WHAT IS ROLFING?

"My goal in my practice is to help individuals become connected to parts of their body that feel stuck, to bring an increase in inner awareness and ease in their movement and coordination."
- Jordan Shaffer


"I had a chiropractic appointment today. We reviewed X-rays from last week and I can’t help but think that the Rolfing has also contributed to the progress of my spinal alignment hooray for rolfing !!!"

-Rebecca Harding

"Rolfing is changing my life. Jordan is wonderful, knowledgable, and a kind healer. After the first session my back pain has diminished and I have remarkably a better quality of life. I highly recommend to anyone with back pain or any postural alignment issues."

-Joanna Vlahos

WHAT IT IS

ROLFING is a system of integration which includes manipulation of the fascia and movement education that organizes the whole body in gravity.

Rolfing influences postural changes in the body by manipulating the body’s myofascial system and influencing the body's nervous system.

WHAT IT ISN'T

While ROLFING is often grouped with massage and other hands-on forms of bodywork, there are fundamental differences between Rolfing and other modalities.

Rolfing works to address the structural integration of your body, not the symptoms resulting from the body’s misalignment. The aim of Rolfing is to provide a more functional body for the long term; beyond the temporary ease of symptom relief.
Benefits
  • Transformation of posture and movement
  • More support and ease in the body
  • Significant reduction in chronic stress responses
  • Conservation of energy
  • Reduction of the negative effects of repetitive stress injury
  • Increase in a mind body connection
  • More efficient and refined patterns of movement
  • Enhanced neurological functioning
  • Greater postural alignment

Here’s a video on Fascia:

What is Fascia?

Fascia, also referred to as connective tissue, is considered to be the “organ of structure” as it supports all the structures in the body. Fascia developes as early as the embryonic stage of life.

Fascia is what gives the muscles and body its unique shape and is directly under the influence of gravity. Early anatomists used to regard it merely as “packing material” which gives everything in the body its three dimensional form. In recent research in the scientific community fascia is physiologically interconnected to every other sytem of the body, and it’s role as an internal sensory communication system. Fascia relays information to the central nervous system for appropriate response to the input of mechanical and kinetic forces.

From a scientific lens, how is it important?

Tensional forces on the body (ie: gravity) generate a piezoelectric (weak electrical) current in the tendons and fascia through glycoproteins (components of the cell membrane) and cytoskeleton (the structural framework of cells) to the nuclei of fibroblasts (fiber producing cell of connective tissue) and through exocytosis produce collagen fibers in the intercellular matrix. Collagen fibers are formed and develop in response to the mechanical forces acting upon them, thus giving the connective tissue its added strength and resilience to support this particular area of the body. As time goes on connective tissue becomes denser, thicker, more fibrous, and dehydrated from a H20 poor intercellular matrix (the area containing all the non-living material between cells of connective tissue (fibroblasts).

Free bonding hydrogen + ions increase 3x by bonding to the collagen fibers pushing out much of the bound water of the intercellular matrix, resulting in a denser and more dehydrated in a downward spiral of decreased responsiveness and adaptability. From a broader point of view, misalignment, and tensional patterns have the potential to cause the epimysium of one muscle to form adhesions to its neighboring muscle, resulting in what we call “gluing” of the fascia. Rolfing helps to lubricate and unglue these myofascial components and create more freedom for the fatigued and dehydrated tissues of the body.

Many individuals in our technological information age have become truncated from visually fixating on what’s on their computers, phones, etc. These sedentary practices have the tendency of influencing the body in ways that creates strain in the body, and limits various kinds of movement that would promote a more accurate perception of the body in space.

A WORD FROM

Jordan Shaffer

As a Certified Rolfer, I aspire to help individuals who want to build their own sense of embodiment, therby increasing freedom and alignment of their body so they can live life feeling more energy and vitality.

My experience as a Certified Rolfer and Massage Therapist of 8 years has allowed me to help individuals achieve a greater level of ease and overall health in their everyday lives. My intention for my client to leave feeling more nimble, balanced, and energetic.
HISTORY

Rolfing Structural Integration is named after its creator, Dr. Ida P. Rolf. Dr. Rolf received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 1920 and furthered her knowledge of the body through her scientific work in organic chemistry at the Rockefeller Institute. In her pioneering search for solutions to her own as well as her family members’ health problems, Ida examined many Holistic philosophies and health systems that studied the effect of structure on function. These included Hatha yoga, osteopathy, chiropractic, and the flourishing of the human potential movement.


Dr. Rolf combined her research with her scientific knowledge to stimulate a deeper appreciation of the body’s structural order resulting in the theory and practice of Rolfing. Now there are more than 2,200 Certified Rolfers worldwide. The techniques Dr. Rolf developed during 50 years of study and practice first received wide professional exposure at the Esalen Institute in California during the mid 1960’s. She then established the Rolf institute in Boulder, Colorado where she spent the last years of her life refining her methods and teaching them to other Rolf practitioners.