Rolfing
Written by: THE BALANCE
Medically reviewed by Dr. Sarah Boss, MD
Last updated: January 19, 2026
Fact checked
Quick Summary
  • A top-down approach begins in the mind, while a bottom-up approach begins in the body.
  • One of our most transformative techniques, called Rolfing®️ Structural Integration, has been around since the 1950's and was more developed during the Human Potential Movement of the 70's.
  • We sat down with our Certified Rolfer®️, Petro Kohut, to discuss its origins, how it works, and why he believes so strongly in its ability to change people's lives.
Reading time: 6 min

We at The Balance Healthcare Group know that healing is not one dimensional. What works for one person might won’t work for someone else. We believe in a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. A big part of this belief is following both top-down and bottom-up approaches. A top-down approach begins in the mind, while a bottom-up approach begins in the body. One of our most transformative techniques, called Rolfing®️ Structural Integration, has been around since the 1950’s and was more developed during the Human Potential Movement of the 70’s.  Rolfing follows the bottom-up approach to healing. We sat down with our Certified Rolfer®️, Petro Kohut, to discuss its origins, how it works, and why he believes so strongly in its ability to change people’s lives.

Rolfing is a type of manual therapy that activates the nervous system within the connective tissue. “It’s psychotherapy through hands,” says our expert Rolfer, Petro. There are a great amount of nerve endings in fascia, or the connective tissue that holds our body together. Those nerve endings speak to the brain and tell it what kind of state our tissues and muscles are in. Rolfing is a form of bodywork and movement education that manipulates that neural-fascial connection and sends new signals to the brain. Those new messages can have radical transformations in the way the body releases tensions, interacts with gravity, and re-aligns itself. Petro explains: “It’s all about bringing the body back to a state of balance.”

The practice comes from a woman named Dr Ida P Rolf, a biochemist and scientist. She was one of the first women in America to receive her PhD in the 1920’s during a time where there was a lot of resistance against women in stem. She was a pioneer in her field, and spent a large amount of time studying everything about the body – beyond her field of science. She studied with osteopaths and spend years deepening her yoga practice with various teachers.  

These body based practices gave her the skills and knowledge to help friends, family and the community around her get out of painful patterns – patterns that were causing dysfunction in the system. In a time when people were looking at different parts of the body, she was far ahead of her time – looking at the whole body as a system as it relates to gravity. She had a gift to feel and understand the body in a way others could not. “Rolfing was born from trying to teach people to see the body as she did,” explains Petro. It’s her study of the connective tissue, and how touching it and encouraging the body and brain to be in a more healthy communication can change our patterns and limiting beliefs without the need to focus on the mind.

A treatment can range from one session to a full scale process over the period of three to four months. “The outcome, very often, from a single session is that there is a great change to the experience of the body immediately after.” The process focuses in on a different aspect of the body or, set of relationships within the body, during each session. Petró looks at the places that people say their pain is coming from, and looks or feels through the connective tissue of the body that passes through those places. “Everyone walks in with their own story. A person may walk in a way that favours their right leg, and that might have come from a broken ankle when they were young. The affects of that limp can show up in the pelvis, the back, the balance and mobility of the body. It affects everything.” Petro starts treatment with those stories.
It’s common for a practitioner to look at the way someone breathes. “Are they able to inhale or are they locked in an exhale? If an exhale is fixed, we need to open the front of the body. If it’s the reverse and someone stands tall with their chest out, bending over and working on the muscles like that can be quite powerful.” The body is a symphony of reciprocal relationships and pressure systems. Petro asks in every session: “How can this person experience more balance? Both within the body, and within the world.” Unlike treatments that focus on fixing pain in a certain area of the body, Rolfing is a slow, deliberate listening and giving information to the body in order to help it find its way back to balance.

When you come to The Balance, you could expect to receive four to eight sessions of Rolfing®️ Structural Integration during your time with us. Petro will work with you to address the most important aspects of change that will benefit your entire process of healing. “I combine Rolfing with Somatic Experiencing®️ – it’s a body centerd trauma therapy that uses the body and the senses to create a sense of safety and balance in the body.” Petro aims to give back a sense of autonomy through his work. When you come to The Balance, you are given the tools, resources, and jump start to change the way you interact with your own life. We take you from a place of vulnerability to strength. Rolfing®️ Structural Integration is one of the many ways we access the body to restore balance. Petro explains: “We are the first aid kit that pulls people out of a very dark place, and instil them with the tools, resources and learnings to find stability in themselves moving forward.”

Rolfing®️ Structural Integration is an innovative technique that follows a bottom-up approach to healing. The practice was created by Dr Ida P Rolf in an effort to share the way she saw the body with the world. She taught people how to access the body through touch the way she was capable of. A Rolfer works with body in order to free limitations or restrictions and upgrade the brain/body connection. It is one of the principal body based approaches that we practice here at The Balance Healthcare Group.

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