Gary Gurney, Certified Rolfer™
“I am extremely grateful for this profound work left by Dr. Ida Rolf. Rolfing changed my life and I’m thrilled to bring this work to the Portland, Maine community since 2006.”
- Are you stuck in chronic pain and discomfort?
- Do you suffer from the effects of chronic stress and tension?
- Are you unable to recover from old injuries or accidents?
- Do you just feel “out of whack”?
- Have deep tissue massage, chiropractic and other modalities failed to help?
Rolfing can help. But what is it? And how does it work?
Rolfing Structural Integration™ restores resilience, balance and wholeness to your body. How is Rolfing different than say, deep tissue massage? First, the Rolfing touch feels different. Clients report that it’s slower, more specific and penetrating than deep tissue massage. It’s not necessarily more painful, however. The goal of Rolfing is to re-align your entire body; your posture will improve dramatically. It does this by releasing areas of stuck stress and compensation in your connective tissue system (i.e. fascia, the deep wrappings of your bones and muscles that literally holds everything together)
Let’s say, for months or even years, you have a chronically tight low back. It feels good to have your back massaged, but the results don’t last. A day later you’re back where you started. Many massages later your back still hurts.
Moving increases the effectiveness of the work. The client slowly rolls forward during seated back work.
Why is this? Think of an old house. One day you notice a wall upstairs is cracked. You plaster over the crack, thinking it’s done. A few months later, the crack re-appears. You discover the foundation is settling and realize that it is causing the wall to crack. As long as the foundation keeps settling the crack will keep appearing. In a few years, new cracks will appear.
Your aching back (or neck, shoulders, etc.) is often the crack in the wall. Compensations are your body’s way of adapting to the flow of life. In a sense, they are your dynamic foundation. They help you deal with and adapt to injuries, repetitive tasks, and poor habits. Eventually, your body runs out of its ability to adapt and your compensations become the cause of chronic discomfort. It becomes a vicious cycle. You have built up so many compensations that your body starts fighting itself. It can’t seem to go with the flow of life anymore and your sense of well being is diminished.
Very often, the areas of compensation are parts that don’t seem to cause you trouble. Tension in your ankles, feet and hamstrings can be the sinking foundation that’s causing your back to be the crack in the wall.
Rolfing aims to restore your body’s natural capacity to adapt and heal itself–your foundation. Rolfers are trained to see the whole picture of the body. The Rolfing process is uniquely suited to identify and release the hidden compensations that keep you from feeling great and living life to the fullest.
I am happy to schedule a free phone or in office consultation to answer any of your questions and discuss if Rolfing might be a good fit for your needs. Please Email or call to schedule an appointment.
(207) 871-7653
Or, if you would simply like to schedule a session please click the button below.
Reference: Gary Gurney, Certified Rolfer™, Portland, Maine