Natural Alignment and Visceral Integration in Structural Integration

Presented by Alyssa Dodson

Early bird price of $450 held until July 15th, 2022 EXTENDED until Friday, July 22 at 11:59 EDT / $550 thereafter. 

Note: This course is primarily intended for manual therapists, however certain movement professionals may qualify to attend. Please contact info@anatomytrains.com with questions about your eligibility. 

This two day introductory course presents two central ideas based on the work of Liz Gaggini, Rolfer ®.

Natural Alignment
Natural Alignment is not the same for all bodies. There can be significant differences in the preferred alignment for different structures. This can most easily be seen as a difference in the preferred position of the two girdles. Understanding and assessing each client’s unique Natural Alignment helps practitioners refine their integration skills and adds a new way of looking at how each client relates to their “Line” or orientation in gravity.

Core integration: Visceral Manipulation
Visceral fascia has strong effects on supporting or inhibiting integrative movement and optimal alignment. Releasing strains and organizing the viscera and related fascia can enhance core transmission and deepen the goal of organizing the spine, pelvis and shoulder girdles. This approach to visceral assessment and technique is focused on how visceral work can be incorporated into series work or post series work and be integrated into the goals of a practitioner’s session with their client.

In these two days you will learn:

What Natural Alignment means

•  How to asses Natural Alignment through:
  • Recognizing different skeletal types
  • Different tissue densities and lengths
  • Girdle positions
  • Anterior – Posterior Spinal Curves
  • Appendicular Rotations
  • Line of Maximum Density
  • Circle of Orientation
•  How to integrate Natural Alignment assessments in your series work
• What Culture of the Core means
• How visceral fascia can support or inhibit Natural Alignment
• How to see visceral connective tissue strain patterns and how they may affect ease of movement
• Indirect listening” touch needed to work with visceral fascia
• How to work differently with visceral fascia versus myofascia
• How to differentiate between myofascial patterns and
  visceral fascial patterns

Alyssa Dodson, a BCSI practitioner, teaches courses and mentors practitioners in Biomechanics and Visceral Manipulation, and has been in private practice in New York City for over 15 years. She completed her initial SI training in 2002 at The Guild for Structural Integration with Emmett Hutchins and Peter Melchior. She began studying with Liz Gaggini in 2005, assisting her teaching until Liz’s retirement in 2016, and is now one of a small group of practitioners authorized to teach Liz’s methods. A former modern dancer with The Martha Graham Company and other dance companies, Alyssa has taught movement/alignment education at various elite schools and festivals, and was trained by Juliu Horvath and taught the Gyrotonic System. Her teaching methods have been influenced by Hubert Goddard, Monica Caspari, Emilie Conrad, and Irene Dowd. For more information: alyssadodsonnyc@gmail.com or (001) 917-974-7363