The Rolfing® Series
SESSION 1:
The focus is on releasing restrictions in the fascial “body stocking” especially 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 deal more effectively with toxins released by future sessions. A sensation of “lightness” and a feeling of increased energy are common after this session. Many clients also gain an improved sense of the vertical in their posture.
SESSION 2:
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 being grounded. You will gain awareness of your walking patterns and begin to sense how these effect 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 ion walking. In this session many clients gain an improved sense of horizontal lines in their posture.
SESSION 3:
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 and 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 and a clearer perception of your three-dimensionality.
SESSION 4:
This is the first of the deep sessions (deep does not imply painful or more pressure), 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 overall body movement. It also helps to bring people into their lower center of gravity.
SESSION 5:
This session creates an appropriate relationship between the superficial abdominal muscles and the deeper leg and 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. It also helps to bring people into their upper center of gravity. 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:
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 sacroiliac joint (at the base of the spine) and the cranial at the top of the spine. For people who have been blocked at these hinges, the effects can be profound, for they affect how we perceive the world and ourselves in it or, our “stance” both physically and psychologically. Some clients may report a stronger sense of clarity and ease with improvements in self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-confidence.
SESSION 7:
This session continues and integrates the work of the previous six sessions. It relates your head and neck to the rest of your body all the way to the ground. You may experience greater mobility in your neck in relation to your head and shoulders. This session often produces powerful changes in what most clients describe as their energy flow as a result of the body wide freeing of major fascial restrictions. Most clients report a feeling of general lightness throughout the body and their faces and jaws appear noticeably more balanced and relaxed. You should now have an improved awareness of the integration of all the parts of your body and sessions 8-10 will further this sense of integration. For some, the sense of increased integration may extend beyond the body to include other aspects of the self.
SESSION 8 & 9:
One of these sessions will focus primarily on your lower body, the other on your upper body. Which half of the body is the focus of session 8 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, front-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:
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 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 Rolfing.