Massage? Chiropractor? Other?

Question

I was having a discussion with someone about massage and she mentioned something that she has had done from a "ralpher" (sp?), She said it's alot like massage but this actually realigns your muscles. Has anyone ever heard of this and how is it spelt?

Answer 1

yes i have
seems to be a kind of myofascial massage, but Rolfers prefer to call it "movement education." Whatever you call it, Rolfing involves touching the skin, feeling around for "imbalances" in tissue texture, and separating "fascial layers that adhere and muscles that have been pulled out of position by strain or injury."* It is also a kind of energy medicine.* Rolfers consider their unique contribution to be "to balance the body in gravity." Deep massage or other forms of soft tissue manipulation can't do that, they say.

Rolfing was developed by Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979), a biochemist turned physical therapist. Her dissertation was on the chemistry of unsaturated phosphatides and was published by The Waverly Press in 1922. She spent a good part of the 1930s studying osteopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic, yoga, the Alexander technique, and Korzybski’s work on states of consciousness. She authored several books on the relationship of form and structure in the human body, including Rolfing: The Integration of Human Structures (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).

Dr. Rolf claimed she found a correlation between muscular tension and pent up emotions. Rolfing is the name given to Dr. Rolf's method of massage, which transcends chiropractic in that it is based on the notion that physical and emotional health depend on parts of the body being properly "aligned." In Rolfing, unlike some forms of chiropractic, more than just the spine must be aligned. To be healthy, according to Rolfers, you must align your head, ankles, hips, thorax, pelvis, knees, shoulders, ears, etc., in just the right way or else the evils of gravity will be felt. By being properly aligned, gravity enhances personal energy and leads to a healthy body and a positive emotional state. According to Dr. Rolf: "Rolfers make a life study of relating bodies and their fields to the earth and its gravity field, and we so organize the body that the gravity field can reinforce the body's energy field."*