108 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j a n u a r y / f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6
technique
MYOFASCIAL TECHNIQUES
Sequencing Your Techniques
A Three-Phase Approach to Bodywork
By Til Luchau
Knowing how to do a technique
is important. Perhaps even more
important is knowing when to use
it. This means not only knowing
techniques to address the condition at
hand, but also how to sequence these
tools into a cohesive whole, with a
coherent beginning, middle, and end.
One way to accomplish this is to follow a
sequence or protocol (such as those we teach
in our Advanced Myofascial Techniques
videos and trainings). But, just as techniques
are not all that is required for good hands-
on work, recipes and routines also have their
limits. At some point in their professional
development, many practitioners look to
move beyond the scripts and routines that
originally helped them learn and apply
their work. Different contexts, styles,
and methods call for different ways of
sequencing the tools we choose. Here are
some general principles that can guide
your technique selection and sequencing,
whatever your context or method.
PREPARATION, DIFFERENTIATION,
AND INTEGRATION
Ida P. Rolf, PhD, the originator of
Rolfing structural integration, taught the
sequencing of her work via a recipe of 10
basic sessions that progressively addressed
the body in its entirety.
1
The logic of
her original 10-session series has been
analyzed, reinterpreted, and hotly debated
among various schools that continue her
structural integration lineage. One way
her 10-session series can be understood is
as a three-phase progression of preparation
(the theme of the first three sessions),
differentiation (sessions four through seven),
and integration (the final three sessions).
2
Without trying to replicate Rolf's
recipe, we can respectfully adapt her general
principles of preparation, differentiation,
and integration to inform any approach.
This progression can be applied to all scales
and levels of our work—from an individual
technique, to a session, to a series of sessions
(Image 1). This micro/macro repetition can
be compared to a self-similar fractal-like
design, where the same patterns are visible
at all scales of magnification
(Image 2). Each technique needs an
"easing into" phase (i.e., preparation);
a working phase (in our method, this
is usually differentiating one structure
from another); and an "easing out"
phase—integrating the learning and
changes with the rest of the body, with
other sessions, and one's daily life.
This same beginning-middle-end
rhythm applies to the session as a whole,
where the first techniques are preparatory
(e.g., "Preparing the Neck for Deep Work,"
Massage & Bodywork, January/February
2009, page 124), the middle techniques focus
on differentiation (e.g., "Working with the
Scalenes," Massage & Bodywork, January/
February 2011, page 108), and the last
techniques are integrative, emphasizing the
whole rather than the parts (e.g., "Working
Preparation, differentiation, and integration as a
repeating cycle that applies a single technique (large
triangle) as well as to a session or series (smaller
triangles), each of which is composed of smaller
versions of the same beginning-middle-end cycle.
Image courtesy Advanced-Trainings.com. Smaller
Koch snowflake images used under CC BY-SA 3.0.
The three-dimensional self-similarity of Romanesco
broccoli is one of the many examples from nature that
illustrates how smaller units (e.g., techniques) make
up similarly patterned larger units (sessions), which
in turn make up the whole (a series of sessions).
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