Rolf Movement™ Integration

The purpose of Rolf Movement Integration is to work with you to identify the movement patterns that promote strain and asymmetry in your body.

Once these patterns are identified, the Rolf Movement practitioner does not necessarily seek to change patterns that have served the client well, instead the Rolfer offers solutions that are more economical, and that promote greater balance and efficiency in the gravitational field. Like the traditional Rolfing SI Ten Series, Rolf Movement Integration is taught as a sequence of sessions devoted to specific structural and movement themes.

In a classic movement series, the first session is devoted to exploring breathing patterns and using the breath to promote ease and release holdings in the ribs, lungs and respiratory diaphragm.

Subsequent sessions address movement patterns in the foot, ankle and knee joints, the hip joint, the arms and head and neck. These sessions are normally repeated to access deeper holding patterns and achieve higher levels of order similarly to how in traditional Rolfing, the practitioner will return to the extremities, shoulder and pelvis in the latter sessions, to fully integrate structure and function.

While clients who have completed a structural series can explore Rolf Movement Integration, it serves equally well as a stand-alone tool for achieving higher levels of self-awareness, balance, freedom of motion and body coherence.

In creating Rolf Movement Integration, Dr. Rolf collaborated initially with Dorothy Nolte and subsequently with Judith Aston. She felt that movement training would become an essential and valuable complement to her structural Ten-Series. Since Dr. Rolf's death, others, including Jane Harrington, Heather Starsong, Gael Ohlgren and Vivian Jaye have elevated this less familiar style of Rolfing to a level of high art with significant transformative value.

Currently, approximately 25% of all Rolfers have certified to practice Rolf Movement Integration and usually employ this training to enrichen their work.