What is Hellerwork?
Structural Integration Bodywork
Hellerwork is a derivative of Structural Integration. Originally developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf to re-balance the bodies structure in alignment with gravity. Also known as "Rolfing", practitioners apply manual therapy to release tension in the fascia and to return it back to its normal position. Bodywork accounts for most of the session period. To the client this is felt as a great release of tension throughout the entire body. Releasing chronic tension allows the body to feel free and rested. Producing what might be an uncommon (but truly normal) state of well-being.
Movement Education
Hellerwork Movement helps clients become more aware of their movement patterns and discover easier, fuller ways of moving. In movement we focus on the use of your body in daily activities. We work with sitting, standing, walking and movement patterns that are unique to the clients body. We all have movement patterns that are functional and some that are not. Hellerwork movement focuses on removing the patterns that aren't helpful and replacing them with patterns that are supportive of better posture and pain free living.
Somatic Dialogue
The optional somatic (body) awareness dialogue component of Hellerwork focuses on allowing the client to become more aware of the relationship between emotions, attitudes and the body. As clients become more aware of these relationships, they can become more responsible for the attitudes so they are less likely to be limited in movement and self expression. The focus of the dialogue begins with, but is not limited to the theme of the section. The theme highlights the more common attitudes and emotions that can be associated with the area of the body that is worked on in each session.
Hellerwork Structural Integration
According to the International Association of Structural Integrators: Structural Integration (SI) is a somatic practice utilizing fascial manipulation, awareness, and movement education. It is practiced in an organized series of sessions and individual sessions within a framework designed to restore postural balance and functional ease by aligning and integrating the body in gravity. Structural Integration is based on the work of Dr. Ida P. Rolf. It is practiced by persons trained in Structural Integration at trainings, schools and institutions in accordance with the standards established by the International Association of Structural Integrators.
Sessions
Sessions are approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Single Session
Pay one session at a time. $200.00/session.
Nobody is turned away for lack of funds, lets talk! $170.00 for new clients/first session.
Three Sessions
$555.00 for three sessions($185.00/Session). Start the series with the superficial sections. Option to buy in after three sessions to complete the series.
Ten Sessions
$1,700.00 in advance for the complete series($170.00/Session).
The Hellerwork Series
The Hellerwork Series is broken into eleven sections. The series begins with three superficial sections, four core sections and three to four integrative sections
The Superficial Sections
Sections one through three focus on the surface, or "superficial" layers of the body's connective tissue(fascia), which are associated with the muscles that are near the surface, also called the sleeve muscles. Developmentally, the superficial sections deal with issues of infancy and childhood. Breathing, standing up, and reaching out.
The Integrative Sections
Sections eight through eleven are designed to integrate the core and sleeve. During these sessions the practitioner works to balance the unique patterns of each persons body. Developmentally, the integrative sections focus on developmental issues of maturity. Masculine and feminine styles and values, integration and coming out into the world.
The Core Sections
Sections four through seven focus on the core. When we talk about the core we mean the deeper musculature of the body. The core begins from the base of the pelvis up through the roof of the mouth. The nature of the core muscles - also called intrinsic muscles - is that they assist in fine motor movement. The core sections focus on developmental issues of adolescence; control, gut feelings, holding back feelings, and intellectual development.
Follow Up to The Hellerwork Series
Upon completion the body is in a new state of alignment, balance and moves more freely. The client may become more aware and able to determine their needs. The integrated body will continue to change for some time as a result of the Hellerwork series, perhaps for as long as a year. A conversation with your practitioner at the end of the Hellerwork series can help determine an optimal follow up program. A follow up session after any kind of trauma is recommended. In that session we can focus on rebalancing your entire body.
"The Recipe"
Hellerwork is an evolution of the original Rolf process.
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Section One: Inspiration
Section one is all about the breath. The purpose of section one is to open the thoracic cavity to allow for more expansive and easy breathing, and to align the rib cage over the pelvis. In section one we release the myofascial structures that control and/or inhibit deep breathing.
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Section Four: Control & Surrender
The purpose of section four is to soften the bottom of the core and bring alignment to the midline of the inner legs. Think inner arches of the feet to the pelvic floor. Associated energetic themes can include the relationship between control and surrender, flexibility, trust in ones environment and relationships, and relaxation.
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Section Seven: Losing Your Head
The purpose of the seventh section is to release and organize the top of the core, to align the head over the torso and to release tension in the head, face and neck. Think jaw tension and its relationship to the spinal column. This section attempts to balance the relationship between reason and emotion.
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Section Two: Standing On Your Own Two Feet
The purpose of section two is to align the legs, level the knees and ankle joints, and distribute the weight of the body over the arches of the feet. This session is all about how we stand and walk and our relationship to how our feet meet the earth. This section can bring about a deep sense of grounding. Themes explored can include independence, self- support and understanding.
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Section Five: The Guts
The purpose of section five is to organize the front of the core and to release the deep myofascial structures of the pelvis. Think the rectus abdominus(six pack muscles) and obliques; and the deep core, the psoas and illiacus muscles. "The guts" are usually where we experience our strongest emotion, our "gut feelings", they may also be associated with strength and courage.
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Section Eight: Above/Below
Section eight is the first of the integrative sections and can be interchangeable with section nine. The purpose of section eight is to release rotations in the lower half of the body - the legs, hips and pelvis - and to integrate/balance the deep and superficial myofascia of this area. The theme explores the association of feminine principles and this area of the body, this could include nurturance, drawing in(receiving) and attraction.
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Section Three: Reaching Out
The purpose of the third section is to release tension in the shoulders, arms and sides, and to bring vertical alignment to the sides of the torso. A highlight of session three is the release of the QL muscle, allowing for greater transverse movement between pelvis and torso. Themes explored can include reaching out for support from others(making contact), and how anger is expressed or held in this area of the body .
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Section Six: Holding Back
The purpose of the sixth section is to organize the back of the core and bring it into balance with the front of the core. Anatomically the focus is on the myfascial structures from heels to neck. The spine is surrounded by a netting of muscles called the erector spinae. Powerful intrinsic muscles which function to keep the spine erect and assist in fine motor movements. Somatic dialogue can assist in processing any emotion that has been held back.
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Section Nine: Below/Above
The purpose of the ninth section is to release rotations in the upper half of the body - the arms, shoulders, chest, back, head and neck - and balance the deep and superficial myofascial structures of this area. Masculine themes can include doing, accomplishing, initiation, penetrating force, insight and action. Getting things done while staying loose can require core integrity.
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Section Ten: Integrity
The purpose of the tenth section is to establish the overall integrity of the body through working with the joints. Anatomically the focus is on balancing the tensional integrity of all the major joints of the body. Integrity is synonymous with wholeness, completeness and totality.
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Section Eleven: Coming Out
In my practice I choose to make section eleven optional or as a combination session with section ten, meaning we complete both sections ten and eleven during the same session. Section eleven explores the energetic themes of completion, self expression and empowerment and may or may not include hands on bodywork.
Origins
Dr. Ida P. Rolf
Founder of Structural Integration and The Rolf Institute.
Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979) received her Ph.D. in biochemistry and physiology from Columbia University in 1920. She subsequently worked at the Rockefeller Institute in the departments of chemotherapy and organic chemistry. She came upon the idea of Rolfing, or structural integration, during her search for family health problems. Finding available methods inadequate, she investigated the effect of structure on function. For more than four decades, Dr. Rolf taught classes on Rolfing worldwide, and in 1972 she established the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado. By the time of her death in 1979 Rolfing centers were emerging in Europe, South America and Australia.
Joseph Heller
Founder of Hellerwork
Joseph Heller, a Cal Tech graduate and former NASA aerospace engineer who was also deeply interested in the body/mind realm, left his aerospace career in the early 1970’s to train with Ida Rolf. In 1975 he was appointed by Dr. Rolf as the first President of The Rolf Institute. In addition to combining movement integration within the Structural Integration sessions, Joseph was also influenced by Consciousness work, which he began to also use with SI. That aspect of what later became Hellerwork was influenced by Brough Joy MD and Carolyn Conger PhD- teachers of energy and consciousness work- and from Hal Stone MD and Sidra Stone’s Voice Dialog method, an offshoot of Gestalt therapy. Rolfing became popular in the throws of the human potential movement of the 1970’s. This was a time of encounter groups, tough love, the sexual revolution, bioenergetics, the Esalen Institute, Werner Erhard’s EST, and many other branches of the human potential tree. Joseph studied and worked on himself using many of these methods. Instead of being confined to one modality, his field of vision extended across many. His understanding of how all of the parts of life come together was progressive, and his commitment to helping people be their authentic selves continues to be the driving force of the work.
What is Fascia?
-Fascia is a malleable tissue that wraps all of the muscles, and all of the individual fibers and bundles of individual fibers that become muscle. Fascia comes together at the end of the muscle and becomes the tendon, which attaches the muscle to the bone.
-The body’s fascial system can be seen as a multi-layer body stocking, with fascial sheaths wrapping the muscles and weaving in layers throughout the body. Because of this, stress in any area of the body has an effect on every other part of the body. For instance, tension in the connective tissue of the leg pulls the tissue throughout the torso. (Tensional integrity)
-In its optimal condition, fascia is a loose, moist tissue. When there is continual loose movement and balance in the body, the fascial body stocking stays loose and mobile, facilitating movement between different parts of the body. However, under continual stress and lack of movement, fascia becomes rigid and loses its fluidity. Layers of fascia begin to stick to one another, causing the “knots” you may have experienced in your back or neck. The sheaths of fascia stick in a systematic way, based on your habitual patterns of movement, or more correctly, lack of movement. Although people most often associate tension and stiffness with their muscles, it is actually the connective tissue that accumulates much of this stress.
"The fascial system consists of the three-dimensional continuum of soft, collagen containing, loose and dense fibrous connective tissues that permeate the body.. The fascial system surrounds, interweaves between, and interpenetrates all organs, muscles, bones, and nerve fibers, endowing the body with structure, and providing an environment that enables all body systems to operate in an integrated manner." (Scheip et al. 2019)
Tensional Integrity
According to Tom Meyers, Founder of Anatomy Trains and student of Ida Rolf, "Tensegrity is a form of geometry and engineering where the integrity of the structure depends on the balance of the tension members. Our body is just such a structure – the structural and movement stability of the body depends on the balance of the soft tissues. We have long assumed that the skeleton was a strong ‘frame’ on its own, and that the muscles ‘hang’ off the skeleton. The reality is that the bones ‘float’ in the soft-tissues, with their position determined by the tensional balance in the fascia." (Meyers.)
Tensegrity, a word originally coined by renowned futurist architect Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s, is a contraction of tension and integrity. According to the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Tensegrity refers to structurally sound constructions that feature a radical separation of compression and tension. Generally the compression members are wooden or metal struts, while the tensional members are cables, rubber bands, string or steel wires. Tensegrity structures are admired as with gossamer tendons or struts, their solid struts seem almost magically suspended in air. (Human constructed Tensegrity structures include the suspension bridge and the geodesic dome.)
Since then tensegrity’s innovative approach has been found in nature, and to have applications to cellular biology, anatomy, dynamic control systems, foldable models, social systems, and robotics. Fuller intuited the broad applicability of tensegrity and though he only began investigating it in the Sixties, by the time he wrote Synergetics in the Seventies he would claim that Tensegrity was the underlying principle of all his work and the Universe itself.
Who Benefits?
Hellerwork is applicable for most people.
S.I. bodywork is know to benefit chronic pain related to athletic careers, work related repetitive use injury, sitting, etc. A sprained ankle from the past can leave compensation patterns and holding in other areas of the fascial system. Children to older people alike can benefit from better posture and alignment. There are even Structural Integration techniques that have been applied to horses and other animals.
General Wellbeing/Quality of Life
Balance, alignment and ease of movement can leave energy for other pursuits such as creativity or play.
Easing Traumatic Imprints
Hellerwork S.I. can be incredibly supportive for people who suffer with any kind of traumatic stress. Bodywork is known to help people get in their body and out of their head. Hellerwork somatic dialogue combined with structural bodywork is known to dislodge/move painful memories that can be stuck in the body/fascial tissue, helping clients live free from the wounds of the past.
Bio
I'm a Southern California native, son, brother, uncle, grandson and friend with a passion for movement and connection — with nature and people. Im an athlete, artist, adventurer, and amateur birder. I spend my free time surfing, hiking, biking, and exploring the beauty of our local landscapes.
As a Hellerwork Practitioner, my mission is to support others on their healing journeys—whether emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual. Hellerwork Structural Integration has been a powerful tool in my own path to wellness, and I'm inspired to share its benefits with others.
I aspire to work with a diverse range of individuals—from athletes and dancers to those living with chronic pain. I'm especially committed to supporting people impacted by trauma, including veterans and survivors of adverse childhood experiences. My goal is to create a safe, compassionate space where healing and transformation is possible.
Contact
For booking, please fill out the intake form below, then click submit. I will review the information and reach out asap to schedule a session! Your information is 100% confidential.
Phone: (310) 415-3531
Email: wilsterner@gmail.com