In my 11 years as a Rolfer, the clients who’ve come through my door have been very typical of the kinds of people who seek out Rolfing. That is to say, they cover a very wide range of experiences. I’ve worked with people aged 3 to nearly 80, with those who are coping with significant challenges such as Parkinson’s, stroke recovery, or severe trauma from accidents and injury, as well as those who are in excellent health but are interested in Rolfing to enhance their athletic performance, to deepen their personal journey through bodywork, or to just plain improve their posture so they’ll look better in their wedding dress.

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It’s a pretty diverse group. However, through this broad group I can say that there has been a theme that runs through most everyone’s story: what I call the domino experience. The domino experience goes something like this: you started off feeling less-than-better with a specific ‘thing’. It could be pain that popped up and surprised you like neck spasms or low back pain, or an injury or other event that knocked you for a loop. Nonetheless, what I’m trying to get at is that there’s a ‘first thing’ which usually goes through fluctuations of feeling better and worse over time. Occasionally it even disappears. Then, with no warning, the first thing flares up and it often brings along a friend: the new ‘thing’ or ‘things’.

If you had a minor whiplash that was no big deal and went away on its own, now out of the blue you have some pretty major low back pain, or jaw clicking, or whatever; The specifics of the ‘first thing’ which often becomes ‘the things’ is very unique in how it manifests. The commonality is that suddenly, without warning, you start to wonder aloud if you’re just getting old, or if you need to start working out again, and why oh why you keep having these problems. You now have to admit to yourself that you haven’t felt like yourself in a while: In the best case scenarios you feel hunched and slumped, and in the worst case scenarios you struggle to get out and about each day.

The problem is not that you’re old (I don’t care if you’re 80) and the problem is not that you’re broken and can’t be repaired. This is where a Rolfer’s dear friend, the fascia, comes into play.