Pain is not our friend. In fact, many of us live lives of impaired quality due to chronic pain. Walking upright gave man the ability to see prey at a distance, but the human skeleton pays a price. There are 500,00 back surgeries while more than 1% of Americans are prescribed narcotics for back pain.

Pain masking medication and surgery with associated risks have been quick fix answers for Americans for many years. The opioid epidemic has focused attention on the treatment of pain, and well-meaning restrictions on the prescription of narcotic painkillers leave many seeking alternatives.

Eastern medicine traditions have long held that the best treatments are those which come from within to assist the body to heal itself. Attention has found successful results in acupuncture, yoga, and chiropractic methods. Each seeks to bring the body into alignment and restore it to full and pain free functioning.

Rolfing is such a technique noted particularly for its positive effects. Developed in the 1940s by Dr. Ida Rolf, rolfing is a form of deep tissue manipulation which releases the pressure on the fascia around the bones and allows the natural force of gravity to restore function and reduce pain. Her program 10 Session Structural Integration has limited controlled study research, but ample anecdotal evidence of dramatic improvements in posture, athletic performance and enduring reductions in Musculo-skeletal pain.

An increasing number of Americans are turning to this drug free, non-surgical approach. Structural Integration is offered by certified Rolfer Practitioners. A searchable map of practitioners can be found at the Rolfing website.