Category: “Rolfing Testimonials”
Introduction
When considering receiving Rolfing, what is most helpful for reference is “how a person in a situation similar to the reader’s own changed.”
In this Gateway article, 41 testimonials are organized from three entry points. “I want to improve a bodily complaint,” “I want to raise performance,” “I want to change from within” — it is best to begin reading from the place closest to the reader’s own purpose.
Entry Point ①: I Want to Improve a Bodily Complaint — Stiff Shoulders, Low-Back Pain, Posture
Troubled for many years by stiff shoulders or low-back pain. It repeats even after going to massage or seitai. Posture is a concern, but nothing changes whatever is tried — these are testimonials for such people.
That Rolfing is an approach not of “removing symptoms” but of “creating a bodily structure in which symptoms are less likely to arise” should come across from these testimonials.
Ms. Yasuko Fukuda (company employee)
“Low-back pain that persistently troubles me. Stiff shoulders and a stiff neck so chronic I no longer notice them. Even trying to straighten my posture, a vague sense that something somewhere is misaligned won’t go away.”
After completing the ten sessions, she reported, “Above all, I can stand up straight with ease. The force in my body has released, in a good way.” What changed was not the conscious “power to correct,” but “a body that organizes naturally even when force is released.”
→ Ms. Yasuko Fukuda’s Ten-Session Testimonial
Mr. Kouki Yamada (physical therapist)
What he “understood with his head” as a specialist in the body appeared, through the sessions, as changes in the body. After completing the ten sessions, his weight decreased by 10 kg, low-back pain and knee pain almost disappeared, and insomnia also cleared.
→ Mr. Kouki Yamada’s Ten-Session Testimonial
Ms. Sachiko Aimoto (freelance announcer)
After receiving Rolf Movement sessions, the neck pain and stiff shoulders decreased dramatically right after finishing. Composite changes were reported: “I came to understand the movements of yoga and Pilates well,” “the resonance of my voice is different,” “my thinking became clear.”
→ Ms. Sachiko Aimoto’s Testimonial ①
Ms. SH (50s, female, company employee)
“After I completed the 10 sessions, I found myself walking in a more grounded way.”
Entry Point ②: I Want to Raise Performance — Yoga, Voice, Work, Physical Ability
I want to raise performance in yoga or sports. I want to raise my voice and expressive power. I want to organize work performance from the body — these are the testimonials of such people.
Rolfing has continued to be chosen by professional performers. When the quality of the body’s movement changes, it ripples out to the performance of expression, voice, and thought.
Ms. Mayumi Kondo (yoga instructor)
“It connects to an enjoyable exploration of the body’s possibilities.”
A testimonial of a person who, in the position of teaching yoga, chose Rolfing as an entry point for continuing to face her own body deeply.
→ Ms. Mayumi Kondo’s Testimonial
Ms. Ayako Kakizaki (company employee, yoga instructor)
“I would like to recommend Rolfing to those who want to take a pleasant walk (gait).”
Simultaneously with the improvement of low-back pain, she reported that “in linkage with the inner part, I became able to grasp for myself the congestion and stagnation within the body.” It is a record of experiencing the integration of body and inner life as a practitioner of yoga.
→ Ms. Ayako Kakizaki’s Ten-Session Testimonial
Mr. TH (40s, male, voice actor)
“The effect was immediate. The axis of my body became firm, and my way of thinking could become positive too!”
A testimonial, from a profession that uses the “bodily instrument” of the voice, reporting the changes that Rolfing gave to the quality of the voice, expressive power, and the mental side.
Mr. Yu Suzuki (pharmacist)
At the third session, a bodily sense arose that “it feels as if I’ve grown taller.” A testimonial recording in detail the change in which the curve of the spine became organized and the front-back balance improved.
→ Mr. Tasuku Suzuki’s Testimonial ③ (Session 3)
Entry Point ③: I Want to Change from Within — Emotion, Thought, Self-Transformation
“I understand it in my head, and yet I cannot change,” “my own axis is not settled,” “the ups and downs of emotion are severe” — these are the testimonials of people who feel it as an inner problem rather than a bodily one, but who sense possibility in an approach from the body.
When the body becomes organized, the patterns of emotion, thought, and the autonomic nervous system also change. This is what the testimonials that Rolfing has built up over more than ten years show.
Ms. AK (30s, female, company employee)
“Through the body, I came to understand my axis.”
Mr. Keisuke Sekita (company employee)
“It brings the realization that body and mind link, and a firm foundation is built within the self.”
→ Mr. Keisuke Sekita’s Testimonial
Ms. TU (30s, female, freelance announcer)
“By the body becoming organized, perhaps thought is organized — now, what I need has become clear.”
For those who, after reading the testimonials, want to know “why such changes occur,” the following articles are helpful.
- What Is Rolfing’s Ten-Series? — Three Phases in Which the Body Changes, and the Flow of Each Session
- Why Shoulder Pain and Low-Back Pain Are Not Healed by Massage? — The Science of Fascia, Posture, and Gravity
- Why Do Emotions Stay in the Body? ──Understanding Rolfing Through the Body’s Memory — The Science of Fascia, the Autonomic Nervous System, and Trauma
- Why a “Comfortable Posture” Exists — From the Perspective of Gravity, Fascia, and Rolfing
What handles more deeply the viewpoint that a change in the body connects to a change in thought, emotion, and recognition is Mind and Bodywork Lab.
→ Mind and Bodywork Lab: How to Navigate This Site (in Japanese)
It is possible to begin by confirming, in a trial session, what is happening in the body.
→ Applying for a Trial Session
For Those Who, Having Read the Testimonials, Want to Go Deeper
When, after completing the ten sessions, there is a feeling that “there is still a layer that has not been reached” — an Advanced Rolfer session aims to reach that layer. Three differences from the Basic are explained.
For those considering becoming a Rolfer — the whole picture, from the differences among certifying bodies to Basic and Advanced certification, is explained.
Hidefumi Otsuka (Ph.D.) | Certified Advanced Rolfer™ / Rolf Movement Practitioner
Completed a doctoral program at the Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo. After a career in the pharmaceutical industry, has offered Rolfing® sessions in Shibuya since 2015. Works under the theme of “the integration of thought, emotion, and body.”