Ida & Fascia

What was it about Ida Rolf that was so formidable? For one thing she was a true pioneer – and the more you learn about her life, the more you understand why.

In 1920 Ida earned a PhD in biological chemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University – quite an achievement in itself for a 24-year-old woman in that day and age. After graduating, Ida continued to work at the Rockefeller Institute for 12 years, first in the Department of Chemotherapy and later in the Department of Organic Chemistry, eventually attaining the rank of Associate. During this time she was also a serious student of tantric yoga, read literature on Osteopathy and married an electrical engineer. During World War Two she relocated to Los Angeles to study with Amy Cochrane DO, and other osteopaths, publishing 16 academic papers mostly in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

In 1927, she took leave to study mathematics and atomic physics at the Swiss Technical University in Zurich. She also found the time to publish two papers in scholarly journals on Structural Integration.

So much of what we know now about the body leads us back to her discoveries. Her background in biochemistry showed her the incredible nature of fascia – and how working directly with its “elastic and plastic” qualities creates radical changes in its behaviour and that of the body.

Her matter-of-fact approach to life and science enabled her to communicate her teachings in a way that has taught us for many years. If you see film footage of Ida you meet a women who chooses her words carefully: she is sure and definite with each and every sentence. She knew their importance and the weight they would need to carry to be heard.

Back in the 50s and 60s in Esalen, California, Ida was in unique and incredible company: Moshe Feldenkrais, of the Feldenkrais Method, Fritz Perls, the pioneer of Gestalt therapy, Joseph Heller who went on to develop Hellerwork, and Judith Aston, creator of Aston-Patterning. I think it’s fair to say that there probably hasn’t been many gatherings in the history of bodywork quite like that. These were the founders of some of the most reputed bodywork systems we have today and Ida’s discoveries were key to this synergy and exquisite melting pot of ideas. She was a pioneer not only because of what she discovered but also what she did with her search. Her technique has touched our lives and the lives of our clients.

She was a quester. She knew she had something important to pass down through the generations. As all Rolfers have been taught: “Rolfers are primarily teachers before bodyworkers.” What Ida taught us was not only about the nature and quality of fascia but a way of “seeing” it, a way of looking into someone’s being and helping them understand what it is like to be their body. Many Rolfers talk about Ida’s vision and the way she could see through and into bodies. Through her vision she taught a way of “reading” the body at a very deep level.

Rosemary Feitis wrote about Ida in 1978: ”The ability to enter into other realities is called intuition. It is a faculty that is nourished by use, by the feedback of experience. Forty years of experience have enhanced this ability in Dr Rolf to the point where it can seem magical, like second sight. In reality, it is the product of time and experience, attention and work and, of course, ability. The same faculty, in one degree or another, is present in most Rolfers who have been practicing for some years. The magic lies within her creation of a technique that allows practitioners to develop their own intuition and bring it to the service of others.”

A Few Words on Fascia . . .

I was asked the other day “How would you describe Fascia?”

I heard myself saying: “Well, it’s a matrix, a web…” and I realised that, after ten years of studying and working with fascia, of dissecting and palpating it and literally living and breathing it, I was struggling to find my own words to describe it.

Images came to mind of a tent with poles from Ida Rolf’s groundbreaking book Structural Integration, followed by memories of eating meat and peeling onions over the years with increasing fascination. I then thought about my first cadaver workshop in Boulder, USA, during my Rolfing training, plus subsequent workshops at the teaching hospital at St George’s in London, when I’ve been moved to tears at the sheer exquisite beauty of the stuff we call Fascia.

We have so much to learn about life from fascia. It connects us inside and out. To work intelligently with it takes a degree of patience that is a lesson for us all.

We go to meditation and yoga classes to slow down and learn to look inwards. And yet the pace at which fascia dictates we live is right there within the tissues of your body, that is, if you’re interested in opening and unfolding as a way of learning and revealing yourself?

You can’t bring your own agenda into the picture when you’re working with fascia; you have to be led by your senses. The body unfolds at its own speed and fascia lets go to the beat of its own drum.

What leaves me so awe-struck when I work with fascia is how pure it is. Fascia needs to be treated with respect. But for most people, it’s only when you injure yourself that you really bring to your body the level of care, consideration and respect that it needs.

If I asked you now “how does your fascia feel?” I wouldn’t blame you for looking at me blankly or bewildered. It is really a part of our bodies that we don’t know or feel in contact with.

And yet we couldn’t be more in touch with it: it surrounds every single muscle fibre. We can’t help but feel it and yet we don’t know we’re feeling it!

Several years ago I suffered from a rib strain. It started off as a very sharp, localised deep strain, like a gnawing sensation that made it easy to know where it was. But within 48 hours it had become a more global sensation, spreading throughout the inside of my ribcage. It felt icy and glassy and like a thin layer of frost had moved in. It affected my breathing and movement – it wasn’t localised anymore – and then I couldn’t really tell where it was coming from. In those few days it affected me entirely. All of my body was involved, all of me.

As my body started to tighten, I noticed how I wanted to stretch in response. All those times we don’t stretch when we need it most, such as after the gym or a run, but when we’re injured our fascia needs time to unwind and return to health.

Fascia is a highly intelligent structure within our bodies; it is both incredibly strong and delicate at the same time. It manifests and reflects our physical, emotional and psychological health. Ida referred to it as “the organ of structure” as it is the very structure of who we are. It holds information about all our patterns: how we breathe, laugh and sleep, how we move forward in our lives or how we do not. It is the way in, the way into change. It is the map of who we are, how we’ve grown and where our potential lives.

If we treat the body with the respect it deserves and start to know our fascia we can find ourselves living alongside and within the most strikingly beautiful and radiant tool for learning.

Step inside!