History
The Beginnings of Structural Integration
Dr. Ida P. Rolf (1896 – 1979), one of the first female biochemists with a doctorate in the USA, developed the “Structural Integration” method in the 1950s.
Motivated by professional interest and chronic illnesses in her family, she began to work with people and their bodies herself. Influenced by alternative healing methods such as homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and yoga, she developed her own approach to manual therapy. She named her method “Structural Integration”.
In the mid-1960s, Rolf began teaching her method. In 1971, she founded the
Ida Rolf's Insight
Ida Rolf recognized that structural imbalances in the body can lead to painful compensation in muscles, connective tissue, ligaments, and tendons. A reorganization of the body’s fascial network in relation to gravity, however, enables greater well-being and freedom from pain.
Dr. Ida Rolf - A Pioneer in Fascia Research
Training Institutes Worldwide
Worldwide, Structural Integration is taught today in various forms at over a dozen training institutes.
The original approach, known as “Rolfing®”, is taught at the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute in Boulder and its affiliated institutes in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Canada.
Some instructors separated from the Rolf Institute and founded their own training institutes with additional focuses on treatment and philosophy. However, the majority adhered to Rolf’s original recipe. The best-known of these institutes are the “Guild for Structural Integration”, “Hellerwork® Structural Integration”, or the “Soma Institute of Structural Integration”. Hellerwork® and the Soma Institute, for example, emphasize dialogue and psychological aspects.
Thomas W. Myers, a student of Rolf, pursued a new approach. Myers was fascinated by Rolf’s statement “that the fascia connects everything.” In his book “Anatomy Trains”, published in 2001, he presented body-wide fascial connections that transmit forces. He named these connections Anatomy Trains. In collaboration with anatomists, he succeeded in dissecting these myofascial connections and thus proving their existence. Subsequently, he developed an independent series of twelve treatments based on the Anatomy Trains. Myers founded a training organization based in Walpole, Maine, which organizes worldwide training courses in “Anatomy Trains Structural Integration.”
“Your body is more like a plant than a machine. We are grown from a tiny seed - a single fertilised ovum - not glued together in parts.”
Tom Myers
International Association IASI
In 2002, the international association for Structural Integration, “IASI – International Association of Structural Integrators”, was founded. The association aims to ensure quality in training, as well as to protect and further develop the method IASI establishes internationally valid guidelines for training in Structural Integration. Training institutes for Structural Integration must be recognized by IASI and adhere to its guidelines.
Structural Integration in Switzerland
In Switzerland, physician Hans Flury (1945 – 2023) was the first to practice Structural Integration starting in 1978. Flury also developed the movement theory “Normal Function” and authored the “Notes on Structural Integration”. In 1995, he published the book “The New Lightness of Being”. Together with an international group of Rolfers, Flury founded the “Swiss Society for Structural Integration SGSI” in 1991.
In 2002, the association “IDA Association for Rolfing® & Structural Integration Switzerland” was founded. Since then, it has been the professional association for Structural Integration therapists in Switzerland and the umbrella organization for the Structural Integration method within the professional profile of “Complementary Therapist”.
In 2015, Structural Integration was recognized as a method of the federally recognized profession of “Complementary Therapist”.