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I first found out about Rolfing in 1973 from a popular psychology magazine. I looked for a Rolfer and found Maurice Paulson. I was delighted with the results of Maurice’s work with me. I found that the changes I had read about were happening in my body and my being. I was lengthening and relaxing in my body, gaining suppleness and strength and finding myself at home within myself in a way I hadn’t known before.
At that time, I was a counselor at a residential children’s psychiatric unit, having graduated with a B.A. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Based on this experience, I reconnected with my life-long love of working with my hands and decided I wanted to contribute to people’s well being through Rolfing. I felt then, and still feel today, that the Rolfing method is hightly replicable and reliable: my clients’ structures open and develop along predictable lines that produce expansion and liveliness.
After Rolfing for about 10 years, I completed a Masters degree in Organization Development at Loyola University of Chicago and took an OD position with a major corporation in the Chicago area. I worked for that firm and maintained a small Rolfing practice for 15 years. After several enjoyable years of consulting work, I became less interested in working to improve the function of a large business and found resurging interest in working with my individual clients. I now have a full-time Rolfing practice with offices in Evanston and the Chicago loop.
I first completed the Rolf Institute training in 1978, and the Advanced Rolfer certification in 1980. In addition to continuing education workshops at the Rolf Institute, I have also pursued training in craniosacral therapy and visceral manipulation.
Beginning in 2002, I have been engaged in an extensive continuing education program. In 2002 I completed the Rolf Institute Advanced Training. This was the second time I participated in this 6-week course. In this course we covered all of the material that has been added since I first completed the Advanced Training in 1980.
- In 2002 and 2003, I completed courses in visceral manipulation with the Upledger Institute and with Liz Gaggini. Liz is a long-time member of the Rolf Institute and brings her perspective on Structural Integration to the application of visceral manipulation techniques.
- In 2003 and 2004, I participated in a series of 5, 4-day courses offered by Gaggini where she presents a specific and detailed method she has developed for analyzing and addressing patterns of structural imbalance and compensation.
- March of 2004 I started a 3-year program leading to certification in the biodynamic craniosacral therapy method studying with Dr. Michael Shea. Many of my Rolfing colleagues and I have studied the craniosacral method of therapeutic manipulation and include this method as appropriate in the regular series of Rolfing sessions or as adjunctive sessions in addition to the Rolfing sessions are done. We use the craniosacral method to work with patterns of strain or trauma that have become embedded in layers of structure or nervous system that are out of reach of the usual Rolfing methods. This program 3-year program includes 10, 5-day seminars, 150 documented practice sessions and 3 case studies with individuals who each receive a series of 8 craniosacral therapy sessions. I completed this program in September 2006. I am a Registered CranioSacral Therapist (RCST) and member of the Cranial Sacral Therapy Association of North America.
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