Wake Weekly July 2004, Wake Forest, NC

Press Release, Free Lance Star, January 5, 2005

Press Release, Free Lance Star, January 7, 2005

Growing Older is Required, but Feeling Older is Optional...

The downward spiral - you see it in yourself and those all around you.  As the birthdays go by you get stiff, lose your balance, and appear to shrink as you age.  You stop participating in sports or other physical activities you used to enjoy.  Simple things like bending over to pick something up or walking up several flights of stairs become an effort.   Your joints start creaking and your doc passes it off as arthritis.  Your neck, back and shoulders ache.  Not to mention your feet.  You throw in a few visits to the chiropractor.  It helps at first but the pain comes back or shows up in different places.

 Most people think that this downward spiral is simply normal aging.  It certainly happens all the time.  It may be commonplace, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  Much of our loss of function is NOT normal aging.  The key underlying common denominator in the downward spiral is the loss of structural alignment in your body.  Your head no longer rests comfortably on your shoulders.  Your shoulders are not aligned over your hips.  Your feet and knees are not aligned properly to support your pelvis.  Like machinery, if your body is misaligned your whole person can’t function efficiently.  This leads to lack of movement in your daily life and then gravity pulls you further into the downward spiral with more pain.  Looking and feeling old (whatever age you pick) is in great part related to how you are able to move or not move.

 Fortunately, there is something that you can do about it.  And it doesn’t require long hours at the gym or becoming a fitness freak.  About 75 years ago, Dr. Ida Rolf, a biochemist at the Rockefeller Institute, discovered that the connective tissue layer in the body becomes thick and dehydrated over time due to injuries, stress, surgery, and habitual sitting and movement patterns.  These connective tissue “adhesions” result in structural misalignment and cause you to feel stiff and your muscles to ache.  But Dr. Rolf’s research also proved that this tissue is very “plastic” and that through touch and movement, it can be restored to a more normal state.

 Over the next 30 years, Dr. Rolf, working with thousands of people, developed a 10-session protocol for restoring lift, length and flexibility to the body.  She called her method “Structural Integration” which is very descriptive of the process.  It is often referred to as “Rolfing” now a service mark of the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado, one of two schools which train practitioners.  The 10 sessions, each about 60-75 minutes in length, can be received in as little as 5 weeks, but more typically once a week for 10 weeks.

 Dr. Rolf did not originally develop the 10-session protocol as a healing modality for specific conditions.  But what Dr. Rolf and those who have carried on her work have found is that regaining a structurally aligned body is the missing link in health and well-being.  People who have gone through the process have often found relief from a wide range of conditions when prescription drugs and other types of physical therapy have failed.  Conditions which respond well to Structural Integration include chronic conditions like sciatica, foot pain, TMJ disorder, low back pain, headaches, neck & shoulder pain, acid reflux, carpal tunnel, scoliosis, and fibromyalgia.   People often report that they feel reduced stress and are able to handle life’s challenges with more ease.  And with improved postural alignment, they look younger and feel better.  It is the smart choice for aging baby boomers who want to feel and look their best.  Structural Integration has been highlighted in national publications like AARP’s The Magazine, Yoga Journal, Nursing Times, Running Times, Wall Street Journal, and Skiing magazine.  

Carol Orrell, MS, LMT, Certified Practitioner, Structural Integration

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