Fascia is a liquid crystal matrix- the fabric that shapes our bodies. Even our bones are structurally formed by a collagen matrix (fascia) which is hardened by mineralization (1). Fascia has plasticity and piezoelectric properties (a common example would be a electric cigarette lighter: pressing the button causes a spring-loaded hammer to hit a piezoelectric crystal, producing a sufficiently high-voltage electric current that flows across a small spark gap, thus heating and igniting the gas) (2, 3). This means that when it is subject to mechanical stress fascia produces an electrical charge, which creates heat and melts the collagen crystals. It is just like Jello, which is a liquid collagen crystal made from fascia. When you heat a Jello man he turns to liquid and you can then remold him and when you cool him down he has a new shape. This is essentially what the Structural Integration Process does. Through the piezoelectric properties and plasticity of our fascia this can be done with your body, by skilled application of pressure and manipulation of the soft tissues. You can structurally remodel the entire body including the way it moves, because even movement patterns are programmed into the fascia.

Most people who are reading this are experiencing pain. Often times they have tried everything they could find to fix it. It could be migraines, back pain, neck pain, or pain in the hips, knees, elbows, hands or feet. It could also be scoliosis. But let’s look at why musculoskeletal pain exists (4). We’ve established that fascia holds everything in place and determines it’s shape and movement patterns. But what if these fascia patterns are imbalanced… What if we sit stand or move in an imbalanced way? There can be many reasons this would occur from habitual emotions dramatized into our posture, to physical traumas that permanently altered our gait and again our posture, or it could be our activities such as sitting at a desk, playing tennis or running. If any of these things have created an imbalance in our fascia, the shape of the muscles is altered, the position of the bones is altered. Slight misalignments of this nature can irritate and constrict nerves and vasculature that cause pain and disfunction in the organs or extremities they supply, this irritation triggers protective mechanisms in the nervous system that contract the fascia and lock up the muscles and joints and as the body freezes and tightens up degeneration accelerates as spinal discs, nerves, and vasculature is further compressed.

Hopefully this is starting to paint a picture of how restoring healthy plasticity and structurally organizing the posture and movement of the body would restore health where there once was seemingly intractable difficulties.

Every structural imbalance creates strain in our relationship to gravity, like the leaning tower of Piza it is a miracle that some of us are still standing! Each of the 10 sessions of Structural integration works on improving relationships in the body to optimize function of various physiological systems starting with our breathing. Throughout the process we aim to achieve structural balance of front to back, side to side, top to bottom and surface to core, and restore proper function to all the moving parts.

“When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself”

-Ida Rolf