May 2013
The body knows how to move, and to do it well. And yet sometimes the body loses touch with this ability. Desk-jobs, chronic stress, fixed patterns of thought and movement, injuries past, present, and future—over time such conditions conspire and accumulate with the effect of stifling the body’s native grace. My job as a Rolfer is to reawaken the innate capacity for organic and harmonious movement that we all possess. The whirlwind of daily life all too often leaves us disembodied, dis-integrated, and dis-membered. Rolfing is a journey of embodiment, of integration, of re-membering. It is a kind of pilgrimage to the center of ourselves in which, by dint of circumstance, we have ceased to dwell. I strive to guide my clients along their respective voyages of somatic discovery, though each of them makes the journey him or herself. Each of you is Dante. In the end, I work with you, for you so I am like Virgil in some respects despite being a vastly lesser poet.
Sessions are $150 and usually last between an hour and an hour and a half.
My name is Max Leyf and I am a certified Rolfer & Rolf-Movement practitioner in Anchorage, Alaska. My last name is really “Treinen.”
I have many interests—from sports to music to literature to Rolfing®. It’s hard to think of things I don’t like besides poverty & ethnic violence. I don’t really care for The Eagles either I suppose. I grew up in Anchorage cross-country skiing and playing hockey and not enough hookey that I didn’t graduate from West Anchorage High School and later the University of Alaska Anchorage with a double major in Literature & Philosophy. During college I also raced at the NCAA Championships in cross-country skiing and took two exchanges in Sweden.
After college I studied at the Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado & at the Associação Brasileira de Rolfing in São Paulo, Brazil where I received my Rolfing & Rolf Movement certifications in May 2013. In 2015, I left again to study Philosophy, Cosmology, & Consciousness in a Master’s program in San Francisco at the California Institute of Integral Studies. I since went on to earn my doctoral following a successful defense of my dissertation titled The Redemption of Thinking: A Study in Truth, Meaning, and the Evolution of Consciousness with Special Reference to Johann von Goethe, Owen Barfield, and Rudolf Steiner.
I almost called the business The Tao of the Elbow but I compromised to find a more comprehensible title. Maybe it should be called “The Gentle Elbow.” In any case, all Rolfing—even “fascia-mashing”—is for a good cause: to wit, to rediscover the body’s native alignment, harmony, and resilience.
Rolfing is great. But don’t just take my word for it—experience it for yourself! If discovering ease and joy in movement sounds alright, call or text to schedule a session!
Please find the Writings page for a number of short articles and videos inspired from Rolfing—from practical exercises to metaphysics!
For more writings by the same author but in a different context, please also find my other websites, The Lizard Press (2013-2017), Theoria-press(2018-2022), and theoriapress.substack.com (2022 to present).
Max Leyf Treinen
The.way.of.the.elbow@gmail.com
Facebook.com/thewayoftheelbow
The Way of the Elbow 