Role: CE Workshop Teacher, Teacher
Certified Rolf Movement™ Instructor, Certified Advanced Rolfing® Instructor, Mentor
A member of the Rolf Institute since 1986 and an International and European Rolfing® and Rolf Movement™ Faculty member, She is a member of the Life Sciences Faculty of the Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration (Boulder, CO) and teaches Anatomy for the European Rolfing® Association e.V.
Pierpaola is a certified Rolf Movement™ Practitioner (1986), a Rolfer® (1988), a Certified Advanced Rolfer® (1996) and an Advanced Rolfing® Instructor (2021).
Since 2006, Pierpaola has been an International Rolfing and Rolf Movement Instructor, while she continues to run her own Rolfing practice. As well as teaching the Basic Rolfing Training, Pierpaola is very active in setting, supporting and teaching the modular Rolfing training in Italy.
In her continuing education, Pierpaola participated in Rolfing workshops with Jeff Maitland, Jan Sultan, Michael Salveson, and Peter Schwind. She also participated in visceral manipulation workshops with Jean Pierre Barral, Didier Pratt and Alain Croibier. Her Rolf Movement background has been greatly informed by the teachings and workshops of Hubert Godard.
“A good Rolfer is someone who is honest and authentic, is willing and curious to explore. Learning Rolfing is a lifelong journey. Every student has different ways of learning and I integrate this very much into my teaching to ensure they reach their full potential."
Pierpaola graduated as a Physical Educator (1976) and with a degree in Sociology (1982). Prior to Rolfing, she was a Physical Education teacher in state schools, a swimming instructor, and for over ten years, a Movement and applied kinesis therapist in private centres; here she worked with people with scoliosis, back pain, and arthritis. Pierpaola also co-founded a body-oriented theatre in her home town of Rimini, Italy; she worked with the group for five years doing street performances, organizing festivals and events, and holding workshops with both adults and children.
“It was a Rolf Movement workshop taught by Leonor Varela in Rimini which inspired me to train in Rolfing. I was looking for a technique that used touch to help people. While I was working as a swimming teacher, I got to work with a two-year old girl who was autistic and hypotonic. I held the child in my arms, moving passively, singing to her… just playing with her body and the water. She started to be interested: she started to play with the water and look at me. I was so astonished that touching her could evoke a new aliveness in her autistic world. A friend then suggested a Rolf Movement workshop… I read Ida Rolf books and I became even more inspired. I did the 10 Rolfing sessions and then enrolled in training”.
“My basic Rolfing Trainings is focused on establishing a sound manual approach, paying attention to the various aspects of touching, including the implicit elements of relationship and communication not just with the client, with the tissue too. I care a lot about the study of Anatomy in my teaching as well.
A good Rolfer is interested and curious in helping people to live their lives, able to listen and communicate with the client on many levels: verbally and non verbally.
Touch obviously happens through the hands and with the help of arms, but limbs are not separated from the rest of the body; all the body is involved and recruited: it needs to adapt, to be flexible and stable – not just from the physical perspective, but also an emotional and even spiritual one. Learning how and what to touch always entails learning about unexplored aspects of ourselves.”
