What the Rolfing Method does

Stress, one-sided strain or injury can throw the body’s natural movement patterns out of balance. This is especially hard on professionals who are physically active, such as dancers, musicians, actors or athletes. Rolfing, a targeted treatment of tough connective tissue, realigns the body and can promote flexibility and expression.

Maintain balance

It sounds paradoxical: even people who move a lot often feel stiff, awkward and tense. Causes for this can be uniform loads, incorrect posture or fixed movement patterns.

If the musculoskeletal system is out of balance, gravity has a stressful effect on joints, bones and organs. To compensate for the pressure, the body reacts by adapting: the inner network of tough connective tissue (“fascia”) hardens and consolidates the unhealthy posture. Joints lose mobility, muscles tense, breathing becomes shallower.

Rolfing for more mobility

“This corset is felt particularly intensely by people who are physically active at work or in their free time,” explains Berlin-based Rolfing therapist Theres Grau. “Anyone who dances a lot, plays theater, plays music or practices yoga knows this feeling of fighting an inner tension – for example, when the neck is tense or the shoulders are not loose.”

Rolfing frees the body from its tissue corset. Through gentle impulses or intense touch with the hands, the Rolfing therapist traces inner hardenings, releases adhesions and stretches the connective tissues of the head, trunk, back, pelvis, arms and legs.

The body segments can return to their natural position, the body straightens in gravity, becomes more flexible and elastic. At the same time, clients learn to better perceive posture and movements.

Goal of Rolfing treatment

Treatment usually involves ten consecutive sessions, each devoted to a theme: for example, breathing, contact with the ground, or the position of the head. Rolfing is not so much about relieving acute discomfort. Rather, the bodywork is a process to promote uprightness, expressiveness and flexibility.

This can reduce or resolve discomfort, but also stimulate changes on other levels. “Many clients report that they go through life more confident and upright,” Grau says. “Often, after treatment, they find it easier to express themselves authentically with their bodies.”

Rolfing traces its origins to American biochemist Dr. Ida Rolf. As early as the 1950s, Rolf developed this form of bodywork, which is now practiced worldwide. In Germany, there are about 220 trained Rolfers.