Structural Integration
Structural Integration (SI) is hands-on bodywork and movement education that helps your whole body organize itself more easily in gravity. Instead of chasing one sore spot at a time, we look at how you are stacked, supported, and moving, and then work with the connective tissue that holds it all together.
The approach was developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf, and today it is carried forward by practitioners around the world, including through the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI). My own training is in the Ida Rolf lineage: 200 hours certified, and I am currently completing a 500-hour program for board certification, finishing in December 2026.
Gravity is the therapist.
Gravity is acting on you every moment of every day. When your body is balanced with it, gravity becomes a quiet source of support. When parts drift out of alignment, it turns into a constant load, and the body compensates with tension, stiffness, or pain in places that seem unrelated.
Your vertical axisFinding The Line
In SI we call the vertical axis around which a balanced body organizes itself The Line. It is a visual reference I look for when I assess how you stand, and it is also something you can feel: a sense of ease and upright support. This is what we mean by segmental alignment, the balanced stacking of the body's major segments along that line.
- Head
- Shoulder girdle
- Ribcage
- Pelvis
- Thighs and knees
- Feet and lower legs
Stand barefoot and close your eyes for ten seconds. Where does your weight fall: toes or heels, left or right? That small scan is the beginning of what I do in a BodyReading.
The tissue we work withThe fascial net
Fascia is the soft connective tissue that wraps and connects every muscle, bone, organ, and nerve. It forms one continuous, three-dimensional web, which is why a restriction in one area can show up somewhere else. In SI, fascia is treated as the structural organ of posture.
Fascial net
Also called myofascial continuity: one unbroken web around everything in the body.
Plasticity
Fascia can reshape under sustained, skilled pressure and movement, regaining length, glide, and elasticity (viscoelasticity).
Tensegrity
Think of a tent: bones are the compression struts and fascia is the network of tension. Forces spread across the whole frame, so a sore knee can be a story about your pelvis or your foot.
Two layersSleeve and Core
Tap a layer to see what it is and what it does.
The Sleeve
The superficial fascia and larger muscles that create broad movement. The sleeve is often where we hold strain patterns and bracing.
The Core
The deep intrinsic muscles, deep fascia, spine, and pelvis. The core supports posture, breath, and steady central stability.
In the roomWhat happens in a session
We begin by looking at how you stand and move. I notice rotations, tilts, and shifts in your frame, which show where your tissues are working the hardest.
With my hands, forearms, and your own guided movement, I work to separate layers of fascia that have become stuck together through injury, repetitive strain, or long-held posture, so neighboring tissues can slide independently again.
As layers free up, the work gathers those parts back into one coordinated whole, so your body moves with more grace and less effort.
The classic sequenceThe Ten Series
Structural Integration is traditionally offered as a Ten Series: ten sessions of about 90 minutes each, spaced one to two weeks apart, so your nervous system and tissues have time to adapt between visits. It moves through three stages.
The Sleeve
Open the breath, free the rib cage, organize the sides of the pelvis, and establish length along the sides of the body.
Going deeper
Work into the inner thighs (adductors), pelvic floor, psoas, spine, neck, and cranium to build internal length and core support.
Bringing it together
Unify sleeve and core, align the joints, and practice movement patterns so your new structure works as one balanced unit.
After a Ten Series, many people return for occasional maintenance sessions. Four need-based scholarships are offered each year; you can learn more and apply here, and a prepaid Ten Series is available in packages.
Good to knowQuestions people ask
Who comes to Structural Integration?
People come for long-standing pain, postural patterns that will not budge, recovery from injury, or a feeling that their body no longer moves the way it used to. The goal is not simply to correct posture. It is integration: balance, fluid movement, and adaptability, so your body works with less resistance in gravity.
What should I wear?
Shorts and a sports bra, tube top, or similar, so I can see and work with your whole structure.
How long is each session?
Ten Series sessions are 90 minutes. Maintenance sessions between or after series are 60 minutes.
Terms at a glance
- Gravity as the therapist
- Dr. Rolf's premise that gravity is the primary organizing force for human structure.
- The Line
- The vertical axis around which a body in equilibrium is balanced.
- Fascial net
- The continuous web of connective tissue that envelops and connects every structure in the body.
- Plasticity and viscoelasticity
- Fascia's ability to reshape under sustained pressure and movement.
- Tensegrity
- Stability from a continuous tension network balancing compression struts.
- Sleeve and Core
- The outer movement layer and the deep supporting column of the body.
- Segmental alignment
- The balanced stacking of the body's major segments along The Line.
- BodyReading
- Visual assessment of how you stand and move.
- Differentiation
- Separating fascial layers so neighboring tissues can glide independently.
- Integration
- Harmonizing freed parts into one coordinated, efficient whole.
Ready to feel the difference?
Come see what your body does when it stops fighting gravity.
Structural Integration is educational bodywork. It does not diagnose or treat medical conditions and does not replace care from your doctor.