Rolfing® and yoga are variations on a single theme: both working toward the personal evolution of the individual through the lengthening and integration of the body.  Not a surprising parallel given that Rolfing’s roots come much from its founders immersion in yoga in the 1930’s as part of her quest to find solutions to her own health problems and those of her two sons.
             Dr. Ida P. Rolf brought her unique perspective as a biochemist into a lifetime of exploration into systems of healing:  homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractics and yoga.  This exploration revealed to her the common thread within these modalities, that the body functions best when the segments are in proper alignment.  But Dr. Rolf looked beyond the body itself to the pervasive energetic field in which it functions--gravity. 
She began using bodywork techniques to align her patients' bodies in a way that allowed the weight of body segments to move across the joints rather than sitting into and compressing the joints --to allow a person to experience gravity as an uplifitng, nourishing force rather than a compressive force.  From this came the undeniable observation that when the natural alignment of the body is restored, it affects not only the physical body but also one's behavior and experience of emotional well-being.
              Over the next 20 years, Rolf worked on perfecting her techniques and formulating a means through which it could be taught.  Through this, she developed a sequence of ten sessions to serve as the foundation for the conventional Rolfing process.  Rolf created a body of work that uses the reorganization of human anatomy not only to better health but also with the potential to reach higher states of consciousness.
               Unlike massage, Rolfing is not about doing something to someone.  It is about listening tactilely to what is going on in the body and then encouraging movement so that the body can regain its natural balance. The work is more focused and penetrating than other forms of bodywork and the results are immediate and cumulative.  Rolfing is often reputed to be the Ashtanga Yoga of bodywork—sometimes intense, other times physically and emotionally demanding.  Yogis who discover Rolfing find it expands their sense of feeling into the body and  helps to correct physical imbalances that keep them from reaching deeper expressions of postures and a more comfortable and stable state of body and mind.
              Rolfing has been successfully used to ease all kinds of ailments.  In many cases, the process of helping the body return to a state of balance includes fixing common muscular-skeletal problems, such as lower back pain or muscle strains.  But, as effective as it is in this regard, the relief of physical problems has never been the objective of Rolfing.  Dr. Rolf saw this work as a means to cultivate the evolution of the individual.  In this way, Rolfing is very much like yoga.  The similarities between the two disciplines show themselves from the beginning.  Just as breath is the foundation of any yoga practice, it is also the starting ground for the first session of Rolfing.
              For the most part, Rolfing is performed atop a table that can be raised and lowered to provide optimum position for each technique.  Each of the 10 sessions focuses on specific areas and layers of the body.  Each session builds upon the changes made in those that preceded it, creating complete integration and a feeling of overall balance through the 10-session process. Flexibility is not the goal of yoga nor the goal of Rolfing but through this work comes the realization that when alignment happens flexibility comes.