What is Rolf movement?
According to ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy
Association):
Practices of somatic movement education and therapy encompass postural
and movement evaluation, communication and guidance through touch and words,
experiential anatomy and imagery, and movement patterning. These practices
are applied to everyday and specialized activities for persons in all stages
of health and development.
The purpose of somatic movement education and therapy is to enhance human
processes of psychophysical awareness and functioning through movement learning.
Practices provide the learning conditions to:
• | Focus on the body both as an objective physical process and as a subjective process of lived consciousness; |
• | Refine perceptual, kinaesthetic, proprioceptive, and interceptive sensitivity that supports self regulation; |
• | Recognize habitual patterns of perceptual, postural and movement interaction with one's environment; |
• | Improve movement coordination that supports structural, functional and expressive integration; |
• | Experience an embodied sense of vitality and extended capacities for living. |
The purpose of Rolfing Movement is to work with the client to help identify
movement patterns that promote strain and asymmetry in the system. Once the
patterns are identified, the Rolf Movement practitioner does not seek to change
those patterns, which have served the client well, but rather to offer more
economical solutions which promote greater balance and efficiency in the gravitational
field.
Like the structural ten-series, Rolfing Movement is taught as a sequence of
sessions devoted to specific structural and movement themes.
In a classic movement series, the first session is devoted to exploring breathing
patterns and using the breath to promote ease and release holdings in the
ribs, lungs and respiratory diaphragm. Subsequent sessions address movement
patterns in the foot, ankle and knee joints, the hip joint, the arms and head
and neck. These sessions are normally repeated to access deeper holding patterns
and achieve higher levels of order just as Rolfers return to the extremities
and upper and lower girdles (the shoulder and pelvis) in the latter sessions
to more fully integrate structure and function.
Rolfing movement can be explored by clients who have completed a structural
series and can serve equally well as an autonomous tool for achieving higher
levels of self-awareness and coherence.
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