ABSTRACT Meet My Rolfer is a column where Rolfers interview their Rolfers. In this edition, Mandy Cheek interviews Patrick Clough about his fifty-plus-year career as a Rolfer.
Mandy Cheek: Thank you for sitting down with me, Patrick. For this column – Meet My Rolfer – I am introducing our Structure, Function, Integration readership to you, my Rolfer. Also, many of our colleagues likely know you, as you have been doing this work for over fifty years. We’ve known each other for one and a half years, and I’m excited to talk with you about your journey as a Rolfer, the stories you have about Dr. Rolf, and whatever may naturally come up to chat about. As a Rolfer entering my fifth year of practice, I’m interested in hearing about your perspective of Dr. Rolf [Ida P. Rolf, PhD (1896-1979)] and the early days of Rolfing® [Structural Integration].
Let’s start with your history. What were you doing personally and professionally when you were first introduced to Rolfing [Structural Integration]?
Patrick Clough: All right, I got my Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1967. My major was mathematics. I got a job as a programmer/analyst for the Department of the Navy in Corona, California, which is just outside of Los Angeles. I worked there for a year in order to have residency in the state of California.
At that time, there were a couple of things going on: one was the war in Vietnam. I was doing everything I could to not have to deal with that. Second, the cost of tuition was practically zero in the university system in California, if you were a resident. So, I applied to graduate school in mathematics at the University of California, San Diego and was accepted. The campus was in La Jolla, a very beautiful city.
While I was there, I got a summer job between my first and second year working at a company that was a contractor for the Department of the Navy. They were developing computer systems on board ships that were mini, very experimental computers. Keep in mind that these computers had much less power than the present-day mobile phones we all have in our pockets. It was there that I met a guy who had been taking workshops at a place called Kairos, which was a Southern California version of the Esalen Institute®.
I went with this friend to Kairos and found it was an intriguing environment. I decided that after the summer job ended, I would volunteer at Kairos, doing general maintenance jobs like changing light bulbs. Kairos was on the grounds of what had been the Wishing Well Hotel. They sponsored residential ‘human potential’ workshops that included Dr. Rolf’s trainings. I met my future wife Nancy, the mother of my son, who was working there, and she had experienced Rolfing sessions.
While teaching a class at Kairos, Dr. Rolf presented a ‘lecture/demonstration’ and, on Nancy’s recommendation, I attended; it sounded interesting. I didn’t have any physical problems at the time; I didn’t go looking to fix this or fix that. I went for two reasons: one, it sounded fascinating, and two, my wife-to-be was pressuring me to go. When I saw Dr. Rolf, she was already a little old lady. I was young and physically active, shimmying up poles, twenty-foot poles, to change light bulbs. I didn’t think that little old lady could do anything to my young, tough physique. So, I went to see Emmett Hutchins (1934-2016) who Dr. Rolf was training to be a teacher. He was also young and looked physically strong enough to handle me. I went to see him and had my first session.
I stuck it out for one session. I had no intention of ever going back. Then as I was walking out the door from that session, I felt completely different. I thought, my God, I had been doing yoga and things like that, but there was definitely a change in my body. It was clear to me nothing else had produced this alteration. So, I got about ten feet away from the door, and I turned around, went back, and said, “I forgot to make my next appointment.”
By the time I got through with the seventh session, which was a very powerful session for me, I was interested in becoming a Rolfer. I had an area around my shoulders and neck that had been frequently abused when I was a kid, I used to get whacked there by a nasty grandfather. When I went back for my eighth session, I told Emmett I would be interested in becoming a Rolfer. He and I had a brief conversation about it, and he instructed me to apply. I contacted and corresponded with Dr. Rolf’s newly formed “Guild for Structural Integration.”
MC: What kind of prerequisites were needed to apply at that time?
PC: Yes, I was to study some anatomy and physiology books, and write a paper, which I did. I can’t remember what books I read off the top of my head, but I do remember they were somewhat obscure and hard to find. The other prerequisite was that I should take a massage class, which I did. Working with massage clients got me used to the idea of working on other people’s bodies – men, women, young, old, skinny, fat, short, and tall. The massage class was instructive in that way.
It was during that period of time, I completed my second year of graduate school, and got my master’s degree in mathematics. This was in 1971. I went to work at San Diego State College for a year to help them computerize their admissions and records system. And also, I needed to save up the money to pay for Rolfing school.
Back then, to become a Rolfer, you took two classes. You took your auditing class, listening and watching the work being done, and then assuming all that went well, you would need to be approved by the selection committee after the auditing class to be permitted to do the practitioner class two or three months later. The auditing class that I was in was the first class ever in Boulder, Colorado. It was taught by Dr. Rolf and the class was in a conference room of a motel. I had moved to Colorado, with Nancy, who was my pregnant wife by that time, and I attended that class in the fall of 1972. My son was born during the class in September. At the end of that class, there was my selection interview with Dr. Rolf, Peter Melchior (1931-2005), Emmett Hutchins, and Jan Sultan, Advanced Rolfing® Instructor. I passed the selection to go on to the practitioner phase in March 1973, with Emmett Hutchins.
MC: Why do you think Dr. Rolf moved the training to Boulder, Colorado from California?
PC: Prior to this, she had only offered training in California, and the majority of people she had trained never moved out of California. So, she was attempting to find a location where she could train people who would disperse and go to places like Florida, Texas, New York, and Chicago. So, Emmett moved from Los Angeles to Boulder, and Peter moved from Big Sur to Boulder. And as it turned out, Peter had married my wife’s best friend, Susan. So, we spent a lot of time with Peter and Susan Melchior.
When I finished my practitioner class, Peter asked me where I intended to work. I actually hadn’t thought about it, I thought perhaps I’d go back to San Diego. Peter had started working with a few people in Aspen, Colorado, a place I had never heard of. I said, “Do you think I could have a practice in Aspen, Colorado?” He said yes, so I went. I purchased a Rolfing table, the old plywood and pipes for legs table, with a piano hinge – it weighed a ton. I put it in the trunk of my car and drove to Aspen. I wasn’t there for more than two days before I got a knock on the door, and somebody wanted to be Rolfed1.
MC: Okay, this was the same year you finished your training in Boulder?
PC: Yes, this was in late May 1973. By the summer of 1973, I had a full practice in Aspen, Colorado. But I got a rude awakening by the fall, I found out that everyone who had money was leaving town. They were mostly Trust Fund babies, and they went back to wherever their wealthy parents lived, whether it’d be Chicago, Dallas, New York, or if they had money independently, they went to Hawaii. So, I survived by trading my services with my fellow locals. I would trade the local health food store owner for bean sprouts and a local craftsman for picture frames; he framed everything for me. One of my clients, a runner, excitedly showed me the wear on his shoes that exhibited perfectly symmetrical, balanced footprints; prior to his Rolfing sessions, he had the typical outside edge of the heels overuse. The fall of 1973 was a difficult time when most of my clients left town. It was a rude awakening.
Then, in December, when the ski season started, my practice was booming once again. I was working my tail off to make sure that I had money saved up for the next offseason, which began right around Easter time and lasted until the middle of June.
Sometime in the spring of 1974, I got a phone call from Richard “Dick” Stenstadvold [(1935-2012), CEO of the Guild for Structural Integration] saying that Dr. Rolf would be doing an Advanced Training in July, and asking if I would like to be in it. At that time, the requirement to do the Advanced Training was to have been working for two years. I said to Dick, “I’ve only been Rolfing for one year, are you sure that’s okay?” He said, yes, that he had checked with Dr. Rolf. It was okay to be in that class in Boulder, Colorado. So, I came back to Boulder to be in the advanced class. It was a six-week class (which was almost a repeat of the practitioner training), a two-week break, and then the class resumed with four weeks of training dedicated to the advanced sessions that Dr. Rolf had developed.
MC: At some point, singer-songwriter John Denver (1943-1997)2 did a Rolfing Ten Series™ with you. Was that in your first year of practice in Aspen, 1973?
PC: Yes, it was. That was in my first year that John Denver came to me for Rolfing sessions, him and most of his entourage – band members, sound man, and wife. During the time of the Advanced Training, I knew he was doing a concert at Red Rocks, which is outside Denver and near Boulder. So, I asked John if he would be a guest at the Rolf Institute annual meeting [now the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute], which was being held in between the training days. They had rented a big frat house near the University of Colorado for both the advanced class and the annual meeting. John said, “Yes,” that he would love to come and be a guest. He honored us by giving us a house concert in that frat house. [John Denver became the Rolfing community’s most famous early supporter.]
He invited me and Dr. Rolf to his Red Rocks concert on a weekend in the middle of the first six weeks of the Advanced Training.
I drove with Dr. Rolf to Red Rocks, which is a beautiful amphitheater formed by red rock cliffs. If you’ve ever been to Red Rocks for a concert, you know that you have to climb up a bunch of stairs. I was worried about how to get Dr. Rolf up all those stairs. She was an elderly lady at the time who rather enjoyed chastising me at every opportunity. She had what she called ‘the dog house,’ and I happened to be in it most of the time, I had lots of good company there. So, we were walking up these stairs, and we had one more flight to go up. Dr. Rolf said to me, “How dare you invite a little old lady to something like this.” And I said, “Look, I’ll carry you.” She looked at me and emphatically said, “Who’ll carry who?!” And she bolted up that last flight of stairs.
When we got to the top, we could see the amphitheatre, and she was flabbergasted at the thousands of people packing the stadium. And we were escorted by a guy that was one of John’s guys, who was also one of my clients, to our seats. Those seats were pretty good. During the intermission, we had to walk across the stage to get to where John was backstage. Dr. Rolf mentioned to me as we did this, “They’re all looking at us.” I said, “You know, they probably think you’re his grandmother.”
MC: How old was she at this point?
PC: This was 1974, so she would have been seventy-eight. They had a very pleasant conversation. John Denver was just the sweetest guy; what you see is what you get. And Rolf was very happy with the whole thing. And he was very happy to be coming to the annual meeting.
Another detail about John and the annual meeting: I would be driving him to the meeting. Someone had mentioned to me before I went to pick him up that it would be nice if John Denver would contribute to the Valerie Hunt research project in Los Angeles. I didn’t know much about the research project, but in the car on the way to the annual meeting, I asked if he would be interested in making a contribution to our Rolfing community.
He shocked me. He said, “Wouldn’t you rather I buy you a house?” I said, “Well, you could buy me a house, but then I would just have a house. If you contribute to the research project, you might make Rolfing available to thousands more people who are currently unaware of it.” So he agreed and donated $50,000 to the Valerie Hunt Project, which is like $300,000 in today’s money.
MC: Did you ever invite anyone else to the annual meetings?
PC: In the fall of 1973, I had done the est training3 and that was where I got most of my clientele. Werner Erhard was a big proponent of Rolfing [Structural Integration]. At an event where Werner Erhard was giving a talk, I went up to him afterward and asked him if he would be a guest at the Rolf Institute annual meeting. And he said yes. In fact, he’d already been asked by a guy named Dub Leigh, who was his Rolfer in San Francisco.
MC: What else can you tell us about your relationship with Dr. Rolf?
PC: The next part of the story, of my own personal development and my relationship with Dr. Rolf, was seeing her fully. Just prior to the annual meeting, Werner Erhard enters the front room of the frat house. He immediately goes up to Dr. Rolf, threw his arms around her, gave her a big hug, smacked her on the buttocks, and said, “How you doing, you old broad?”
She was as red as a beet. And when I saw that interaction, it was a moment of enlightenment for me. I finally realized that I had been thinking of Ida as a little old lady, while she was a vibrant woman who happened to be in a body that had grown old. But she herself was still vital and beautiful. This completely transformed my relationship with Dr. Ida P. Rolf.
MC: What was your Advanced Training like when you were in class?
PC: The advanced portion of the training was where I really learned what Rolfing work was about. It is hard to describe in words. It’s an experiential thing more than anything else. The person I was partnered with just wasn’t able to get what it was Dr. Rolf was asking him to get, while I was the practice client and he was working on me. The more he tried, the more painful it got, until Dr. Rolf finally told him to, “Move over and let the Maestra have a turn.” It would be the first time Dr. Rolf would work on me. She cautioned me that my lateral thorax was, “Like a washboard.” I replied, “Maybe so, I feel like I’ve already been put through the ringer.” She laughed and went to work.
Her elbow was pointed and precise within my flesh. Transformatively, I could feel her presence, her energy, her consciousness guiding my tissue. I hadn’t experienced that before. I was seeing the Rolfing session from the inside out instead of feeling it from the outside in. If that distinction doesn’t ring a bell, then you haven’t experienced it. If it does, then you have.
Likewise, when I was a student-practitioner working with a person, I was supposed to be getting at the rotator. Dr. Rolf kept saying, “Go deeper.” And I was pushing like crazy, just not getting it. And the person was complaining. I’m pushing with all my strength and still I wasn’t getting it, and she came over, put her hand on top of mine, and directed me to it. Then I understood what she was trying to communicate. We don’t have the words for the precision that she was directing me to. It was indeed deeper, but to get to it, I had to be precise. It wasn’t the amount of force. Once again, with her hand on my hand, I could fully visualize myself in the body. I was no longer working from the outside in, I was working from the inside of the model’s body, looking out. And that’s another instance where, unless you’ve done this in your own work, you don’t really get it yet. That was the value that I received from that advanced class.
After that, I went back to Aspen, and I worked my buns off to survive the next season. I think it was 1976 when Dr. Rolf was once again teaching in Boulder. This time it was a combined advanced and beginner class [the auditing/practitioning structure of basic Rolfing training]. Peter was teaching the beginner class; Dr. Rolf was teaching the advanced class. It was structured so that the two classes would attend Dr. Rolf’s lecture/demonstration in the morning. In the afternoon, the advanced class would remain with Ida. I would go with Peter as his assistant to instruct the beginners in a separate room. At the end of the six weeks, Dr. Rolf asked me to stay on for the four week advanced portion of her class and co-assist along with Chuck Siemers.
Dr. Rolf would be seated at the head of the class in her rocking chair. Chuck and I would flank her, poised to do her bidding. At times when we noticed Dr. Rolf’s attention waning, Chuck and I would lien back and towards each other behind the rocker. We would whisper loud enough for Ida to hear our bawdy jokes. She would smile, giggle, and, more than once, nearly fall out of her chair.
In 1978 I decided to leave Aspen for a locale that wasn’t so seasonal. At first, I moved to Denver; but after a few months, I went to New York. But before that was the Advanced II class.
MC: What brought you to New York?
PC: Let me tell you that in a minute. First, let me start with the Advanced II class in the summer of 1978. I think it was only two weeks long and she was teaching it with a guy named W. Brugh Joy [MD, (1939-2009)]. Brugh Joy did energy work. What Dr. Rolf wanted to do in the Advanced II class was she wanted to somehow instill in the practitioners who were in that class a firm foundation in the fact that, in the course of doing Rolfing work, you are using energy, you are transferring energy, to accomplish changes in the body that you are working with. This aspect didn’t change the geometry of the body, what she was doing was instilling a sense of the flow of gravity as an energy line in the body.
Once we completed that class, Dr. Rolf referred to us as Senior Rolfers. So there were practitioners, advanced practitioners, and senior practitioners. Unfortunately, there was only a year or so before Dr. Rolf died. She never taught that class again, but it was a fascinating class. There were about a dozen or so people in the class. Joseph Heller [(1940-2024), founder of Hellerwork International®] was there, and he took videos of the whole thing. At the end of that class, I returned to Denver. I didn’t like Denver very much and I didn’t want to stay in Colorado.
Around that time, I was having lunch with Jim Asher [Advanced Rolfing Instructor, Emeritus], and he asked me if I would I like to go to New York. I said, “Sounds good to me.” I was ready to go. Jim basically gave me the keys to his apartment in New York. He left his practice there and went somewhere in Texas, I think. He had had enough of New York. He was never a New York guy, and I was. I spent most of my fifty years of Rolfing there. I was from Long Island originally.
One of the benefits of my being in New York at that time, around 1978, was that Dr. Rolf had discovered that she had intestinal cancer, and she tried everything she could to heal it. She ended up in hospice care outside of Philadelphia, near her home in Cherryville, New Jersey. I would go down there once a week to visit her and spend time with her. I would do a little work on her back to keep her comfortable.
I will say one thing that she confided in me, was that, having seen what had happened to Alexander work after Alexander died and what had happened to Feldenkrais work after Feldenkrais died, she was concerned that after she died, Rolfing [Structural Integration] would become extremely mediocre and that people would be less motivated to master the art of Rolfing.
Let me be clear: she was the Master of Rolfing. Anyone who says they could do this work better than Ida Rolf has their head up their ass. They never knew how to do this work until her. Dr. Rolf was the Master – not Peter, Emmett, Jan Sultan, Michael Salveson, [Advanced Rolfing Instructor] nor I were ever beyond her skills – Ida had an insight into the body and an energy for working on the body that we need to aspire to. She continued to expand her mastery until the day she died. Find that video of her in class and watch as she literally contemplates the questions and comments of her students. She was more than a practitioner, more than a teacher, she was the Maestra.
Now, people can point you in the right direction, and if you follow the path, you can come close to what Rolf was doing. I have so much gratitude that I was fortunate enough to have been able to work with her, feel her hands instruct me as a practitioner. And I’m not saying now she’s gone and everyone since who hasn’t experienced that advantage is inhibited. What I am saying is that you can be pointed in the direction of her mastery and follow that direction, you’ll be as good as anybody – better than me.
MC: This is one of the reasons that I wanted to talk to you and share your voice with the readers, the people who were taught by her and knew her directly are a resource for the rest of us on that path. You are a first-hand source for us who do Rolf’s work.
What would you say was Dr. Rolf’s overarching goal for her work? And, what was your impression of her when you think back now?
PC: First of all, as I just said, Dr. Rolf was a master, and had been for a very long time. She did not need to improve herself by the time she was teaching us. When she did the Advanced II class with Brugh Joy, she did not learn how to use energy from him; she already had that understanding. What Brugh Joy did was provide a language about what she was already doing. She was born with it, a gift. All she had to do was manifest Rolfing [Structural Integration] by passing that knowledge on to people.
No one should become a Rolfer who has not experienced the alteration, the transformation within their own body as a result of having been Rolfed [a.k.a. experiencing the Rolfing Ten Series™]. Whether that transformation came haphazardly, not efficiently, painfully or not painfully, all that doesn’t matter. If you have experienced a transformation of your own body and character through a vehicle called Rolfing Structural Integration, then you can consider becoming a Rolfer.
I was fortunate, I had that experience in the sessions that I had with Emmett Hutchins, as I said earlier. Most substantially after my session seven, which is why I decided to become a Rolfer. My experience within my own body was transformative. What each client seeks is experiential, within themselves, and within yourself as a practitioner being able to facilitate transformation within the client.
The transformation comes about by the principles that Dr. Rolf put forth. They’re very simple. It doesn’t take a lot to understand. First of all, the body needs to be aligned with gravity. It needs to be in balance. It needs to have balance with the front/back, top/bottom, and inside/outside. The transformation can’t take place unless you move toward that.
There are individuals who have a scoliosis, they’re never going to look like the ‘after’ portion of the Little Boy Logo®. That logo is only of one person, it can’t and doesn’t represent all people. Each client is going to look like their own ‘before’ and ‘after’ logo. As a practitioner, you have to have the little boy logo in mind. And you also have to have the understanding that you are seeking their individual version of what their personal logo would look like. This block model is a tool for you to get to their unique sense of balance in gravity. A person with scoliosis would have a different Rolfing logo that represents their body, our Rolf logo is just the form of one person, not every person.
MC: I want to ask you about something I was told about Dr. Rolf in my training that always seemed strange to me. Someone said Dr. Rolf was asked why she developed Rolfing [Structural Integration] and she said in response, “To give people something to do.” What would you say about that story?
PC: I would say Dr. Rolf had a tremendous sense of humor, and sometimes she would just say something that would be a wisecrack. Now, if you want to transcribe it as dogma, or Rolf doctrine, you’d be grossly mistaken.
Dr. Rolf developed Rolfing [Structural Integration] because she had a good idea and she wanted to pursue that idea. She wanted to make each body aligned with gravitational energy, she wanted to pursue that idea. She didn’t develop Rolfing because her son had some abnormality, she did it because she was interested in the body and always was, throughout her whole life. She had a PhD in biochemistry, not in petroleum. She didn’t study chemistry, like oil and plastics or any of that, she was interested in the biochemistry of the body. She did her thesis work on connective tissue and fascia. She was interested in the living body; it was her fascination. She was born into it.
Rolf was able to perceive things in the body, in other people’s bodies, she could see where difficulties were. Like a top mechanic can hear what’s wrong with your car as you drive it in. You, as a practitioner, by experience, can begin to learn to see what’s going on with the body because you see so many bodies coming in. You begin to learn to have the confidence to do what you think you know you can do, and have even more confidence when you got it wrong. “Oops, I should be doing something different here,” and then you do something different. That’s what you do as a practitioner. Being able to say, “I should have done something else,” and then doing something else perfects your technique. This is refining your tools.
MC: Do you think Ida Rolf would be happy with the current state of Rolfing [Structural Integration]?
PC: She would be happy with the fact that there are so many people who are on the path. Some are closer to what she would have thought of as the principles of Rolfing work, and some are further away. In my experience, it’s not so much the teacher as it is the student. Every structural integration school has produced people who are exquisite and every school has produced people who are completely mediocre. Dr. Rolf would be pleased with the fact that it’s so much out in the community that there are these stars out there who have made this work known.
She was the only star who knew this work, and now she’s produced thousands of stars, and hopefully there may be ten times more again. She would be very happy about this work being so international. I’m quite clear that she would have no regrets and would be very happy to see that the whole thing grew after she died. The work is sufficiently effective, it has grown to where it is, in spite of all the multiple points of view and fights that people had with each other. There are, in every structural integration class, these stars that do the work exquisitely, she would be absolutely enthused about that.
MC: Thank you so much for sharing your stories and journey with us, Patrick.
PC: You’re welcome.
Endnotes
1. Editor’s note: ‘A Rolfed body’ is a conversational phrase used by the original Rolfers who trained in the 1970s; they use this term to describe someone who has experienced the Rolfing Ten Series™. ‘People who experience the Ten Series’ is the updated phrase that replaces ‘people who get Rolfed’ to correctly use the Rolfing trademark and stay within our people-first language, a part of our writing style for Structure, Function, Integration.
2. John Denver (1943-1997) was an American singer and songwriter, and the most popular acoustic artist of the 1970s (Wikipedia Contributors 2024a). He performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang joyfully about nature, music, and the complexity of relationships. His signature songs include: “Take Me Home, Country Roads;” “Rocky Mountain High;” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders.” Denver died tragically October 12, 1997 when the plane he was flying solo crashed.
3. Erhard seminar training is often referred to by its abbreviation, est. Werner Erhard is an American author and lecturer who founded est and offered courses from 1971 to 1974 (Wikipedia Contributors 2024b). These trainings focused on personal and professional development to help people transform their lives, increase their personal responsibility for what is happening in their lives, and with that accountability, experience an expansion of possibilities in their lives. It was contemporary with the human potential movement.
Mandy Cheek is a Certified Rolfer™ practicing in Kernersville, North Carolina. She has a background as a physical therapist assistant, and after searching for her own answers to persistent health concerns, she found Rolfing® Structural Integration was the best at addressing her persistent pains. She enjoys many kinds of outdoor activities and sports, including softball, volleyball, swimming, and recently, yoga. She is also a singer and a music aficionado.
Patrick Clough is a Senior Rolfer who first started his Rolfing training with Dr. Ida Rolf and Emmett Hutchins in September 1972. He completed his Rolfing certification in 1973 and his Advanced Training in 1974. He started his first Rolfing practice in Aspen, Colorado. Then he relocated to New York City where he practiced in Manhattan for over forty years. These days, he is semi-retired and enjoying life in North Carolina.
References
Wikipedia contributors. 2024a. “John Denver,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Denver&oldid=1250059248 (accessed October 8, 2024).
Wikipedia contributors. 2024b. “Erhard Seminars Training,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erhard_Seminars_Training&oldid=1247244553 (accessed October 8, 2024).
Keywords
Rolfing work; Dr. Ida Rolf; Rolfing Ten Series; Rolfing training; Esalen Institute; Emmett Hutchins; Rolf Institute; John Denver; est training; Brugh Joy; transformation; little boy logo; block model; body alignment; advanced training; gravity; balance; practitioner-client relationship.
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