Commemorating 125 year of Dr Ida Rolf with Jörg Ahrend-Löns

Describe how Ida’s words have inspired your work and life…

‘In the last 30 years of being a Rolfer, I learnt that I really can trust gravity, in different ways. First of all, as the only force I know which has a predicable direction. So, this is something which is important for the orientation of a system within a field. A field of gravity in this case. Rather than being the therapist, I perceive myself as, let’s say a moderator between gravity (this force) and the structure, who is flexibly responding to this force which is the fascia. Also, in different ways it is an elastic, counter force or a force that is in balance with gravity hopefully and it is a perceptive structure which allows us to become more and more aware of how we are organised. In saying that, I think the quote by Dr Ida Rolf, ‘Gravity is the therapist’ is very true’. 

How does Ida’s work continue to be relevant in the 21st century?

‘If I look into the future, I have the feeling that human beings need orientation in a world that becomes faster and faster. In saying that, I think it is really important that we can rely on something steady, on something which is an expression of the conditions we are living in. And the most reliable constant element of our being is gravity. So, if we organise around this force, we may come back to something which is more or is an expression of our being. Rather than finding our happiness in conditions’.

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