SourcePoint Therapy and Structural Integration

Dear Friends, after writing about relationship last month, this month I am choosing to return to one of SourcePoint Therapy’s most important relationships, and that is to the practice of Structural Integration, and specifically the work of Dr. Ida Rolf. Bob is a Certified Advanced Rolfer, in practice since 1985. SourcePoint Therapy began to emerge in the context of his practice in the early 1990’s, and from questions that arose in relation to his practice. Over the years many Structural integrators have studied SourcePoint Therapy and found that it benefitted their practices of SI. For this month’s post we have a guest contributor, Jason DeFilippis. Jason is a Structural Integrator since 2003 and a SourcePoint Therapy practitioner since 2013. He currently maintains a primary practice in New York City.

We are very grateful for Jason’s dedication to his work over the years, and for this statement of his perspective on SourcePoint Therapy. We always say, SourcePoint Therapy is intended to enhance and support the work of other modalities, not take their place. This is an excellent exploration of how SourcePoint Therapy and manual therapy can complement each other.

About 15 years ago—7 years into my Structural Integration (SI) practice—I started studying SourcePoint Therapy, a simple form of energy work. I quickly realized how much SourcePoint potentiated my work as a manual therapist. Now, with a fair amount of time spent contextualizing my manual therapy sessions within this modality of energetic work, I am interested in sharing a bit about my experience. I do not believe in a hierarchy of modalities; rather, I view them as permission structures. I share my experience here because using SourcePoint as a context for manual therapy consistently yields good results in structural change, nervous system regulation, and integration.

I have been fortunate enough to study both direct and indirect work with some of the greats in our SI family, as well as with instructors from other disciplines. My primary interest is supporting clients in discovering their internal resources, identifying unhelpful habits, and integrating newer, more skillful ways of moving, breathing, and relating to themselves and their environment. About 70% of my manual work is done within the SourcePoint context. My practice in New York City consists mostly of ambitious, results-oriented clients who have the resources to seek out what they believe to be the best care. It is very rare for a client to experience my work as vague, and even skeptics often become intrigued. The proof of the effectiveness of manual therapy within the SourcePoint context lies in the results I consistently see and in the appreciation of a very discerning clientele.

We all know the signs of a session that is going well: a calm and alert state, proper structural stacking, a balance of support and adaptive capacity, grounding combined with lift, more functional bony alignment, even distribution of tension through the fascia, and ease and nuance in coordinated movement and breath… These qualities often begin to emerge in dramatic ways within 10 to 15 minutes of most sessions, well before any direct manual therapy has occurred. By the end of a session, many core SI principles have naturally emerged within the client. Most importantly, I am continually pleased with the level of integration my clients demonstrate both during the session and over time.

I believe any modality of therapy or healing art is meant to support the client in stepping out of their history and becoming more resonant with the present moment. In SI, we emphasize the body as the primary context for experience. We adjust how a person’s past is shaped and gestured in their body, thereby facilitating their resonance with the present moment and with a healthy pattern. I know I am in good company in offering the view that energetic structure is primary to physical reality—an idea Dr. Rolf expressed very clearly. Working coherently with a client’s energetic blueprint is a highly efficient way to help their nervous system come into a good habit, and therefore into reality. This may be precisely what we observe when the principles of SI emerge time after time.

SourcePoint as a context for manual therapy allows me to synthesize all of my skill sets cleanly and effectively. Sessions blend work with energetic structures, subtle rhythms within physical reality, and direct manual interventions—often simultaneously. It feels as though I am apprenticing under an organizing principle that is extraordinarily brilliant, an experience I suspect is familiar to many of us. SourcePoint resonates with me as a profound and effective energetic modality that simplifies and clarifies the field of information. Moving from acting as something like a “mechanic” to serving as a facilitator is what has kept me deeply engaged in this work after more than 20 years. I remain genuinely captivated.