The final day of Module 2 in Source Point Therapy (SPT) arrived on November 23, 2015 (on days one and two, see “Concrete Ways of Accessing the Blueprint, and How a Body Changes” and “How the Training Runs, and What Techniques There Are“). The morning covered two techniques, the Midline and the Chakra Point, and in the afternoon we practiced full sessions using what we had learned.
While discussing how to approach SPT, the conversation turned to clients. When receiving work, a client inevitably becomes preoccupied with symptoms — stiff shoulders, allergies, lower back pain, a stiff neck — and looks there for the problem to be solved. Hiro described this as being pulled by the symptom.
Because the mind is working on what to do about it, energy pours into that place. And so, before the body can bring its own healing capacity to bear, the very possibility of change is constrained.
SPT uses techniques such as the Diamond Point and the Stick Figure. Their significance lies in providing a marker for what counts as healthy information for the body. Through that marker, what healthy and correct movement is becomes clear. And because of that, when movement goes wrong, it can return to what is right.
In Rolfing, you might say that bringing awareness to what was unconscious rewrites the body map. In SPT, perhaps something similar is being done by way of the marker.
As for what SPT is ultimately aiming at, in Hiro’s words, it is a state in which physical sensation fades away. He said it could be thought of as a condition of not being pulled by symptoms or sensations, with the body’s energy flowing. That particular phrase did not quite land with me.
The two techniques on the third day were the Midline and the Chakra Point.
For the Midline, you trace along the body the line joining the Transformation Point at the crown to the Grounding Point below the feet. It is described as the center of the body’s energetic structure, and is useful in combination with the Stick Figure. When I asked how to combine it with Rolfing,
I was told that holding an awareness of the Midline and the Stick Figure while working through each Rolfing session makes the session move efficiently. That struck me as usable, and I want to bring it into my own work.
For the Chakra Point, you touch the seven chakras lightly with two fingers, from top to bottom. It is said to strengthen the Midline and to help order the body’s energetic center. Like the Guardian Point, this looks usable for settling posture in meditation as well.
In the afternoon we did full sessions with the techniques from Modules 1 and 2. Beforehand, contraindications came up. Apart from not using the Navel Point with pregnant women, there are essentially none. On clients with cancer or who are HIV positive, Hiro shared the experience of Bob Schrei, one of the founders: with cancer, the scan can differ from that of a healthy person, and more can show up.
We also discussed how to combine SPT techniques into a single session. The Diamond Point, Entry Point, and primary blockage from Module 1 take up roughly sixty percent of the time. If something surfaces at the primary blockage, you use the techniques from Module 2 — the Stick Figure or the Midline. You then close with the Guardian Point, the Sacral Hold, and either the Crescent Moon or the Diamond Point.
In a Rolfing session, you work from the Diamond Point through to the primary blockage, then carry out the session’s own work while holding an awareness of the Stick Figure and the Midline, and close with the Diamond Point.
This trip ran four days, including sightseeing in Kyoto. I was able to learn SPT more deeply than in Module 1. Once a client has completed the Rolfing Ten Series, SPT is very useful for maintenance, so I want to use it actively when the occasion arises.
Most of the technique ends with Module 2. I have learned what there is to learn, and I want to move to practice. I am due to take Module 3 in April next year, and what awaits from here is the chance to deepen what I have. SPT deepens through practice, they say. I want to make each day count between now and April.
Note, August 2026
Recorded here is a phrase of Hiro’s: being pulled by the symptom.
When receiving work, a client inevitably becomes preoccupied with symptoms — stiff shoulders, lower back pain, a stiff neck — and looks there for the problem to be solved. Because the mind is working on what to do about it, energy pours into that place. And so, before the body can bring its own healing capacity to bear, the possibility of change is constrained.
At the time, I wrote this down as something about the client’s side. How the person receiving is holding themselves.
The same thing was true of the practitioner
Ten years later, in the Advanced Training, Ray McCall named the practitioner’s distance Kind Indifference. Not getting caught up in the client’s experience. And, at the same time, watching over them with deep interest. Not over-involved, but not indifferent either.
The osteopath Jim Jealous was quoted as well: the client’s process is none of our business; observe, but do not become part of the story (see “Journey to Becoming an Advanced Rolfer — A Summary of the Road to Certification“).
Do not get pulled. Only this time it was the practitioner who was not to be pulled.
The structure is the same. When attention gathers at the single point of a symptom, energy pours in there, and where it pours in, the room for change narrows. On the client’s side that means a constraint arriving before the healing capacity can work. On the practitioner’s side it means the field itself becomes narrow.
In November 2015 I was seeing only one side of this. I wrote that clients get pulled by their symptoms. I did not write anything about the possibility of my getting pulled.
What to put in place instead
Half of the answer is in this piece too. The significance of the SPT techniques, it says, lies in providing a marker for what counts as healthy information for the body. You make a place for attention to rest — on wholeness rather than on the symptom.
What I received ten years later was a way of making that place inside myself. Shaping the hand. Sensing the space behind. Connecting with the Hara. Rather than setting a marker outside, the practitioner settles where they themselves are.
For the same problem, there is an answer that puts the standard outside and an answer that puts the axis inside. I do not think it is one or the other.