Structural Integration is not Massage.
It is a process that lets your body reorganize.
SI balances and aligns your body with gravity.
SI literally asks the physical body to change how it is balanced, organized, aligned, and integrated so that it can feel better, move better, be freed of chronic aches and pains, and recover more fully from old accidents and injuries. Bodies that are balanced and aligned look thinner, are more flexible, move more fluidly with less effort, have fewer aches and pains, and feel more grounded and centered. Even further, when bodies are better organized with gravity, the mind is calmer and emotions feel more balanced.
The SI practitioners view of the human body and human being is quite different from the commonly held views in western medicine, science, education, massage, and fitness. SI practitioners look upon symptoms as elements in a whole and dynamic system.
While the commonly held view is to fix symptoms, SI practitioners know that as a whole system changes and aligns with gravity, symptoms often dissolve.
When SI practitioners use the word structure, they are not talking only about your physical body. Your body is not the all-of-you. You are also bigger than just your physical body.
You already know the “comfort zone” around you that is the space beyond your skin. You know this because you are reminded of it each time another person gets too close and you feel anxious or step back.
All of who you are and all of what you perceive is what SI practitioners are talking about when they say “structure.” This is an important concept to realize when you see the words “Structural Integration.” You are not just a physical body, and your physical body is not an adversary which is refusing to help you resolve what bugs you. The all-of-who-you-are is a complex, dynamic, interdependent system, and SI works at this dynamic system level.
As clients become more familiar with this work, many say the SI points of view sound unusual at first but then make total sense. They experience it in their bodies, as their nagging discomforts, which had only moderately improved with other approaches – now find a way to resolve.
With Structural Integration, you will find your body making changes, and feeling better, in ways you didn’t think possible. Then everyday can help reinforce and sustain those changes.
Why Do People Do Structural Integration?
Some people come to Structural Integration for physical reasons like better posture, improved athletic performance, to regain flexibility, or to release tension patterns. Some have chronic aches and pains that have not responded to other treatments. Others do Structural Integration as part of a program to optimize their well-being.
Still others do Structural Integration because they are seeking to unencumber themselves of emotional traumas that are embedded in their bodies. Emotional and mental stress can become locked in physical structure, and then determine how you get to move. Often as the physical structure releases from it’s restriction pattern, the person recalls past memories and the emotions of these memories.
Describe What it Looks Like and
What it Feels Like.
If you were only an observer, you would see the SI Practitioner use his/her fingers, knuckles, or elbows to manipulate the connective tissue. It might look like the SI Practitioner was pressing into the skin and pushing the skin in a certain direction, or not moving at all. To the person experiencing the Rolfing®, however, it’s not like that at all.
You can feel the SI Practitioner’s pressure sink to different layers of your body. With the SI Practitioner’s slow, steady pressure, you might feel these layers begin to spread or release or move. Sometimes you can feel the tissues getting warmer or tingling, like the pins-and-needles sensation. The inside of the body can feel freer or bigger, like there’s more space inside. Your SI Practitioner might be working with your lower legs or feet while you feel your lower back, shoulder or jaw release their restrictions.
At times you might be asked to focus your attention or breath into the connective tissue or a restriction. Your SI Practitioner might ask you to do a precise movement, like slowly bending your knee. You and your SI Practitioner might explore the ways you can sit or stand so your body can support itself (i.e. you don’t have to hold yourself up).
You might feel, when you stand up, that your legs, or feet or arms, are in a more comfortable position. You might feel your shoulders are soft or your back can relax in a way it never has before. You might feel more connected inside your skin, like parts of you are moving in sync rather than struggling against each other. You might come to realize how tight a part of your body was because you now have the looseness and freedom as a comparison.
It’s important to remember: What each person experiences is unique and is influenced by his/her goals and awareness. Therefore, there is no way to describe accurately how you will experience your individual sessions.
Jake’s Bio
I finished the Brian Utting School of Massage in 1998 and moved back to Spokane to join my now wife while she finished law school at Gonzaga. We had the good fortune of renting a 500 sq. ft house from her mother, which gave me the opportunity to commit to my bodywork studies. It wasn’t until February of 1999 that I joined a very talented group of healthcare professionals at Allied Healthcare, now Applied Healthcare on 14th and Grand. I shared a room with Heidi Boehl and Dr. Keith Morehouse for the 8 years that I was there. In January of 2007, Mary Iverson and Shelley Brady approached me with an offer to buy a commercial condo and before I knew it we were partners and had a condo being built for us, which is now 2nd Ave Healing Arts. I have seen a few changes since we opened in Aug of 07, but over all it seems to be going very well for all of us.
Moving into the Rolf Method of SI from therapeutic massage provided a space for me to help reveal the human potential in my clients. I studied at GSI with Emmett Hutchins and Jeff Linn in 2005 for my auditing class and 5 months later practiced with Neil Powers and Liz Stewart. In 2008, I went back to Kauai for my advanced certification in the Rolf Method. I was again studying with Emmett joined by Tom Wing and Isaac Osborne. The Rolf work has opened my eyes to what hands can do with a human being. Since then I have attended a few weekend workshops designed to enhance the Rolf method work.
Contact
Jake McBurns
430 West 2nd Avenue
Spokane, WA 99201
Tel:
(509) 220-1056
Fax:
(509) 456-2085
Email:
jake@jakemcburns.com
Office Hours
Mon
3:30pm – 10:30pm
Tue
8:00am – 2:30pm
Wed
8:30am – 3:00pm
Thu
3:30pm – 10:30pm