“Connective tissue” and “fascia”* are more or less synonymous terms that refer to the system of tissue that both binds and differentiates different tissues and organs throughout the body. For instance, a bundle of muscle is joined to, but also differentiated from, its neighboring bundles by fascial sheaths.

Trauma, whether from injury, repetitive movements, or chronic stress, tends to warp or distort the fascial network with the result that movement becomes increasingly painful, laborious, and inhibited. Picture wearing an ill-fitting body suit that was cinched up in different regions so to constrain and inhibit movement patterns.

Rolfing is designed to resolve these distortions in the fascial network to restore “freedom, fluidity, and ease in movement,” as the heading above suggests.

The word comes from the Latin fascis, which merely means “bundle.”

Past trauma, in whatever form it was visited, tends to deposit itself as tension in deep and/or unconscious strata of muscle and connective tissue as dis-ease. As a result, this tension can be exceedingly difficult to let go of. Indeed, as a rule, the tension that we are capable of letting go of by ourselves, we have already let go of by ourselves. Rolfing has proven to be an extraordinarily effective means of accessing and resolving these inaccessible tensions in a way that is thorough and permanent.

If someone plays a guitar whose strings were out of tune, the result will be a discord between the intention of the guitarist and the music that is produced. To resolve the discrepancy in coordination between intent and outcome, either the intent or the instrument will have to be adjusted. Similarly, we can experience problems of coordination in our bodies that will manifest as “discordant music” in our movement and posture and ultimately result in pain or discomfort. But Rolfing serves to attune the awareness to the body and the body to the awareness so that “it will discourse most eloquent music.”

Everyone has an idea of what it means to take a broken lawnmower into a mechanic for repairs, and many people imagine most healing or therapeutic modalities in a similar light. This conceit is augmented by the paradigmatic approach of industrial medicine, in which the patient generally assumes an altogether passive role in his or her treatment.

But Rolfing is best conceived not as someone fixing you, or doing work on you, but rather as a collaboration between Rolfer and client toward the shared end of greater health and ease for the latter party. Because it’s not really a case of someone working “on” you, and because you are a collaborator in the process, the virtues of the work don’t expire with the end of the session or treatment regime, as the famous saying alluded to in the heading to this little thumbnail indicates: “give a man a fish, and you feed him for an hour; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Rolfing is a process of education, not in a pedantic way, but in a practical manner that instills general health and harmony in kinetic and postural patterns as second nature.

Sessions are priced at $150 and a typical session lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. If for some reason you are unable to pay the full price, please contact me to consider an alternative arrangement because I don’t want people to be turned away for that reason despite that I also have to make a living like everyone else.