Ida P. Rolf, a native New Yorker, graduated from Barnard College in 1916; and in 1920 she earned a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. For the next twelve years Ida Rolf worked at the Rockefeller Institute, first in the Department of Chemotherapy and later in the Department of Organic Chemistry. Eventually, she rose to the rank of Associate, no small achievement for a young woman in those days.

In 1927, she took a leave of absence from her work to study mathematics and atomic physics at the Swiss Technical University in Zurich. During this time, she also studied homeopathic medicine in Geneva. Returning from Europe, she spent the decade of the 1930's seeking answers to personal and family health problems. Medical treatment available at that time seemed inadequate to her; this led to her exploration of osteopathy, chiropractic medicine, yoga, the Alexander technique and Korzybski's work on states of consciousness. By the 1940's, she was working in a Manhattan apartment where her schedule was filled with people seeking help. She was committed to the scientific point of

During the 1950's, her reputation spread to England where she spent summers as a guest of John Bennett, a prominent mystic and student of Gurdjieff. Then, in the mid-60's, Dr. Rolf was invited to Esalen Institute in California at the suggestion of Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy. There she began training practitioners and instructors of Structural Integration.

The more Structural Integration classes Ida Rolf taught, the more students sought admission to training. Newspaper and magazine articles began featuring the person and work of Ida Rolf, and soon the necessity for a formal organization became apparent. As early as 1967, the first Guild for Structural Integration was loosely formed and eventually headquartered in a private home in Boulder, Colorado.

Until her death in 1979, Ida Rolf actively advanced training classes, giving direction to her organization, planning research projects, writing, publishing and public speaking. In 1977, she wrote Rolfing: The Integration of Human Structures (Harper and Row, Publishers). This book is the major written statement of Ida P. Rolf's scholastic and experiential investigation into the direct intervention with the evolution of the human species.

Another book compiled by Dr. Rolf's close associate and companion: Rosemary Feitis, is Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing and Physical Reality. It is truly a jewel: giving us insights into Dr. Rolf's unique and incredible mind.

Ida Rolf's Discoveries

Somewhere in her scientific research, she made a fundamental discovery about the body: the same network of connective tissue which contains and links the muscle system when it is healthy can be used to reshape it when it has been pulled out of proper order. Each muscle (and each muscle fiber) is enveloped in a connective tissue called fascia. Toward the end of each muscle, this fascia thickens into straps we call tendons or ligaments, which work to bind muscle to muscle and muscle to bone. In fact. This strange stuff we term connective tissue might better be called the prima materia, the basic stuff of the body. Part of it evolves into bone, and the muscles actually develop as tissue tendrils growing out through the fascial network in the embryo.

A close-up of fascia, the organ of structure.

Dr. Rolf's discovery of the importance of the fascial system revolutionized thinking about the body. Instead of the muscles, her followers emphasize their covering, much as if, when looking at an orange, one emphasized the rind rather than the meat. The enwrapping fascial supports the muscles and holds muscle and bone combinations in place. But it has one troublesome property: it can support whatever patterns of movement and posture the body adopts. The fascia can aid normal balanced posture. Or, when muscles are overloaded by the constant strain of off-balance movement, these connective tissues may take over some of the load by shortening and giving up their elasticity. In this way the body actually changes shape to reflect how it's being used. Fortunately, the fascia can be restored to health by returning muscles and bone to their proper alignments and inducing proper movement.

Dr. Rolf's discovery of the importance of the fascia was based upon another insight. She recognized that gravity is the basic shaper of the body. We have to balance our bodies, somehow, against the pull of gravity. From birth to death, gravity is always working on us. Because it is, deviations in the muscle-bone system are never merely local. Gravity's' influence spreads them through the body. IF the natural balance of the body is disturbed - if it doesn't follows the best geometry of the skeleton - then the whole body will gradually change form to adapt to the deviation. For example, a child falls from a bicycle and injures a knee. To avoid pain, he or she tightens the muscles around that knee. Since the body must work against the tug of gravity, the entire muscle and fascial system gradually shifts to compensate for the first change. Movement through the pelvis is influenced, as are the pattern of breathing and the set of the head. Because muscles alone cannot carry the additional tension, the fascia shorten to support the new movement, and, in time, the shape and function of the whole body alters with them.

The human body is like a house. It's structured so that each part has its proper place, and each piece interlocks to balance the load of the others. As in the well built house whose every post and beam is in place, the well-used (more than well -built) body functions efficiently. Because gravity pulls down on everything, out of place body parts - beams out of alignment and unsupported by a post - are pulled into painfully unnatural positions. What the Rolfer seeks is a return of the construction to its original blueprint specifications. This is often compared to, first, grabbing the client by the hair and lifting him

"When the body is working properly, the force of gravity can flow through it. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself"

Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.