Six weeks remain of the Rolfing training. Eight months have passed since it began last August. Attendance at a one-week Supervision Workshop in Munich in June 2016 is required, but on completing the Phase III training on March 25, 2015, the qualification of certified Rolfer is granted, and from that point clients can be taken on and Rolfing work can be offered. Since the occasion presents itself, I would like to write about how the certified Rolfer qualification can be obtained in Munich, Germany, and about the character of that training.
It was through meeting Akinori Ito and receiving sessions from him that the wish arose to obtain the qualification to do this work (on how that came about, see “How I Found Rolfing — Searching for a Way to Deepen the Postures” and “After Completing the Ten Sessions“).
What does obtaining the Rolfer qualification involve? The schedule appears on the website of The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (RISI), and from there it was a matter of matching it against my own calendar. Two options presented themselves: Colorado in the United States, where Rolfing originated, and Munich in Germany. Where could it be completed soonest? On that basis, the decision was to take the training in Munich.
The headquarters of the European Rolfing Association is in Munich. An inquiry brought a reply straight away — as will come up later, the office is remarkably responsive. To take part in the training for the Rolfer qualification, documents and preparatory assignments turned out to be required.。
Some qualification and experience in massage work is also required. As hands-on experience I wrote that I taught yoga, held a yoga teaching qualification, and had taught a number of people; that was accepted, and the matter passed without trouble. Even so, since the occasion was there, I decided to take a teaching qualification in Thai massage, and under a teacher in Japan completed Levels 1 and 2 (see “Completing ITM Thai Massage Level 1 — A First Bodywork Skill” and “Completing ITM Thai Massage Level 2 — On Offering Something Good“).
The preparatory assignments also included an anatomy task (written questions testing the understanding of anatomy), the motivation and reasons for taking the Rolfing training, and receiving Rolfing sessions — the Ten Series (received from December 2013 to March 2014) and five movement sessions (to be received during July 2014). See “Phase 1 (1) — Preparing for the Training“.
The documents were submitted and then revised. Notice of acceptance came at the end of June 2014. The training has since proceeded on the following schedule (the costs are given for reference).
August 4 – August 23, 2014, the first block (Phase I) (see “Training Phase I — On Letting Go, and the First Day“) — completed (cost: 2,270 EUR plus a registration fee of 85 EUR)
October 6 – November 26, 2014, the second block (Phase II) (see “The Training Restarts“) — completed (cost: 6,370 EUR)
February 2 – March 25, 2015, the third block (Phase III) (see “Before the Start, and the Acceptance of the Mid Term Paper“) — in progress (cost: 4,690 EUR)
A feature of the European training is that it comes in two formats: an intensive format carried out over eight or nine months, and a modular format spread across two and a half years. The intensive is held in Munich in English; the modular is held in the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and elsewhere, in the local language of each. Being able to acquire the work while continuing to work, as the modular allows, strikes me as enviable.
Another feature is that attendance at a week-long follow-up training a year later — the Supervision Workshop — is required. In my case that means:
June 21 – June 26, 2016, Supervision Workshop (cost: 1,200 EUR)
I have not taken the training in Colorado, but putting together what I have heard from Kaori Nakamura and Takami Kamata, both working as Rolfers in Germany, and from people who took the training in the United States:
In Munich, and in Europe generally, the training values not only anatomy and manual technique but also what is felt through the senses. In the United States, anatomy is drilled hard, and from Phase I onward outside clients are brought in so that the basic techniques can be practiced and experience accumulated. Fifty hours of practice are required between Phase I and Phase II — no such assignment exists in Munich.
So I was told (the details are set down in “Foundation and Sensation“).
And what is most interesting is that taking the training in Munich, unlike in the United States, means being together with people from a range of countries, so that cultural diversity becomes something that can be understood. For most participants English is a second language, and the speaking goes very slowly. What I can say from having lived in the United States is that Americans speak fast. And since many people speak up, the timing for saying something oneself is easily missed.
By contrast, the impression of the training received in Germany is that each person’s words are listened to carefully and the class proceeds on the assumption that English may not be available, so that for a Japanese person the environment is an easy one in which to train. Among the people I know of alone, five have obtained the Rolfer qualification in Munich.
Last of all, the office is remarkably quick to respond on matters of accommodation and on small questions. A list was sent for places to live, and inquiries quickly turned up lodgings at a low price (on life in Germany, see “The Practical Side of ERA (European Rolfing Association) Training in Munich“).
Taking it in Boulder in the United States is of course one option, but for anyone who would like to learn something of European history, or to know another culture, while studying as a Rolfer, studying in Munich is something I would warmly recommend.
Note, August 2026
This piece differs in character from the others in the series. It records not the movements of the mind at the time but a system and its costs. When it was written, it was meant as practical information for anyone who might take the same road. Eleven years on, it has come to mean something else. This system no longer exists.
As of August 2026, the education path of the European Rolfing Association is not three blocks of Phase I, II, and III. It has been rebuilt as a cumulative sequence from Level 1 to Level 4.
| 2014–2015 (at the time of this piece) | August 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Three phases: I / II / III | Cumulative, Levels 1–4 |
| Character of the entry point | Open only to those who passed the application, the review, and the preparatory assignments | Level 1 asks for no prior experience and is open to anyone |
| First stage | Phase I (Aug 4–22, 2014), 2,270 EUR | Level 1 Myofascial Foundation Movement, Anatomy, Touch — 9 days each, 5,580 EUR |
| Second stage | Phase II (Oct 6 – Nov 26, 2014), 6,370 EUR | Level 2 Structural Fascial Bodywork 34 days, 8,000 EUR |
| Third stage | Phase III (Feb 2 – Mar 25, 2015), 4,690 EUR certification here | Level 3 Rolfing Structural Integration 34 days, 8,600 EUR — certification here |
| Subtotal | 13,330 EUR | 22,180 EUR (about 1.66×) |
| Follow-up | Supervision Workshop, one week, required 1,200 EUR | Discontinued |
| Mentoring | 5 sessions | 2 sessions (a Level 2 requirement) |
| Receiving the Ten Series | Pre-application assignment | A Level 1 requirement |
| Movement sessions | 5, pre-application assignment | 3, a Level 2 requirement |
| Rolf Movement | Taken separately after the basic training | Same |
| Advanced | 24 days | Level 4, same 24 days |
What changed most is neither the cost nor the number of days. It is the character of the entry point.
The first half of this piece is given over to the application process: the documents, a qualification and experience in massage work, a written assignment in anatomy, a statement of motivation and reasons, completion of a Ten Series, and five movement sessions. Only those who passed the review entered the Phase I classroom.
Today the first stage, Level 1 Myofascial Foundation, is an open introductory course that asks for no prior experience. It replaces the former Spectrum and Phase 1 Structural Integration courses, and its audience is not limited to those intending to become Rolfers. The listing names manual therapists, osteopaths, Pilates and yoga instructors, singers, dancers, and actors, and people who simply want to try myofascial bodywork for their own wellbeing. Attending counts toward the credits needed to move on to Level 2.
The gate has moved from the front to the back. It used to stand before the door; now it stands at the step between levels.
The three pillars remain Touch, Movement, and Anatomy. Phase I in 2014 was built from the same three. The frame has held, and only the width of the entrance has changed.
The change reaches into what this piece records about my own conduct. Teaching experience in yoga was submitted as hands-on experience and was accepted, and even so, since the occasion was there, I went on to take Levels 1 and 2 of the Thai massage instructor training. Without the requirement, those two courses would not have been taken, and the two pieces written about Thai massage would not exist. A detour taken as preparation became part of the record.
Of what the system has lost, the largest is the Supervision Workshop.
This piece names it as a strength of the European system: a week back in Munich a year later, required. Certification, then a stretch of actual work with clients, then a return. It was designed so that the learning came back around after the floor. That slot no longer exists.
A second change: mentoring sessions have gone from five to two.
Between December 2014 and September 2016 I received mentoring from five different Rolfers. Keith Graham and Alan Richardson in the UK, and, on the fourth occasion, Hubert Godard himself in Paris. Each of the five said different things and had different hands. That record later became five pieces on this blog.
Meeting five people or meeting two changes how many lineages can be touched. The odds of landing on someone at the source, as Godard was, drop as well.
What had been preparatory assignments, meanwhile, has moved inside the curriculum. Completing a Ten Series was a condition to be met before applying; it is now a Level 1 requirement. Movement sessions were five, to be arranged on one’s own beforehand; they are now three, and a Level 2 requirement. They are no longer things to be finished in preparation, but part of the learning itself.
The Rolf Movement training itself, however, was and remains a course separate from the basic training. It runs thirty days across three parts, and I took it between July 2017 and December 2019. That has not changed.
There are places where what was written as a plan did not hold.
The Supervision Workshop is given as June 21–26, 2016; the one I actually attended ran December 13–18 of that year. Half a year off. Written mid-training, the piece records the dates as announced at the time.
The organization has also renamed itself. What this piece calls the European Rolfing Association now goes by the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute® Europe.
Finally, on the reason for choosing.
Two options presented themselves, Colorado and Munich, and the basis for choosing Munich was where it could be completed soonest. The motive was speed.
What came of it was not speed. A classroom where English was a second language for most, where the speaking went slowly, where each person’s words were listened to. Eight months spent there became the ground for the work that followed. That the next piece in this series is titled “What Becomes Clear from Learning Alongside People Whose First Language Is Not English” is itself the answer.
The basis on which something is chosen and what is received from having chosen it are not necessarily the same.
The Rolfing learning came round in full with certification as a Rolfer in March 2015, as a Rolf Movement Practitioner in December 2019, and as an Advanced Rolfer in July 2025. Eleven years. At the time of writing this piece, how many stages lay ahead was not something I knew.