Rolfing will melt your plastic body
By RICHARD WIENS
Of the Emerald
When Jeff Ryder is in a crowd, he just
doesn’t see people, he sees bodies mired in
“holding patterns."
He says, "We’re all holding on in different
ways, avoiding the fullness of movement
that can be experienced.” For the past four
years, he has helped bodies become more
flexible, sensitive and at ease through the
processes of “rolfing” and structural
patterning.
Rolfing does not have to be painful, it is
not chiropractic and it has nothing to do with
massage. What it does do is “change the
physical structure of the body, without any
effort on the part of the subject,” says
Ryder.
Rolfing is done by hand while structural
patterning involves words — teaching
people to “live their perfect proportions”
while performing everyday functions.
Ryder normally uses both methods,
doing whatever’s necessary to help
subjects dissolve their bodily holding
patterns.
“Physical bodies are plastic. They’re
molded over the years by such things as
accidents and the labor they’re called upon
to do.” he says. “In addition, people with
certain emotional sets hold their bodies in
certain positions that eventually solidify.”
Rolfing and patterning sessions are “as
diversified as the people who come for help
I never know what I’ll do until I see them
standing and walking.”
Stripped to your underwear and holding
patterns in Ryder’s office at the Personal
Growth Center, 1997 Garden Ave., you are
photographed from the front and side
before any work is done.
Ryder’s gentle but firm hands subtly
begin to “free up” your body. You are lying
face-up, then face-down being touched in
areas that you normally pay little attention
to (behind the knee, above the armpit, you
name it).
Discerning no rhyme nor reason to
Ryder’s hand movements, you start tc
doubt rolfing’s effectiveness. But when
Ryder asks you to stand up and walk, you
notice a lack of tension in your right leg
while your other leg, which he hasn’i
touched, is heavy in comparison.
In short, your nght leg is on a natural nign.
“Now the left one,” you remind Ryder as
you lav back down.
Ryder obliges, then moves to your chest,
back and neck. Each time he has you stand
and walk, more of your body is coordinated
and tension-free. Only now do you realize
how awkwardly you’ve been using your
body in the past.
“Most people think they have the same
physical body when they’re relaxed as
when they’re tense, but they don’t. Some
people I’ve worked with have gained an
inch in height, and one woman’s feet
narrowed by two shoe sizes. Lots of people
get deeper in their chests.”
Your first session ends as it began, with
photographs. “Some nice things have
happened to you," Ryder says, comparing
before and after pictures.
“See how your legs are more underneath
you and the right side of your chest and
shoulder have dropped into balance with
the left side?” Ryder asks.
The differences are minute in the
pictures, but you need no photographic
proof. A deep calm pervades your body,
wi iim i iui iuc ivvio nr\c yuu aiwayb liiuugnt
it should. Talking over the session with
Ryder, you notice that you’re sitting up
straight (like your Mom always wanted you
to do at the dinner table) rather than
slouching. When you stand, your body is
supported evenly by both legs for a change.
“One session can release a lot of tension,
but part of your body will demand to go back
to where you were,” Ryder says. “It takes
10 or 15 sessions to eventually put the
whole body in agreement.”
Ida Rolf founded rolfing about 50 years
ago. Ryder was first trained at Rolf Institute
in Boulder, Col. Although traditional rolfing
is painful, Ryder employs a “soft-tissue’’
approach he learned from Judith Aston,
director of Aston Patterning Associates,
Tiburon, Cal.
After Ryder’s relaxing "soft-tissue’’
session, you might feel less like fighting and
more like rolfing over and playing dead.
For students interested in rolfing, a free
structural patterning workshop will be
conducted by Ryder Tuesday, at 7 p.m. in
EMU, room to be posted.
IFC annual winter budget maratnon begins
ay isHnuLTH DcAvbrl
Of The Emerald
Something about cold, dreary winter days makes them
appropriate for the annual Incidental Fee Committee (IFC)
budget hearings.
IFC members, subject to over two months of hearings,
started the process Sunday afternoon. Because of new
budget guidelines, each ASUO program will have two
hearings, the first to discuss program goals and the second
to decide on the actual budget.
Before the hearings began, the committee voted
unanimously to keep the total ASUO budget at five percent
growth — or less. IFC member Janet Eggleston said the
move would be a good “indicator” for programs.
Action Now, the first program considered, operates a
tool library and disseminates building and repair
information. The program presented four goals, all of which
were accepted.
Mark Staley, Action Now director, asked that the tool
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4-2 not to include automobile repair tools in the budget, but
all voted to include household tools.
Dusty Rhodes, EMU board chairer, submitted seven
goals and IFC members voted to approve six of those
goals. Accepted goals were: meeting EMU users’ needs,
minimizing EMU Board use of incidental fees, advising
EMU food service members on best meeting users’ needs,
allowing the Board chairer to oversee Board committee
chairers, keeping records open to student use and
providing money for a special projects fund.
Bruce Shaw, YMCA director, presented five goals. The
IFC voted against a faculty/student tennis tournament, 5-2.
Also voted down were temporary housing coordination, 5-2
and a secretary/receptionist, also 5-2.
YMCA goals passed were a Youth Basketball
Association, 4-3, and the Big Brother/Sister organization,
7-0.
IFC members quickly and unanimously approved all
Student University Affairs Board (SUAB) goals. Tne goals
muiuueu. uuiiunueu ciiiu mifjiuvou aunD memuer
performance and participation, responsible and efficient
office administration, effective Committee on Committee
appointments, and effective Information and Grievance
Center operation.
The Foreign Student Organization (FSO) Director,
Anjum Kazi, stated four goals, all of which were approved
All IFC members voted for an administrative coordination
goal, a foreign student orientation before fall term and a
cultural enrichment objective.
The goals of the last program, the Model UN Club,
were heavily debated. The first goal, attending the 1979 Far
West (Model UN) Conference was approved 5-2.
The political science department offers a Model UN
class winter term. Eggleston maintained the the club’s
objectives could be handled through the class. The second
goal, office expenditures and speaker costs, was approved
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