The Rolfing training has entered its final stretch, with four days remaining. This seems a fitting moment to return to how the Rolfing training proceeds. An outline of the teaching was given earlier; this piece takes up the same ground in more concrete terms (see “How the Teaching Proceeds (1)“).
The training begins at 9:00 a.m. and runs until 1:30 p.m., with a thirty-minute break. The lunch break lasts an hour and a half. The afternoon half continues until 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., with a thirty-minute break in between. In the Rolfing training, the sessions are taught divided into ten.
As has been touched on throughout this blog, each session has its own basic goal, principle, and strategy. And experiencing firsthand the bodily sensation that each one calls for is an important part of the learning process.
The teaching of a single session begins with Embodiment, which sharpens bodily sensation. Movements are carried out that make a simulated experience of the session possible in the body itself. Rolfing holds that unless a bodily sensation has been experienced from the inside, it is difficult to grasp what is taking place within the client’s body.
Next comes the explanation of the principles, delivered through a PowerPoint presentation. Knowing the framework — holding a compass, so to speak — matters for carrying out the work. As described in “The History of Painting and the Body (1)” and “The History of Painting and the Body (2),” the class is made engaging by presenting a great many photographic examples: paintings, athletes, and the ways the body is used in various countries.
After the explanation of the principles, rather than moving straight into practice, a demonstration by the Teacher takes place. An outside client is brought in and the session is observed, which conveys the overall path. It runs nearly an hour and a half. The explanation covers how the body is observed and what tasks are brought to the work. Incidentally, the Teacher and the Assistant Teacher each take charge of one client, and this is the demonstration with the first of the two.
After the demonstration and a question-and-answer period, the practice begins. The basic practice is carried out among the students, but not all of it is covered. Practice is held to seventy percent. Rather than teaching the students everything, and rather than having them simply reproduce what was taught, a margin is left — to create space in which the students think for themselves. That, at least, is how it appears.
After the Assistant Teacher’s demonstration and another question-and-answer period, the hands-on work among students finally begins. What is interesting is that if student A works on student B, student B does not then receive from student A but from student C. Running the loop among three people serves to keep the experience from being confined to a pair.
Once the students have worked on one another, a discussion is held, and the remaining thirty percent of the practice that is called for follows. Having watched the sessions with two clients and having worked among students directly, the remaining thirty percent can be approached with the whole picture in view and with a sense of what the question is.
Now that the ten sessions have been covered (November 19, 2014), the subject of study is how the sessions connect organically to one another. From here, the sessions carried out among students will move to the stage of working with clients brought in from outside. In Phase II this takes place during the final two days of the training. What discoveries it will bring is something to look forward to.