Rolfing® Structural Integration
The Classical Rolfing® Ten Series of Postural Realignment
Correcting a Lifetime of Accumulated Tensions for Transformation of Your Living Experience
The Ten Series is a ten-session systematic journey through the entire body, releasing accumulated restrictions and reorganizing the structure for greater balance, mobility, adaptability, and freedom of movement.
The aim is broader than treatment of one painful area: improve posture, mobility, balance, physical awareness, and the way the body organizes itself in gravity.
Reestablishing Natural Alignment
and Structural Integration
Dr. Ida P. Rolf performing Structural Integration with her elbow.
The Body in Gravity
Dr. Ida P. Rolf · Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Columbia University, 1921
Rolfing® for Vitality and Well-Being
Dr. Ida P. Rolf earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 1921 and developed Structural Integration as a systematic way of working through the whole body.
Her book states the purpose directly in its title: reestablishing the natural alignment and structural integration of the human body for vitality and well-being.
That larger aim matters. The Ten Series works through fascia, posture, movement, breath, gravity, and body awareness so that the entire structure can become more adaptable and integrated.
Each session has its own purpose. Together they build a more integrated structure.
How Rolfing® Creates Transformational Change
From Surface to Core to Integration
The Ten Series is an ordered process in which each session has its own structural purpose and prepares the body for what follows.
The early sessions open the outer layers and establish breath and support. The middle sessions move into the legs, pelvis, abdomen, sacrum, and deeper core relationships. The final sessions integrate the upper and lower body and balance the whole structure in gravity.
Sessions 1–3
Opening
Breath, feet, side body, superficial fascia, and the body's outer sleeve.
Sessions 4–7
Core
Inner legs, pelvis, psoas, sacrum, back, neck, jaw, and the body's central relationships.
Sessions 8–10
Integration
Upper body, lower body, and the organization of the whole structure in gravity.
The Ten Series Step by Step
Each Session Has Its Own Structural Goal
These are the traditional structural intentions of the series as I apply them in practice.
Expand the Breath
Release the superficial fascial sleeve, with particular attention to the tissues surrounding the rib cage and diaphragm. The first session begins opening the outer body and expanding the freedom of breathing.
Find Your Feet
The feet are the foundation of the vertical structure. This session works to make them more open, adaptable, and responsive so the rest of the body has a better base from which to organize upward.
Lengthen the Sides
Open the side body and the front-to-back relationship through the trunk. This develops more depth, space, and proprioceptive awareness through the full dimension of the body.
The Inner Line
The first of the deeper core sessions. Work through the inner legs begins connecting the line of support from the feet through the legs into the pelvis.
Accessing the Core
Work progresses up the front of the body through the quadriceps and into the deep abdomen and pelvis, including the psoas and iliacus, important muscles in hip, lumbar, and pelvic organization.
Free the Sacrum
Work through the hamstrings, deep lateral hip rotators, gluteal relationships, sacrum, and quadratus lumborum opens the posterior core and can create major changes through the hips and low back.
Putting the Head On
Attention moves through the thoracic outlet, shoulders, neck, jaw, and other structures influencing how the head rests over the trunk, with the aim of a freer relationship between head, neck, and shoulders.
Integrate the Upper Body
Return to the shoulder girdle with an integrative purpose, working through the axillary region, subscapularis, rotator cuff, chest, and surrounding fascia so the arms and shoulders relate more freely to the trunk.
Integrate the Lower Body
Revisit the feet, legs, hips, pelvis, and core wherever more work is needed, bringing the changes of the lower body into a more unified relationship.
Structural Integration
The final session looks at the whole body and balances the major horizontal relationships. Unfinished areas are revisited so the changes of the series can settle into one integrated structure.
Who Chooses the Ten Series?
When You Want Something Broader
The Ten Series is often chosen by people who want their body to function better as a whole, including people who come for posture, mobility, balance, embodiment, or long-term physical freedom.
After Pain or Injury Work
You came in to solve a specific problem, experienced what structural change feels like, and want to continue through the rest of the body.
For Posture & Mobility
You want to move more freely, stand with greater ease, and address accumulated restrictions throughout the whole structure.
For Sport, Yoga & Movement
You want a body with greater range, adaptability, physical awareness, and fewer structural limitations.
For Long-Term Physical Freedom
You want to preserve fundamental capacities such as walking, reaching, bending, turning, training, and getting down to the floor comfortably as you age.
The Ten Series at Valeo
Begin With the First Session
The series is completed at a pace appropriate to you. There is no need to rush through the ten sessions. Each session is allowed to settle before the next layer of work is undertaken.
If you are unsure whether you should begin with the Ten Series or with focused pain and injury work, we can decide that from your goals and your first assessment.
Rolfing® is the Original Anti-aging Therapy!