All Structural Integration professionals certified by the European Rolfing® Association and its affiliated schools, agree to be bound by the following Code of Ethics.
As Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners, we respect the dignity of each human being. We are committed to increasing physical and general well-being. In our work, we consider the best interests of our clients, our profession, our colleagues, and our communities. However, at all times, the welfare of the clients who have entrusted themselves to our care is paramount. The following represent minimum criteria for the ethical practice of our profession, and must be adhered to by all members of the Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration.1
- A Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner has the right to refuse to accept any prospective client. However, once a client is accepted, the Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner owes that client all reasonable loyalty, care, attention, and integrity in the context of the therapeutic relationship. The Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner will discontinue services only when self-respect, dignity, the client’s best interest, or other good cause requires it.
- We make clear to our clients the boundaries between Rolfing® Structural Integration and other professional qualifications we possess.
- We are free to use skills and techniques associated with other modalities or disciplines within the context of Rolfing® Structural Integration and consistent with the Principles of Rolfing® Structural Integration.
- However, to work outside the Principles of Rolfing® Structural Integration or to shift the frame of some or all of our sessions to principles primarily governing another modality or discipline, we first obtain the client’s informed consent.
- If we have licenses or certifications in modalities or disciplines other than Rolfing® Structural Integration on the basis of which clients seek our services, we may treat clients in both Rolfing® Structural Integration and such other modalities or disciplines only with the client’s informed consent.
- If, as Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners, we have a particular emphasis or viewpoint likely to differ significantly from that of other Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners in our community, we make it known to prospective clients.
In any event, regardless of modality, we do not work beyond our personal scope of training and expertise.
- We safeguard personal information obtained in the course of our teaching, practice, or research, and share it only with the client’s prior consent. Such information shall not be communicated to others without such consent unless the Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner believes with good reason that nondisclosure would present a clear and imminent danger to an individual or to society – and even then, information should be disclosed only to appropriate professionals or public authorities. In any event, information should be provided only to persons clearly concerned with the matter, and only to the extent necessary and without undue invasion of privacy. Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners are permitted to respond to subpoenas or other legal process, but should attempt to inform the client before doing so. Clinical materials are used in classroom teaching, in research and in writing only with the client’s express permission, or when all information from which the identity of the client could be discerned is expunged or disguised.
- The client is the best and final authority as to his or her own welfare. We seek at all times to further that understanding; at no time do we endeavour to assume that function.
- Resistance or pain may accompany the changes brought about by Rolfing® Structural Inte-gration. We create an atmosphere in which the client is in charge and the client’s limits are respected.
- Our effectiveness depends on our ability to maintain sound interpersonal relations. We recognize that our own temporary or enduring dysfunction might interfere with our ability to deliver services; and we refrain from Rolfing® Structural Integration when our own emotional or physical circumstances are likely to result in inferior professional service or harm to our clients.
- It is our duty to conduct ourselves in our professional affairs so as to improve the position and practice of Rolfing® Structural Integration, and to avoid discredit to the profession. When we describe Rolfing® Structural Integration to actual or prospective clients or to the general public, we speak fairly and accurately, avoiding exaggeration, sensationalism and superficiality. Modesty, scientific caution, and regard for the limits of current knowledge shall characterize all statements about Rolfing® Structural Integration.
- It is improper to attempt to obtain clients through communications that are either intended to or highly likely in fact to create inflated or unjustified expectations; are baselessly self-laudatory; or contain incorrect or incomplete statements of fact that a reasonable person would recognize as misleading in context. In particular, one must be scrupulously honest and not misleading in describing one’s own skill set and levels of professional education and experience.
- It is improper to state or imply that one Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner has skills superior to another unless one has a reasonable basis to believe, and does in fact believe, both that the statement or implication is true and that the difference in skill is relevant to the particular client’s goals or issues. Similarly, it is improper to discourage a client from accepting the services of a particular structural integrator or other professional service provider in the absence of an honest and reasonable belief that such services would be detrimental to the client.
- Before we accept a client, we make clear to the client our fee arrangements, including cost, methods of payment and timing of payments.
- We act in the clients’ best interests in serving each client, neither prolonging the number of sessions unduly or without good cause, nor continuing Rolfing® Structural Integration when it should be reasonably clear that the client in not benefiting from it. Where we intend to prolong or curtail treatment vis a vis the original parameters to which we have agreed with the client, we consult with the client, presenting our reasons fairly and clearly.
- Should we provide a client information, opinions or advice on matters beyond our certified or licensed professional competence, we make sure the client understands the non-authoritative nature of our statements.
- We do not use our professional position for purposes inconsistent with the best interests of our clients. In particular, we do not take advantage of whatever authority present, past or prospective clients might confer upon us as Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners to induce them to enter into other therapeutic, commercial, sexual or social relationships with us; nor do we engage in relationships with our clients that are likely to interfere with or be detrimental to the Rolfing® Structural Integration process.
- In the event we refer our clients to other professionals (or other professionals refer clients to us), we neither give nor accept any form of commission, rebate, or remuneration for referrals.
- We do not condition our provision of Rolfing® Structural Integration services upon the client’s acceptance of any other goods or services from either ourselves or from others.
- Recognizing that Rolfing® Structural Integration is a relationship and not a commodity, we do not offer our services as Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioners or accept as a Rolfing® Structural Integration client a person we know to be receiving a structural integration series from another qualified practitioner in the absence of a compelling reason related to the client’s best interest. In any event – unless the client specifically requests otherwise — we will not accept such a person as a Rolfing® Structural Integration client before having made a good-faith attempt to confer with the person’s current practitioner, and having advised the person to do likewise.
- Should a business dispute arise between a Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner and a client, a fellow Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner or another professional, the Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner will endeavour to resolve it fairly, amicably and honestly.
- Each of us respects the social codes and moral expectations of the community in which we practice; and recognizes that violation of the same might involve us, our clients and our colleagues in damaging personal conflicts, or injure our personal reputations and that of our profession. Accordingly, we endeavour to practice our profession in a manner that avoids even the appearance of professional impropriety.
Revised 11/2006
1 Rolf Institute® members who hold themselves out to the public as structural integrators shall abide by the minimum standards set forth in this document with respect to all of their clients – including those clients receiving therapeutic, somatic, movement-related or psychological services other than Rolfing® Structural Integration (to the extent the standards are applicable).
