On the 2 year anniversary of my beloved teacher Emmett’s passing, I would like to share this lovely quote and photo.
“Rolfing is not about spots and lesions. It’s about the whole person. Spots disappear into the whole as order and length are established. Rolfing is about fascia and feeling. The sensation of moving from weakness into strength, the exhilaration of owning a new part of oneself, the immediate and simultaneous reeducation of one’s being and action, the joy of self-empowerment, waking up: these are the experiences of Rolfing. One Rolfee might go up through the top of his head and down through his feet with clear intention and sense himself unwind. Another might feel her lumbars relax and adjust while doing self pelvic lifts. At other times, the Rolfer, by artful use of his hands and intention, along with the Rolfee’s own sense of Line and span, might -lead- and -direct- the Rolfee out of the curvature. In any case, even if we assume that we -can- correct a specific vertebral lesion by direction manipulation, and further accept that the correction is effective, might we not have cheated our client out of one of Rolfing’s dearest and most unique experiences, self-growth? Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
“Ida used to say that if you think being a structural integration practitioner is a growth path for your life, then the ritual of our path is doing the 10 hour recipe…. That is the ritual. You do it enough eventually you can’t not do it. If you want to become masterful at this work then that recipe has to be in your being somehow…the more times you do it the better you get. The Recipe is more powerful today than it was the day Dr. Rolf died because we keep doing it… so many of us are doing The Recipe.” ~ Emmett Hutchins
