Is It Painful?
This bodywork should not be painful if there is good communication between the practitioner and the client. It used to be considered painful when it had been first in the early development stages late in the 1960s? Over the years it was discovered how to open restricted areas to find lost places of freedom without forcing the work to be excruciatingly painful. The body has to be opened up and re aligned gradually, it happens in layers, like the peeling of the onion. Which is part of why there are 10 sessions.
According to the founder, “You start at the outside and work in.” Ida P. Rolf
“you don’t have to force things. There’s a steadiness, a gradual straightening that organizes the body. “ – Dr Ida P. Rolf
“Go around the problem; get the system sufficiently resilient so that it is able to change, and it will change. It doesn't have to be forced. It’s that forcing that you have to avoid at all cost.” -- Ida Rolf
You are in control of your sessions. Communication is what can make these sessions effects highly effective and pleasurable.
When you communicate your level of comfort, the experience can be very deep, profound and offer extremely satisfying results!
Why 10 Sessions?
Why do the 10 sessions and why not just work on the same problem and same areas every session like you get in a massage?
Answer: When you go through The Original Ten Series as taught by Dr. Ida P. Rolf you are realigning your posture in gravity. When the posture is in proper alignment, nerve impingements can be reduced and freed when you have proper connective tissue function in correct relationship to gravity. This is why The Ten Series as Taught by Ida P. Rolf addresses the cause of pain and dysfunction and not just the symptom like the goals in massage.
The Ten Series is like baking a cake. You must follow the recipe. The 10 series recipe was created from osteopathy, Alexander technique, and yoga by Ida P. Rolf. Certain ingredients have to be added in a specific order or the cake won’t turn out right.
Dr. Ida P. Rolf puts it best when she said, “To me, the most important thing is not the specific”… “[Structural Integration] hour; it’s the progression from hour to hour. It’s the way you prepare in the second hour for the third hour so that you can get the results of the third hour.” -- Ida P. Rolf
Ida P. Rolf “You can’t do ten hours in one hour. You’ve got to build up. You’ve got to build up the tone of the muscles. -- Ida P. Rolf
Time between each session should be 1 time a week or as little as once monthly. If you fall much past once a month during the 10 series our bodies tend to go back into old habits before the new alignment habits are reeducated into the nervous system.
