Details

Non-DIRI Members can view Training Details, including prerequisites, at https://rolf.org/at_non.php.

This Advanced Training is a 168-hour course that will take place over two three-week training modules, with 5-6 weeks between the modules. Each module will be 12 days over three weeks. 

We tend to assume that the longer we practice, the better we get. Research suggests otherwise.

In the science of skill acquisition, mastery follows a familiar arc: from not knowing what we don’t know, to struggling consciously, to finally performing with ease and automaticity. That last stage — unconscious competence — feels like arrival. But it is also where most practitioners quietly stop growing. When we work on automatic, we free our attention from the task at hand. And in Rolfing®, that costs us something essential: presence. It is from a state of genuine presence — not habit, not routine — that order and integration arise in a client’s body.

The growth of the practitioner is the top priority of this training.

To pursue that goal, this course will draw directly from what researchers in skill acquisition have identified as the most effective conditions for deliberate growth. Two findings are especially relevant here. The first is the role of intentional practice: rather than repeating what we already know, we will break complex skills — perception, for example — into their most elemental components, so that we can understand precisely where refinement is possible. The second is the importance of building a clear mental representation of the task. We will develop that representation through a detailed study of anatomy and biomechanics — not from the traditional model of pulleys and levers, but from a more organic and realistic model that accounts for the body’s fluids, the mass of its organs, and the perceptual mechanisms that orchestrate what we call integration.

The organizing framework of this class is not technique. It is inquiry.

Three fundamental questions will guide our collective exploration and serve as the foundation for clinical decision-making — moving us beyond the formulaic structure of the Ten Session Series toward the reasoning of a truly advanced practitioner:

We claim to integrate the human structure. A clear, embodied answer to those questions is an essential condition of that claim.

This in-person training is open to all certified Rolfers and IASI-approved Structural Integration practitioners — including those who have already completed advanced training — who bring a deep commitment to their craft and to their clients. Come ready to rediscover what you stopped noticing, and to sharpen the clinical perception that makes lasting change possible.

About the Instructors

Juan David Velez - Instructor

Juan David is a Senior Faculty member at the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute®, teaching Advanced Level and Basic Trainings, Rolf Movement®, Life Sciences, and Continuing Education courses. He serves on the Education Executive Committee, represents the Faculty on the DIRI Board of Directors, and chairs the Life Sciences department.

Though deeply grounded in anatomy and the sciences, his approach to the work is primarily one of open attention — guided by perception rather than prescription. He brings that same quality to the classroom, meeting each group of students with fresh eyes and a genuine curiosity about who they are and what they need. With nearly three decades of teaching across all levels of DIRI's trainings, he has learned to speak fluently to both the analytically inclined and the intuitively guided, making complex concepts accessible to all.

Juan David is passionate about this work and looks forward to sharing this journey with colleagues dedicated to their own growth as Structural Integration practitioners.

Bethany Ward, MBA - Assistant

Bethany Ward is dual faculty serving in both the Rolfing® SI and Rolf Movement® Integration departments. She is past president of the Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation and was involved in the early stages of the International Fascia Research Congress and Fascia Research Society. She was a member of the Leadership Council for the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association and Co-Chaired the Rolf Movement Integration Faculty Committee. Bethany currently serves on DIRI’s US Regional Faculty Oversight Committee and Faculty Development and Review Board.

Combining degrees in psychology and business with over 25 years of Rolfing experience, Bethany brings a fresh perspective to somatic education. Adept at making complex ideas understandable, relevant, and accessible to a wide variety of learning styles, Bethany’s articles have been published in the Structural Integration Journal, the International Association of Structural Integration Yearbook, Massage Magazine, Endurance Magazine, among others. Bethany has a full-time private practice in Durham, North Carolina.