Structural Integration is an experience through which a person can become more aware of one’s own body. It is a system of hands-on body work, defined by an initial series of 10 sessions designed to bring the entire body into balance and vertical alignment with the field of gravity.

Structural Integration looks at the human being as a whole – not only as a body, a mind or a spirit, but as a human being having an experience on the planet earth. The gravitational laws of the earth and the physics involved with becoming and maintaining an upright vertical structure are important components. “Structural Integration is not a treatment but a preparation for the use of gravity.” Ida Rolf.

The gravitational force is one of the strongest unseen forces that determines our uprightness or lack of it. Like all other material bodies, we are subject to the laws of mechanics; one of these laws states that masses must be balanced in order to be stable. A good example of that is the famous Tower of Pisa. The structure is struggling with gravity.

If your house is subsiding and your doors no longer shut properly, you have a choice: plane the frame to fit the changing surroundings or stop your house from collapsing. The first approach will solve the problem temporarily, but you'll have to do more and more work as the structure continues to topple; it's the same with your body.

Man consists, more or less, of stackable units. The agents of this balance within the human body are the bones and soft tissue (myofascia). Bones are spacers kept in place by the tensegrity of the soft tissue; when the soft tissue is repositioned, bones adjust their positions accordingly.

The misalignment of any body-part causes pain and other symptoms that increase with gravity’s ever-present downward force.  It isn’t enough just to relieve the most painful or troubled area. Instead, to solve the problem permanently, the entire structure has to be rebalanced from its foundations.  In an unbalanced body, movement is restricted, joints lose freedom and range of movement, and the soft tissue compresses.