Martha Pfleeger is a Certified Rolfer in Portland

"I so appreciate your work.  Our sessions are teaching me how to surrender into my body because your touch goes deep, yet feels soft at the same time. It is good for my nervous system to learn I can change without struggle and pain. It wasn't that way in my family.  I also love that you use your intuition in addition to your clinical skills.  In this way we meet as whole person to whole person." ~ Caroline Sabi,  Psychotherapist. ### BIOGRAPHY ### My love of body knowledge and sincere desire to help alleviate physical suffering have long interwoven to shape my life's work. My first career was as a modern dancer. Because I was not "a natural," I had to study body mechanics and pathways of connectivity very intently to progress. Throughout those years, I traveled from coast to coast to learn dance technique and somatic awareness from renown teachers. Little did I know how much my limitations would later serve my evolution as a bodyworker! ### ### I was introduced to Rolfing toward the end of my dance career.  Excited and inspired, I immediately applied to The Rolf Institute so that I could share the life-affirming benefits and healing power of full-body balance and integration. As Rolfers attend to the body as a whole system, I am committed to ongoing continuing education to better understand the complex interrelationships between different tissues and how to influence them with greater sensitivity. At present I am particularly interested in learning how to communicate more effectively between the body and brain with strategically targeted movement, bodywork, and other forms of input, such as scent, variations in temperature, etc. ### ### I very much enjoy being in a co-creative relationship with my clients. Together we develop sessions which serve your touch preferences and interests. While Rolfing is the strong backbone in my practice, we can draw on multiple modalities to facilitate your accelerated change process and which will empower you to access newly awakened potentials. You will always be the one in charge of what happens in your sessions. Sometimes clients will say "whatever you want to do (at a particular location on their body), Martha." My response is that my only "want" is to honor what your body is telling you. An important part of the healing and transformation process is listening to your sensations and feeling safe to be heard and understood. ###   ### Highlights of Recent Continuing Education ### ### Visceral Manipulation !, Barral Institute, 2018 ### Ortho-Bionomy Releases for Spine and Pelvis, 2018 ### Brain Gym, 2017 ### Balancing the Face for Structural Integrators, 2015 ### Biodynamic Cranial Therapy - Osseous Motility 2014 ### Diaphragms/Ribcage/Awakening Embryological Motion in the Trunk, April 2013 ### Diplomate of American Functional Neurology Society, April 2013 ### Functional Neurology for Bodyworkers, (Year long Intensive 2012) ### Knee and Ankle Seminar 2011 ### Understanding Trauma 2011 ### Inter-osseous and Intra-osseous Pelvis Seminar 2011 ### Neural Mobilization for Shoulder and Pelvic Girdles 2010 ### Neural Mobilization Relating Peripheral and Neuromenigeal Fascias 2010 ### Acccessing Mind-Body Connection between Client and Therapist 2010 ### Somatic Patterning 2008 ### Emotional Freedom Technique 2008