About Me
I’ve been a Rolfer, practicing in Minneapolis, since 1997. I became a Rolfer by first falling madly in love with receiving the work. Rolfing blew me away. I couldn’t believe how wonderfully new and different my body felt after a Rolfing session.
I also adored how quiet and open my mind felt after getting Rolfed. On top of all that, I am a lifelong martial artist, so I was thrilled by how much more fluid and graceful Rolfing made me. It even helped me recover from injuries faster.
What makes my approach to Rolfing different?
Here are two things that characterize my style of Rolfing Structural Integration.
1) I’m sort of an “old school” Rolfer, meaning I place immense value on ever-deepening mastery of “the basics” of this art.
No bells and whistles. No extra bodywork modalities mixed in with my Rolfing work. Just solid, straightforward, classical, OG Rolfing Structural Integration.
This also means that I work quite deeply when your tissues call for it.
However, contrary to popular opinion, “deep work” does not mean painful! By proceeding very slowly, consciously, sensitively, and responsively—and by staying in constant rapport with my clients—my work is always well within the comfort zone of my clients.
2) I have a particular passion for Rolfing’s ability to support and empower personal growth, inner healing, and life transformation. Our psychology is expressed in how we are in space; trauma is often stored in our tissues (“the body keeps the score,” as the title of Bessel van der Kolk’s book put it), and Rolfing can quiet the mind like no other modality quite does.
Here are a couple of articles I’ve published in local (Twin Cities) publications on these topics.
My philosophy
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.
Personal stuff
Having grown up with a lot of trauma, I’ve had a lifelong passion for personal healing, growth, transformation, and transcendence. This passion has brought me into countless spheres of exploration, including martial art, somatic therapy, wildly regenerative eating, yoga, and a life devoted to spirituality (12 years of training in Zen under legendary Zen Master Katagiri Roshi, followed by 34 years and counting in a practice called the Way of Adidam).
I’ve lived in Minneapolis my entire adult life and currently reside near Lake Harriet with my amazing wife of over 30 years and our two cats, Tiberius and Oblio.
Additional hobbies include gardening, kettlebells, playing guitar (reggae, and old-scene New Wave and punk), and literary writing in pretentious hipster coffee shops.
I’ve also been a healthy eating coach (and all-around health geek) since 2000.
I 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 movement and creative writing at a Waldorf school for 17 years.