Rolfing® Structural Integration:
The Ten Series™
After decades of trial and error and never ending research in biochemistry, osteopathy, and human physiology, Dr. Ida Rolf formulated a plan that best fit the process we now know as Rolfing® Structural Integration. The Ten Series™ is the deliberate, systematized process that addresses the entire fascial network as it exists in all parts of the body. It gives opportunity to address the entire body from head to toe thereby relieving strain patterns throughout the entire fascial network. This expansive approach allows for treatment of not just the body, but the person as a whole.
Dr. Rolf described The Ten Series™ as one session broken into ten hours of work. The 10 sessions would provide the opportunity for change, but it wasn't until after the 10 hours that the body would be able to find strength, balance, and resiliency in gravity to begin healing itself. Engaging in a series of 10 sessions provides the best possibility for achieving desired outcomes because we address the whole person in how they inhabit their body and not just the local area where pain and dysfunction manifest.
Common outcomes of The Ten Series™ are: reduced pain, increased energy, enhanced performance, more fluid movement, greater body awareness, improved posture, reduced stress & tension, more effortless strength, general greater sense of ease.
“In Structural Integration, we expect to give a cycle of 10 sessions. There is a reason for this. We are not dealing with local problems. We are not dealing with the kind of thing that you can say, ‘Well, I fixed that, that’s all.’ We are dealing with an intent to make a body more secure, more adequate within the field of gravity. This requires that muscles be balanced, and need to be balanced around a vertical line. And when I talk about balancing muscles, I’m talking about balancing the right side against the left side. About balancing the front of the body against the back of the body and, finally, about balancing the innermost muscles against the outermost, the inside against the outside, this is the most important of these balances, and we start from the outside working in, and it takes ten hours before we can get to the place where we can really balance the outside against the inside.”
Sessions 1-3: The "sleeve" sessions
In beginning the process of The Ten Series™, we look to decompress the body and find space and depth to the layers. This is all in preparation of the "core" sessions ahead. Session 1 seeks to open the breath by releasing the associative structures of the upper torso as well as the pelvic girdle. Session 2 will focus on finding new support for the whole structure through the feet and lower legs. Session 3 works to open and give depth to the body by working the lateral line from knee to ear.
sessions 4-7: The "core" sessions
The "core" sessions continue the process by differentiating deeper structures of the body in order to release deeply held patterns and get things moving more appropriately. Session 4 focuses on the pelvic floor and midline of the body, a key element in finding effortless support of the structure above. In session 5, we focus on the lower torso and differentiating it from the legs and pelvis. Session 6 covers the entire posterior chain with the purpose of freeing the sacrum, the "last vertebrae" and "keystone of the pelvis." Session 7 focuses on the neck and cranium exclusively. After differentiating the entire structure from the feet to the shoulders and changing how these things relate, we must balance the head and how it now rests on a different structure.
sessions 8-10: The "integration" sessions
This is where we tie things together and prepare for closure to the process. We have spent the last seven sessions over a period of weeks to differentiating many structures of the body; now we have to put them back together and bring a final state of balance to the whole system. These sessions focus on finding balance in the shoulder and pelvic girdles and work to connect the body so that everything may work together and the client can take their new body into their world.