Does Structural Integration Relieve Stress?
How Does Structural Integration Work?
Does Structural Integration Hurt?
What is the Difference Between Massage and Structural Integration?


DOES STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION RELIEVE STRESS?

When people come to Structural Integration practitioners, they frequently complain about their high level of stress and how it affects their everyday life. They are seeking some means of reducing their stress. Often, they have explored allopathic means such as muscle relaxants, painkillers, liniments, balms and other topical treatments. When these treatments fail to achieve a satisfactory level of improvement, those still suffering seek other forms of relief such as exercise, meditation, yoga, visualization and chanting. They may also seek a myofascial (neuromuscular) solution and start receiving regular massages or some other similar soft tissue therapy. In many cases, these therapies are good at providing transitory relief of the physical causes of chronic stress. Those seeking a more permanent solution to the problem are more likely to have success with Structural Integration.

What most potential clients fail to understand is that Structural Integration is not a method which focuses on stress reduction. What the Structural Integration method does is create a higher level of integration in the body, balancing and educating the body and the psyche. As the body approaches balance, it is more comfortable in the gravitational field. As the body becomes more comfortable, physical and emotional stress diminish. This chain of events is a more typical sequence as a body changes during the Structural Integration process. Ultimately, however, the results as experienced by the client are more important than the process. All clients experience benefits from Structural Integration, an important one for most is that they are less stressed and more at ease in their bodies.

HOW DOES STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION WORK?

The original theory of how Structural Integration works was derived from Dr. Ida Rolf's writings and educational trainings. In her view, the goal of Structural Integration is to create balance and improve fascial relationships in all dimensions: front to back, side to side, inside to outside. Structural Integration is a process that integrates all the body's myofascial layers, and muscular and other soft tissue structures encased and connected by the fascial network.

Structural Integration aims to restore the body to a state of balance or homeostasis, and provide optimum functioning. Since the body is constantly in the process of self-correction to achieve homeostasis, Structural Integration recognizes that an ideal state of balance, reduced stress and efficient functioning at all levels is desired.

Structural Integration is a method that helps move the body more closely to this optimal state. A body which has received Structural Integration effectively "holds" this more efficient orientation. One of the most obvious demonstrations of this process, is the higher level of tissue malleability and coherence in the client's tissues years after they have had their basic series work.

More recently, there have emerged a few alternate competing theories that relate to Structural Integration. One widely discussed theory is called the thixotropic of gel-sol-gel theory. Basically, this theory states that touch/pressure generates heat and that this heat softens or liquefies connective tissue and turns it from a gelatinous to a liquid substance. Once the tissue is softened, it becomes more malleable and can be more easily reorganized and manipulated. Once we have placed structures in a new relationship to each other, it soon recongeals and returns to its original state.

Another model says that pressure activates sensory receptors and these receptors send signals to the brain, which in turn, facilitate change in affected tissue, increasing its tensile strength and making it easier to manipulate.

Other Structural Integrators have argued for a hybrid theory that incorporates elements of both theories. While these various theories have been much debated recently, the traditional model introduced above still serves as a simple theory for the extraordinary lasting change that Structural Integration creates.

DOES STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION HURT?

When most people think of Structural Integration, one of the first words that come to their mind is pain. Often, this perception is based on anecdotal accounts of sessions performed during Structural Integration's infancy, when it tended to be often a less subtle and more intense discipline, frequently linked to popular emotionally intense types of therapies in the late 1960's and early 70's.  However, we now realize that deep work is not necessarily synonymous with physical intensity.

Several factors determine the level of comfort or discomfort during a Structural Integration session. One is the degree of trauma in the system. Another is how long fascial distortions have been in the client's body. Long-term distortions create more tenacious and widespread compensatory patterns, which may require more sustained pressure to release.

The important thing to remember is that you are always in control of your Structural Integration process and that you will be able to set the pace and intensity of your treatment.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MASSAGE AND STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION?

One of the most common misconceptions about Structural Integration is that it is a nothing more than a type of very deep massage. There are many varieties of massage, which are particularly effective for loosening tight tissue, reducing stress, detoxing the body and an increased feeling of relaxation and well-being.

Since these benefits are also a byproduct of Structural Integration, the general public experience confusion as to the precise difference between our work and the proliferation of effective touch modalities currently available. 

We palpate, or touch the tissue, feeling for imbalances in tissue texture, quality and temperature to determine where we need to work. We discriminate, or separate fascial layers that adhere and muscles that have been pulled out of position by strain or injury. Finally, we integrate the body, relating its segments in an improved relationship, bringing physical balance in the gravitational field. 

As Dr. Rolf used to say: "Anyone can take a body apart, very few know how to put it back together." The true genius of her method is the art and science of reshaping and reorganizing human structure according to clearly defined principles in a systematic and consistent manner.