"As people come to Rolfers with their aches and their pains, we can see where their bodies are literally offering blocks to the gravitational forces. The gravitational force is immense and their resistance isn't much good except to close the body down, compress it. Sometimes the block has been put into the physical picture by a physical trauma. This block is in the actual structure, in the flesh of the body.  Then there is the kind of block that is basically emotional."
-Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.

Who is Ida P. Rolf?


Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf born in 1896, was a commended U.S. scientist and a pioneer in the practice of alternative medicine. After graduating from Barnard College in 1916, her education continued at Columbia University where she earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1920. While in pursuit of her Ph.D., Ida Rolf was offered a rare opportunity to work at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City where she eventually gained the position of associate researcher in organic chemistry. She also studied mathematics and atomic physics at Swiss Technical University in Zurich Switzerland, amplified with chiropractic, homeopathy, philosophy, yoga, and osteopathy studies, no small feat for a woman at the time. In the 1930's she began seeking answers to family health problems. Unable to find answers with the medical knowledge then, she turned to her studies of complentary, alternative, and integrative medicine. It was during this time Dr. Rolf discovered something important about the human body when she was carrying out scientific research. Her discovery was that, the same connective tissue network which accommodates and links the muscle system in a healthy state, is possible to be used again in reshaping the muscle system while in the condition of disorderliness. Every organ and muscle in the body is enclosed in fascia (connective tissue that surrounds the muscle). This networked system forms an enormous three-dimensional web that serves as an essential support and protection for the whole body. By hands-on manipulation of this fascial web, she was able to achieve great changes in the way the body shaped and moved.

This discovery about the importance of the fascial system has totally changed the thought about the human body. The functions of fascia in the body are: supporting of the muscles, holding of the muscles and bones in place, and it also supports any pattern of posture and movement taken by the body. Apart from the roles just mentioned, the fascial system also supports a balanced posture and different movement patterns, while it can also pay for constant strain and any other abnormalities through its shortening and tightening mechanism. The possibility of restoring the fascia web back to health is of great advantage. This is what made it possible for Dr. Rolf to develop Structural Integration (SI) which later was nicknamed after Dr. Rolf with little modification as Rolfing®.