For 16 years, Dolores resident Nikki Gillespie has been a massage therapist and though she still it, she says she can offer something even better for the body.

It's called Rolfing, and Gillespie became certified in it 10 months ago.

Rolfing is an alternative to massage offered through the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, which has a training center in Colorado Springs. The institute states that Rolfing is a "holistic system of soft-tissue manipulation and movement education that organizes the whole body in gravity".

The method was developed by Ida Rolf in 1920. She was very interested in tissue and movement and connective tissue.

"For a long time, they didn't pay attention to connective tissue. But it's all over our body. Everything is covered in our connective tissue."

Gillespie said that by paying attention to the connective tissue and retraining people how to sit and walk appropriately, she has seen Rolfing transform people.

"Our bodies are made to operate in a certain way," Gillespie said.

Gillespie said we often walk the way our parents walked, or walk letting stress or injuries dictate how we hold our bodies.

Se works with the patient to fix those problems.

"It's an educational process in movement," she said.

Gillespie obviously works out the muscle and tissue problems, but she works with the patient so that doesn't happen again.

"With a massage, I would work with that person's shoulder, for example, but they would come back again, because they were sitting wrong at work,"she said.

A typical Rolfing session lasts for 10 different sessions.

"I go through your entire body," she said. "We take it apart and put it back together."

It is a little like putting a puzzle together.

"Everybody has a different piece of their body where they are stuck," Gillespie said.

How does rolfing feel?

"It has a reputation for being painful," Gillespie said. "But it isn't. I work with the patient and listen to them."

She gave a short demonstration on this author's shoulder.

It felt like a nice stretch. One of those big Sunday morning stretches, a little painful, but necessary and oh, so good.

In fact, after she was done with the shoulder, it felt the rest of my body needed Rolfing too.

Gillespie had Rolfing done to herself after knee surgery. After the surgery, she had the tendency to avoid the knee altogether and therefore throw the rest of her body off balance.

"It helped me so much," she said. "It forced me to start walking on my knee."

Gillespie is the only certified person in Rolfing in Montezuma County.

"I really like helping people get out of pain," she said.

Information: Four Corners Rolfing, Nikki Gillespie, 102 E. North St., Cortez, 882-8850