What People Worldwide are Saying about Rolfing®...
(reprinted with permission from Bethany Ward Certified Advanced Rolfer)
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Larry Dossey, MD, best-selling author
"There is one major reason to take Rolfing seriously: it works. Not only can it dramatically change people's bodies, it can transform their lives as well. Rolfing is powerful stuff."
Jim Mongomery, MD, orthopedic surgeon
Mongomery often refers his clients to Rolfing: "I send a variety of my clients to a Certified Advanced Rolfer, Nicholas French. People with shoulder and elbow problems, with scar tissue resulting from injury or surgery, chronic hamstring problems, low back and cervical spine problems. People that have had chronic problems that have not been helped by anything else. All those people can be helped with Rolfing."
Karlis Ullis, MD, Team physician for 1992 summer Olympics; Sports Medicine and Anti-Aging Medical Group, Santa Monica, CA
"Athletes always need help with chronic injuries, muscular strains and overuse. The Olympic athletes wouldn't have as many injuries if they had appropriate soft tissue therapy. Rolfing is valuable for athletes in high level competition to address the build up of scar tissue and disarrangement of myofascial tissue that occurs from training, competition, and injury." Dr. Ullis has provided medical expertise to athletes at five Olympic games, including Lillehammer, Albertville, and Barcelona, in the fields of figure skating, cross country skiing, bobsleigh, biathlon, track and field, among others.
Bret Nye, MD and Certified Advanced Rolfer
"Demand for the services of health practitioners like Rolfers is growing as evidenced by the November, 1998 JAMA estimate of $21.2 billion being spent for alternative medicine in 1997. Integrative health care is a new trend, that combines Western and complementary medicines to offer the best technological advances in health care. Health insurance companies are increasingly becoming interested in therapies like Rolfing not only as potential cost effective alternatives or complements to traditional modalities, but as opportunities to provide coverage for services that will distinguish them in an increasingly competitive marketplace of providers."
ATHLETES
The Phoenix Suns—first major NBA Basketball team to have a Certified Advanced Rolfer. "Phoenix Suns guard, Danny Ainge, who has been Rolfed for years, recommended the therapy to Charles Barkley. Other Suns, Mark West and A.C. Green, also have been Rolfed.” —Arizona Republic, May 1994
Three Olympic athletes trained at the Rolf Institute in June 1998
John Bauer, 1992 and 1998 Olympian Nordic Skier; Grant Ernhardt, US Biathlon team member; and Gary Colliander, Minnesota Biathlete; commenced Rolfing training. They say that a career in bodywork fits athletes’ lifestyles and furthers their training
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Sarah Will, 1998 US Paralympic Gold Medal Skier
"Rolfing gives you a competitive edge as an athlete.” Will, a paraplegic athlete and member of the US Disabled Ski Team, credits her five gold metals to Rolfing.
Bob Tewksbury, pitcher for the Minnesota Twins
"I have received many benefits from Rolfing. In 1991, my massage therapist recommended it as a way to get a deeper level of work. Although the benefits of muscle work come and go depending on when and how regularly I get Rolfing work, I have noticed long lasting benefits with regard to my breathing, posture and body awareness. I have used Rolfing mainly in two areas: for my lower and upper back to help with flexibility and stiffness and to enhance my performance. I plan to use it again."
Sharon Sander, ranked second on the US Pentathlon team
"I recommend Rolfing for any athlete who has ever had trouble with injuries or doesn't feel like they are reaching their potential."
Craig Swan, former New York Mets pitcher
"Bodywork can extend athletic careers," says Swan, whose career ended due to injury. "I truly believe if I had been Rolfed earlier in my career, I would still be pitching.” Swan’s recovery from a pitching injury inspired him to become a Rolfer and help others. His clients include former baseball star, Tom Seaver and tennis champion, Ivan Lendl.
Michelle Kwan and Elvis Stojko, 1998 Olympic Silver Medalists
Elvis Stojko introduced Helen James (a physical therapist and Certified Advanced Rolfer) to Michelle Kwan during the Campbell Soup Tour of World Figure Skating Champions. Stojko, who has benefited from James' expertise since 1995 says, "Rolfing helped me to find my center of balance for competition; it puts my body in place." Working with Olympic and world champion figure skaters is nothing new for James. She says, "It's key for figure skaters like Michelle and Elvis, to find an exact, balanced position in space. Balance and integration are the primary goals of the Rolfing process. Athletes find they have fewer injuries and recover more quickly through Rolfing work. They feel lighter and have more energy because they're not working as hard. They perform and complete their jumps with more ease."
Joe Greene, two-time U.S. Olympic bronze medal long jumper
"Rolfing works. It really makes a huge difference. I've been in track and field a long time and wish I had known about it sooner. My stomach tenses and my hips tighten when I jump. The Rolfing bodywork helped me to breathe and I felt taller."
CELEBRITIES
Leon Fleisher, virtuoso concert pianist
"When a crippling hand injury ended his performing career, Peabody pianist, Leon Fleisher went down a different musical road. Thirty years later, he's turned up an unexpected corner (when he met Certified Advanced Rolfer, Tessy Brunghardt)...The [Rolfing] results were remarkable." —John Hopkins Magazine, 1995
Levar Burton, actor
"The Rolfer works on fascia which is the thin sheath of white tissue that covers the musculature. By manipulating the fascia you manipulate the musculature, and in turn the skeletal structure, so you bring alignment to the body... It can be very healing, cleansing and balancing for the body."—Oprah, July 7, 1996
Willie Nelson, songwriter
"My wife recommended [Rolfing] highly", says Willie Nelson, "The first of ten sessions fixed [my back pain]." —New York Times, Feb. 23, 1995
Sam Keen, best-selling writer, former Psychology Today editor, and co-producer of award winning PBS documentary Faces of The Enemy
"Bodywork has allowed me at age 65 to live as vigorously as I want to, in an embodied way. Nine months ago I started studying flying trapeze work, and I couldn’t have done it without Rolfing."—Whole Life Times, August, 1994