massage therapy journal

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“We take before and after photos, and people actually look better six months after completing a series than they do when they first complete it—so the work continues to work long after it’s been done,” says Michael Polon, a Rolfing instructor at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado.

Although structural integration clients may require periodic tune-ups after completion, they don’t usually need to go through the entire series again, unless they suffer an injury.

Rolfing and massage

“While in massage school, I took a friend’s suggestion and received 10 sessions from a Rolfer. The process changed my life, although I didn’t completely understand what was happening to me at the time,” says Jeannie Kelley, LMT and certified advanced structural integration practitioner, who practices at Island Soma Therapy in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. “All I knew was that my psycho-emotional world was being rocked via the body, and I was hooked.”

This initial experience eventually led Kelley to pursue certification in structural integration. This is how it happens for many structural integrators, whether they come from a massage therapy background or not—they experience the effects and benefits for themselves, and they want to know more.

“I was already interested in deep tissue massage, but what impressed me the most about structural integration was how it dramatically took everything to an entirely new level of educational, experiential therapy,” says Kelley. “I was blown away with a curious fascination and it was just a matter of time before I got around to taking the training myself.”

Many massage therapists seek deeper meaning and solutions to the problems they encounter in their practices. They may feel they’ve hit a wall in their abilities to solve their clients’ problems, and they often find that structural integration holds some answers for them.

“There just came a point when I was frustrated that I saw problems in clients but I couldn’t help them because I didn’t have the tools,” says Libby Eason, a certified advanced Rolfer and Rolf movement practitioner based in Atlanta, Georgia, who practiced massage therapy for six years before pursuing structural integration. Eason also teaches at the Rolf Institute and serves on the board of directors of the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI).

“The feedback I receive from folks who come into Rolfing training is they get context for the issues they are working to solve in their massage clients,” says Polon, who teaches in the school’s program designed for students with massage therapy experience. His classes examine the ways the human body relates to itself and how compensatory strain patterns develop throughout the body.

Massage therapists also have the advantage of general experience in bodywork when they seek structural integration training. They already know how to touch and how to develop and maintain professional relationships with clients. They are familiar with anatomy and often have built a practice of clients that will be eager to try structural integration from familiar hands. From there, the hardest part may be simply jumping in and learning the new skills.

“Letting go of what you know well, what you do well and what you like well [in order] to learn something new is hard,” says Eason. “It’s like stepping into the unknown and that creates some anxiety, just like anything new.”

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