When taking the Rolfing training, psychological theory does not come up all that much. This is because the view is that by bringing the body into order, the mind comes into order too, and because the focus is on something with substance (the body) rather than something without substance (the mind).
Even so, the Rolfing training does touch a little on trauma. This is because, once the deep sessions are entered, a slight change in the deep layer can cause things the person does not want known, or suppressed emotions, to well up. Of course, this is not a matter of receiving specialized training — it is purely from the standpoint of what kinds of ideas exist.
Peter Levine’s Waking the Tiger – Healing Trauma is one of the books on the Rolfing training’s assigned-reading list. According to that book, when animals encounter an enemy, they take one of two means — to fight (Fight) or to flee (flight) — but when they can take neither, they are known to take a third means: to freeze (Freeze). On YouTube there is footage of a bear, shot with a rifle by a human, discharging the energy produced by that shock — the freeze response (MUST SEE: How to Discharge Trauma: Trauma Release Seen For the First Time).
Trauma refers to a state of being held captive for a long time by a psychological wound, or of carrying a psychologically negative effect. Ordinarily, trauma tends to be approached by focusing on “what caused it.” Levine, however, held that it is not the causal incident that is the problem, but rather that it is brought about by the shock energy that arose as a result remaining within the body in an incomplete form. And, similarly to animals, he has shown — through actually treating a number of patients — that trauma is fully healed only by going through a process of releasing all of that energy. What Levine emphasizes is that resolving trauma means evoking the bodily sensation felt within the person’s body and valuing that perspective.
As one goes into the deep layer, there is a possibility that such unresolved trauma lies hidden. For example, in this training, after entering the deep sessions, I encountered a scene in which a force that could not easily be let go lay deep within, and emotions welled up upon letting it go. However deep the emotion, what matters is the standpoint of bringing the body into order and valuing bodily sensation. What I learn from Rolfing, I think, is that with psychological matters, a solution found by the person themselves comes into view by bringing the body into order. That said, in some cases there may be things that cannot be resolved. Rolfing is not all-powerful either, so I feel it is important to consider this technique while keeping that point in mind.
I have discussed body and mind from the standpoint of trauma. I would like to touch on this theme again at some point in this column.