rolfing-blog

The European Rolfing Association ERA is looking for students (Psychology or similar) interested in a research internship, in cooperation with the LMUniversity Munich. Research will be about the effects of Rolfing Structural Integration on students of a drama school (actors, performers) in Munich.

As an intern you will receive 500 Euro and supervision by a research institute of the LMU Munich.

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Die European Rolfing Association schreibt in Zusammenarbeit mit der LMU München ein Forschungspraktikum für StudentInnen der Fachrichtung Psychologie aus. Untersucht werden sollen Wirkungen von Rolfing bei SchauspielschülerInnen.

Zugesagt werden 500 Euro sowie die supervisorische Begleitung durch ein Forschungsinstitut der LMU München.

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Download Ausschreibung

Contact:

Dr. Gertrud H.-Meitzner
Research Commitee, European Rolfing Association
gertrud.meitzner(at)rolfing.org

Robert Schleip has announced the Fascia Research Course at the Ulm University, March 21st-26th 2010. A one-week intensive course on anatomy, biomechanics, research methods and clinical assessment of human connective tissues.

Quoted from the flyer:

The aim of this workshop is to train clinicians in basic principles of fascia directed research. Participants will include physiotherapists, bodyworkers, medical doctors, sports coaches, movement instructors, etc. with a keen interest in gaining knowledge and getting first hand exposure to the rapidly growing field of fascia research.

An outstanding team of instructors is confirmed, including Chaitow, Guimberteau, Findley, Mense, Myers, Stecco, Vleeming, and others as well as from the “locals” Schleip, Klingler, Boeckers, etc.   > more: http://www.uni-ulm.de/index.php?id=19883

The maximum of 48 participants is almost full already!

The European Rolfing Association ERA has been instrumental in setting up this Fascia Research Course.

The abstracts and posters for the Second International Fascia Research Congress 2009 are online for reading! Nicely organized in categories…

At first glance I already found an abstract by Taguchi et al. about  The Thoracolumbar Fascia as a Source of Low Back Pain, enhancing – for my understanding – the Rolfing experience of balancing fascial tensions often resulting in decreased pain levels (also if protrusions are still detectable…).

Interesting findings also about fibrils in the extracellular matrix reorganizing according to mechanical stress directions… (category Fascia Cytology, Histology). And so on…

There is a lot of information to read during the next weeks. And to see where there might be interesting implications for Rolfing…

The Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation has a new website – www.rolfresearchfoundation.org – “Charting The Science of Structural Integration and its Benefits for the Human Being”.

News about research in the field of Structural Integration / Rolfing and fascia (Home), other ressources and links, as well as the modalities for contributions to the foundation and / or research grant applications are listed on the new site.

Foundation grant-making focuses on bringing together scientific, medical, and related professionals with practitioners of Structural Integration at several levels to explore, define, verify and expand the scientific bases of Dr. Rolf’s concepts and their role in improving the human condition.

The Foundation set some funding priorities and special research interests:

An article about fascia and Rolfing by Robert Schleip and Theres Grau – a research summary about fascia, Rolfing and back pain – has been published in a medical magazine in Germany, Zeitschrift für Komplementärmedizin, Medizinverlage Stuttgart (Thieme Group), April 2009. In German language.

Die Faszienstruktur des menschlichen Körpers und die Rolfing-Methode

The article can be downloaded from my website, Links & Literatur:
http://www.theres-grau.net/downloads/Rolfing_GrauSchleip_zkm2009.pdf

Most of the references are already listed at the research pages of the European Rolfing Association, too – yet by now only on the pages in German. I will inform as soon as the English pages follow.

However, most of the articles listed are in English – you can see the titles and find links to abstracts (Zusammenfassung) and/or downloads. http://www.rolfing.org/index.php?id=208&L=2

I am updating the research pages of the European Rolfing Association, so whoever hears about new exciting research in the fields of Rolfing and/or fascia and/or related bodywork, please send me an E-Mail. rolfing(at)theres-grau.net

The program of the Berlin Rolfers is online: First European Rolfing Week, April 19-26.

http://www.berlinrolfing.de

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Das Programm der Berliner Rolferinnen und Rolfer ist online: Erste Europäische Rolfing Woche, 19.-26. April.

http://www.berlinrolfing.de

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And again: All European Events

From April 19 to April 26 the First European Rolfing Week / Erste Europäische Rolfing Woche will take place all over Europe. Rolfing events, open houses, free sessions, informations about all kind of topics are planned. Find an overview of many european events at the site of the European Rolfing Association – http://www.rolfing.org/index.php?id=events – every week more events are added…

We are a group of Rolfers in Berlin who gathered together to plan a whole bunch of activities for the First European Rolfing Week / Erste Europäische Rolfing Woche in Berlin. The full list will be online soon on our berlinrolfing-Website http://www.berlinrolfing.de/. You will find workshops, free information events, introductions to Rolfing, … and informations about the following topics, among others: (Events all in German. However, many of the Berlin Rolfers offer Sessions in English)

• Rolfing and recent Research / Rolfing und aktuelle Forschung
• Rolfing and Rolfing Movement / Rolfing und Rolfing Movement
• Rolfing and the Movement Concept “Normal Function” (Definition of “Normal Function”, in German)
• Rolfing for Children / Rolfing für Kinder
• Rolfing for Musicians / Rolfing für Musikerinnen und Musiker
• Rolfing during Pregnancy, after Birth / Rolfing & Schwangerschaft, Geburt
• Touching the body, reaching the soul / Den Körper berühren, die Seele erreichen
• Rolfing and Trauma / Rolfing und Trauma
• Open Practices / Offene Praxistage
• Free Sessions / Gratis Schnuppersitzungen

Find more information about the First European Rolfing Week on rolfing-blog by next week!

Allready online are the events during the First European Rolfing Week taking place in my own practice and those with me in other locations, see my personal website: http://www.theres-grau.net/aktuell.html (in German).

As soon as I wonder about senses and focus of senses and the effects on fascia (see last two articles), I get the information about a movement workshop with Monika Caspari (Sao Paulo) in Munich, 27.2.2009-1.3.2009. – A movement workshop about Exploring perception and the use of the senses in the context of the Recipe.

Download the workshop information (PDF) or find it at the site of the European Rolfing Association under the category Continuing Education for Rolfers.

Monika Caspari, cited from the workshop information:
“Since our beginnings, as Rolfers, we’ve been familiar with fixations in the tissues. It was only recently that we became aware of fixations in the ways we relate to the world (through our senses) and in the ways that we coordinate the firing of our muscles, and the long term effects that these fixations have on fascia and that do not release with manual techniques.”

Connections open up between my own experiences of Rolfing and Somatic Experiencing, starting to influence my Rolfing practice.

Maybe I could find more in Caspari’s book about Rolfing Movement? Mindful Motion: Rolfing Movement Integration Techniques, by Monica Caspari, Boulder Bookstore, 2002. (Does anyone know if it is still available? At the moment, it does not seem to be available at Amazon nor the Boulder Bookstore itself.)

During Christmas time I was going for long walks in the forest Spreewald every day. Out in the cold, I realized that always my left nostril got clogged, while my right one stayed open. I tried to breath more through my left nostril (it sounds silly, but it is truly possible to voluntarily breath more through one or the other nostril) – and, surprise, at once I got a more balanced vision seeing more with my left eye, too, where normally I am right-eye-focused and have to concentrate hard to change it (see last article). Once exploring, I continued with the ears. And, yes, fascination!, welcoming the sounds of the birds and woodpeckers with my left ear (instead of my usual listening, more with the right side), I had my left-eye-vision broadening again.

I am very fascinated. Opening the senses of my left side was balancing not only my vision, but for the moment also the slight turn of my head to the right I still have (after 8 years of Rolfing…). It’s again about spirals in my body…

And I toppled over trauma theory, more »

I am focusing more with my right eye than with my left one. Voluntarily changing this preference showed a spiral pattern in my body changing with the focus of the eyes. A coordination pattern? Also a fascial pattern? I am still exploring.

The Swiss Cert. Advanced Rolfer Barbara Bettini headed me towards the attention to my eyes. Even in playing the flute, by now a 24-year-old pattern, changing the focus of my eyes immediately had a (structural? functional?) effect towards something more aligned (interesting for other musicians, too, maybe). How much might I be able to change the coordination (and within time also fascial?) patterns in a lasting way by paying attention to the focus of my eyes?

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