Helping To Heal Naturally
Ali G helps a patient realign her body and heal. Sara Wall Photography photos
By Alison Grabel
Owner of Ali G Body Harmony
Tell us about your business. I offer people a solution for healing and restoring balance in their lives. I specifically work with the Rolf Method of structural integration, or Rolfing, which is therapeutic body-work. It’s an amazing scientific process developed by Ida Rolf, a scientist and researcher who came up with a way to work with the body to best align it so it can function with ease and grace, and have a vertical line. It works with the connective tissue of the body. There are 10 sessions to the massage-like recipe, working from head-to-to and front to back. It’s a hands-on therapy, so we work together. It’s really a self-help tool, and participation is required on the part of the person receiving it. So it’s not like massage, where you just fall asleep. We’re working together doing movement. It’s a re-education.
What is the typical outcome? All that energy previously being used to hold yourself up now becomes
freed to expend in other areas. I worked with a woman who suffered from fibromyalgia, and after 18 years of not being able to move she is doing Ashtanga yoga every day – it changed her life. It enhances the whole person. You feel lighter; things feel easier.
Why do you do what you do? This was a life change for me. I used to be a business executive – a human resources director at an advertising agency in New York City and San Francisco. But I always liked helping people. I do this because it was a calling, a path that I traveled on after having my own personal injury. I first became a licensed massage therapist, and through that work I really wanted to help people rehabilitate and heal themselves, and that was when I discovered that the Rolf Method worked.
Ali G uses a hands-on interactive therapy called Rolfing
What’s the most challenging aspect of your business? It keeps me in check. I need to personally always be in my best physical and emotional state. It’s a discipline. But I’m really enjoying it, so I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge. It’s been more of an adventure, and I’m somewhat enchanted with this recipe because it works and the execution differs from person to person, but the results are always transformative.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your business? Just watching people blossom and watching them restore their vitality when they were otherwise feeling the pain they thought was something they would have to endure the rest of their lives. To help people heal naturally, I love it.
What are your plans for the future? I want to continue offering this wonderful remedy to as many people as I can. I’m also working on a separate business idea, which is a community resources center in Kilauea for affordable wellness services, like massage and acupuncture.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? I’d be a teacher. I taught for a few years at Kilauea School and love children.
639-0394. aligbodyharmony.com
