February 2013: Bodywork and Relationships - Columbia Natural ...

proach to the treatment of pain and
dysfunction, developed by Physical
Therapist John F. Barnes.
“I had several sessions and found
lasting pain relief unlike anything I’d
ever experienced,” advises Hostler.
Unlike massage therapies focused
on improving circulation, inducing
relaxation or draining lymph fluid, the
myofascial treatment reached Hostler’s
deepest layer of fascia to free the
restrictions causing her pain. “It was
amazing that a hands-on application
of gentle, sustained pressure into areas
of restriction in the myofascial connective
tissue could begin to relieve many
years of ongoing, intense pain,” says
Hostler.
Rolfing
As a Certified (advanced) Rolfer and
Rolf Movement Practitioner, Robert
McWilliams has been able to pursue
his lifelong passion in the fields
of movement and physical fitness,
which included 25 years as a professional
dancer and 14 as a professor of
modern dance. He taught at both the
University of Oklahoma and the University
of Florida, in Gainesville.
“In the 1980s, while I was still
dancing, I had an experience with
Rolfing, developed by Ida P. Rolf
[PhD], that transformed my dancing,
increased my athletic performance
alignment, coordination, flexibility,
balance, muscle tone, expressive power
and overall sense of relaxation onstage,
as well as in daily life,” relates
McWilliams. He currently serves as an
assistant teacher at the Rolf Institute of
Structural Integration, in Boulder, CO,
where he trained.
Although McWilliams’ clients
generally see him to treat the pain and
discomfort of injuries, he says that
they frequently change their focus to
how their body is working better overall.
“This is because injuries tend to
resolve themselves after a few sessions
of deep tissue manipulation of the
myofascial system,” says McWilliams.
A specialized series of 10 sessions
works to systematically balance and
optimize both the structure (shape)
and function (movement) of the entire
body. Each session focuses on freeing
up a particular region of the body. The
effect releases old limiting patterns and
postures and restores the body’s natural
alignment and sense of integration.
“Often, as freedom of physical expression
increases, so does emotional
expression,” comments McWilliams.
Structural Integration
“While Rolfers graduate from
The Rolf Institute and attend certified
training programs in order to maintain
their trademark, and structural integrators
can attend any of 14 certified US
schools, we are all structural integrators;
our training is based on the work
of Ida Rolf,” says Diane Roth, a boardcertified
structural integrator who has
specialized in massage and bodywork
for 25 years in the Chicago area.
Roth explains that all practitioners
in this field of study combine
hands-on freeing and realigning of
fascial tissue with awareness and
movement education, in order to
structurally integrate the whole body.
Restoration of postural balance and
functional ease greatly helps the body,
which, she says, constantly labors
against the powerful force of gravity.
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