As you might have guessed, the ten series is made up of ten sessions or goals, that are designed to provide a framework for the ultimate goal of aligning the human body with the field of gravity.
At its most fundamental level, Structural Integration (SI) is a process of improving and optimising the human body’s relationship with gravity, making sure all the major blocks of the body, the head, torso, pelvis etc. are organised around a vertical line. This line was not intended to be the militaristic line of ‘stomach in, shoulders back’ which requires effort and force, but a line of uprightness that was characterised by grace and effortlessness. If you give the body enough space and enough order then this vertical line becomes apparent.
The series is the legacy of Dr Ida Rolf, who’s life work into the potential of the human body led her to look at the structure of the body and how it can be manipulated to increase performance.
How do you achieve this?
SI practitioners use the ‘fascia’ of the body to change its alignment. Fascia is the dense fibrous connective tissue that gives the body it’s structure. It is continuous throughout the body and is malleable due to it’s visco-elastic properties. An SI practitioner uses their skill and knowledge of the anatomy of fascia and how it responds to gravity to achieve segmental arrangement of the ‘building blocks’ of the body.
What does a session look like?
Active movement is key to producing change in the person undergoing SI. Often the practitioner will be holding an area of the person, then getting the person to move in a very precise way that helps change the properties of the fascia to influence the whole structure.
Think of a massage, where the person, not the masseur is doing the moving, only much slower, and with smaller movements.
To organise a person’s building blocks, where would you start? Top? Bottom? Left/right? The answer is you start on the outside.
Below is a description of what happens in a ten series. Whilst each individual undergoing the treatment has the same ten goals, how each one gets there can be as individual as they are.
To find out more about SI and whether is could be appropriate for you, contact us on 01225 571084. Alternatively, why not take advantage of our new patient assessment a low cost, risk free review of your body and how SI might be the answer.