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Rolfing" 51 and the BrainAn Interview with Kevin FrankBy Sabine
Weis, Certified Rolfer™
IntroductionJ iJ!ten;iewed Rolf Movement' InstructorKeoiu Frnnl:
to di9C1/55 1/ icoviing model fromneuroscience tha: supports
Rolfins StructurnlIntegratioll (Sf) toitl: a credible explanation
and~tory - wily it work".
As bllckgrolwd, let me share a part of mystory. The Rolf
tviooement aspects of my basicRolfing training completely chllnged
mywily of perceiving Ilnd 1.lsing my body. As (Iteen-aced athlete
it lind seemed to me that themost effective thing was to "work
harder" illorder to gft stronger, faster, mu! fitter
throughweightlifting and countless repetitions of IheSilme kinds of
exercise. III Rolj?vfotJemen t, lwllSfaced with Dery different
concepts that J could1101 wholly grasp, but started playing with.
Forexample, at thirty [started dm!cing salsa. AfterDery few months,
1 stopped Inkillg lessons midinstead applied ideas like challging
my spacelind ground capaci Iy, depe/oping a better sensefor my
inner line during spin« IIl1d turns.Also, 1experimented with
inherent mouementsduring freestyle and colll1eclioJl to I11y
partnerwith orient atiou exercises. I'v1If dancingimproved
dramaticalli;
Despite the improvement, 1 I!e'UeT reallynumaged to articulate
what 11('(/5 doing. In myRollillg practice, Ialso find it quite
c/WllCllgil1gto speak about the work other than throughpersona!
experience or case studies, alld 1see thisissue troubles some
Orilly 51 colleagues as well.1 believe it is our jo/! to
co1l1mwlicnte clearly to
STlWCTCRA'. INTEGIC\TIO~ !DECF'.Il\ER 20]2
support our credibilits; Outside ofMll1lich andBoulder, toeface
a public unatoare of Rolfing Sl.A market sun'ey ill Germany
(commissionedby the European RO/fing Association 10 developour PR
strategy) showed that "the man on thestreet" does not know
allythillg about what wedo or how it can be of beuefit. EVeIl
people whohave exncrienced Rolfing sessions nuike z'aguestatements
- "esoteric," "very painful," or"strange but helpful bodywork." We
know thatRoi;fing Sf is not jllst allother bodywork method,but do
we lIIa1wge to convey this? Yes, thegmpity story does nutke sense
to many people,but dealing 'witil posture does Hot generate
muchexcitement, ~A/emight want to cOllsiderfindingttnother story to
reinvent ourselves.
During a R..olfMopement workshop with KeviniI12(J1O, lfelt a
"click" in my mind aboui houibody movement affects the orain. Ttuu
inspired/I year of self-study anriappiicatioll. There mightbe
potential to explain our work anew - andmore accurately - through
neuroscience. 111this light, I interviewed Kevin, 7.1'i1O has
takenideas from scientific studies, espeCially fromneuroscience,
and collllecled the findings totohni we do as Rolfers. 111 my
interview withKevin, I was particularly interested ill how
10tmnslate these conclusiolls for other medicalprofessioJll!ls and
for laypeople.
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Sabine Weis: Over several years,Rolfcrs and the Rolf Institute"
of StructuralIntegration (RIS1) have become more andmore interested
in science. Some possibleexplanations of how and why the
Rolfingprocess 'works have been found. Kevin,why are Rolfing 51 and
neuroscience agood team?
Kevin Frank: Luckily for us, science,especially
neuroscience/brain science,seems to suggest that the brain is
formedon an ongoing basis. Researchers keepfinding more evidence
supporting thisview. Structural integration is likely to be
anexample of this ongoing formation.
SW: But science takes time, and if we waituntil our concept is
supported we all mightbe very old. So what can we do until
then?
KF: We can point to analogous procC'ssesthat arc well-studied,
ones in whichbehavioral changes and brain changes arecorrelated. We
hitchhike on these studies.It's now quite plausible.
SW: The concept seems complicated, evenfor health experts and
doctors. How did youbecome interested in neuroscience?
KF: First, I agree that we need ways toground the abstraction of
brain plasticityand postural plasticity in simple
examples;otherwise the "new explanation" willnot help. To answer
your question, itwas a natural progression that startedwith
satisfaction about the experience ofreceiving, observing, and
beginning to dothe work, but great dissatisfaction withthe story we
were told about what we aredoing and why it worked. Ida [Rolf]
saidthat fascia is plastic and therefore bodyposture is plastic.
Attractive notion. Asso well summarized in Robert Schleip'swriting
[sec bibliography], the fascia ismuch more likely a conduit of
informationto the brain about movement and positionthan it is a set
of guy wires that hold it ina certain position. Hubert Godard's
workdemonstrated that what we call "structure"can change in a few
seconds or minutesbefore ou r eyes and then often change backagain.
He showed how the fault is often notthe tissue but the way tissue
is orchestrated.Suddenly we are left with a great new idea:posture
and coordination are the productof our way of perceiving and making
theworld up in our imagination. Viow.
SW: Do you ever expose your clients tothis insight - we make the
world up inour imagination?
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KF: VVe must first re-define the word"imagination." Vv'e think
of imagmation.generally, as just making things up orpretending
something that is not real. Thatis imagination that belongs to the
thinkingprocess. Imagination is the foundationof much more than
thought. r n tact theworld is something we "imagine" in orderto
perceive it. Th,1t'S a wa , of describingthe mechanism behind w h
at we callexperiencing the world .. And the waywe perceive the
world shapes our bodyand our movement. Coriver selv, how weimagine
our bod)' affects how we sec theworld and how we move as well.
VVeareusually somewhat stuck in our ways ofimagining the world and
our body. Becauseour perception tends toward what Gibsoncalls
"invariant" versions of what we see,even if the world around us
changes, wetend to feel the world is constant, but it'sour
perception that is. Our imagination canbe plastic. Ideas about the
world, about ou rbody, 'Ire based on what we have been toldor what
we learn {rom our family, school,and training. Some of these ideas
lead tobody dysfunction. And our work is aneffective approach to
evoking plasticity inthe 'ways we imagine our body.
What I am describing are the layers of"body image" that are
associated withrestriction. Tf a person is told to position[his]
pelvis in a certain way, for example,this is a way of imagining the
body - 'wearc steered by automatic images withinour subconscious.
\Vhat we are doing instructural integration is helping peoplefeel
how imagination can liberate us fromunhelpful images. For example,
learning toarouse a palpable feeling of omnidirectionalspace
surrounding the head is a \yay ofusing conscious imagination to
supportorientation to space. The latter form ofimagination uses an
image to arouse' nativemotor intelligence. I describe this to
clientsby distinguishing imagination that speaksto the thinking
brain versus imaginationthat speaks to the "movement brain" orthe
sensorimotor system, [which] is a placewhere our conscious
awareness can affect theparts of us beyond OLi I' conscious
awareness.
SW: How do you raise the topic for newclients?
KF: Beginning with the first phoneconversation, I introduce what
I wouldcall the "new story." That's what's exciting:we have a new
story that is going to bequite different from the P.T., the D.C.,
theM.D., the massage person, or the traditional
structural integration story. The story isabout how coordination
gets shaped, howit isn't meant to change casually but wehave a
combination of things that help ithappen. According to what the
personcan understand the explanation differs.And I offer concrete
examples of howcoordination becomes corrupted, overtime, or during
some incident, how we(appropriately) need to resort to effort,and
how compensatory patterns of motorcontrol can often fail to reset,
leaving thebody functioning in an efforted state. Whatdoes an
efforted state look like? It is the bodyworking against its own
inhibition. It's thebody using last-line-of-defense muscles
firstand first-line-of-defense muscles last. It's Clstate of
motor-control confusion and we seeit everyday. The tascia story was
convincinguntil it became obsolete. Now the fascia-as-plastic
theory is both incomplete - becauseit really doesn't describe why
posturechanges - and unfortu nately it is also moreand more
physically improbable.
SW: Probably not all golfers think thefascia story is obsolete.
What made youstop using it? Do you think both fields
couldcomplement somehow?
KF: Vle really don't know if some aspectsof the
fascia-as-plastic story are true ornot. I keep waiting to hear
somethingdefinitive but I don't hear it yet. Schlcip'swriting is
pretty convincing. I don't knowhow many members of our
communityhave necessarily read it or integrated histhinking into
the teaching. Most S1 peopleusually talk about fascia being
plastic. Myofficial position is that I will not say it'sfalse until
pro\'en one way or another, butin the meantime it's not a smart wav
totalk about our work. Vv'hat sours me is thefollowing: First, it
lumps us into the basketwith all rnyofascial therapies, which
areproliferating, and J think SI is not myofascialtherapy. Second,
it lets our clients off thehook before we even start. TIle fascia
storysays all we have to do is unglue the tanglesand stuck places
in the fascia and life willbe just fine. 1 think fascial
mobilization willhave a much greater effect when we enrollclients
in the process, in participating inlasting coordinative change.
Posture is acoordination. \,Vhile fascial mobilizationis a great
input to change motor-controlpatterns - coordination - we want
clientsto understand that what they do with theirminds and how they
approach movementis every bit as important.
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SW: What is the possible connection ofneuroscience to ou r
work?
KF: It's not that neuroscience explains itdirectly, but it's now
very close. You takewhat we know about fascia, motor
control,perception, and pre-movement and youobserve changes in
coordination beforeyour eyes and draw the conclusion thatfascia
must be a great way to inform themotor-control system about better
choices.
This means that what we call the functionaland structural
taxonomies collapse as beingone and the same thing. We can
continueto argue for teaching fascial mobilizationskills, a
taxonomy of manipulation perhaps,and a taxonomy of coordinative
education,but really fascial work is probably goingto turn out to
be more about educationand less about repairing fibrous
fixations.Schlcip's writing is quite effective in thisregard. Then
we laboriously read aboutperception and motor control in the
articlesthat Godard seems to effortlessly digest.They all pointed
to this new idea being avery smart idea, but the picture didn't
cometogether as neatly until functional MRI(fMRI) work propelled
neuroscience intoa new field in which the brain's plasticitycould
be observed directly.
Blakeslee and Doidge, and many others,saw this as a huge
journalistic moment tosummarize. Now, it's quite easy to put
thepieces together. Rather than research articleswith often
difficult-to-discern implicationsfor our work, we have story after
storydescribing amazing tales from clinicalpractice, that are then
related to how brainchanges accompany the improvement infunction,
It's easy to get carried away with"brain plasticity" as the
explanation foreverything. It has become a bit of a fad. Still,the
basic message has been revolutionary:behavior changes the brain, if
the behavioris sustained. And we have the tools and
theunderstanding to make this kind of lastingchange in the brain
mapping of our clients.We have v','ays that people can feel how
thebody behaves suddenly in ways of greaterease, greater length,
greater spaciousness inthe face of demand.
SW: What does a person "on the street"know about neuroscience?
Why would hebe interested? What do you say to describeRolfing 51
and what you do?
KF: It depends on the person but someversion of: "The programs
that run ourmovement are full of corrupted code, likecomputer
viruses. We clean up the code
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"vith two powerful forms of education:fascial mobilization and
perceptualand coordinative guidance. Our worksystematically and
comprehensivelyrestores the body's native movementintelligence."
People need some simplecxa mpl es to explain motor control,
orcoordination. They want to make aconnection to what you know is
great stuffbut to their ears sounds a bit abstract anddifferent
from what anyone else is tellingthem - therefore suspect. Our trump
cardis that INe know a lot about orientationand a lot about
foundational orienation,which is orientation to gravity. This is
theplace INhere biology, physics, and existencecome together.
\I\Then we enroll a systemin working with this level of responsewe
find greater plasticity to posture andcoordination. VVecan
demonstrate howweight and space orientation changeseverything, and
makes it fu nat th esame time.
SW: And imagine you only have thirtyseconds ....
KF: I give them the bra ke-and-gas-pedal-glued-together story.
It's clear and anyonecan imagine it. Unglue the two and lifeis
better. 1£ they give me five minutes,r give them some more based on
whatthey already want in their life. I take thepredicament they
offer me and explain howit could change based on things like howone
prepares to move, or based on habitpatterns based on dealing with
overloadat some point ill. life. Or I tell them thatthey may be usi
ng secondary stabilitymuscles before they use primary - that's
anexpensive choice they are making every daywithout knowing it. I
use different stories,all based on motor-control models that
arecorroborated by various pieces of research.
SW: What do physicians and psychologistsknow about neuroscience?
How do youconnect to them about what we do?
KF: I am likely to talk about posture andlasting changes in
posture derived frombetter mapping at the sensorimotor level. Ialso
would add the business about primary,secondary, and tertiary
stabilization. I alsomight speak about preparation to moveand the
manner in which this relates tostability. We are always wise to
find outwhat interests them before launching intoa lecture, and to
give them a very specificconcrete example. In person, I have
thempushonme and I respond with a defensivestrategy and contrast it
with a strategy
STRUCTURAL lC;TE(;RATIO' / DECF\!DER 2012
built on perception and orientation. That'sthe best illustration
- what you can showthem in your movement. People can see itright
away. With psychologists, it's usefulto make the bridge between
psychologicalsecuri ty and subcortical security basedon gravity
orientation and orientationto "whcrr-" as opposed to "what."
The"where and what model," well described inPailliard's writing for
example, shows thatOLIT sensorimotor brain is mostly concernedwith
"where" questions while our cognitivebrain is concerned with "what"
questions."Where" information makes the bodyand sensorimotor system
happier than"what" information - it provides thesecurity at a
deeper level, below thought.The "where" and "what" mode] does agood
job of fleshing out Rolf's claim thatstructural integration gets
below the levelof conventional psychology.
SW: \,\Ihich models are your favoriteswhen referring to the body
m,lp andrelated subjects?
KF: Noone in the field of neurophysiologyis going to hand us a
new model on a plate.Vv'hatViC can do, however, is look at modelsof
brain maps of the body - sensory maps,motor maps, even language
maps - andsee that much of what we are doing isabout refreshing or
reviving or enhancingmaps so the brain can make better
choices.Further, we can look at the various waysthat the brain has
been divided into corticaland subcortical processes, or "where"and
"wh at " processes, and see that isvery attractive to speak about
structuralintegration as being a way of speaking tosubcortical
processes, the sensorimotorside of the equation. Now we arc
doingwhat Pailliard was advocating: we arebridging the chasm
between psychologicalapproaches to human improvement
andneuroscience. further, we have authorssuch as Daniel Siegel who
tell stories abouthow he and his colleagues worked for along time
to find acceptance in the medicalworld for the idea that behavior
changes thebrain. So he helped to con vince doctors thathow we
meditate, how we process (thingslike Somatic Experiencing" for
example),lead to integration of experience and thenchill1ges in
brain activity, Vv'hat we add asstructural integrators is a package
of toolsthat speak to the sensorimotor brain, to thesubcortical
processes that lead to lastingshifts in posture and movement
strategy.Bodies behave as if "hungry" for betterinformation at this
level.
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SW: How would you explain the conceptof "body maps"?
KF: You start by hel ping people realize thattheir brain map of
the body has gotten abit generalized and vague. You bring alivea
sensory distinction and you tell them,"Now your map has a clearer
distinction,a dearer location of this part of the body.That leads
to better movement choices thanbefore." The map story can
accompanythe visual anatomy model and skillfulfascial touch. Also
useful arc stories about"where" and "what" - the storv about
IanWaterman who lost his proprioception (nowhere and substitute of
what to make upfor it), and the blindsight phenomenon (all"where"
and no "what") in which a personcannot consciously see an object
but walkaround it to avoid walking into it; these aredramatic
illustrations that ground the topicvery succinctly. A great book
that illustrates"where" and "what" differentiation is Visionand
Art: The Biolo,?,y of Seeing by MargaretLivingstone. She shows, for
example, howskillful artists build coded messages toour "where"
brain. This gives the paintingimpact in ways ,\ie feel without
knowingwhy at a conscious level.
SW: Terms like "sensorimotor control"and "secondary
stabilization" sound quitetheoretical. Which concrete examples
orstories do you use?
KF: "Sensorimotor" means the ["movementbrain," the] part of the
brain that doesn'trequire conscious thinking, that
actsautomatically, faster than we can think.You feel [its]
intelligence when you tie yourshoes in a flash. But there is much
moreto the sensorimotor brain than just littlecoordinative
patterns. It is the subcorticalpart of the equation for keeping us
uprightand for perceiving what our body needs toknow, bu t we don't
notice it consciously."Secondary stabilization" is about is
usingthe auxiliary muscles before we use theones that axe for
normal levels of stability.It's very "expensive" for clients - they
lift ajugof milk [and] squeeze the abdomen andclench the pelvic
floor, either because somewell-intentioned but misinformed
exerciseteacher told them to, or because they hadan accident and
never stopped bracing, orbecause they are in some state of fear
ordefensi veness all the time. For whateverreason, they are using a
motor pattern thatshould be saved for loads that are verylarge and
in which the primary stabilizersturn on first.
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SW: Does neuroscience offer anyexplanation about the relevance
of instinctsor automatisms? And how would you linkthis to Rolling
SI?
KF:Ithink neuroscience and developmentalpsychologists have been
trying to figure outwhat is "hard wired" and what is learnedfor a
long time. The current thinking, as Iunderstand it, is an example
of dynamicsystems process. Anatomy predisposesus to movement that
we learn more orless inevitably if given the opportunity toplay and
explore as children. V,'e developautomatic subroutines that save
the brainthe trouble of making it all lip from scratcheach time a
similar movement is called for.People often live with the
assumption thatyou can train to learn a new movement.But Rolfers
help people as much to unlearnexpensive automatic routines,
learnedduring moments of pressure or overwhelm,or just plain
unhelpful guidance from well-meaning educators.
SW: How do YOLl guide clients to easilyfollow your
suggestions?
KF: How do we help people find ease inlearning new simple things
that, at first,make them feel stupid? You want to startwith slowing
down the learning process;figure out the learning style of the
client,make success easy at the beginning andrefer back to that
baseline. Teach the skillsthat precede learning movement such
assensory awareness, conscious awarenessof orientation, conscious
awareness of feltsense. You want to make the process fun.IVe learn
most when we are having fun.
SW: How would you guide clients whenthey ask "What am Isupposed
to feel?" or"What does this have to do with my pain? rr
KF: Start early with teaching the client theauthority of his
experience and [noticingthe] contrast between doing some
simplemovement from effort and from ease.Make it very simple so
there is no questionof skill. For example, "push my hand likeyou
want to do a good job of pushing; nowlet go of the good job, and
feel your skin asyou push." [Look] for, [coach] for, responsesthat
involve length rather than contraction,the capacity to grow more
spacious in theface of demand. Learn what the clientlikes. Help
clients build a vocabularyof experience and remember that
whatresources them is the path to finding easeand flow and often
relief from pain.
STRUCTUR,\ t, INTr-:cRATION !DErnlBER 2012
The body learns new coordination byrepetition. It's that simple.
We are mostlyhelping the person to interrupt the oldpattern, by
stopping, by slowing down,by inhibiting the old one, with
sufficientsupport and safety so it's not overwhelming.Then we teach
what to pay attention to asthe initiation of the movement begins.
Eachtime the old pattern shows up, we stop andgo slower and find
better resource. In theabsence of the effort pattern, the
automaticsystem can have a chance to manifest ease.The body
automatically repeats what it likesand likes what feels easier, all
other thingsbeing equal. But we often need to supportpeople to do
that because all things aren'tequal, People have been taught to
struggleand work harder, right?
SW: Sure. That is what most of us learnat school, from our
parents, and what weassume is expected by bosses at work.One
question [clients have] about what isachieved during Rolfing
sessions is "willit last?"
KF: New posture and new movements lastwhen the client likesit
and on reflection CaJ1allow it, meaning it is not in conflict
withsome aspect of the psyche. One needs tohelp the client find the
secondary benefit ofthe former pattern; that is quite importantand
part of the ecology of change. Then theclient needs to find the new
coordination,using his own cue, not yours necessarily.And then the
client needs to find ways tointegrate the new movement into life
attimes and places that feel safe and easiest.And clients need to
talk to us about all ofthis, to have LIS listen to what has
workedand what hasn't so they can organize theirexperience. And
self-care exercises areimportant, ones done in small doses thatfeel
good to do . If we change coordination,we assume this will be
lasting.
SW: 111emodel, here, is about coordinationand communication
working together,instead of in conflict. It takes time to growinto
thinking that way; creating stabilityconstantly and speaking about
actual bodyexperience. Going into the experiencecan also be tricky.
What do you say toguide [that]?
KF: I attempt to get people used totracking and being tracked in
their sensoryexperience. nus is not unique to my work ofcourse. But
it's a huge way to "guide" eitherverbally or nonverbally by
following therhythm, sensory experience, and meaningimpulses of the
client. Often just listening
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is the best guidance because it supports theself-regulatory and
self-discovery processof the cl ient. As one tracks the client,
onetracks one's own body experience. Thisdevelops a co-resonant
state in which thepatterns that are no longer needed tend tobe the
most willing to release. I think thisreinforces the mapping process
in the brain,by the way.
SW: Thank you very much, Kevin, I feelexcited that a bit of your
experience canbe presented here to make sense of thisfascinating
field of neuroscience. I seethis as great opportunity to keep up
withacademic developments, as well as valuingeven more the Rolfing
work.
Sabine Wcis is !l Roljer ill Frankjur), Germany.Kevin Frank is
Il Rolf b/uroemeni Instructorwith IIpractice ill Holdernes«, New
Hampshire.
BibliographyBlakeslee, S. and M. Blakeslee, The BodyHas a lvTind
of Its 01011. New York: RandomHouse, 2007.
Doidge, N., The Brain that Changes Itself.New York: Penguin,
2007.
Gibson, L 771.1'Senses Considered as PerceptualSysterns.
\Vestport, CT: Greenwood Press,1966.
Livingstone, M" 'Visiol1 and Art: The Biologyof Seeillg. New
York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002.
Pa il l ia r d , J., "Sensorimotor versusRepresentational
Framing of Body Space,A Neural Basis for the Distinction
BetweenBody Schema and Body Image." In H.de Preestcr, Body Image
and Body Schema:Interdisciplin£lTY Perspectives on the
Body.(Amsterdam: John Bcnjamins, 20~5).
Siegel, D., The Ne1lrobiology of "We" (audiorecordings).
Louisville, CO: Sounds True,2008.
Schleip, R., "Fascial plasticity - a newneurobiological
explanation." Part I andPart II. [ournal of Bodywork and
MovementTherapies, April 2003, pp. 11-19 and104-116.
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