What I am working on as my own task in the Phase III training is space. As described earlier, the Phase III training means carrying out ten sessions with two clients on the basis of what was learned in Phase II (see “The Introduction, and Organizing What Is Known“).
If, at that point, I concentrate one hundred percent on my own side as the practitioner, the space in which the other person changes through the work — the time, the gap, whatever it is called — disappears. What I keep in mind for that reason is Less is More. As covered in this column (see “Body Reading and the Quantity of Information“), it means holding in mind the question of which parts not to work on.
Take session 1, organizing the breath (see “Session 1: Organizing the Breath“). Phase II covers a range of techniques concerning which parts to work on. Overwhelmed by the quantity of information, one loses sight of the aim — organizing the breath — at the very moment of facing the client. The end result risks being a reliance on technique and work that is not needed.
So after the body reading, the points are narrowed to three among what is most called for this time. After confirming with the instructor in Phase III whether those points are the right ones, I try to use the hands as a guide, communicate with the body through the hands, and respond flexibly in line with the aim.
In practice, by the time session 2 was finished in this Phase III, narrowing the points and narrowing the areas worked on made it clear that clients change within their own bodies, and that they bring about change themselves without being worked on.
Why is that possible? What follows takes up that question.
I hold that keeping the mind neutral matters when listening to another person.
The reasons being that it leads to:
- Giving the other person minimal information, and preparing the time and the space in the mind — the room in the mind — for them to arrive at an answer
- Letting go of each of my own experiences, and offering only the minimal information, the minimal noticing, that the other person needs
As a result, putting various questions to the other person and giving them time to think brings them, in the end, to draw out their own answer.
Carrying out Rolfing gives the impression of resembling this.
I think keeping the mind neutral matters in Rolfing as well — but what corresponds to it in Rolfing?
It is the use of one’s own body, I would say. That is, organizing the body so that it receives readily. For that, knowing one’s own habits matters. For instance:
- What way of using the body do I have?
- What habits are there?
Here the way of organizing bodily sensation learned in Phase II is of use (in the training it was studied in a session called Embodiment; on that, see “Bodily Sensation: What Is Embodiment?”). Through it, the lower body settles onto the ground and the upper body turns freely upward, making two directions, and the interior of the body comes into order (on Palintonicity, see “Basic Concepts — Bidirectionality (Palintonicity)“).
The result is that the practitioner comes to produce the maximum effect with the minimum force. Gravity can be made an ally, for example: placing the body’s weight into the hands makes it possible to work with minimum force for maximum effect.
What is strange is that when I organize my own body and face the client with the noise shut out, the client’s body becomes the guide and supplies the information that is needed — as though a room had been prepared in the mind, information comes in. Jörg in Phase III puts it this way: once the connection with the other person can be held in awareness, the answer arrives of its own accord.
By working on Less is More and on space as my tasks, what else will Phase III bring? I would like to keep writing about it in this column.
Note, August 2026
The phrase keeping the mind neutral appears in this entry. In February 2015.
It is not written there as a Rolfing term, though. It is written as what matters when listening to another person. Give the other person minimal information and prepare the time and the space in the mind for them to arrive at an answer. Let go of one’s own experiences and hand over only the minimal noticing that is needed. The phrase was carried in from the context of coaching.
On that basis, the entry asks what corresponds to it in Rolfing, and answers: the use of one’s own body. Organize the body so that it receives readily. Know one’s own habits in order to do so. When the lower body settles onto the ground and the upper body turns freely upward, two directions form and the interior of the body comes into order.
Ten years later, Neutral became the central subject of the first half of the Advanced Training. And the ways given for cultivating it were three — Shape the Hand, Finding Back Space, and connecting to the Hara. All of them are uses of the body. The state of the mind is not handled through the mind; it is settled from the side of the body. The shape of the answer matched what had been written in 2015.
The agreement of the terms is not a coincidence. Neutral in Rolfing and what is said in coaching both point to a single thing: that the practitioner, or the listener, keeps their own side empty. If it is not empty, there is no place for what happens on the other person’s side.
Something else this entry records is that facing the client with the noise shut out makes the client’s body the guide and brings in the information that is needed. Jörg expressed it as the answer arriving of its own accord once the connection with the other person can be held in awareness.
The explanation of Shape the Hand in 2025 runs like this. Not trying to do something with one’s own hand, but letting the client’s body form that hand. Receiving the body’s information through the hand, and staying with it.
What changed over the ten years was that the words arrived. In 2015 the entry says: what is strange is. What was taking place could not be explained, and only what was taking place is recorded. By 2025 it had a name, Neutral; it had procedures for cultivation; and it carried the distinction between Intention and Intentionality.
The phenomenon comes first, and the name arrives afterward. This order seems to run through the whole of the Phase III record.