Structural Integration pays homage to its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf. This brilliant and charismatic innovator was a biochemist who studied the properties of myofascia at Columbia University. She was interested in a great multitude and variety of topics germane to the human experience but developed a reputation for healing people through movement. Eventually, she paired movement with manual intervention, uniquely attuned to affect the material of fascia. Using fascia as the working material for her intention, Dr. Rolf evolved a unique system of progressive interventions that transformed the bodies of her clients over a brief period of time into organized systems, excavated from the habits, traumas, and daily influences that imprinted them.
Fascia is a continuous web of connective tissue that surrounds our muscles, bones, joints, nerves, blood vessels and organs. The fascial web is both strong and stretchy, helping to distribute force across adjacent muscles as well as helping tissues to slide past each other for smooth and easy movement.
What's important to know about fascia is that it can change shape and texture, get more rigid or more flexible depending on how the body is used. It is now well known that lifting weights makes our bones grow denser. Fascia responds the same way, getting denser in response to mechanical stress. Layers of fascia adhere to one another, making the fascia better able to resist force in one direction, but limiting movement in other directions. Sometimes these adhesions interfere with functional joint movement, or impinge upon nerves, causing pain.
SI is for those suffering from chronic injuries of the neck, shoulders, back, and any area where muscles structures are involved. This includes nerve pain due to tight muscles. SI is also for those with no real physical complaint, but lack energy and want to retard the aging process or release trauma due to an emotional experience. It is for anyone who wants to manage stress--be it at work, home, or athletic performance and for anyone who wants greater energy and efficiency in living.
The short answer is no.
The SI practitioner uses a multitude of techniques, including verbally directing the client's awareness, offering movement cues, light touch, and slow deep tissue work. Moving slowly allows the practitioner to work at a deep level without causing pain.
Since SI process is collaborative, it is important for the client to let the SI practitioner know if any boundary, especially a pain threshold, is approached. Although every client has a unique experience of the SI process, and although some moments may be intense, Structural Integration does not have to hurt.
SI helps bring bodies to a higher level of order by aligning their structural elements to the flow of gravity. Because we are designed for upright functioning, this supports the body in what it’s already trying to accomplish.
Aligning and rebalancing the body requires a systematic approach to working with a person’s tissue; practically no stone is left unturned. The actual hands-on work feels good and provides an inherent health benefit to the client, but the process of SI does more than just this.
When a body is properly harmonized with gravity, it no longer requires extra tension to hold itself up. The complicated set of reflexes responsible for our unconscious uprightness requireless math, and therefore less energy to do so. SI also helps dismantle separate and contrasting patterns that cause pain and dysfunction when they clash, so the body is no longer fighting itself. All said and done, a Ten Series allows the body to heal and support itself on its own terms, allowing the body to heal itself!
At first, the SI therapist will look at you in standing, walking and sitting in order to determine your movement pattern and body structure. The session is done on a massage table while the therapist uses his hands or arm parts of the arm to apply pressure to specific parts of your body. This is also done with the client sitting or standing. The quality of the touch ranges from light to deep and intense.
Time can also be spent on movement education during the session. The therapist instructs the client on improved body-use for better economy of movement.
After each session you will experience a difference in your body and its structure. Most clients describe the feeling as lighter and more freedom.
A session lasts around 90 minutes. Structural Integration is less concerned about the duration of the session than it is with achieving a specific goal within the session. SI therapist account for their work per session not per hour.
When you only want relieve of specific pain or symptoms, one to three session will be sufficient. When you want more than just symptomatic relief and your goal is long-lasting results, it is recommended that a series of ten sessions should be followed.
Classic SI consists of a series of 10 sessions, one building on the other. When the therapistworks with the client step by step, it is easier to bring the body in line and to achieve maximum economy of movement. After the ten sessions you will notice the change in your body and the change in quality on movement. Normally a resting period of six months to one year is recommended, before further sessions are done, if needed.
Ideally two to three weeks should be spaced between the sessions. This gives your body enough time to integrate the changes. The intervals of the sessions depend mostly on individual circumstances. Shorter interval is also possible.
The primary goal of SI is not the removing of symptoms, but rather the improvement of structure, bearing and movement pattern in the total body. Certain problems of the movement apparatus, such as back pain, headache (especially tension headaches), neck and shoulder restrictions is partly a result of poor structure and support, or burdensome movement, which can be resolved through SI.
A ten session series offers huge potential for permanent changes. But it depends on the individual case and the goal of the entire series. Your age, general condition, the body’s condition at the start of the series, all influence the permanency of the results. Other factors can also play a part, e.g. How prepared you are to accept changes; are you actively taking part in the process.
SI can be used for children of all ages.
Always visit the doctor when a serious illness or injury occurs. The SI practitioner should always be informed about your medical history. When in doubt always talk to your doctor before receiving any SI sessions.
SI works with three-dimensional soft tissue patterns that limit comfort, balance and alignment. It is a process of gradually and progressively easing the body’s strain to evoke order, support and efficient movement. SI works with individualized treatment plans tailored specifically to each client’s needs and the reasons they seeksI Although SI has profoundly influenced a great number of therapies, it is not a form of deep tissue massage or myofascialrelease therapy. From the SI perspective, if the whole body is not properly prepared to receive the effects of local manipulations, either the change will not be maintained or strain will show up in other areas.
Chiropractic is primarily concerned with freeing spinal joint restrictions and promoting nerve flow to and from the spine. It does not address the soft tissue patterns of the whole body and their influence on structural balance. SI uses soft tissue techniques to treat bone-to-bone restrictions that are a part of the overall body pattern. SI and Chiropractic care are compatible and can be complimentary.
Massage is a broad term that refers to many styles of bodywork. In general, massage promotes relaxation and blood flow. Some "deep tissue" massage works to release local patterns of structural strain, but this is not usually done as part of a strategy to balance the whole body. Although massage is relaxing, you may find the same area bothering you again shortly after you leave the office. This is because the area that hurts is often a compensatory or secondary issue, which massage doesn’t address.