Dr. Ida P. Rolf was the founder of Structural Integration. She earned her Ph.D. in 1920 in Bio-chemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. For twelve years, she worked at the Rockefeller Institute in the Chemotherapy and Organic Chemistry departments. In the 1930’s, challenged by a friend’s disabilities and dissatisfied with the available medical treatment, Dr. Rolf explored Osteopathy, Chiropractic Medicine, Yoga, the Alexander Technique, Homeopathic Medicine, and Korzybski’s work on the consciousness. By the 1940’s, she had developed and experienced many breakthroughs with the work she did on chronically disabled persons unable to find help elsewhere. During her scientific research she made a fundamental discovery about the body: the same network of connective tissue that contains and links the muscle system when it’s healthy can be used to reshape it when it has been pulled out of proper order. Dr. Rolf further refined her technique and developed a training program to insure that this work would continue. Among the schools that conduct Dr. Rolf’s training are The Guild for Structural Integration and the Rolf Institute. Both are involved in research to enhance the understanding of gravity’s relationship to the human structure. Graduates are required to have extensive knowledge in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, body awareness, and a mature sensitivity to psychological mediation.
Everyone, whether a high performance athlete, or dancer, or sedentary knowledge worker, needs to have the ability to move freely. When the connective tissue web becomes glued and shortened in certain areas, it pulls the body out of alignment and instead of supporting the body, it continues to make it more compressed, less agile, and potentially painful. You might be collapsed at the front and try to be upright, so you force yourself up, overusing the back muscles as a compensation, resulting in secondary problems. The aim of Structural Integration is to unglue the connective tissue so that the body can be freely upright without other body parts having to overwork.
“This is the gospel of Structural Integration: When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.”
— Dr. Ida P. Rolf