1: What was troubling you before you began Rolfing (stiff shoulders, low-back pain, and so on)?
Before I started, there was nothing particularly wrong with my body, but something at the center of me never quite settled.
It was as though Mountain Pose, the simplest one of all, was the hardest. There was a period when I did yoga fairly seriously, and I got as far as Sirsasana, the headstand, and I think my trunk had grown stronger too. Even so, standing still felt somehow unsteady. So I tried a trial Rolfing session, and in that one session I could feel myself standing in balance, using the whole sole of the foot. That was the moment I decided to go ahead with Rolfing properly.
2: After the ten sessions, what was resolved, or what did you notice?
I think I have become more aware of the connection between my upper body and my lower body than before. The biggest change was where my arms sit when I run. They settle into place, and the swing comes easily. Usually, when I run any distance, my shoulders, neck, and arms start to feel heavy; but in a half marathon I ran around the seventh Rolfing session, my arms did not tire at all, and although I was slow, the run felt good. I think it was because the upper and lower body had connected that my legs and arms worked together so well.
Also, when I sat in a chair, I used to slouch the whole time and think nothing of it — which is about the worst way to sit, isn’t it. Since I started going for Rolfing, sitting that way tires me partway through, and I find myself wanting to sit up with my back long.
3: Who would you want to recommend Rolfing to?
People who have something wrong, of course, but also anyone who feels a kind of disconnection in their limbs — as if this far end and that far end were not joined to each other. And anyone who feels that their body and their mind are split apart.
I think one of the great features of Rolfing is that there is an end to it. It is not like a massage you have to keep going back to forever; because there is an end, the person receiving it takes it seriously as well.