Dr. Ida P Rolf is widely credited as the developer of Rolfing or Structural Integration as she liked to call it. I always felt that the work is an assemblage of ideas and a way of thinking about how to work with human structure. He work has inspired thousands of practitioners to practice her work, millions of clients and is now credited with being the founder of a larger movement in the allied health field.

My teach Emmett Hutches was with her from early on and taught her work his entire life. So much of his teaching was from her source either written or sharing memories. She considered this work a folk art, something taken up by a student under a master, practicing and sharing until they really own the craft for themselves.

Dr. Rolf was Brooklyn born and got her Ph.D in biochemistry from Colombia in 1920 at a time when few women were attending university. She studied math and physics at Swiss Technical Institute in Zurich (6 years after Einstein was a professor) while studying homeopathy for fun in Geneva simultaneously.

This interview from 1974 is not only salient but she uses her language craft in sharing the larger vision for what the work is while tying in some concepts of physics.  She suggests the role of Structural Integration is to create order. She understood the role of entropy in the universe and in the human body. She felt that order in the body would bring by the template of a vertical line would bring about the best order of a human body both mentally and physically.

She discusses relationship as the next step to after order is reestablished. The relationship part is the integration of Structural Integration and is some way sets this work apart from simply ordering structure.

She was a matron of Victorian era and often wore a flower in her hair. As I understand, she was bitingly sharp when mistakes were made.  She also had a skill in inviting the student to explore and challenging them to figure things out.

She understood and could communicate about the properties of connective tissue called fascia in a that no one else could. Fascia has rightfully so been in vogue lately, but at the time it simply wasn’t understood. In that way her work was visionary and 45 years after her death she is still revered as a modern influencer of thought.

I’ve devoted much of my adult life to practicing her work and learning from her teachings. She died a year after I was born in 1978 but she still have a day to day influence nearly everything I do. Having studied this work when I was 23 in the year 2000, it had a profound impact on my way problem solving and thinking about the world. Bodywork Professionals was developed from the practice and sharing of this work, and that continues with The Bodywork Guild our training arm.

Thank you Ida, it’s been quite a ride!