmonton, AB T5J 2M8 Canada (416) 804-5973 (905) 648-3743 fax www.rolfingcanada.org [email protected]

42 Structural Integration / September 2017 www.rolf.org

5055 Chaparral Court, Suite 103, Boulder, CO 80301 303-449-5903 • [email protected] • www.rolf.org