About
Sometime in the spring of 2008, I was reading a book in my brother’s spare room in Budapest, Hungary. I crossed my left leg over my right and started to let my leg rotate out. However, as my leg rotated, I felt pain in my IT band. In just a few days, the pain grew much worse. If I tried rotating towards 90 degrees, the pain was excruciating. I had considered myself a healthy person. I exercised regularly; I had been a vegetarian for about 7 years. Over the course of the next few months, it felt as though my body was falling apart.
Me (left) with my brother in Budapest ca. 2005
I found Rolfing and had a 10-series during my time pursuing my master's. Besides the physical benefits, that kicked off a new fascination about my body and how it worked that only increased over the years. I spent most of that time, 11 years, teaching English at a university in Seoul, South Korea, which was a wonderful time and afforded me the opportunity to travel various places around the world. I studied anatomy on my own, read and watched demos of Anatomy Trains (an offshoot of Rolfing), dabbled in learning Thai massage in Chiang Mai, and explored traditional Korean medicine.
Dinosaur ridge, Seoraksan, 2013
For years, I increasingly contemplated becoming a Rolfer. I had seen Rolfers and other bodyworkers in Korea, Michigan, and elsewhere, and I had essentially tried being my own Rolfer. At the same time, my original goal of becoming a philosophy professor faded after graduate school during my long stay in Korea. Finally, everything was telling me it was time to go. Rolfing is as rich, rewarding, and thought-provoking as I had hoped.
