Ida P. Rolf received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Physiology from Columbia University in 1920, She searched for better treatments to many health issues. During her tenure at the Rockefeller Institute in the departments of chemotherapy and organic chemistry, she became focused on the myofascial tissues of the body and its impact on ones physical and mental well being. She found that by manually manipulating the fascia many impaired areas of the body structure healed, aligned themselves properly and resumed better function. Dr. Rolf taught classes in Rolfing worldwide for more than four decades. She established the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado in 1972.

 

The system called Structural Integration developed by Dr. Rolf aligns and balances the physical body within its gravitational field. This re-balancing is accomplished through systematic manipulation that loosens and organizes the fascia or connective tissue that surrounds the muscles.

 

Dr. Ida Rolf wrote, "Some individuals may perceive their losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in their back, others as the unflattering contour of their body, others as constant fatigue, yet others as an unrelentingly threatening environment. Those over forty may call it old age. And yet all these signals may be pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored: they are off balance, they are at war with gravity" (Rolfing: Reestablishing the Natural Alignment & Structural Integration of the Human Body for Vitality and Well-Being)