Rolfing and the Mind – Body Connection
“Physical stress mirrors emotional suffering, relief from physical constraint markedly affects emotional misery.” – Dr. Ida P. Rolf
The Irish say, the past is not the past. Each of us has a history. We are formed by both our physical and emotional experiences. The important things that happen during our journey leave their mark upon us, and shape our structure. Your unique movement pattern reflects athletic and career choices, psychological and physical health, as well as your genetic predispositions.
We are all moving around our physical limitations. When we recognize someone a block away it is often their movement pattern that distinguishes them first. How we walk and move through life is idiosyncratic. Traumatic injury, such as a physical accident or an emotional wound becomes part of our structure.
Consider an ankle sprain. In response to pain, we hold the ankle rigid. This internal bracing is an unconscious and instinctual – we do it to avoid more pain. In a matter of weeks, the fascia, the fabric of the body that organizes the structure, adapts by shortening. This shortening becomes a part of our structural pattern. The fascial shortening influences our movement patterns and our pattern of organization.
What happens when the ankle sprain heals? The fascial shortening remains and stays with us. Without therapeutic intervention the new pattern often remains with us throughout our life. Our freedom of movement (range of motion) becomes limited by the injury and the internal “repair.”
Psychic injuries are also formative of the structure. We often absorb sexual violence into our physical and emotional bodies. The experiences that we are unable to process become “stuck places” in the structure. Young children who become chronically embarrassed will often go through their lives with their shoulders elevated and rolled in, and their head forward.
This defensive posture actually becomes cemented into the structure. The pectoral and upper trapezius fascia shortens and thickens. We may carry these structural changes throughout our lives. Both the ankle sprain and the embarrassment create chronic holding patterns that influence how we stand, move, feel and think.
It is with great tenacity that we propel ourselves forward into space despite our physical and emotional wounds. Our survival depends on our ability to move. We find inventive and unique movement patterns to compensate for our losses.
These compensations come at a cost. Sometimes, the price we pay is the loss of efficiency. It takes extra energy to stay upright and to move when the body is not well aligned. Sometimes, we pay with the loss of confidence. Emotional trauma becomes lodged in the structure.
Rolfing supports the structure to become better balanced. The Rolfer uses deep pressure to release the chronic shortening in the fascia. As the tensions in the fascial network become more balanced, the structure becomes more upright. The stuck places become “unstuck.”
The implications of releasing these chronic shortenings from old injuries are far reaching. As the body changes and becomes more open, the heart and mind changes too, inevitably.
Rolfers use a ten session format to work progressively through the structure. Each session works on a different part of the body. Our goals include helping you become more vertical and upright, with openness and span. Ultimately, we want to help you become more comfortable in your own skin.
Five Element Acupuncture is also a wonderful tool for addressing old wounds and creating balance within the structure. Each area of chronic holding is present in our energetic field as an energetic block. As the acupuncturist removes each of these blocks, the body and the mind and heart move towards balance. Change within the structure offers great possibility and promise for change within the heart and mind.
Rolfing and Post Traumatic Stress
As an advanced practitioner of the Ida P Rolf Method of Structural Integration, the emphasis of my work is to bring greater organization to the physical structure. In a series of ten sessions breath, movement and the interrelatedness of major body segments (i.e. arm, legs, trunk) are enhanced. The opportunity to release longtime patterns of chronic tension and bracing become available to the client.
Rolfing can help to heal survivors of emotional or physical trauma. During the first hour of Structural Integration, the client and therapist begin to develop a rapport through verbal dialogue as well as touch. As the therapist finds the appropriate level of pressure the client responds with a deepening of respiration and relaxation.
As the touch dialogue develops the client will be encouraged to breathe into and move areas of her body that she has become disconnected from. These areas may be lacking in sensation. Other areas of the body might be hypersensitive and the client might even request not to be touched there. Her requests are always honored. Sometimes these areas can be approached again as she becomes receptive.
When a person is attacked or abused the sympathetic nervous system mobilizes with a “fight or flight response” as a mechanism of self-protection. The body responds to this life-threatening situation by releasing adrenaline, which causes the heart rate to increase. When faced with danger and unable to fight back or escape, the victim will passively freeze. Opiate-like chemicals are then released to numb the pain. This enables the victim to “leave the body” or dissociate.
Long after the traumatic episode, patterns of dissociation remain with the victim as a remnant of the attack. She may have areas of physical rigidity or regions that lack sensation as if the perpetrator’s hands had never left her. This rigidity becomes a self-limiting influence as she experiences life with compromised respiration, self-awareness, and movement.
During the Structural Integration sessions the client takes an active role. She is invited to meet the pressure of the Rolfer’s hands with her breath. The Rolfer guides her to make small, easeful movements to facilitate the opening that is occurring in her body. Breathing and moving with intention, she becomes more self aware and present, contradicting her old pattern of dissociation.
During the Rolfing series the soft tissue network becomes reorganized and the body’s segments become better aligned. The client experiences a stronger sense of connectedness within herself and her universe. As the therapist releases areas of soft tissue restriction, she may find that her feet are more firmly planted on the ground, giving her a new sense of confidence. As she breathes more fully and deeply, she might become more spontaneous and resilient emotionally.
As areas of rigidity soften the distortions of body image can shift. As she releases longstanding tensions and blocked energy related to her trauma, she may begin to envision her own transformation.
The intimate nature of this work is based upon trust, openness and communication. As the client shares her physical pain, she is not alone with it anymore. Rolfing is a process during which the client can connect with and let go of the physical manifestations of trauma, and in doing so find that its emotional content has also surfaced. The client is supported emotionally during the session, however it is not within the realm of these sessions to explore psychological issues with any depth. Rolfing can be a powerful adjunct to psychotherapy in that it can help to bring forth unconscious memories that were previously unavailable to the client.
“ Psychological trauma such as physical abuse, abandonment, feelings of inadequacy, attitudes of fear and anger affect structure. Tightening against pain, holding breath to block emotions, slumping in order not to feel too big, become physically locked in the body and thus perpetuate the attitude.”
Betsy Sise, Certified Rolfer
“Physical stress mirrors emotional suffering: relief from physical restraint markedly affects emotional misery.”
Ida P, Rolf, Ph.D.
By Rebekah Frome • Rolfing • • Tags: emotional trauma, fight flight response, physical trauma, Post Traumatic Stress, PTSD, rolfing, structural integration