Basic 10 Series

SESSION 1: The Breath

The focus is on releasing restrictions in the superficial fascia around your shoulders, chest, lower back, and pelvis.  As a result your ribcage can expand, reducing pressure on your heart and lungs.  The improvements in circulation and respiration mean that your body can take in more oxygen, and deal more effectively with toxins released by future sessions.  A sensation of “lightness and a feeling of increased energy is common after this session.  Many clients also gain an improved sense of the vertical in their posture.

SESSION 2: The Feet

The focus is on freeing fascial restrictions from the feet to the knees. By improving the horizontality in your foundation joints (feet, ankles and knees) this session increases your connection to the earth and gives you a feeling of groundedness.  You will gain awareness of your walking patterns and begin to sense how these affect structure and function in your entire body.  After the session you may feel your weight distributed more evenly in your legs and feet and you may find a new ease in walking.

SESSION 3: The Sides

This is an integrative session that begins to invoke the Rolf Line at your body core.  By releasing restrictions along the sides of the body, it removes tensions between the shoulders and pelvis so the major segments of the trunk can begin to move toward proper alignment. This session gives you the feeling of being put together, of resting more comfortably on the earth, of having a more elongated body.  You may have a sense not only of verticality and horizontality in your body, but also of front-to-back depth a clearer perception of your three-dimensionality.

Core Sessions:

SESSION 4: The Inner Line

This is the first deep session (deep does not imply painful), a junction between the surface-layer work of sessions 1-3 and the core work of sessions 4-7. Session 4 improves weight transmission along the inner line of the legs to bring grounding up through to the pelvis and liberate restrictions in muscles connecting the upper and lower body.  This session gives a strong sense of increased length and freedom in the legs, and many clients report a new feeling of energy, harmony, and integration in over-all body movement.

SESSION 5: The Front Line

This session creates an appropriate relationship between the superficial abdominal muscles and the deeper leg/hip flexors located at the core. It releases fascial restrictions on internal organs, creating proper space for each one and arranging them around the internal vertical line.  This session provides increased mobility for the pelvis and begins to create balance and congruence in the spinal column. Many clients report that this session leaves them with a new sense of internal space and a deep feeling of energy, peace, and centeredness.

SESSION 6: The Back Line

This session secures foundations.  Work focuses on the back of your body, from the heels to the back of your head, in order to create sufficient space in the hinges between body segments.  At the end of this session, all major fascial restrictions below the neck should be released. This session especially liberates muscles along the spine and releases two subtle hinges, the sacro-iliac (at the base of the spine) and the cranial (at the top of the spine).  Some clients may report a stronger sense of clarity and ease, with improvements in self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-confidence.

SESSION 7: The Neck and Head

This session continues and integrates the work of the previous six sessions.  All the work we’ve done so far has been necessary before we can organize the head and neck with the rest of your body. Your neck may be given greater mobility in relation to your head and shoulders.  This session often produces powerful changes in what most clients feel that their head is more “on” or report a feeling of general lightness throughout the body; their faces appear noticeably more balanced and relaxed. You should now have an improved awareness of the integration of all the parts of your body; sessions 8-10 will further this sense of integration.

Integration Sessions:

SESSION 8+9: Upper/Lower

One of these sessions will focus principally on your lower body, the other principally on your upper body.  Which half of the body is the focus of session eight depends on your structure and your responses to the preceding sessions.  The goal is to bring your body to the next highest level of order possible, to achieve better side-to-side, font-to-back, and inner/outer balance. Most clients report a feeling of improved lift in their bodies after both sessions. In the days following they usually report a sense of lightness and ease in all physical activities as they experience the benefits of higher energy levels, improved mechanical efficiency, and better coordination.

SESSION 10: Whole Body Integration

This final session polishes the balancing and integrative process of the previous sessions.  It fine-tunes the relationships between segments of your body, thus bringing it as close as possible to optimum balance. Your body should now be aligned or on a course toward alignment.  The effects of the Rolfing series will not end with this session, but will continue for 6-12 months as your body undergoes its own unique adjustment process to the changes initiated by Structural Integration.