Rolfing not for the faint.

• Author: CALEY, NORA
• Position: Brief Article

MASSAGE TECHNIQUE COULD SAVE BUSINESSES MONEY

Sore baby boomers are clamoring for Rolfing, a massage therapy that really hurts. But not the relaxing spa massage you get after a facial.

"Occasionally people think it's a feel-good backrub," says certified Denver Rolfer Delbert Dorn. "People come by, ask the person in the chair how it feels, and the person will say, 'It hurts like hell."

Rolfing is serious therapeutic pain relief. More than 50 years ago, Ida Rolf earned a doctorate in biochemistry and developed a system of soft tissue manipulation. While most massage rubs muscles, Rolf's idea was to loosen and stretch the ligaments and tissue between bones. The goal was to improve posture and body structure by manipulating deep myofascial structures.

Rolf, who died in 1979, had called her system Structural Integration. Today practitioners call her system Rolfing. The State of Colorado does not certify or license Rolfers, but the Boulder-based Rolf Institute certifies practitioners after they attend an academic and experiential program.

Sue Seecof, publicist for the Rolf Institute, says there are 1,150 certified Rolfers internationally, up from 500 a decade ago. Colorado has 90.

Seecof insists Rolfing is not as painful as it once was. "Rolfing had a reputation for pain during the 70s, when there was the human potential movement and we were looking for cathartic change," she says. "It has evolved as a technique. Now they work within the comfort zone of the client."

Most Rolfers work in sports medicine centers, or in integrated health centers that combine allopathic and alternative medicine. Rolfers generally recommend a 10-session program, at about $75 to $125 25 for an hour-and-a-half. Health insurance sometimes pays for the therapy if it's part of recovery from an auto accident, or if a doctor prescribes Rolfing.

Three years ago Dorn brought his practice to the Colorado Department of Revenue, where state employees with...