Ida Rolf (1896- 1979) was a native New Yorker. She graduated from Barnard College in 1916, and earned a Ph.D in biological chemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1920. Ida Rolf's scholarly success included working as researcher at the Rockefeller Institute in the Department of Chemotherapy and Department of Organic Chemistry. Her supervisor, Phoebus Aaron Theodore Levene, was the head of the biochemical laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. This opportunity was unique for women at the time because most men where fighting World War I.

In 1927, Ida Rolf retreated to Zurich to study mathematics and atomic physics at the Swiss Technical University. It is also during this time she studied homeopathic medicine in Geneva. This was a piviotal point in Ida Rolf’s career where she began to study and explore more unconventional methods to healing and health.

By the 1930’s she had returned from Europe to address personal and family health problems. Frustrated with inadequate medical treatment, Ida explored the healing benefits of osteopath, chiropractic, yoga, Alexander Technique, and Korzybski’s work on states of consciousness. With her eclectic knowledge of health and healing and human biomechanics she was able to successful treat people with debilitating conditions.

Ida Rolf developed her series, or what we now know as a recipe, to opening up the body in the 1930's. The recipe is brilliantly organized so the body finds sound structural integration with lasting results. Ida Rolf's approach was to be committed to a scientific point of view while not abandoning her intuition. This is the work that will later be know as Structural Integration.

The next twenty years were spent on further developing her techniques and trainings. She had a practice on Riverside Drive,NYC, and continued to help people with disability’s. During this time Ida Rolf was also earning global recognition and was also teaching osteopaths in England and Norway. Many summers were spent as a guest of John Bennett, a mathematician, scienctist, and a student of George Ivanovich Gurdieff. Gurdieff a 20th centery spiritual teacher that explored the arrangement of the human body and how it related to reaching to a higher state of consciousness.

In the early 1960's, the Esalen Institute in California invited Ida Rolf to teach at the suggestion of Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy. The students of Esalen were immediately drawn to the teachings of Ida Rolf and a community began to emerge.

As more and more people sought training there was a demand for a formal organization. As early as 1967, devoted students of Ida's, interested in preserve her teachings organized the Guild for Structural Integration in a private home in Boulder, Colorado. Later in 1971, Ida Rolf founded, the Rolf Institute, also located in Boulder, Colorado. The Guild and Rolf Institute have historical differences but both are dedicated to teaching the profound teachings of Ida's work.

Until her death in 1979, Ida remained very active with promoting and teaching her work. She taught advanced trainings, planned research projects, wrote many published articles and books. Her published books include "Rolfing: The Integration of Human Structures," and s book complied with Rosemary Feitis, "Ida Rolf Talks About Rolfing and Physical Reality."