Dr. Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979)
Ida P. Rolf was born in Brooklyn, New York. Education credentials include Barnard College and Columbia University where she earned her doctorate in biological chemistry in 1920.
Post-graduate work was completed at the Rockefeller Institute in the departments of Chemotherapy and later Organic Chemistry. She went on to receive the rank of Associate… no small feat!
Throughout the latter 20’s Dr. Rolf explored and studied tirelessly. Topics included mathematics, atomic physics in Zurich and homeopathy in Geneva, Switzerland.
Spurred by family health issues and not satisfied with the available medical treatment she extensively researched osteopathy, yoga, chiropractic medicine, Alexander technique, and general semantics.
Compiling 20 or so years of study she began to apply specific physical manipulations to treat chronic disabilities. This work became known as Structural Integration. With this in hand and mind she devoted the following 30 years to refining and developing her technique and training curriculum.
Dr. Rolf and her brainchild had it’s big breakthrough in the mid 1960’s. Accepting the invitation of Fritz Pearls, father of Gestalt Therapy, she took residence at Esalen Institute.
There on the bluff’s of the rugged California coast did her work reach the mainstream. Enrollment increased as did her reputation with every class. It became apparent she required her own school and subsequently a formal organization.
Boulder, Colorado became the home for her school, The Guild for Structural Integration (founded in 1967). Dr. Rolf played a pivotal role in all matters pertaining to the school’s courses, research, writing, organization and direction.
In 1977 her manifesto was published; Rolfing: The Integration of Human Structures. (Harper and Row)
She passed in 1979 leaving behind a legacy and tradition that is offered to you today through the caring hands of Jason Esterle.
“This is the important concept: that Practitioners are integrating something; we are not restoring something. This puts us in a different class from all other therapists that I know of. It takes us out of the domain designated by the word “therapy.” It puts our thinking into education: how can we use these ideas behind Structural integration? How do we put a body together so that it’s a unit, an acting, efficient energy unit? One of the differences between Structural Integration Practitioners and practitioners of medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, etc., is that the latter are all relieving symptoms. They make no effort to put together elements into a more efficient energy system. From the first day we see a client, we are putting him or her together, we are integrating them.”Dr. Ida P. Rolf