Pilates, Structural Integration and Resource Oriented Skill Training
February and March have been incredibly busy for me as well as incredibly productive. The first full weekend in February I started the ITT Pilates Mat Training. I’ve previously written about my history with Pilates and my current renewed interest in this body of work here. The third weekend in February I flew to Los […]
My Pilates Journey
I have been involved with Pilates more or less since the late 1980s. I was first introduced to Pilates principles while studying dance with Mercy Sidbury at Sonoma State University. My curiosity piqued, I went to the SSU Library and checked out The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning by Philip Friedman and Gail […]
Bodywork as Meditation Part 4 of 4
Final installment of the article by my friend Raymond Bishop, Certified Advanced Rolfer. Another dimension of this subtle and global sensing is a phenomenon called entrainment.¹? Entrainment is the tendency of objects in close proximity to become interlocked and move in synchronicity. One reason that this occurs is that “nature seeks the most efficient energy […]
Bodywork as Meditation Part 3 of 4
Continuation of the article by my friend Raymond Bishop, Certified Advanced Rolfer. The ideas of Tolle have a strong resonance with a much earlier esoteric philosopher, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff who integrated Eastern tenets with his uniquely confrontational approach to enlightenment. In his hagiographic study of Gurdjieff and his philosphy, John Shirley frequently affirms this mystic’s […]
Bodywork as Meditation Part 2 of 4
Continuation of the article written by my friend Raymond Bishop, Certified Advanced Rolfer. If we focus too much on muscular structures, we miss the larger fascial planes that morph and alter the dynamic relationships between these structures. Conversely, swimming in the fascia without a constant eye to the mutating coastline, the rocky shoals and obdurate […]
Bodywork as Meditation Part 1 of 4
The following is the text of an article written by my dear friend Raymond J. Bishop. Ray did his basic Rolfing® training and his Rolf™ Movement training at the Rolf Institute for Structural Integration in 1995. He did his advanced Rolfing® training with Jan Sultan and Sally Klemm in Seattle in 2000. Ray has a […]
A Tribute to Raymond J. Bishop, Jr., Ph.D.
Ray Bishop was a close friend and colleague of mine who passed away in December 2008. What follows is a memorial I wrote for Ray. With the permission of his life partner, Carlton, I am also having Ray guest blog with an article he wrote titled, Bodywork as Meditation. I just re-read this article and […]
How I Became A Certified Rolfer™ Part 4 (Finding My Calling)
The final events that led me to become a Rolfing practitioner. The end of one journey, but the beginning of a whole new world of adventures.
How I Became a Certified Rolfer™ Part 3 (After The Braces Came Off)
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this 4 part series. In reconstructing the timeline for this article I discovered I wore the twister cables for 15 to 18 months. I was still wearing the cables when I entered kindergarten in the fall of 1972. Until that time I had been relatively sheltered at home […]
How I Became a Certified Rolfer™ Part 2 (Gaining Knowledge)
This is a more detailed anatomical explanation of the leg patterning issues I faced that resulted in my needing to wear “twister cables.”