Rolfing Structural Integration

"Rolfing<sup><supRolfing® Structural Integration is a holistic system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education, organizing the whole body in gravity. Rolfing® seeks to integrate alignment of the entire body, so movement is grounded in a responsive core, rather than anchored and restricted in an uneasy shell. Developed by biochemist Ida P. Rolf over 50 years ago, Rolfing® can:

  • Improve posture and promote fluid, graceful movement
  • Ease chronic pain or discomfort resulting from injury or repetitive motion stress
  • Improve overall functioning through stress reduction and increased awareness of self as a whole being

How Does Rolfing® Work?

Rolfing® creates more efficient use of the muscles, helps reduce chronic stress, and can change the body’s structure. One theory is that the practice of Rolfing® balances the body in all directions, from head to toe, integrating layers of connective tissue. By doing so, the body can return to a state of balance, which helps to maximize its functions.

How Does a Rolfing® Treatment Feel?

Rolfing® is a hands-on practice that includes mild and deep myofascial structural work, soft tissue manipulation, and motion enhancement. Because Rolfing® is a holistic technique, clients may experience powerful physical, emotional, and energetic effects. Because movement education is an essential component of the practice, Rolfing® addresses more efficient transitions while lying down, sitting, standing, walking, and performing daily activities. Patients often experience an improved sense of body awareness.

Although Rolfing® is not painful, it may cause some temporary discomfort. The hands-on treatment varies in intensity, depending on your needs. A Rolfing® therapist may apply sustained pressure to release “stuck” patterns. This “good” pain can lead to increased mobility, creating a deeply satisfying, healing, and transformative experience.

At Alliance Integrative Medicine, our goal is to effect greater ease of motion and freedom for our patients — not to increase their pain and discomfort! All of our certified Rolfing® therapists trained at The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado — the only school in the United States that certifies Rolfers™.