Minneapolis Rolfing Center
Welcome to the Minneapolis Rolfing Center! My name is Mark, and I’ve been Rolfing in South Minneapolis since 1997.
What is Rolfing Structural Integration?
Rolfing Structural Integration is the original, classic system of therapeutic, structural bodywork designed to bring greater openness, alignment, fluidity, spaciousness, organization, and integration to your body. Rolfing literally changes your shape—heads or shoulders that are too far forward, soften back; exaggerated spinal curves ease; bodies get longer; rotations, imbalances or torsion patterns in joints get released. You can often see these changes in before-and-after photos.
As a Rolfer, I accomplish these kinds of goals by working carefully and mindfully with your fascia. Fascia is the connective tissue that weaves throughout your body in a gorgeous webwork, wrapping all of your muscles (as well as your organs, glands, and bones).
Through chronic misuse, acute traumas, poor diet, and unconscious emotional armoring, fascia can get dysfunctional—short, thick, tight, tough, stuck, or hard. The facial sheets that wrap the muscles and which are supposed to slide easily over and under each other, can get "gluey," making our movement less fluid and graceful.
Rolfers are trained to restore optimal function to your fascia in ways that integrate, balance, and align you in gravity.
Benefits of Rolfing
People come to me primarily for one (or any combination of) these three goals:
1) To get rid of pain
The majority of people come to me for relief from hip, knee, shoulder, or other joint pain—especially back and neck pain. Other musculoskeletal complaints that bring people to my office include chronic muscular pain (hamstring, quads, calf), plantar fasciitis, and painful and/or restrictive scar tissue from surgeries or acute traumas. As a Rolfer, I have a good track record with all of these issues.
2) For psychological growth
Deepening our embodiment—our ability to live in our bodies—is a beautiful way to soften out of our busy thinking brains and rest in the quiet richness of the present moment.
Additionally, our emotional patterns are held and expressed in our bodies. As the cliché goes, “our issues are in our tissues.” Psycho-spiritual constriction and contraction always manifests as bodily constriction and contraction. And when my hands melt these somatic armorings, it can help to melt the psychological constriction and contraction. Because of this, for people engaged in personal growth, my work can be a valuable support.
3) For overall health, well-being, and injury prevention
People tend to simply feel much better when they receive Rolfing. Their breathing is freer; their bodies feel more open, long, and spacious; they move more easily. They’re more relaxed. Most people report having more energy. Their posture is more effortlessly aligned and upright. Clients frequently report the “trademark” Rolfing experience of feeling more grounded yet, simultaneously, much lighter.
Many people come to me for injury prevention. This is because having joints that are less restricted, compressed, and imbalanced tends to be preventative of chronic joint issues and injuries. Rolfing makes bodies more pliant and pliant bodies flex like a willow tree in the wind. Brittle bodies snap. Hence, a lot of serious tennis players, golfers, cyclists, and other types of athletes view me as “their secret weapon” for optimal athletic ability, resilience, and injury prevention. (This is why so many NFL and NBA players have for decades used Rolfing.)
How people receive Rolfing
In the natural healing space, Rolfing originally “came to fame” back in the 1970s for “the 10 Series.” The 10 Series is a systematic process designed to create structural integration, alignment, balance, harmony, and freedom throughout your entire body, head to toe. As per the name, it does this over the course of 10 sessions, with each session ideally spaced one to two weeks apart.
However, not everyone chooses to receive the 10 Series. Quite a few people simply receive “Targeted Work,” with each session uniquely tailored to whatever the client wishes.
Conversely, some people start with Targeted Work and then, at some point, decide to jump into the 10 Series. Others start with the 10 Series and then continue the journey of integration and somatic embodiment with ongoing Targeted Work. Others just get the 10 Series and then they’re done. Still others have come to me for decades and have never chosen to do the 10 Series.
In short, how you receive this beautiful work—and how much of it you receive, and with what frequency—is entirely up to you (although never more than one session per week).
My philosophy as a Rolfer
My spiritual practice is the wellspring of my life, so that affects how I think about my Rolfing practice. Even if we’re chatting during a session (which some clients choose to engage in and others do not—either way is fine), I am always relating to the essential radiant nature and heart intelligence of your body-mind, and working to allow more and more of that innate goodness and health to unfold.
In other words, I see my work, not as “fixing things,” or “creating” well-being, but as supporting my client’s body-mind to soften the blockages to their inherent well-being. It is a wonderful and sacred work.
Get started
Please feel warmly invited to call, email, or text to discuss how Rolfing may meet your needs—or, if you already know you’d like to try a session, to get you scheduled in. My office is in South Minneapolis. Sessions are 60 minutes and cost $165. I accept cash, Venmo, or check.
(612)872-6055
About me
In addition to being a Rolfer since 1997, I am a lifelong spiritual practitioner, a husband to my wife of 30 years, an obsessive writer, a healthy eating coach (and all-around health geek), and a lover of yoga and kettlebells.
I also have a BA in holistic health from the University of Minnesota. In the past, I was a martial arts instructor for 30 years (Kali, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and others) and taught PE and creative writing at a Waldorf school for 17 years.