“Rolfing saved my life”

The rolfer — using hands, fingers and elbows — encourages your body to realign within gravity. Your body begins to feel lighter, taller and actually fuller.

by Deanna Melnychuk — 

The headline sounds melodramatic, doesn’t it? But this refrain is heard from rolfing patients, time and again. Saving my life can mean jogging without pain for a morning athlete, skiing on one’s 60th birthday instead of walking with a cane, moving with flexibility and ease for a senior citizen, running without stumbling and falling for a former knock-kneed 8-year-old, or working at a computer without back pain.

How does rolfing save a life? By releasing tightly held connective tissue in a systematic method by which one session builds on the preceding one. The rolfer — using hands, fingers and elbows — encourages your body to realign within gravity. Your body begins to feel lighter, taller and actually fuller.

At the end of 10 sessions, you can expect your posture to have improved, your athletic ability to be enhanced and to feel more coordinated and flexible. The decision to come in for “tune-ups” at least twice a year is recommended. Some clients come in once a quarter, or even monthly. In our fast-paced world, losing some alignment through accidents or surgery, and even stress and daily repetitive activities is all too common. Rolfing helps you maintain a stronger presence in your body, which manifests as confidence in your outer appearance.

Each rolfing session includes an evaluation while standing and walking. Then you move to table work, where you may be asked to slowly move an elbow or knee, or turn your head while the rolfer, using their own body weight, holds one end of a muscle group static. The combination of the rolfer’s touch with your movement creates an internal stretch that you can achieve no other way.

If you are ready to change your life, look no further than changing your physical structure through realignment in gravity. Rolfing, not only works, it can “save” your life!

Deanna Melnychuk, B.Sc., is a certified advanced rolfer and rolfing® movement practitioner, licensed massage therapist, Reiki Master, CranioSacral therapist and reflexologist. 602-404-8685.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 26, Number 2, April/May 2007.