Massage therapy, acupuncture, hypnosis - these are the usual alternative health contenders, but what about the therapies that don't make the news?

ROLFING

Sometimes rolfing is mistakenly classified under massage therapy, but this is not like any massage that you have experienced. Unlike Swedish massage, which aims to relive tension in the surface muscles, rolfing "works on the web-like complex of connective tissue (fascia) to release, realign and balance the whole body" (or so says the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration). Practitioners often use their knees, elbows, and gravity to facilitate this release. The experience, I can attest, swings actively between great opening and relief to deep, somewhat tortuous pain (all for the good of the work).