Rolfing

Hanja Knotkova

Movement, education, body-mind relation. These are the things Hanja is fascinated by. Born in the west of the Czech Republic, she came to the US to study Rolfing® Structural Integration. She chose it over the world-class Czech physio therapy as she felt that Rolfing was still a more holistic approach through which client move and feel better.

Hanja has a passion in assisting her clients to find more ease in their movement, learn some ways to sustain the changes induced during sessions and be empowered by the new options for movement and self-expression.

Before becoming a RolferTM, Hanja had two small businesses in Prague. One focused on providing bodywork treatment and exercise coaching. The other one was in providing language classes, translation and interpreting in Prague.

She had studied Adult Education at Charles University in Prague where she earned a MA degree in 2003. She researched stress, its impact on human body and mind and how Jungian psychology can guide people in realizing their truth self. Dr. Rolf once described her work as “helping people become who they really are”. This aspect has been of great interest to Hanja in her study of body-mind relationship. In Hanja is trained in various body work modalities and techniques. What she appreciates about Rolfing is that this modality effectively addresses limited ROM or lack of movement, increases posture and movement awareness, assists clients with pre and post-surgical conditions related to musculoskeletal injuries, changes in the soft tissue due to overuse and many others. It is not about one condition or the other. The body always responds as a whole and so Rolfer`s focus is always the whole person. It is truly an amazing process which has changed people`s lives on many levels.

Hanja`s most current focus is studying with Jeffrey Burch who has been practising manual therapies for several decades. His unique approach lies in traditional manual osteopathy combined with new approaches of the current one and techniques that Jeffrey developed by himself. Unlike traditional Rolfing, these approaches use but a gentle touch which induces huge and longer lasting changes in the human body. It has been proven that working in this way is not only very effective and can directly deal with greater variety of tissues such as vascular, nervous or organs. Clients sometimes wonder - is this Rolfing? The answer could be both yes and no. Rolfing is better defined by the goals it strives to achieve, if we look at the client and see where we can intervene so as the whole body benefits the most, a greater balance, alignment in relation with gravity and freedom of movement is achieved, we are doing Rolfing.

“I can’t recommend Hanja highly enough. Being referred to a Certified Rolfer was a bit of a concern based on the stories I’d heard of how aggressive and deep their work could be. I came to find that Hanja is so much more than just a Rolfer. She takes a full body perspective and actively encourages her clients to be involved in the healing process. Having had both knees replaced over a three month period and having done the full physical therapy regimen, my body was still very much out of balance, muscles were stiff and I had regular headaches. In five sessions, Hanja had me feeling better than I had in many years- and, she told me we were “done”! She does not stretch out her work unnecessarily. Her entire approach is to help her clients address the issues that are concern, openly communicate about the process actively engage them in recovery. Hanja is outstanding!”