More Than Massage: Rolfers push, pull to relieve body's structural imbalance

The wooden sign in Craig Swan's office reads: "You can never be too loose," a quote from baseball Hall-of-Famer Satchel Paige. The words have resonated with Swan throughout his careers, first as a pitcher for the New York Mets, now as a Rolfer„¢ in the Old Greenwich office he shares with his Rolfer son, Mark.

OK: The baseball part of Swan's life you understand. But you might be asking yourself, "What's a Rolfer?"

"I get that a lot," Swan laughs. "I always tell people I'm into human meat pounding to get their attention. What I do is more like kneading dough. But in addition to using my hands, I also use my elbows and fists to lengthen and soften connective tissue."

The Rolfing® Method is a decades-old therapy created by Ida Rolf, Ph.D., in the 1920s. She called it Structural Integration; others started calling it Rolfing. Dr. Rolf taught that tension, chronic pain and constricted movement are signals that your body is struggling with structural imbalance. Treating symptoms might bring temporary relief but rarely lasting results. In simplest terms, a Rolfer gets your whole body - feet, ankles, knees, pelvis, rib cage, shoulders, neck, head - in optimal alignment by stretching and lengthening the connective soft tissue and teaching the patient movement education. And it happens fairly fast: 10 sessions, called the Ten Series, each 60 to 90 minutes long depending on the practitioner.

"The Ten Series addresses the problems or imbalances we all have in our bodies," says William Kaye, a practitioner for 33 years with offices in Norwalk and New York City. "We work on the body as a whole. If you have a specific issue, it's addressed by balancing your entire body, not just one region."

The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colo., is the only school that trains certified Rolfers. It is here that practitioners master the Ten Series, divided into three units:

The first three sessions loosen and balance the surface layers of connective tissue;

The next four tackle core, between the bottom of the pelvis and the top of the head;

The final three integrate previously established advancement with new ones, encouraging smooth movement and natural coordination.

Why Rolfing?

Sachiko Nakayama and Mikel Bensend are partners in life and in their business, Westport Rolfing. Their backgrounds are polar opposites. She was a certified nutritionist in Japan, dedicated to body work, including karate and ashibumi; he was a commercial fisherman and pack horse outfitter, or as he explains, a "self-abuser." They met as students at the Rolf Institute.

Of the four Rolfers we interviewed, only Nakayama studied Rolfing because she wanted to help other people live pain free. "I have always been interested in body work, and Rolfing was an extension," she says.

Kaye places her in the 10 percent of patients, or as he says, "The smart ones who seek help before they have alignment issues or chronic pain." Before becoming a Rolfer, for instance, Bensend was living in Canada and existing on codeine/aspirin pain pills: one to get him going in the morning and one to help him sleep at night. The pills are long gone, and he credits Rolfing with his healing. Kaye was in a motorcycle accident, and although not badly injured, was traumatized. Rolfing left him stronger, more balanced, giving him the physical and emotional self-confidence he needed to heal. Swan tore his rotator cuff in 1980 when he was a Mets' pitcher, long before the days of arthroscopic surgery. At the time, no pitcher had made it back to the Majors after this injury. He embraced Rolfing, and returned to the Mets to pitch. Swan's been a Rolfer for 25 years.

And then there's Connie Madariaga of Norwalk, a patient of Kaye, who suffers from thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), a compression of the blood vessels and nerves in the thoracic outlet, the space between the collarbone and first rib. "The pain just grabbed my nerves," Madariaga remembers, "I couldn't lift my arms, and my shoulders were so tense, they were coming up to my ears. I had babies, and I couldn't pick them up."

Three years ago she discovered Rolfing. "I had immediate relief after my first treatment," she says. "It was amazing. My shoulders lowered and I could use my hands."

Madariaga has to remind herself constantly to keep good posture. Seventeen months ago she had her third child, and the pain returned. "I was not thinking about my posture," she says. "I was thinking about holding, carrying and feeding the baby." She returned to Kaye, and after just three sessions, returned to her pain-free existence.

Does it hurt?

Bensend says the public's biggest misconception is that Rolfing is extraordinarily painful, a deserved reputation because of the way it was practiced decades ago. "Rolfers were too aggressive. If a patient was squirming and screaming, Rolfers thought they were doing the job."

"When someone is resisting or pulling away from what we are doing, we now know that the tissue is not lengthening and stretching," adds Kaye. "Resistance is the body defending itself from too much pressure. The work is deep and challenging, but has to be done in a way that the client can accept and absorb."

"It is painful, but it's good pain," says Madariaga. "I know that every treatment brings me relief." As Madariaga breathes, Kaye stretches her connective tissue. It's the breath -- and sometimes movement on the patient's part -- that eases the pain and allows the Rolfer to continue the stretch. "The pain is nothing compared to the pain I have with TOS. It is nothing anyone should be afraid of," Madariaga adds.

She is so convinced that Rolfing is the answer to many issues that when her 9-year old daughter, Amalia, was tense in the shoulders, she booked her an appointment with Kaye. "I told Amalia that she was going to have a deeper, longer-lasting treatment than just a massage. I wouldn't have allowed her to have this if I thought she would be in pain. She said it hurt a little, but it brought her relief."

The price of relief

Fairfield County's Rolfers charge $140 to $150 for each session. None sell a package. Most patients come weekly or bi-weekly, although Bensend has one committed patient who needs three weeks between sessions to absorb what he has learned.

Most Rolfers give "homework," small exercises or body mechanics to practice until the next session. "The homework reminds people of what they learned in class," Nakayama says.

Swan says the best patients pay attention during sessions, embrace what they learn, do their homework, and develop a sense of body awareness that helps them heal themselves. "Most patients come to us in chronic pain," Swan says. "Rare is the person seeking body alignment. I don't know how many times most of us were dropped on our heads as babies. Those looking for body alignment were never dropped. They are just so much smarter than the rest of us." HL

Looking for a Rolfer?

The following Fairfield County Rolfers are all certified by the Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration:

• Mikel Bensend and Sachiko Nakayama, 126 Compo Road S., Westport 06880; (203) 216-9770; mikel@westportrolfing.com; sachi@westportrolfing.com; www.westport rolfing.com.

• James Gates, 46 Pemberwick Road, Greenwich 06831; (845) 290-9748; JGatesNY@gmail.com; www.the consciousbody.com.

• William Kaye, 315 Rowayton Ave., Norwalk 06854; (203) 434-7028; willykaye48@yahoo.com; www.wil liamkayerolfing.com.

• Meg Maurer, Newtown 06470; (203) 770-6552; meg@megmaurer.com; www.megmaurer.com.

• Craig Swan and Mark Swan, 296 Sound Beach Ave., Old Greenwich 06879; craig.s.swan@gmail.com; marksswan@hotmail.com; www.greenwichrolfing.com