Rolf Blog - Rolfing’s Blog

YouTube has several videos on fascia, the connective system that Rolfers release and organize. But the 2007 Harvard conference on fascia was its “coming out party”.
An old friend of mine, Robert Schleip, Ph.D, was the driving force behind conducting a conference at Harvard on the latest in fascial research. In this interview, Robert explains [...]

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It seems researchers discovered that subcutaneous fat might be a good thing. “Even more surprising, it wasn’t that abdominal fat was exerting negative effects, but that subcutaneous fat was producing a good effect, ” Professor Ronald Khan.
As a Rolfer, I am in the process on conducting a pilot study on reducing cellulite for women. I [...]

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This post is an article that was published in the Rolf Institute’s journal by Gael Ohlgren, a Rolfer and her teaching partner Robert Litman about the body, exercise, breathing and staying young. They discuss Continuum, a body and movement therapy which is the a beautiful compliment to Rolfing with its teaching the body about deep [...]

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A recent MSNBC article writes about how doing exercise or yoga can cause spontaneous emotional releases. The article relates many anecdotes of people breaking into tears from just moving. The article does not give any explanation why this happens.
Essentially, when emotions are unable to be expressed they are stored in our soft tissue – not [...]

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Conclusion 
From many of my own healing crises and thousands of Rolfing clients, as well along with clients in other settings, I can say that no matter how intense a healing crisis is, it will pass. If you or any friend of yours has any concern about what is occurring, seek medical advice. 
As strange as this [...]

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Preventing a healing crisis 
Anticipate that your body/mind will detox. Create a network of support using what I mentioned earlier. Be proactive with your communications and your detoxing; don’t wait until you are in a position where you have to do it. 
Also, investigate detoxing programs. There are many of these programs available. They may include cleansing [...]

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Social and emotional support 
Social support can be a key to reducing healing crises. Finding people or a group that understands what it is to travel the healing journey may take some work. Many “support groups” focus on an illness. These groups aren’t focused on the process of getting well. I have seen instances when a [...]

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Support through expressing emotions 
I discovered if you could take what was emotional stress stored in the body and convert it back to expressed emotions, healing crises could be avoided or reduced in intensity. To facilitate this I have recommended to clients that they go out and rent a set of movies that represent the five [...]

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Support 
Now that you understand the concept of the healing crisis, you can know what is occurring and can be familiar with the symptoms. Lets discuss what you can do to support yourself through the process. 
Creating the new frame for your reactions, and how this can generate a healing crisis in itself, can be significant. When [...]

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 Symptoms
Symptoms range from the most subtle physical release to the occasional, intense emotional release. Here is list of some of the most common healing crisis reactions I’ve observed in the past 30 years:

extreme fatigue
listlessness, feeling “spaced-out” and/or confusion
restlessness
emotional sensitivity
melancholy
neediness and/or wanting to be left alone
outbursts of emotions such as: anger, fear/anxiety, sadness/grief
dizziness, a [...]

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