From twister cables to pointe shoes: The birth of a Certified Rolfer™
by: Cyndi Ingle, 
16. Jun, 2010 
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Childhood leg braces led a young woman to an understanding of her own body and to helping others through Rolfing® Structural Integration
GUEST COLUMN: CAROLE LAROCHELLE, 1st of 3 parts — Different synchronistic events and life circumstances can sometimes conspire to show you your life’s path.
In my case, those events and conditions combined with my anatomical structure to show me mine, eventually leading me to my current profession as a Rolfing® practitioner.
Are you familiar with Rolfing® Structural Integration? Rolfing SI is a form of somatic education. Its main purpose is to improve the structure and alignment of the body. It is not a type of massage therapy. Rather, Rolfing practitioners are the structural experts of the human body.
They use skillful hands-on techniques as well as movement education to empower clients to take charge of their own physical and emotional health. Rolfing SI also has the potential to support personal evolution through enhancing the vertical alignment of the body, facilitating the upward movement of energy through our systems and the subsequent evolution of consciousness.
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from new clients and friends is, “How did you get into Rolfing SI?”
Being born in San Francisco at the height of the Summer of Love maybe it was inevitable I should become involved with a body of work that came into public consciousness during the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s. My Vedic astrologer, who happens to live in San Francisco, certainly believes it is clearly evident in the alignment of the planets at the time of my birth.
Leg issues I did not "grow out of"
As I look back on my life I see it all began around the age of four. I was very “pigeon-toed” as a child. I remember going to see my pediatrician with my mother and her asking him at the end of my physical, “What about Carole’s legs?” Early on, the answer was, “She’ll grow out of it,” and “Do these stretches and that should help.”
I remember running down the hill one day and falling down again. (I fell down a lot as a child, frequently enduring bruises and abrasions on my elbows and knees.) As I was picking myself up off the ground I became curious about my predicament and determined to figure out what I had tripped over. Looking around on the ground I could find nothing. And then, slowly creeping into my consciousness, came the awareness I had tripped over my own feet!
That was a monumental moment for me.
My introduction to twister cables
I was eventually referred to a “specialist” and fitted with twister cables, braces that fastened around my waist, thighs and calves with attached shoes. I was to wear them 24 hours a day, which I ultimately detested. The daytime wasn’t so bad, but nighttime was horrible.
The shoes, being connected to the braces, didn’t allow me to relax my legs at night. I have memories of the sheets getting twisted around the braces leaving me feeling trapped in bed with the frequent result being torn sheets.
It’s taken most of my life to understand the structural issues that are going on in my body. I can’t remember ever speaking with a professional who explained to me what was happening in the bones and joints of my legs. It’s not such a simple thing having a toe-in gait pattern.
Beginning to understand my body
The first source I discovered that explained the pattern in more detail was an excellent little book by Rene Cailliet, MD, titled Foot and Ankle Pain. In 2002, while browsing through the bookshelf of a colleague, I spotted the book and inside I found a wonderful little drawing labeled “orthotic twisters.”
It was the first drawing I’d ever seen of my braces. It explained that twister cables were coiled springs within a cable housing that resists torque. Through adjustment of these springs the foot can be made to turn in or out and thus hopefully control and retrain the movements of the legs.
I went on to read that intoeing can result from excessive internal rotation of the femur and/or from marked internal tibial torsion. Cailliet also stated that techniques for measuring femoral torsion presented “radiologic difficulties” and had not yet been standardized. Apparently there wouldn’t be any medical testing to answer my questions.
I’d need to figure this out on my own.
Discovered: an internal tibial torsion
I sat down on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me and began to look. I noticed that when I pointed my toes straight up to the sky my right knee also pointed straight up, but my left knee pointed towards the left. I was also aware of a lot of muscular effort happening around my left hip joint.
What was going on? I started to allow my left foot to rotate in. I rotated it in until the strain in my hip muscles relaxed and my kneecap pointed straight to the sky. Now my left foot was pointing towards my right. Aha, I thought, so I have an internal tibial torsion!
I then started to explore the range of motion in my hips. My right leg had much more external rotation than my left; my left leg had much more internal rotation than my right. As far as I’ve been able to figure out I most likely have a femoral torsion on my left leg in addition to the tibial torsion.
I also suspect there is some modeling of my actual hip joint and the associated ligaments that is congenital and some that was patterned into my body while I was growing and walking in the toe-in pattern. I believe it shaped the structure of my hip joint much like a tree can be shaped by the wind constantly blowing against it from one direction.
I found some additional resources on the internet about femoral and tibial torsion that have been very helpful to me in my explorations. It is my hope that through writing about my own experience I can help others to better understand their own structural challenges.
Being put into twister cable braces at the age of four to correct "pigeon-toed" walking was the spark that ignited the fire of Carole LaRochelle's life-long interest in the structural organization of the human body.
In private practice as a Rolfing practitioner since 1996 Carole has also studied pilates, craniosacral therapy and somatic approaches to healing trauma. She has a deep and abiding interest in body-oriented psychotherapies. Carole sees clients in Santa Rosa, San Francisco and Berkeley, California. For more information please visit her website.
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I like this story for its blend of the inner posture and outer event. I like a teacher who had to learn what she professes from the inside - the teaching is then authentic!
Hey, Tom Myers is in the house. Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. You probably don't remember me very well, but you taught my anatomy lead-in at the RI back in 1996. You covered me with masking tape marking out your Anatomy Trains on my body. (This was before your book of course.) Please do check back for Parts 2 and 3.
So many people don't get what Rolfing is all about. Too bad. It adds grace to our movement, and is often a life-saver for those of us with debilitating issues. Looking forward to the other installments. Carole certainly has learned her lessons from the inside-out. I've been Rolfed by some of the best. So glad to have found Carole in Santa Rosa and thrilled she is now working out of an office in San Francisco.
Its barbaric what we western medicine does in the name of health... Thank you for sharing this.
You know, my parents were excellent at not turning me into a victim about the whole thing. The doctors and my parents thought they were doing the right thing to help me. I just wish we could have gone to see someone more enlightened like an osteopath or a Rolfing practitioner. I would have needed work and help from when I was very young and for many years, like trying to unravel a scoliosis. My legs have changed a lot, but the underlying skeletal pattern is still there and I work with it finding neutral for my particular structure. I can tell you straight is not neutral for me.
Thank you for this fascinating piece Carole. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the article.
The thing that prompted me to reply was your statement 'straight is not neutral'. I feel that it's really important to promote that good alignment is not about being straight. Good alignment is possessed by anyone who has cultivated the awareness to work with the skeletal arrangement that they actually have, in the moment. The 'good'-ness of 'good alignment' rests on my ability to show kindness and softness towards my own skeleton, however it may be presenting. That generosity - offering of my attention - allows each joint surface to retain its most optimal position as I walk jump and tumble through my world.
Thank you for sharing your story - most inspiring!
Beautifully said Phil, just beautiful!
"Good alignment is possessed by anyone who has cultivated the awareness to work with the skeletal arrangement that they actually have, in the moment. The 'good'-ness of 'good alignment' rests on my ability to show kindness and softness towards my own skeleton, however it may be presenting. That generosity - offering of my attention - allows each joint surface to retain its most optimal position as I walk jump and tumble through my world."
We need to get this knowledge out not only to the structural integration community, but to the yoga, pilates and fitness communities as well. It does take a sophisticated understanding of the body to get this knowledge across. I do my little part every time I take class from a new to me yoga or pilates teacher.
I'm so thrilled that you understand "Straight is not neutral."
Thanks Carol. To add to that. Neutral is probably not vertical!
Looking forward to the next bit of the story.
Phil,
I'm going to have to diverge from you on this point. I do believe we are inherently wired to seek vertical. You could say we as humans are orthotropic where as plants are heliotropic. We are the only critters who have evolved to walk exclusively upright. Our first relationship is with gravity, with up and down. Research has shown in the developing fetus the first nerve to myelinate is the nerve of the vestibular system. Or, you could say our relationship to gravity is more primary than our relationship to our mother. Personally, I do think neutral is vertical, even a spiraling vertical, but not necessarily straight.
Did you read Part 2? http://www.soulscode.com/freedom-from-twister-cables/
Great article. First, I never knew what Rolfing was before and now I know the inspiration behind you taking this up.
Interesting how at such a young age you became aware of the "something wrong" with your running and tripping. And BTW, that video of you on the playground is really adorable even though it is a little sad because the leg braces were probably very uncomfortable for you back then and were a lot to overcome.
I know how you feel because as a young boy, I had severe allergies and worse asthma that limited me in so many ways (running far, being outside during high allergy season, sleeping, tiredness, etc.) and has continued to this day to cause me discomfort. I exercise now to try to battle my asthma in a small way and I try not to let it limit me from enjoying things I love to do outdoors, including hiking in the woods.
Great intro and I can't wait to read more.
Hi Lon,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing some of your childhood challenges. Our deepest wounds can truly become our biggest gifts if we put the time and effort into healing them. Lon is quite a writer in his own right. Please check out his website linked to above. Lon is not only a writer but an artist as well. His work will be featured in the Sayville Art Walk this Friday, June 18.
http://www.greatersayvillechamber.com/
Hi Carole,
I always love to hear people's "hallelujiah" stories about what brought them to holistic healthcare- and in my case especially when it's Rolfing since that was my hallelujiah modality too. Thanks for sharing your story!
Meryl, Brooke,
Thank you for your support.:-) Part 2 is publishing tomorrow! Please share this story with others to wild, wild abandon.
Hugs to you both.
i would like to learn rolfing i live in melbourne australia
Hi Anthony,
Well fortunately you can do that in Australia. Here's a link to the Australian Group of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration. http://rolfing.org.au/home/
Good luck!