Positive Health Online

Dr Rolf, Rolfing and Structural Integration

Listed in bodywork

The practitioner of Structural Integration (Rolfing) applies systematic pressure (energy) to re-shape and re-balance the body structure. Tissue which was short and hard becomes soft...

Creating Creativity in Body Therapy

Listed in bodywork

I have been involved in body therapy for about twenty-five years and although I have studied many systems and styles of body therapy my main practice has always been Rolfing. Being ...

1997, Me and Body Therapy

Listed in bodywork

What kind of a year was 1997 for me? To put it succinctly, it was a year where, thank God, there were only three hundred and sixty-five days!

Reading and Misreading the Body (part 2)

Listed in bodywork

In my previous column I suggested there are too many pitfalls (at least for me) to make informed judgments about a clients psychological condition or spiritual state from their phys...

Reading and Misreading the Body

Listed in bodywork

Therapists, whether they focus on the physical mental or spiritual can only be readily certain about the physical aspects of their clients; the body never lies.

Million Dollar Health Secrets - Standing Meditation

Listed in chi energy martial arts

In my twenty-five years as a body therapist I have come across the words -million dollar health secret- three times. The term denotes a simple technique or practice which can easily...

Some myths about practice building

Listed in clinical practice

For most adults, their single most time-consuming activity is work. Yet unfortunately very few people find full satisfaction in theirs. I believe lack of satisfaction in work is a m...

Bert-Ola, My New Friend and Teacher

Listed in bodywork

Werner Erhard, the founder of EST, once said that if you put a rat in a maze with cheese in the centre, the rat will keep trying various possibilities until it eventually figures ou...

The Anatomy and Physiology of Sex, a Eulogy and other matters

Listed in anatomy and physiology

What do sex and pain have in common? Each person can answer this in their own way; there are lots of possibilities. For me, they are both subjects on which so much has been written ...

Eulogy for a Book

Listed in bodywork

Every once in a while I come across a book which is relatively unknown, possibly out of print, and which has an important influence on my bodywork practice.

My China Experience (Part Two)

Listed in chi energy martial arts

My China story continues (see Positive Health January/ February 1997 for Part One). Let me recap very briefly before continuing. I went to China last year for a month to immerse mys...

Body Therapy, Ethics and Quantum Mechanics

Listed in bodywork

A few months ago, I was having tea near St. James Park in London with friends who were far more knowledgeable about the politics of body therapy and alternative medicine. I am certa...

My China Experience (Part One)?

Listed in chi energy martial arts

The question mark after Part One is not a printer error. It is there because the experience has not really been crystallised fully in me yet; it is still evolving.

The neglect of the body in psychotherapy

Listed in bodywork

This month the column continues on a theme discussed in a previous issue – the interactive aspects of Bodywork and Psychology.

Bodywork and Baking Bread

Listed in bodywork

I have a good friend named Donna (not her true name) who started studying body therapies about twenty years ago. The first therapy she learnt was a form of structural bodywork, an o...

Psychotherapy and Bodywork

Listed in bodywork

This months column will be a special one, written by me and a friend and colleague who works in the related field of psychotherapy – Dr Sheldon Litt. Dr Litt trained with the...

Learning from the Masters

Listed in bodywork

Allan studied with many of the originators and founders of bodywork systems. Among them was Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais and Lauren Berry. In this article he talks about some of thei...

Remembering Dr Rolf

Listed in bodywork

May 1996 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr Ida P Rolf, one of the leading contributors to body therapy in the 20th century, who was born in May 1896. Although Dr Rolf h...

For Back Pain Look to the Front of the Body Too

Listed in back pain

Bodyworkers can divide their clients loosely into two (not necessarily exclusive) groups. There are clients who want to relieve general stress and be more relaxed. And there are cli...

Body Parts and Body Problems

Listed in bodywork

Where two or more bones join we have a joint, and a joint is a place which generally allows movement. There is, however, a trade-off between joint movement and invulnerability. That...