PERMISSION AND THE KEY TO IDA ROLF'S WORK

I just got this email from Allan Davidson, one of the very early Rolfers, who helped opened new territory in my and many people lives with his practice of Rolfing in Chicago for many years. The piece he had a “little problem” with was in my April newsletter, “Bodywork with Your Eyes.” It proposed that “seeing,” tracking clients moment-to-moment, was the key to the mastery of Ida Rolf, Feldenkrais and Trager. I think it is important to appreciate Allan’s response, quoted below. I remember receiving his work in 1976, and, upon reflection, his work evoked that permission he speaks of and that journey of inner exploration that intrigues me to this day. So thank you for this perspective, Allan, and thanks for the accompaniment on our journey!

“I’ve been reading your philosophical missives with interest but I have a little problem with the last one.  You seem to attribute the ability of Ida and other masters to work at a more profound level to “seeing”—sight.  Certainly Ida for one had that ability in spades (she claimed she could easily read the structural issues of a person wearing an overcoat). But I don’t think that was the key.  I think the key was permission—the permission she was granted to work at that deeper, more profound level.  The permission was granted by the client and, equally important, by the client’s nervous system.  It stemmed probably in part from her reputation, her presence (huge knurled hands, the grandmotherly flower in her hair) but mostly it came from the precision of her intervention—it felt right somehow even if we weren’t exactly sure why.  Something deeper than useful bodywork had been touched.   We somehow got enrolled in a journey of discovery. What do you think?”

Allan Davidson

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