"Structural Integration (nickname - Rolfing) is a process involving deep, soft tissue manipulation, a process of anatomical organization, through which the line of the human body and its major segments --- head, neck, shoulders, thorax, pelvis, legs, feet --- are brought into greater conformity within the vertical line of Gravity." Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.

In the Sunday Times, 17 October 2010, Sunday, an article on "Rolfing gets tough to heal the body", it mentions the focus of rolfing to be on "inflamed fascia" differentiating it from "chiropractic, which deals with bones, and from therapeutic massages, which works on muscles". This, generally speaking, divides the professions, even though there may be significant areas of overlap sometimes.

More controversially, the article states that "Rolfing has a reputation for being aggressive, even painful at times. Fascia is stubborn material". This certainly does not need to be the case as less can be more. Indeed, Ida Rolf in her later years, did use gentler pressure. Rolfing can be a relaxing experience, not more painful than a regular massage; and certainly the pain that you might feel should not be something that you would associate with after sustaining a bad injury. Children enjoy rolfing immensely.

Through working on fascia, and aligning the connective tissues of the body, a rolfer's end goal should be on restoring proper function and alignment to the body, and that includes the skeletal structure of the body. A rolfer should be well equipped to deal with misalignments of the pelvis and the rib cage. Subtle structural assymetries in the trunk as well as lower extremities which plague so many scoliosis patients, have been reduced when distortions in the body are recognised and worked on by experienced hands.