Rolfing ® Tucson Citizen Article

Tucson Citizen, 1998

World of Touch
Massage and its Many Variations

by Bonny Henry

Rolf Course
Rolfing. Just the idea of it sends a shudder down my spine. Yet here I stand in front of a full-length mirror, while Tucson Rolfer Clay Cox assesses my body. In short, I'm all out of alignment - the perfect candidate for Rolfing, which aims to realign the body through deep manipulation and pressing of connective tissues known as fascia.
The typical treatment is 10 one-hour sessions, with maybe a little "tune-up" once a year or so.
Instead, we settle for one mini-session, mainly on my forearms, wrists and hands.
Starting with my right arm, Cox works my fingers, palms and :he back of my hand, applying a firm but not painful pressure with his hands and forearm.
He finds a knotted muscle halfway between wrist and elbow and pushes down quickly and sharply.
Cox repeats the entire process vith my left hand and arm, pop­ping a thumb and pressing my palms, again hard but not painful.
Then he comes to the same knotted muscle on my left arm. He pushes down, harder this ime. "Work with me," he says, asking me to take a deep breath and visualize an opening.
I do. He pushes down, harder. here is discomfort, but no real pain.
"That is a technique of Rolfing," says Cox. "I would have never attacked that point first off. We go deeper because you're invit­ing us."
That philosophy was definitely absent from the techniques that rained chemist Ida Rolf developed
decades ago during her explo­ration of disciplines such as osteopathy, chiropractic medicine and yoga.
There are stories when she was working at Esalen. People would hear clients saying, 'No, Ida. No!' But half an hour later they came gliding out from those sessions," says Tucson Rolfer Helen Luce.
Both Luce and Cox now prac­tice a "kinder, gentler" form of Rolfing, which became the norm after Rolf's death.
"My job is to get pain and stress out of people, not put it in," says Cox, who advertises in the Yellow Pages.
There are no oils and lotions used in Rolfing, and clients usually disrobe only to their underwear.
During the first sessions, the most superficial plane of the fascia - or tissues connecting the muscles - is worked.
As the sessions continue, the work goes deeper, as muscular balance and organ support are addressed.
At the end of the sessions, clients should have better posture, more efficient movement, less
body tension, and feel a reduction in both stress and pain.
While some associate Rolfing with emotional catharsis, Cox says that's a distortion.
"People believe Rolfing is ridding the bejesus out of something, that you'll have flashes of death, etc."
He attributes that to Rolf, and her pioneering efforts.
"Nobody was getting body work to speak of and all of a sudden people were being touched. There is a memory in the muscles. "If there's been a sexual assault, a bad car accident, it's
stored in the muscles. With: the deep body work, all this stuff started coming up."                          
Both Cox and Luce have worked on clients ranging from octogenarians to newborn,.
"If you look at the vagina and then look at the size of the baby, you realize some trauma had to have happened," says Cox, who "very gently guides and forms" the infant in his hands.
Certified Rolfers receive their training through the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Cox charges $95 per session; Lace, who can be reached at 326­7543, charges $75.
Because they are not massage therapists, Rolfers do not have to be licensed in Tucson. To verify training and certification, call the Rolf Institute, at (800) 530-8875.