Originally popularized as Rolfing®, and several leagues above your average deep tissue massage, Structural Integration (SI) targets fascia: the fibrous, tensional network that rules our body’s shape and mobility. Growing research underlines fascial restrictions as a primary source of mechanical dysfunction that perpetuates our chronic pain, immobility, prolonged injury recovery, and poor postural habits.

Structural Integration is a sequence of myofascial release sessions combined with movement awareness education, designed to evoke postural balance in gravity. DersWerk proudly provides Anatomy Trains Structural Integration (ATSI), and Anders was trained directly under Tom Myers in Maine.

Tom Myers, LMT, is a worldwide-published author, fascial researcher, manual therapist, and former instructor of Rolfing®, where he developed the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians to teach his students. Eventually, he crafted his own SI series lineage around the meridians and founded the Anatomy Trains school for Structural Integration.

Isn’t Rolfing® supposed to really hurt?

In short: not anymore. Rolfing® and all other lineages of SI have been frantically trying to erase our painful notoriety for many years now. With advancements made in neuroscience and our understanding of pain, most schools of SI have been forced to evolve their curriculum towards nervous system receptivity. An over-activated sympathetic nervous system is far less likely to sustain fascial length when it’s bracing against painful touch.

That being said, some nerve receptors enjoy pain, and there is a big difference between injurious pain and productive pain. Knowing the “sweet spot” is determined moment-by-moment in a session, as collaboration between practitioner and patient is communicative throughout. We actively work together to access the deepest muscular layers at your body’s tolerance, and never beyond it. This is what’s effective, safe, and worthwhile.

The Anatomy Trains Structural Integration Approach

During our first intake, we’ll go through an outline of our work ahead, establishing your body’s resources, and your personal goals. Typically, each session begins & ends with postural and movement assessment. This is to get a sense of your strengths, see where postural strain needs support, and to track progress.

In session, your practitioner will apply slow, manual passes along deep muscular pathways and ask for your movement. SI is a participatory therapy where your collaboration, goals and awarenesses are keys to our results. We track your changes together every week, as each session builds off the previous and anticipates the next.

Clients wear form-fitting shorts & workout attire for each session to accurately track and have access to relevant postural features.

One of the primary differences between Structural Integration and a typical myofascial release session, is that we address every nook and cranny of fascial restriction impacting your system, slowly, in a systematic and organized process. This process follows your body’s own unique unraveling of movement compensations, session-by-session, towards fuller embodiment and sustainable change.

The template (recipe) we follow in the Anatomy Trains lineage loosely tracks with the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians, as follows:

The Structural Integration 12-Series

A brief description ATSI from Tom Myers, Founder of Anatomy Trains:

Finding Balance through Structural Integration

Our body’s fascia is considered the system that contains all other body systems, and is especially known for being the connective tissue between muscles. Surrounding every individual muscle, and all the way down to each individual muscle fiber we have fascial connective tissue bags to separate them, called myofascia. Fascia is largely made up of collagen fibers and gooey water, a combination that maintains our body’s shape and permits movement.

Structural Integration and other styles of myofascial release address the myofascia, not only to un-glue muscles where they need to glide more, but also to deeply stretch the muscular bags where space is needed.

Below, we can see the results between Sessions 2 & 3 of a 12-Series, showing that aforementioned “space” created through the patient’s sternum and pecs, thus lifting both her spine and ribcage out of their slump, and even sending her pelvic balance back over the heels:

Every session, we read the postural patterns of the corresponding territory, to open restrictions from all angles. Your body has unique needs, therefore in a series, we may work the same territory several different ways.

What are the Benefits?

The benefits of Structural Integration are plenty, and not only for the chronic pain sufferer. During and after a Series, one can often expect:

• Complete Body Awareness
  • Improved communication between body & mind
• Postural (Skeletal) Alignment & Support
• Reduced Effort in standing, walking, movement, & overall performance
• Increased Range of Motion
• Reduced Pain
  • Identify the roots of chronic pain
  • Injury recovery & rehab
• Length
  • In the trunk
  • Limbs
  • Neck & spine
• Evenness of Muscle Tone
  • Significant release of muscle tension
• Improved Resiliency & Quality of Life
  • Overall Performance Enhancement
• Sustainable Results
  • Recruiting the body’s natural capacity to heal & balance

Who does Benefit?

Structural Integration is for the moving body, and anyone struggling to learn their body’s role in life, their posture, and the tensional roadblocks of movement dysfunction and pain. Athletes of all types, desk-workers, performers, public servants, retirees and blue-collar workers alike, have all experienced success.

Often, SI is a last resort after we’ve thrown the kitchen sink at our chronic pain with endless PT, massage, chiropractic, injections or medications. But whether you’re deep in the valley of chronic pain darkness or just looking for a better connection with your body, the Structural Integration project is well worth the investment.

Conditions Treated

For a decade, we have successfully treated and targeted the fascial roots of various diagnosed conditions, such as:

For more information: