The IASI Board has voted to extend the period for being grandfathered into IASI membership until June 30, 2004. There are two reasons for this: (1) More time is needed to ensure that we have contacted as many of the existing SI practitioners as possible, and (2) We’re a little behind schedule (like, who isn’t?) in getting the examination / evaluation process ready for prime time.

This is, for sure, the last time we will extend the grandfathering option. From July 2004, all new members will have to enter IASI via either of the two methods outlined (See the Proposed Evaluation article in this newsletter).

IASI is moving along nicely, with over 250 members, predominantly from the ‘Big Three’—Rolf, GSI, and Heller—but with representation from a number of the smaller trainings as well. Lots of ‘Heirs of Ida Rolf’ apparently agree that IASI is an idea whose time has come.

IASI is the only membership organization serving the entire profession of Structural Integration (see our Mission Statement in this newsletter).

Benefits of joining IASI include:

• Access to a larger library (a free yearbook will be available to members sometime in the spring of 2004)
• Access to a wider field of Continuing Education (see the article and application for becoming a Continuing Education provider)
• Access to liability insurance via associate membership in ABMP (see details in this newsletter)
• Contributing to the much-needed unity of the Structural Integration field, and fulfilling Ida’s dream of having a variety of SI schools under one umbrella organization
• Contributing to the professional credentialing and competency assurance of Structural Integration as a step to getting more favorable legislation and professional opportunities for SI practitioners.

How can I join: Fill out the application included in this newsletter or on-line and get it in to us. See green box for contact info.

How can I help if I have joined IASI:

• Join in the effort to help jump-start IASI by participating in a project
• Let SI practitioners from your school know about IASI, so that we can grandfather in those already trained
• Help us ‘test the test’—if you are already a member, that is—we will be asking members to take the evaluation test to see if it fairly assesses what beginning SI practitioners ought to know.

We’re in the Home Stretch!!

IASI will be grandfathering current Structural Integrators only through June, 2004. After that date all practitioners, no matter when they graduated, will be required to take the certification exam. So if you’re thinking of joining this is a good time to act.

All current SI students who are enrolled in one of the SI training schools below, are welcome to join IASI as a student member. If your training will be finished sometime during 2004 you may also be grandfathered in upon graduation.

The number of schools teaching Structural Integration has been growing. For this grandfathering period we are restricting entry to those who have trained minimum 400-hour SI program, whose lineage can be directly traced to Dr. Ida P. Rolf, which teaches an organized series process, and which retains the importance of gravity and connective tissue.

Our current list of these schools is:

1. The Rolf Institute^® founded by Dr. Rolf; current faculty were either trained directly by Dr. Rolf or by her first generation of teachers
2. The Guild for Structural Integration founded by Emmett Hutchins and Peter Melchior, trained directly by Dr. Rolf
3. Hellerwork®, International founded by Joseph Heller, former faculty and president of the Rolf Institute, trained by Dr. Rolf
4. CORE Institute founded by George Kousaleos, trained by Bill Williams; current faculty trained by founder
5. SOMA Founded by Bill Williams who trained with Dr. Rolf; current directors, Marcia Nolte and Karen Bolesky trained by Williams.
6. Institute of Structural Medicine founded by Donna Bajelis, trained by Joseph Heller
7. International Professional School of Bodywork (IPSB) SI training directed by Edward Maupin, trained by Dr. Rolf
8. International Zentherapy Institute founded by Dub Leigh, trained by Dr. Rolf. Current faculty trained by Leigh
9. Institute for Structural Integration founded by John Latz, trained at the Rolf Institute
10. Mana Integrative Therapies founded by Sol Peterson & Mark Gray, trained by Joseph Heller
11. Kinesis Myofascial Integration founded by Thomas Myers, trained by Dr. Rolf
12. Utah School of Massage, SI program directed first by Norm Cohen and then by Andy Crow, both trained by Dr. Rolf
13. Institute of Integrative Body Therapies founded by Lawrence Kaufmann, trained at the Rolf Institute
14. Guild for Therapeutic Bodywork, Inc. founded by Ritchie Mintz, trained at the Rolf Institute
15. Boulder Institute of Structural Integration founded by Pamela O’Connor, trained at The Rolf Institute, former GSI faculty
16. Chicago College of Healing Arts SI program founded by Allan Davidson and Bob King, trained at the Rolf Institute
17. Maitai Retreat founded by Arvind and Jane Pujii, trained by Joseph Heller

Many of you may look at this list with something like distaste or consternation the idea that there might be quality practitioners coming out of so many schools at a seeming distance from Dr. Rolf’s original teaching. But are they really so far removed? And how do those of us who have stayed with the original schools even know what is being taught elsewhere? This is why IASI exists—to round up all the far flung heirs of Ida Rolf before we evolve too far away from each other, set up standards for what is Structural Integration and what is not, create a certification process that will be recognized industry-wide and eventually by the public and policy-makers, and to put us all in front of each other again to learn what we’ve discovered in our different explorations.

This grandfathering period is everyone’s opportunity to join this important project, have a voice in the development of Structural Integration as a recognized profession, and be a part of its unfolding future. Yes, it’s quite possible that not every school on the list does a thorough job of teaching the basics of Dr. Rolf’s work. It’s even more possible that not every practitioner, no matter how good their training or where they got it, has a clue to what they’re doing. The certification exam and Continuing Ed process will weed out the well-educated from the less so, but for now, during this grandfathering period we want to invite everyone in, and then see to it that everyone has Continuing Education opportunities available to round out their education.