Can Rolfing Structural Integration help your back pain?
Can Rolfing Structural Integration help your back pain?
Here’s the short answer: Yes, probably so. But that help doesn't come by "treating your back pain."
Rolfing Structural Integration focuses on improving the organization of the connective tissue (fascia) in your body, improving your alignment and how you physically interact with the world. One of the amazing side-benefits of that improved organization is that most people who are experiencing back pain beforehand, feel significant improvements as they go through the Rolfing Structural Integration process.
The majority of my clients say they feel much better after the first session. Some of that improvement is only temporary, and some of it is long lasting. By the end of the tenth session, almost every client says that the chronic nature of their back pain has ceased; of course they can still get sore if they don’t take care of themselves, but the constant pain or the intense pain is gone. They can finally sleep through the night, or finish a whole day of work without having to seek some type of temporary relief. Regardless of whether it was low back pain, mid-back pain, upper back pain or some combination, it usually disappears or significantly diminishes.
Within that context, remember that Rolfing SI does not fixed damaged tissue. For example, if you tore a muscle or have a herniated disc, Rolfing SI isn’t going to resolve those issues for you. But, it still may be able to help with the discomfort. Clients with herniated discs often notice just as much improvement as clients who haven’t been diagnosed with herniated discs. Even in those cases, however, we aren't treating the disc herniation. We just work to balance and organize the fascia, creating better support for the spine (and the rest of the body). The frequent result is that much of the pain resolves itself.
Another benefit of Rolfing Structural Integration is that as your body gets better integrated, you’re also likely to receive enhanced benefit from other approaches like Chiropractic or Acupuncture. That means that if Chiropractic gives you some relief now, it will most likely work even better for you and hold better after a Rolfing 10-series.
So can Rolfing Structural Integration help you get out of back pain? Probably. Come try it and find out.
(Please keep in mind that Rolfing Structural Integration is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical conditions or diseases)
