Role: CE Workshop Teacher, Teacher
Certified Rolfer®, Certified Rolfing® Instructor, Certified Advanced Rolfer®, Mentor, Rolf Movement™ Practitioner
Gerhard Hesse is a Certified Advanced Rolfer® (1984) and a Rolf Movement™ Practitioner (2005). He is an Instructor at the International and European Rolfing® Faculty.
Gerhard runs his own practice in Vienna, Austria. Being a member of the International Life Science Faculty he also teaches anatomy classes having previously organised and taught dissection courses at the Anatomical University of Vienna for Rolfers and Osteopaths.
Before Rolfing
Gerhard graduated from the University of Mainz in Germany. Having studied Ethnology, he travelled to Africa and then to India where he stayed for months learning Yoga. It is here that he met Baghwan Shree Rajshneesh and took part in many workshops at his Ashram, including being introduced to Rolfing® by Robert Schleip.
Inspiration to train in Rolfing®
My first Rolfing sessions changed the way I perceived the world and how I perceived myself in the world. It became easier to walk around: less exhausting, and with much more joy. So I decided to do Rolfing Training. I also wanted the opportunity to work with humans in a process-oriented way, guaranteeing a life-long learning process.
“I enjoy witnessing the growth of us all – me and my students – as we deepen our understanding of the structural-functional relationship and gain self-awareness as to how we live in gravity and the importance of using this force in a good way and not fight against it".
Teaching Method
As an Anatomy Instructor, I believe that a good understanding of anatomy is fundamental for the client relationship as it helps you to identify where to work. It also helps with the structural-functional relationship. I also place tremendous value on ‘touch’. Good Rolfing sessions depend on our touch – ‘to touch means: let yourself be touched’ this quote from Hubert Godard has guided me throughout my years of becoming a Rolfing Instructor.
“It is also about listening – and in listening there is no doing but following the clients’ body and giving suggestion to the tissue and the mind. These, together with a solid handicraft and an open heart, are at the center of my teaching”
