Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1102144
Ta k e 5 a n d t r y A B M P F i v e - M i n u t e M u s c l e s a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / f i v e - m i n u t e - m u s c l e s . 81 integration is a project, with a beginning, middle, and end. Initial sessions deal with the superfi cial myofascial layers, the middle sessions address core myofascial layers, and the fi nal series integrates both superfi cial and deep layers in movement. This differentiates structural integration from much of massage, psychotherapy, chiropractic, and many forms of physical therapies or rehab that can run for years with no end or resolution in sight. In these therapies, clients tend to keep rebooking until they run out of money or interest. Structural integration is unique in that it offers a discrete program, which is an intensive educational project. Of course, clients can come back for more, after they have had six months or a year to let this deep work settle in, when they will likely have a more functional pattern than the posture they arrived with initially. Long story short—postural change works better with short periods of intense fascial work interspersed with longer periods of absorption. • Structural integration relies on visual assessment to individualize strategies. While taking a history and doing palpatory or movement assessments with clients is obviously valuable, structural integration uses visual assessment of the global body pattern of structure and habitual motion to determine strategies within the overall protocol of the recipe. The client's pain reports are of interest but unreliable to give the practitioner solid information. A shoulder pain may be anchored in what the client perceives as a "pain-free" rib cage, low back, or neck. We need to look to see what the individual pattern is, and work accordingly. Especially in chronic cases, where the dysfunction has been around for months or longer, a visual "bodyreading" is essential to determine where in the body the fascia is not functioning properly, regardless of where the pain is. "Where you think it is, it ain't," Dr. Rolf would often say. Determining an assessment such as "glenohumeral impingement" is not diffi cult. What is more diffi cult, but also more important, is to see where that pattern is anchored in the body. What's stopping it from functioning properly or healing up? Get some freedom there—in the neck, in the mid-back, where the ribs meet the spine, then your impingement treatment works and stays that way. Chronic plantar fasciitis, for instance, is rarely relieved from working on the foot. It is far more often relieved by releasing densifi ed layers in the lower leg between the soleus and the deep posterior compartment, or where the hamstrings attach to the pelvis, or even from the neck. Everything's connected—only by A young client before and after SI treatment. Is he perfect afterward? No. But he is substantially improved: he has better core support in his legs, back, and neck. This image is a plastinated 5 cm cross section of the deep fascia of the thigh, the fascia lata. Visible in the specimen is the femur and neurovascular bundle at center, with the septa dividing the space into the three separate compartments. Photo ©FasciaResearchSociety.org/Plastination. looking can we determine the particular connections in any individual client. • Structural integration reaches deeply into the body's tissues to release held patterns. Although yoga can "hurt so good," and other less-invasive techniques such as cranial osteopathy can reach deeply into the system, structural integration reaches profoundly into the body. Rolf's work was the original "deep tissue," and often deals with connective tissues in the more central muscles and tissues close to the bones and joints. Unearthing these forgotten areas can be "sensationful," as we call it (painful, let's not be coy), for the client. The recognition of being deeply touched helps the pattern change and the pain "leave" the body. It is important not to add more pain. The sensation of being touched—deeply, slowly, and sensitively, but with a strong intent to truly open tissue and create