Minneapolis Rolfing Center
Welcome to the Minneapolis Rolfing Center! My name is Mark, and I’ve been Rolfing in South Minneapolis since 1997. My office is located in a very quiet residential neighborhood with easy, effortless parking (and it’s just three blocks from beautiful Lake Harriet!).
Why get Rolfing?
People come to me for three things:
1) To get rid of pain
Most people come to me for relief from pain—hip, knee, shoulder, or other joint pain. Especially back and neck pain. Rolfing resolves pain by:
· creating space and balance in compressed joints and throughout your body
· aligning the major segments of your body
· unwinding twists and torsion patterns in your structure
Other musculoskeletal complaints that bring people to my office include:
* chronic soft-tissue pain (hamstrings, quads, calf)
* plantar fasciitis, and,
* painful and/or restrictive scar tissue from surgeries or acute traumas.
2) For psychological growth
Deepening our ability to live in our bodies is a beautiful way to soften out of our busy thinking brains and rest in the richness of the present moment. People often report that Rolfing relaxes and integrates mind and body, for fuller presence and aliveness.
Psycho-spiritual contraction always manifests as bodily contraction. And when my hands melt these somatic armorings, it can help to melt the psychological contraction. Hence, my work can be a valuable support for people engaged in personal growth.
3) For overall health, wellbeing, and injury prevention
People also love this work because it simply makes them feel amazing—spacious, open, relaxed, graceful, and easy in their bodies. Their postures are more aligned , lengthened, and upright.
· Their breathing is freer and deeper
· Their bodies feel more open, long, and spacious
· They move more easily, fluidly, gracefully
· They’re more relaxed
· Most people report having more energy and vitality
· Since their bodies are more freed from restrictions, they experience increased circulation, energy flow and range of motion
· Clients frequently report the “trademark” Rolfing experience of feeling more grounded yet, simultaneously, lighter; a sense of effortless lift and uprightness
And yes, Rolfing can be great for injury prevention, because having joints that are less restricted, compressed, torqued, and imbalanced tends to prevent joint issues and injuries. Rolfing makes bodies more pliant, and pliant bodies flex like a willow tree in the wind. Brittle bodies snap. That’s why a lot of 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.)
What is Rolfing?
Rolfing has been a highly respected system of therapeutic bodywork since the 1970s. Rolfers create alignment, spaciousness, order and integration in your body by working primarily with your fascia. Fascia (also called connective tissue), wraps every muscle, bone, and organ. It’s been colloquially referred to as “the packing material of the body.”
Practically speaking, you lay on my table and I use my hands, knuckles and elbows to very slowly and precisely lengthen and free up myofascial tissues (meaning muscle and fascia) in your body that have become short, constricted, tight, hard, contracted, and bound.
For a fuller explanation of Rolfing, check out the page, What is Rolfing?
Two ways to receive Rolfing
The 10 Series
Rolfing originally became known, back in the 1970s, for “The 10 Series.” The 10 Series is a systematic process designed to create structural integration, alignment, balance, length, 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.
Targeted Work
Not everyone chooses to receive The 10 Series. Quite a few people simply receive “Targeted Work.” Targeted Work simply means each session is uniquely tailored to whatever the client wishes.
· 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 shift into ongoing Targeted Work.
· Still others just get The 10 Series and they’re done.
· Lastly, I have plenty of people who have come to me for decades and have never chosen to do The 10 Series.
In short, how you receive this beautiful work is entirely up to you.
How often should I receive Rolfing Structural Integration?
If you are getting The 10 Series (see What is Rolfing?) or working on one specific issue or “project” (e.g. low back pain), it’s ideal to schedule your sessions 1 to 2 weeks apart. Never more than one session a week.
If you’re just getting Rolfing for general maintenance, ongoing well-being, and injury prevention—or you just love that light, open, fluid, spacious-body feeling—you can drop in for a session whenever you like. Once a week, once every two weeks, once a month, or simply whenever you get the hankering.
What does Rolfing actually feel like?
Rolfing does not feel like anything else in the world—not massage, not chiropractic, not stretching. Not anything.
You lie on my table and I sink my elbow (sometimes knuckles or fingers, but usually elbow) into your shoulder, hips, hamstrings, calf, forearm, or wherever, slowly and consciously, keenly “listening” for the response of your tissues. You and I communicate. I frequently ask you how the depth is for you.
You feel your tissues melting in ways you hadn’t imagined. Space opens up, maybe in your rib cage, your jaw, or between your hips and your rib cage. You can feel your body lengthening and opening. Your leg releases out of your pelvis or your neck up out of your shoulders.
Sometimes, if you’re okay with it, the sensation can gradually become intense, but it’s a really good intense… maybe even a kind of intense which that part of your body has craved for years. People often say things like, “Yeah, that does hurt a little, but don’t stop!” You breathe into it. You can feel life, space, awareness, coming back into the place where we’re working.
As different facial structures and relationships unwind and constrictions ease, you can feel your whole body soften into a deep mode of rest. Your breath might spontaneously slow and deepen.
From time to time, I might ask you to do some slow movements while I’m working—sliding your arm up and down while I melt my knuckles into your pecs, sliding your leg forward and back while you lay on your side and I sink my elbow into your hip. These movements facilitate lengthening and freeing up of tissues and body parts.
While all this is happening, you are either silent or chatting with me, or a little of both. Totally your choice. The work happens either way.
How will I feel after a Rolfing session?
When they get up off the table, most people report feeling:
· Uncommonly relaxed…their bodies feeling open and spacious, somehow both grounded and lighter, at the same time.
· People’s minds are often quiet and open, a state some of my clients humorously call “Rolfing land,” as in, “I’m in Rolfing land.”
· Very often, if there were physical complaints—back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, whatever—those pains are lessened, sometimes dramatically.
After the session, I recommend avoiding plunging right into strenuous activity (walking, yoga, swimming, tai chi are great) and it’s definitely wise to avoid any significant resistance training (especially lifting weights) for two or three days after the session if possible.