About Rolfing^® Structural Integration

First, let's talk about your posture.

Your body is an architectural structure, just like your house. If your home's foundation were to tilt, this would stress the whole structure, and, over time, contribute to its collapse. A problem in the foundation could also be the hidden cause of a squeaky door that your handyman can never get to hang just right.

Many aches and complaints are like that door--the end result of an accumulation of physical events elsewhere in your body's structure. The health of your body, like the health of a building, depends on its balanced alignment with respect to its environment—the field of gravity.

If you are plagued by poor posture, you know that your attempts to "straighten up" don't last very long. This is because your posture is a pattern of muscular imbalances you have been developing from the moment you were born. Influences on your posture include quality of childhood nurturing, treatment by peers and authority figures, accidents, traumas, pleasure, pain, body use in work and play, cultural and religious beliefs about bodies, postures currently considered fashionable, geographic influences like crowded streets, open terrain, weather and clothing, and last but not least, one's mood of the moment. An intricate layering of all these influences determines how you stand and move the way you do.

Everything that happens to you evokes a muscular response. You respond, even if it is only to catch your breath, or lift an eyebrow. Over time your reactions dictate habits of standing and moving that become set in your nerves and muscles, and in the shortened and thickened connective tissue called fascia that envelops your muscles.

Enter Ida Rolf

Ida P. Rolf, originator of Structural Integration, understood that balanced alignment of the skeleton depends on relationships of tension in the connective tissues. For optimum relationship to the pull of gravity, the body's connective tissues must be balanced enough to support uprightness and pliable enough to allow freedom of movement. Rolf reasoned that if time and the pressure of imbalanced use could distort the fascia, then human hands, an understanding of body mechanics, clear intention and patience could reverse the process.

Structural Integration, which Rolf developed in the 1950's, is a manual therapy which restores balanced posture by strategically releasing connective tissue restrictions. The slow, penetrating pressure of this style of bodywork takes advantage of the unique property of fascia to soften under the application of pressure.

The sensations of fascial release range from a pleasant, spreading warmth to occasional and fleeting mild discomfort. Rolfers are trained to adapt the pace of their work to the tissue responsiveness and comfort level of each client.

Receiving Structural Integration is like going on a guided tour of your own body. During the process many clients find themselves releasing tensions they hadn't even known were there. Some recall long-forgotten accidents that seemed unimportant at the time, which now fit into the puzzle of habits and compensations that shape their bodies and curtail their movement.

Rolfing^® Structural Integration is offered as a series of ten sessions spaced one or more weeks apart. These sessions are designed to address general postural imbalances. Advanced Rolfing, performed by practitioners who have received more training, addresses structural imbalances with greater specificity. Rolfing® Movement Integration educates clients to make the most of the changes achieved through the manual therapy by becoming aware of body use in daily life. Movement Integration sessions are also beneficial for people who do not wish to receive the hands-on work.

What are the benefits of Structural Integration?

People seek Structural Integration for a variety of reasons. Many have heard about the work for years, and now, driven by some pain or disability which no other therapy has resolved, they decide to give Rolfing a try. Others seek it to improve posture which has worsened after years of sedentary occupations. Dancers and athletes rely on Rolfing to help them keep their instruments in working order or to come back from injuries. Yoga students find that Rolfing helps deepen their asana practice.

Structural Integration can relieve low back, neck or shoulder pain, frozen shoulder, whiplash injuries, repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, breathing problems, jaw tension caused by orthodontia or dental work, and TMJ problems. It can restore plasticity to scars, bringing mobility to injured areas. Rolfing can also be a valuable adjunct for people engaged in psychotherapy by addressing the physical aspects of psychic strain.

About My Practice

My work emphasizes the restoration of normal movement throughout the body, facilitating the client's freedom of physical expression. This means that your body feels more comfortable and more responsive to life's stresses. As your posture and movement improve, you may also experience beneficial shifts in your attitudes and perspectives along with relief from chronic pain and tension.

My training as an Advanced Rolfer lets me tailor your sessions to your individual needs. Every session includes body awareness and movement education to give you tools for sustaining the work that we have done together during a session. If I suspect that a musculoskeletal imbalance is masking tensions coming from internal organs, I may incorporate other techniques such as gentle visceral massage.

While classical Structural Integration is a series of ten sessions, some people respond to fewer sessions and many people require more. I like to see clients weekly to get the process going. After that sessions can be spaced farther apart.

I offer a free twenty minute consultation should you wish to meet in person before your first session. I am located in Eagle Rock, near Glendale. Please telephone so that I may understand what you are looking for and determine whether I think Rolfing can help you.

Endorsements

"I brought Mary Bond a body massively restricted by not having danced in over 12 years. My goal was to resuscitate a career. Her talent as a therapist and kindness of heart achieved a miracle. Today my flexibility is something I have never experienced ever!"

Bonnie Oda Homsey
Director, American Repertory Dance Company
Former soloist, Martha Graham Dance Company

"Mary Bond's work never descends to the formulaic. With her vast knowledge of the human body and her highly developed intuition, she is able to read your distinct body and to create space, release and awareness exactly where it's needed. Each specialized session feels like a direct response on her part to the pace and pattern of your own particular unfolding. Mary's work seems to have an air of almost elegant inevitability about it. Looking back, you sense that there was no other way she could have possibly proceeded and that she will never repeat the same sequence on anyone else in quite the same way.

As a yoga practitioner, the connections I've made while working with Mary have both influenced and deepened my practice of yoga both on and off the mat. I've noticed a definite, qualitative difference in my experience of poses I've been doing for years, a feeling of dropping old, deeply embedded (and restrictive) patterns from my very tissues."

Bruce Schwartz
Yoga Instructor
Co-director Yoga House, Pasadena

"Mary Bond is a true master of the body. Her incredible touch starts opening and connecting pathways that have been blocked. Time spent with her is golden... Thank you, Mary Bond!

Jacqui Landrum
Choreographer, Dancer, Certified Pilates & Gyrotonics teacher