Structural Integration for Mind, Body and Spirit
By Mary Yursky

Hellerwork is a unique and dynamic multi-level system of deep-tissue bodywork, movement education and guided verbal dialogue to help realign the body. It releases chronic tension, stress and pain as it enhances movement, increases flexibility and energy. Hellerwork helps develop the awareness of mind, body and spirit connectedness. Based on the concept that healing comes from within, Hellerwork views the body as a complete and balanced system that is innately healthy. Health is fostered through preventive practices such as incorporating healthy nutrition, exercise and relaxation lifestyle choices. When a problem occurs, such as a stiff neck or shoulder pain, Hellerwork addresses the entire body as one integrated system, and dialogue is used as a tool to develop an awareness of how emotional stress contributes to muscular tension and rigidity.

Various factors can affect the balance of physical alignment and emotional well being, including injuries and emotional patterns. For example, a person with a broken leg may walk with a limp, favoring the fractured leg. In time this imbalance of weight distribution may affect the entire body's alignment, and the resulting irregular movement pattern becomes the “norm” long after the injury has healed. Negative thought patterns leading to a tense body may also produce an imbalance in posture with muscular rigidity, again causing a continuous and perhaps long-lasting misalignment.

The force of gravity is a low-level stress factor to a structurally misaligned body making movement and flexibility a challenge especially as people age. Misaligned patterns can become more pronounced with time as the body's connective tissue loses its fluidity. Habitual physical stress, emotional stress and movement patterns resulting from misalignments become entrenched. In contrast, a body free of misalignments, or aligned with gravity, is supported by the force of gravity and moves with ease and fluidity.

History of Hellerwork
Joseph Heller (1940- ) founded Hellerwork in 1978 as an integrated therapy system, evolving directly from the work of Ida P. Rolf, PhD (1896-1979). “Rolfing” or Structural Integration, as the work is known, is a deep-tissue bodywork therapy developed in the 1930s. It consists of manipulation or massage of the body's connective tissue and muscles in order to realign and balance body structure so as to improve posture and overall physical and emotional health.

Joseph Heller, a Polish immigrant to the United States, graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1962 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He spent the following 10 years working as an aerospace engineer in a jet propulsion lab where he worked with the effects of structural stress and gravity on machinery as well as the forces necessary to maintain motion.

During these years, Heller became involved with the humanistic psychology movement and even-tually left engineering. He studied bioenergetics (a system of physical and psychological techniques that releases blockages of energy in the body) and gestalt therapy (a holistic form of psychotherapy that heightens self-awareness and relationships with other people and the enviroment). His new interests led him to pursue the work of a variety of researchers, including Buckmister Fuller, Warner Erhard, John Lilly, Virginia Satir and Hal and Sidra Stone. Heller became a Rolfer in 1972, and studied with movement-education pioneer Judith Aston. He took advanced training from Brugh Joy, MD, an innovator in the practice of preventive medicine and the use of energy as a means of healing.

With his extensive experience and knowledge of the body-mind system, Heller became the first president of the Rolf Institute in 1975. However, after Ida Rolf's death in 1979, Heller left the Rolf Institute to create his own version of deep-tissue massage therapy. He believed that deep-tissue manipulation alone was insufficient to create new awareness and lasting change in the body. He created a bodywork system that was based on Rolfing as well as a variety of disciplines such as psychology, movement education and the use of energy or intention to assist the inner-healing process. Heller's students soon coined the term “Hellerwork.”

The Components of Hellerwork
Hellerwork is usually administered on a massage table, although it can be done with the client seated or standing, and the client generally wears underwear. Although designed to take place over a series of eleven 90-minute sessions, Hellerwork sessions may also be suited to the individual needs of the client. During the session, the practitioner uses a hands-on process that manually stretches the fascia (bands of a plastic-like connective tissue covering muscles and some organs like a body stocking) in order to release rigid connective-tissue patterns and return the body to an aligned position. Healthy fascia is loose and moist, facilitating movement and flexibility. Chronic physical or emotional stress, lack of movement or physical trauma causes the fascia to become rigid and inflexible. The layers of fascia then stick together and cause “knots,” pain or restriction of movement. Connective tissue tension of this sort in one part of the body can affect many other areas of the body.

The movement-education portion of Hellerwork teaches awareness of the body and how to live and move in it. Each Hellerwork session offers its own specific movement lesson, and lessons are also created to suit the individual's needs. The client may also be asked to perform simple movements on the massage table while the bodywork is being done.

The verbal dialogue component creates awareness of how emotions and attitudes affect the physical body. The dialogue between practitioner and client focuses on the session's theme but is not limited to that topic. Each Hellerwork session highlights emotions and attitudes, and their association with the body part. For example, session one's theme is “inspiration.” The bodywork focuses on the upper bodyprimarily the chest, arms and ribcage. The practitioner may ask, “What inspires you?” The dialogue continues from there.

At the end of the Hellerwork series, clients are more in tune with their bodies; they can move with greater ease and feel a sense of alignment within their bodies. Hellerwork is designed to make us experts of our own bodies so that we can know what our body needs and how to support it. The Hellerwork practitioner collaborates with the client to help create a sense of empowerment by emphasizing self-responsibility, prevention and education in self-care.

While Hellerwork is not geared toward symptomatic relief, it is one of the best adjunct therapies for chronic muscular pain syndromes such as chronic back pain or the pain of fibromyalgia. Perhaps most importantly, it teaches the powerful connection between the body and the mind. Learning to live vitally, move fluidly and to feel deeply transforms how people live and age.

Hellerwork is an important part of the holistic health paradigm. With a broad range of applications and a focus on health promotion and prevention, it will likely assume a prominent place in our health system of the future.

For more information about Hellerwork. visit the website at www.hellerwork.com.

Mary Yursky is a Certified Hellerwork Practitioner, a registered nurse with a Master's Degree in Nursing and a Certified Nurse Practitioner. She believes in an integrated health system that promotes wellness by bridging the gap between traditional medical therapies and complementary and alternative therapies. She practices at University Hospitals of Cleveland and has her Hellerwork practice at 13314 Detroit Ave., Lakewood. She can be reached by calling (216)-221-4372.