A Rolfers Calling Card

14 Apr

Before I became a bodyworker I learnt about "seeing" in quite a different way. Growing up in the film industry there was much emphasis on how things looked on the outside. I continued in this direction while studying History of Art and Film studies at Middlesex University, graduating in 1991. Learning how to see and visually assess art and photography became the foundation of my work as a Rolfer.

"Seeing" is a Rolfer's calling card. When you first train as a Rolfer you just can't imagine how you're going to ever be able to see into the body and do what we call a "body reading". It does take practise but we're actually all doing it all the time; it's just about honing your eyes and opening up your vision, collecting cues from all the non-verbal communication layers and listening on many different plains.

I have been a Certified Rolfer for the past 20 years and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for 14 years. I trained to be a Rolfer over four years; first travelling to Boulder, Colorado, in October 2001 to complete my first module at The Rolf institute. The following year I studied at The Rolf Institute in Isla de Santa Catarina in Brazil, finally travelling to Munich, Germany, for my last module, where I qualified in April 2004.

After qualifying I came home to England and set up London's first Rolfing concessions clinic in Clapham. Two and a half years later I embarked on the intense and profound three-year Somatic Experiencing Practitioner training in London.

During these early years, while I began to establish my practice at the reputable The Life Centre in Notting Hill Gate, I had the honour for four of those years of also working alongside some of the dons of bodywork in the UK at The Medicine Group on Harley Street.