Spring Re-Release: Excavate, Expand, and Elevate with Rolfing

This week’s re-release comes from our newest Hero, Moylan Ryan! Moylan joined our team of Heroes in March 2025, and we’re thrilled to revisit our first conversation where he shares an introduction to Rolfing and the powerful, often unexpected ways it can shift how you move, feel, and show up in your body.

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What if the way you move—how you stand, walk, and even breathe—could unlock a deeper sense of freedom and alignment? Rolfing, a powerful form of structural integration, offers a profound way to release tension, improve posture, and reshape both body and mind. It helps break free from restrictive habits, allowing for greater ease, fluidity, and presence in everyday life.

Hero Moylan is originally from Ireland, where he trained as a somatic psychotherapist, but eventually relocated to the US over two decades. Moylan recognizes Rolfing's structural integration as a profound means of bringing deep change to one's psychology, a reshaping of both neural and fascial plasticity. Moylan has a private practice as a somatic therapist in Tempe, Arizona, where he offers all things structural integration, neurodynamic breathwork, and movement education as integral parts of his healing process. 

What You Will Learn

• [05:33] Why people seek Moylan’s guidance and expertise
• [08:28] What Rolfing is and what happens in a session
• [16:51] The recipe of Rolfing’s 10 successive sessions and their restorative power 
• [31:57] How Moylan creates a sense of safety and connection in Rolfing session 
• [31:57] What intrigued Moylan about Rolfing and how he got started
• [40:03] The most surprising lesson Moylan has learned from healing others
• [43:44] Empowerment: Re-embodying yourself and planting seeds of consciousness  
• [48:45] The value Aikido presents and what makes it unique 
• [50:02] Simple Rolfing practices that you can try at home

Let’s Connect!

Moylan Ryan

Website | LinkedIn 

Chandler Stroud

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

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Mixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Transcript

Chandler Stroud: [00:00:00] Hey there, it's Chandler. Before we roll the music, I wanna let you know that this is a re-release. We're bringing back the very first conversations our heroes ever recorded in honor of our two year birthday this July. They deserve a second. Listen, you're not the same person you were then, and a lot of you are just finding this community and your own path right now.

Chandler Stroud: This is where it all started. I'm so glad you're here. Now, [00:00:30] let's get into it. Hey guys, it's Chandler and welcome to the Healing Heroes. I promise you,

Chandler Stroud: I'm Chandler Stroud, an executive wife and busy mom of two who after years of living with anxiety health struggles and an unshakeable feeling like I should be happier, made a profound discovery that changed everything. Join me on a journey where unexpected [00:01:00] paths lead to healing and more happiness. On this show, we will explore unconventional ways to unlock more joy in your own life.

Chandler Stroud: With the help of my very own healers and trusted advisors, the healing heroes.

Chandler Stroud: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Healing Heroes podcast. Today is a very, very special episode [00:01:30] because I'm doing something that I have never done before on the show. You all know by now that the Healing Heroes are my very own healers, or as I like to call them, my board of advisors, the healers who I sought out to help guide me along this journey to better health.

Chandler Stroud: Happiness and peace. A large part of what makes this show so special is that we've abandoned the revolving door of guests podcast model, and [00:02:00] instead we bring you these credible voices that you can learn to trust. Rely on as you embark on your own journey to heal in hopes that you feel less alone. Well, today I am making an exception and releasing this exclusive episode with a very, very special person and healer who I now call friend.

Chandler Stroud: Moylan Ryan. You see, I first met Moylan at Hero, Katie Wee's Happy camp in Sedona last [00:02:30] fall where she encouraged me to book a session with him after explaining that he was an integral part. Healing her past traumas. I did end up getting my first Rolfing session with Moylan later that day and was so intrigued by him and his work that I ended up booking another three day trip out to Arizona with my husband right before the holidays to do an intensive 10 session Rolfing package with him at [00:03:00] his private practice.

Chandler Stroud: So guys, today, I am thrilled that he is joining us, and I cannot wait for you to learn more about the somatic practice of Rolfing since it really wasn't like anything I had experienced or tried before, despite the focal point of the work being on the fascia. Similar to myofascial release, which is a topic we often talk about on the show.

Chandler Stroud: Before we dive in, let me share a bit more about Moylan background for added [00:03:30] context in today's conversation. Moylan Ryan is originally from Ireland, where he trained as a somatic psychotherapist, but eventually relocated to the US nearly 21 years ago to study at the Dr. Rolfe Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Chandler Stroud: Moylan recognizes Rolfing structural integration as a profound means of bringing deep change to one's psychobiology, a reshaping of both the neural and fascial plasticity. [00:04:00] Moylan has a private practice as a somatic therapist in Tempe, Arizona where he offers. Rolfing structural integration, neurodynamic breath work and movement education as integral parts of his healing process.

Chandler Stroud: Moylan offers clients both an in-person and virtual presence, and also facilitates group workshops and retreats. He's taught somatics and embodied movement as part of the dance faculty at Arizona State University, where his practice is based on the nonviolent martial art of a [00:04:30] keto in which he holds a sixth degree black belt.

Chandler Stroud: Yes, you heard that right? Moylan is currently completing his book, living Aligned, a compilation of over 40 years experience exploring the landscape of both the inner and outward world. Moylan, thank you so much for being with us today. I am so glad you're here and cannot wait for this conversation. 

Moylan Ryan: Thank you, Chandler.

Moylan Ryan: Um, it's a pleasure to be here with you. Yes, thank you. 

Chandler Stroud: We are so happy to have [00:05:00] you and so excited to teach our listeners about Rolfing. I had never heard of it before, prior to arriving at Happy Camp, and was just so lucky to be paired with you as a therapist because it really was such a memorable experience.

Moylan Ryan: It's a distinct, uh, pleasure to meet you and then for you to come all the way to Arizona with your husband, Ryan, for both of you to invest in yourselves and to spend time with me. Um. Doing this kind of [00:05:30] excavation type of work. So I'm, I'm, I'm very, um, impressed with your courage, you know, to dig deep in your own psychobiology and to discover, you know, secrets that need to be brought into the light.

Moylan Ryan: So, thank you. 

Chandler Stroud: Thank you for saying that, and I loved that you used the word excavate because both literally and figuratively, I feel like that is what Rolfing is all about. So excited to get into that today. Moylan, can you start by sharing [00:06:00] why people seek your help? Why do people come to you for Rolfing sessions?

Moylan Ryan: I feel that many people come to Rolfing, uh, because they have, uh, physical pains and it's often recommended to them as a way to resolve these chronic issues. For me, coming from a background of, um, somatic psychotherapy. I realized that, um, when one me mentions things like, uh, muscle [00:06:30] memory, I realized that the memories, especially traumatic memories, narrative stories, paradigms, that they're actually stored in the collagen fibers of the fascia itself.

Moylan Ryan: And when a person feels that they need to protect themselves, uh, those collagen fibers knit together and the body becomes armored. Wilhelm Reich, uh, was the first person to come up with that. That term, how the [00:07:00] body becomes more rigid, it's often reflected in tension of the muscles. And reflected in a limitation of the breath.

Moylan Ryan: So people would come far physical reasons mostly, but when they arrive in my office, they realize that their physicality is very much, um, connected with their emotionality. So it's in that invitation to explore as, to use that word to [00:07:30] excavate, to uncover, rediscover, to remember, uh, that we together, the client and I start this, um, series of work where we delve into areas that they have become exiled from.

Moylan Ryan: So there's the conscious knowing of, oh yes, I'm in pain, or I'm in imbalance, or my posture, or, but there's the unconscious reasoning for a person showing up and, and that [00:08:00] might not, uh, Chandler be discovered by that person until they're in the depths of the work. And I often have had people with an aha moment later on saying, I thought I came here because my back was an issue.

Moylan Ryan: But then I realized that there was a, a colossal part of my living that was being held back, so I wasn't moving forward in my life. So it's the physicality, as I said, the emotionality or very much, uh, merged with one another. So, you know, people come because [00:08:30] they, they're either in pain. Or they realize that their life, they're living is too small for them.

Moylan Ryan: Mm. And they wanna step across a threshold, find a portal, and step into a bigger, more expanded version of themselves. That's the really the reason why the people, people come to me. 

Chandler Stroud: I love that. I really love that Moylan. What is rolfing? What actually happens in the room when someone is seeking your counsel or expertise?

Moylan Ryan: Um, [00:09:00] Rolfing structural integration, uh, evolved through the discovery and the work of Dr. A Rolf. Um, it's called structure integration, but the. Term became rolfing after Dr. Rolf, obviously. So Rolf for Rolfing, were trained to look at the posture of the body and look for misalignments. You see, every body has attention and compression.

Moylan Ryan: It needs that to be able to stand up. So the fascia is pulling on these [00:09:30] bones like a circus tent. The rope pulls on the pole, and then it, it erects. So we have tension and compression, but when that is excessive, it's often manifests as anxiety, trepidation, fear. And we, and we have a term, uh, Chandler in our, in our everyday society, it's called Uptight, being uptight.

Moylan Ryan: So when that tension and compression becomes excessive, we have torsions. So we [00:10:00] become wound up. That's another term we have in our society to describe a person. So we're uptight, wound up. Now what happens is that we become short, compressed, and often, dare I say it, depressed. And this is all the. Aspect of our, our society, you know, this conditioning, or often, as I said, too worried, fearful, anxious, and that, um, takes up resonance in our psychobiology.

Moylan Ryan: What what happens with Rolfing is that we unwind these collagen fibers, so the [00:10:30] person feels a sense of greater expansion, and that's reflected in their breathing, so they're expanding from the inside out. Three things happen when that expansion takes place, the body feels a sense of greater length. So it's like as if we're getting taller 'cause we're unwinding all this tension and compression.

Moylan Ryan: And so with that, you'll have a greater panorama view of the world. And not just you and the world, but the world. And you. [00:11:00] Secondly, you experience a sense of greater breath, and that's twofold. The breath is in breathing, but the breath is in width, so you feel more expanded. The width, your view is expanded, and with that, you feel the gravitational pull of humanity.

Moylan Ryan: You feel part of community. You feel connected with people. The third part with that space is that you feel depth. So you have length, breadth, and depth. With the depth you can actually go down into yourself and reconnect with, uh, very valuable parts like [00:11:30] your intuition and your wisdom. So during the time when a person comes, they, if they come for, um, the 10 series, as we call it, it's the 10 sessions.

Moylan Ryan: They're integrative, they're progressive. We go through the body. This is what's called the recipe, which was created by Dr. Rolfe. And we go through the body and we're unwinding these tissues that have become, um, uh, they, they've grown into ADIs. We're stuck. And this [00:12:00] is very, very interesting, um, Chandler because that person who's calm is often stuck in life, but they're stuck from the inside out, if you understand.

Moylan Ryan: They're literally, I do. Stuck inside. Inside. I absolutely do. It's reflected in their life. They feel stuck. Stuck in old relationships, old narratives, old stories, old. Limitations, they're immobilized. They feel disempowered. And so with the work I do as a somatic therapist, I'm use a dialogue with people. So I'm [00:12:30] like, for example, when the very first session, when a person comes, we work on respiration.

Moylan Ryan: So we're improving their, their breathe breathing capacity. But also the dialogue around that, uh, session is, uh, inspiration. So we're linking respiration with inspiration. Like there's, nobody ever has said, I thought, um, inspired. So I wrote this song. Everybody says, I felt inspired. I wrote the [00:13:00] song. I felt inspired.

Moylan Ryan: I wrote this book. So inspiration is a feeling now, if you're not in a body that feels you can never live an inspired life. You're stuck in the mediocracy of everyday just dysfunction. So that's just one theme as we go through the 10 series. We focus on different body parts, but there's the physical, but there's also the psychological aspect of it.

Moylan Ryan: Like when we get into the feet and lower legs, we're looking at the platform on which you [00:13:30] stand. Like what is it that you stand for? What are your values, what are your principles? We look at the motion in these ankles and feet. To see, are we on our own life path? Are we taking those steps that help us to reach our goals?

Moylan Ryan: So you can see that during this series of work. I'll explain to you that sometimes people go to, um, therapists and. And I, I trained as a therapist myself and we sit for long periods of [00:14:00] time. You know, 

Chandler Stroud: you're talking talk therapy, right? 

Moylan Ryan: Yes, exactly. Just to be clear, psychotherapist. 

Chandler Stroud: Okay. 

Moylan Ryan: Helpful. Exactly. 

Chandler Stroud: We love those here too, by the way.

Moylan Ryan: And what's happening is that there's an attempt to, and I'll use an analogy to download software that's become hardwired in your psychology. So we'll use things like cognitive behavioral therapy or other modalities, and the client will feel they understand more. I understand why [00:14:30] I am in this state of dysfunction, I understand this and whatever, but the real story is in the body.

Moylan Ryan: And when people, this is going to hopefully answer your question. When people come to me for somatic therapy and Rolfing, what I'm doing is I'm helping to remove and unwind the old, outdated software that's hardwired into the psychobiology, and then updating, upgrading, and adding a new software. [00:15:00] And I think that a lot of the time with cognitive psychotherapy that we're trying to place a new software over an already established hardwired software.

Moylan Ryan: We need to remove that and that, but the removal of that is in the body. The stories are in the fascia, and that's why our work is, um, extremely powerful. We working with the body and the mind. We don't see, we, we see that [00:15:30] it's vitally important to change. As I said earlier in my introduction, I think you said both the fascial plasticity and the neuroplasticity, both of them can be reshaped if we're just reshaping one.

Moylan Ryan: Well, the other is still in the old, um, I'll use that word, software. So hopefully that, um, gives you an insight into, uh, how the, the, the process and, and, and the goal of the work. 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah, no, it absolutely does, and I love that you're reinforcing even my own experience with psychotherapy, which [00:16:00] is so valuable. I talk with Hero Jen about EMDR and the breakthroughs it has allowed me on this show.

Chandler Stroud: Even she and I would sit in her office like a few months in, and I would say we're making so much progress. I feel that my understanding of what happened and how it's affecting me today, I feel clear on that finally, but my body still feels stuck and I can't explain it. It just still feels like it's not keeping up with the leaps and bounds [00:16:30] that my.

Chandler Stroud: Brain is making my cognitive space in healing. And so it was really powerful at the time to find myofascial release, which is another way of releasing fascia. But as I said in the beginning, your work was very different. To that in my experience where I don't know if I would call Myofascia release like more intuitive in terms of where hero Karen would work on my body.

Chandler Stroud: You, I felt like Rolfing was a little bit more, [00:17:00] I would say aggressive and more formulaic. To your point, you mentioned the recipe and I would love for you to walk through what that looks like if someone is coming in for successive sessions. How do you think about approaching, you started with the respiration, going to the ankles and your path in life, but what are the other areas that you then work on as part of that recipe?

Moylan Ryan: And, and thank you. Uh, and, and it's, it's, it's so important to follow the recipe and, and. Every fer [00:17:30] worldwide follows the recipe. That's, that's the, that's the platform on which structural integration is built. And so the first session is around, as I said, uh, respiration. Second session is about your feet and lower legs, about the support that we have.

Moylan Ryan: It's like building, building. Um. Integration from the base up. When we, when we go to cognitive psychotherapy, we're up here in our heads, but really we wanna get a [00:18:00] foundation. You know, we wanna feel grounded. We wanna feel that we're can. It's safe to be in our body. To be connected. And I always think of that term, uh, in yoga, root to rise.

Moylan Ryan: Yes. Root love to rise because there's so much, um, disregulation, disassociation. You know, we're, and I love that line. I think I might have mentioned it to you when you were in Tempe with me. It's, um, the James Joyce in the book, the Dublins, you know, an an Irish author [00:18:30] many years ago, he wrote that line, Mr.

Moylan Ryan: Duffy lived. A short distance from his body. And I think that that really sums up our society, that we live outside ourselves rather than within. So we end up living without rather than within. Um, so as we go through this series, um, in the third session, we look at what's called the lateral line of the body.

Moylan Ryan: That's the outside of the body here, and we differentiate between the shoulder and the pelvic girdle. So we're getting [00:19:00] length, like, remember I said we have length, breath, and depth. So now. Elongating the body. So when a person is conditioned to play small, they'll actually begin to disappear. They'll start to make themselves in this contracted state, and we're doing the opposite.

Moylan Ryan: We're working in an expanded, beautiful elongation, just like when a, a beautiful giraff stands up and looks out onto there. Under the horizon. And so [00:19:30] in that we free up the pelvis and the shoulder girdle, so now we're encouraging greater movement in the spine and the Kundalini energy is able to come up.

Moylan Ryan: It's no longer trapped down in the sacrum. We also look at the arms, and in that session we encourage the arms to be free to reach out for these goals, but also be. Uh, begin to create boundaries with those arms, and that's, uh, for people who've been anyway, um, [00:20:00] challenged or, um, with, uh, traumatic experiences is restoring the ability to, um, confirm.

Moylan Ryan: And reaffirm, uh, their boundaries is very important that we're established. Movement of the arms to be able to say no is very powerful to one thing to say it, but to express it with an arm is even more powerful. Session four, we're in the midline of the body. We're in the adductors inside the legs. This is the place where we're often told to pull ourselves together.[00:20:30] 

Moylan Ryan: This is the place, the pelvic floor where we're uptight person is not able to relax. And when you're tight in the pelvic floor, it's very difficult for the diaphragm to drop down. So you go into, a person, goes into a startle reflex, the diaphragm is pushed up. So they tend to breathe in their neck. Instead, with these, um, secondary muscles of respiration, it gives a lot of neck tightness and we lose the range of motion in our neck.

Moylan Ryan: And that takes it further Chandler, that when we lose that, our body's [00:21:00] not able to navigate space. And then once again, because of that lack of navigation, the ability to navigate it sends a message to the nervous system, and the nervous system triggers a response that were in, uh, fight or flight. It release, it releases a cascade then of, um, hormonal activity like cortisol and adrenaline that comes sweeping through your body.

Moylan Ryan: So this is the cycle that we've, that, that, that, that Rolfing helps [00:21:30] to resolve. So we get the pelvic floor to relax, the diaphragm drops down the shoulders relax, the jaw relaxes. So now the core of the body begins to, oh my gosh, with that energy starts to. Pour through that container. Edina before was, um, curtailed to the arms for fight or flight or the legs, the extremities, as we say now, it's in the center of the body.

Moylan Ryan: You have [00:22:00] what's called peristalsis, which is the tummy rumblings. You'll hear often you might misinterpret that as being hungry or, or your body is processing food well. It is, but it's also processing unexpressed emotions in the body. This re restoration of als. As a somatic therapist is the number one way of helping to diminish the holding pattern of the old blueprint.

Moylan Ryan: That happened at the time of [00:22:30] challenge, traumatic experiences or whatever, and that's why people feel they understand the traumatic experience they've had, but their body. Still feels as if it's in existing at that time. It's because of the lack of peristalsis. So with fin, we get into that core of the body, as I said, burn the pelvic floor.

Moylan Ryan: We get up eventually. Then in session five we're into the SOAs, which is, I mean, that's pretty deep work and, and that as [00:23:00] is. But, but it's interesting, um, because we talk about the core. The saws is the connection between the upper and lower body. It's the core, and I would safely say in treating thousands of clients at this stage, that people's cores are, are, are tight and restricted because they're trying to, um.

Moylan Ryan: Really have a strong connection out of [00:23:30] fear. They're connected with their, there's nothing else they can, so they're, they're rigidly trying to hold onto themselves. And so when that core relaxes, you know, there's a, there's an underpinning there as well, Chandler, because it's, I think that they saw us, really describes our core beliefs.

Moylan Ryan: And if our core beliefs have been written by somebody else, well meaning parents, friends, teachers, or some whatever, we've never. Written our own beliefs with [00:24:00] the pen of intention. Those core beliefs have limited us. So that will, you'll see, um, that limitation reflected in the way that the body moves, the range of motion it has, but we start to release the.

Moylan Ryan: So as in session five, and the dialogue is around the core beliefs, the person can say, I no longer choose to believe. Um, that, that, that narrative that tells me that I live in fear each day. I no longer choose to believe that [00:24:30] I'm in scarcity. I'm now rewriting with the pen of intention. I'm taking responsibility.

Moylan Ryan: And I think that overall, um, John, my work. If there's one thing I would say it does, it helps people to move away from reacting. Reacting old scripts, limiting scripts into taking full responsibility. Developing responsibility. The question we have to ask ourselves. Our people willing [00:25:00] to take responsibility for their wellbeing, for their life, for their, as we call dharma.

Moylan Ryan: Dharma. Dharma is the beautiful Buddhist tradition of, of aligning with your purpose. You see, when we come into the world, we're, we're in our dharma and then we were conditioned to trade it off for two things. Um, drama and trauma. So people spend time then. Speaking, just stuck in the cycle of [00:25:30] their drama and trauma and it deviates them from their dharma.

Moylan Ryan: And I know we're playing with words here, but 

Chandler Stroud: Yes we are. 

Moylan Ryan: But it's, 

Chandler Stroud: that's a tongue twister, but I love how you're saying that it's really, it really is a beautiful thought and summarizes everything we talk about on the show, so well. So well. Mm-hmm. So can you just quickly share what happens in session six through 10?

Moylan Ryan: Very good. Session six is we look at the back line, the person's lying down on the table. We work with our back right from their feet up [00:26:00] in their hamstrings, loots into the back, up to the neck. And in that we're looking at what it is that holds a person back in life. You see, the thing about it is that everybody has a front and a back, but in our society we're con congratulated with what are the fronts that we present to the world, our persona.

Moylan Ryan: So often you'll meet a person and you'll meet the front of them, but it's like going to a stage play and you go up on the stage, you realize, oh, these props have no back to them. And often you'll see people with a lot of [00:26:30] back pain. It's like, is it their back is calling them back, you know, soon to be recognized.

Moylan Ryan: You. Things they put to the back, they don't want to look at. So part of the excavation is to look at our past, to look at what it is that we refuse to pay attention to. It's knocking on the door calling us back. It's only whom we have a front and a back that we can have a center to. We become the center itself if we don't have a front and back awareness.

Moylan Ryan: You have to create a fall center, [00:27:00] which is being self-centered. So this is something that we do in session six. We really look at that about stepping into our center being powerful. And session seven, a beautiful session. One of my favorite sessions is, um, we take a look at the masking that persona. We're often so masked, um, channel that we don't even know ourselves.

Moylan Ryan: We develop these layers, so we look at that. We start to, we, we start to peel off those [00:27:30] masks and we ask ourselves the question, what is it in life that I'm willing to face? So it, it's a beautiful session where we feel that we're seeing, we look at stories that we've heard about our own capacity and we're reframing.

Moylan Ryan: Yes. Yeah. We're no longer in this old type of, um, loop. Of hearing all these old messages, we're beginning to let them go. Eight, nine, and 10 sessions are when the client comes [00:28:00] in, and at this stage we have begun to hand the reins over to them. So when they come in for session eight, I might say to them, Lord, other, how are you noticing about yourself?

Moylan Ryan: What's alive in you today? You know, so now they have, I've steered the first seven sessions. I said, what is your body needing? So we go into the body and the body might say, we need some more work in the pelvis, the back, the neck, whatever the case would be. And then we look at, well, what's the story that's there?

Moylan Ryan: What's evolving [00:28:30] there? What's looking to be heard? So if we do an upper body in eight, we usually do a lower body in nine. Number 10, we bring the body for a walk. And so we're looking at the function, the movement. Are we at ease? Are we at this beautiful. Gracefulness, you know, and I often think about how we move through the world, um, Jor and am I moving from fear?

Moylan Ryan: I remember moving from love, you know, so when the person gets to session 10, they're [00:29:00] moving from love. They're moving from grace, they're moving from a deep connection, a deep self-belief consciousness. And the course that I teach at a SU to the dance, uh, students, it's called the Posture of Equanimity, how to Move for the World in a non-polarized Way.

Moylan Ryan: So we're not against anything. We're not meeting any resistance. Or if we do, we're aware of it, we walk around it, and so we far less suffering when we move from this place of equanimity. This [00:29:30] integration, this, see, you can fight, flight and freeze. And then there's a fourth F that people very rarely explore is called Flow.

Chandler Stroud: Flow. I thought for sure you were gonna say fun.

Moylan Ryan: Fun after flow. 

Chandler Stroud: No fun. The fun response, which is like people pleasing and Right. That's like one that a lot of the. That I hear a lot, but that's okay. They're, they're all bad guys. 

Moylan Ryan: Yes, yes. Yeah. A five [00:30:00] flight, freeze, and flow to be in the flow state. Mm-hmm. So you're blowing from the inside out. You're responsive, you're pulsating, you've an undulation to you, you're not rigid and restricted.

Moylan Ryan: And resistant, and you're not. And and, and that's interesting thing about, it's that when we're in that flow state, we take our projections. And turn them into reflections because we're taking full responsibility for our own growth and development. We're not blaming, we're not suffering. [00:30:30] So that's really, um, our, our 10 series in a nutshell.

Chandler Stroud: Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for running everybody through that. I mean, I'm just listening to you and I'm thinking I could listen to him all day and I'm really sad because we could only be in Arizona for three days and I gifted some of my sessions to my husband. 'cause obviously, you know, before the holidays that was the right thing and kind thing to do.

Chandler Stroud: I only made it through session five. I'm like sitting here thinking we gotta [00:31:00] get back for six through 10 at some point soon. But what I will tell you that I found so surprising for me personally in our work together was, I think it was, especially in sessions four and five. You were able to get into tissue that had, the only word I can think of would be atrophied.

Chandler Stroud: I hadn't felt sensation at in those places in my body, [00:31:30] maybe ever. Like I couldn't remember feeling there before and it was so shocking, like surprising, but also. Just, it was satisfying, I guess, to feel alive in these places that I had felt dead and didn't realize that I had felt numb. And I just, I thought that was really a surprising part of the work.

Chandler Stroud: 'cause I probably, I went in thinking this is gonna be like the [00:32:00] most intense. Deep tissue massage I've ever had, and I have had deep tissue massages, but this was very, very different. It felt so intentional and so strategic in the parts of my body that you were lighting up. As we were going through the various sessions, and it just, I did, I felt taller.

Chandler Stroud: I felt more expansive in just that short time that we had together. I, I really, I really enjoyed it. 

Moylan Ryan: All good points, and I'm, I'm very [00:32:30] happy that you had that experience. It's, it's important when people come to me that we have a dialogue, and the reason for that is because our nervous systems are speaking to one another.

Moylan Ryan: And your, um, the person's neuro reception is asking two questions. Am I safe in this environment and do I trust this person? So for a while when a person comes to me, I'll speak to 'em for maybe 20 minutes. I'll ask them questions that, uh, set up a sense of connection, but it's their nervous system. [00:33:00] I'm, I'm connecting with.

Moylan Ryan: By doing so, they enter a state of parasympathetic influence. So when they get to the table to receive the work, we've already made an agreement that, that, that we're connected. And by doing so, we can evoke change. If we do not do that, it means that the person on the table is in a sympathetic dominance and now I have to, um, enforce change.

Moylan Ryan: And a lot of rolfing can, [00:33:30] a lot of people say, oh, it really hurts. And I believe that as a somatic therapist, we have to really work with the, with the person's nervous system so that we can work with that preordained existence of resistance. And just like in, uh, the practice of Aikido, uh, we don't push into resistance.

Moylan Ryan: We blend, harmonize, redirect, lead, and um, find, discover ways to resolve conflict. We do these exact same thing is even with the, [00:34:00] those issues that are aligned in those tissues. You know, we don't, 'cause if we push in and create resistance, we make them stronger. 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah. 

Moylan Ryan: So it's all about dancing. It's all about the dance with the tissue.

Chandler Stroud: I know Hero, Karen, our myofascial release expert, would absolutely agree with you. She said that before on the show actually. And. I think, you know, I think what you're saying is so important. And actually the other thing I would note is you're sort of highlighting one of the biggest [00:34:30] takeaways that every single hero has at some point set on the show, which is, it all comes down to the relationship between the patient and the practitioner and creating that sense of safety and connection prior to engaging in any sort of work together.

Chandler Stroud: And I mean. I, I don't know that I even realized that piece as I was going through my own journey, but as I reflect on it, and of course the incredible relationships I now have with each of you, [00:35:00] I realize that that was a really critical part of the story and the success that seen in doing this work. So I'm really glad you touched on that.

Moylan Ryan: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to, to be really aware of the work that I do, because sometimes I just do it naturally and I, I don't really think about it until we're languaging like this. So it's, it's, it gives me a chance to explore and, um, share with you the [00:35:30] nuances, the tempo, the depth of relationship, of therapeutic relationship that must be, um, attained.

Moylan Ryan: Um, each and every, in every session. Yeah. And there's no complacency because it's an honor to, to serve another human being. And it's, uh, I love, love, love what I do, and I feel very, very appreciative to have contributed meaningfully to the lives of thousands of people through this process. 

Chandler Stroud: I'm so glad you have and you certainly helped [00:36:00] me.

Chandler Stroud: I'm curious, what was it about Rolfing that first intrigued you? How did you get started with it? 

Moylan Ryan: Um, when I was in Ireland, I had trained as a somatic psychotherapist and um, so I was very familiar with the work of, um. William Rike, who as I said earlier, who had, um, supposed discovered that the body, uh, can become armored, although he might not have said so much about fascia itself, but I think he was talking about the seven bands of Armor of the Body.[00:36:30] 

Moylan Ryan: I was intrigued then because the number seven, seven chakras. The seven, um, levels of self-actualization from Maslow's, um, pyramid and, uh, all these sevens appear. But I've, I was in Ireland and I came across an article and it was written by Joseph Heller, who was the first president of the Rolfe Institute, and he told his story about meeting Ida Rolf, I think in the early seventies and how he had been, um.

Moylan Ryan: An aeronautical engineer at nasa and his job was to study the effect of [00:37:00] gravity on satellites. And Ida Roth at the time was studying the effect of gravity on bodies. So he went and met with her and after spending a week with her, he decided to become a rawer. So he gave up his job at NASA and he started, eventually he started Hella Work International.

Moylan Ryan: Um, and this was a long time ago, but I decided to get in touch with him and I, after a week or two I was, uh, had a phone call with him and I told him I was gonna come to the United States and receive a 10 series from him personally. And he said to me, well, bring me when you're in America. [00:37:30] And it took me a while, but, uh, sometimes I, I totally believe, as I'm sure you do, the universe conspires to, um, support us when we are willing to cross that threshold.

Moylan Ryan: And, um, it was a matter of a few years later when I was with Joseph and I spent two months with him in Manchester, receive a series of work and it was a life changing experience and I felt. I needed to go to the Rolf Institute and, um, explore, um, this whole world of the fascial matrix and I found [00:38:00] it so interesting.

Moylan Ryan: It was just the next step from the training that I had done in Ireland, and I felt that, oh my gosh, and then I was able to compile that. I was meeting people in America. Who were body workers, psychotherapists who were practicing movement, uh, especially through Aikido. And I said, oh yes, this is, these are the pieces.

Moylan Ryan: And uh, then I went and studied breath work, callaro breath work, and I realized that that was an integral part of that jigsaw. [00:38:30] So when I, when I discovered breath work, it was like as if I had had this jigsaw or puzzle and I was missing one piece. And then when I found breath work and I put that piece into the picture, I could plainly see what the image was.

Moylan Ryan: It was an image of my, me and my authenticity. It was such a powerful remembrance, the word remembrance to put back together. Remember, I, it was the part I needed to remember my authentic self. And so therefore I [00:39:00] became, um, a facilitator of Neurodynamic breath work and I started to implement that into my practice.

Moylan Ryan: And so I, I really believe that ing breath work and movement education, taking, taking these changes and moving through the world in a more expanded version, physically moving your body in this, um. The EC of ease rather than the conditioned struggle and effort that we often find ourselves suffering. 

Chandler Stroud: Yes.

Moylan Ryan: Um, [00:39:30] all those integrated together become my somatic practice. 

Chandler Stroud: I love that. I really do love that. Thank you for sharing your story. And actually sidebar, um, we are huge fans of Neurodynamic Breath work here also. And if you listeners want to learn more about a very specific subset of Neurodynamic breath work, I highly recommend you check out the episode on Reset Breath work that I did with Hero Kate, uh, a couple months ago now.

Chandler Stroud: Um, but we went really deep on the impact of breath work, how it [00:40:00] changes your physiology. And I did a similar type to reset with you at the happy camp in Sedona and it was very powerful. So I, I am a huge believer in breath work and certainly think for anyone considering it, it's worth exploring further.

Moylan Ryan: Beautiful. Yeah, certainly 

Chandler Stroud: I have to ask Moylan, you have done such a great job of painting the picture of Rolfing and the meaning behind each session, so thank you for that. I'm really curious to understand what has been the most [00:40:30] surprising thing you've learned or seen along your journey to heal others?

Moylan Ryan: The most surprising thing is seeing people that come to a precipice. I'm, I'm using a metaphor here, an analogy. They come to the edge and they look down into this abyss and they realize. That it's in this abyss that they actually will realtor [00:41:00] once they, once they enter this abyss, a place they've been conditioned to avoid that they'll find and discover the magic their, their dharma, their capacity, their potential.

Moylan Ryan: But they're fearful and so they don't wanna go to the edge that much. They wanna stay, they wanna stay inland. They don't wanna see the horizon of possibility. They do, but they don't. They're being conditioned to abandon that part. Not even that, the willingness to, to step across these thresholds. [00:41:30] And then once they go and maybe they allow themselves to fall over, they realize they have wings.

Moylan Ryan: They realize they can fly. It's unbelievable. I have had people who have been working, uh, for 25 years in a job, and next minute there I got an email from them. I'm now living in Costa Rica. I discovered I was a songwriter. I have another person and they were with me and, and next minute I got an email from them and they're living in, [00:42:00] um, New Zealand and they've written their first book.

Moylan Ryan: You see, what, what are we willing to give up? Whatever it is that's too small for us in nature. In nature. The lobster, the crab leave the shell. Because it feels that it's too small for them and it goes out into the ocean in its vulnerability, it hides out and it grows a bigger shell. And what we do is we make our shell more comfortable.

Chandler Stroud: Hmm. We 

Moylan Ryan: watch more tv. We, we, we take some medications, we develop addictions. [00:42:30] So seeing people shift from this reactive script. That's been written by somebody else. For them, a narrative that they've embodied and it has structured their life, seeing them shared that and to take the pen of intention and write the next chapter of their life, it's.

Moylan Ryan: Step confidently into that. It is so powerful. I, this is nothing. I just applaud people again and again. People come [00:43:00] to me and say, oh, you have to go see more. But it's actually in seeing me. They see themselves. I just mirror back to them, the magnificent and glorious. Beautiful beings that they are. And then they see and encounter themselves and they become more confident to step into this bigger version of themselves.

Moylan Ryan: And I really, uh, really, uh, love being a facilitator and a midwife of that. 

Chandler Stroud: I mean, mic drop. I have nothing else to say that was [00:43:30] so beautifully articulated. It made me a little teary eyed. I don't know what's going on in 2025. I can't get through these episodes without getting emotional. It was just so powerful, and you just so beautifully summarized why I'm doing this podcast in the first place, to help people write their own story, to come back to who they truly are and stop living the narrative that somebody else handed to them.

Chandler Stroud: And you know what? If they feel, if they drop down and get to know themselves and they say, I like this [00:44:00] narrative. I'm staying here. You know, amen. Let 'em do it. But like I'm not convinced that we are really listening to ourselves. What you're saying really resonates with me, and I'm sure so many of our listeners, so thank you for offering that.

Moylan Ryan: But one more thing too. Um. Add to this is that what I've realized in over the years of doing this work, and we might have spoken about that when you came to work with me in Tempe, was empowering. Empowering. And [00:44:30] when I say empowering people, it's really helping them to align. And this comes back to what you're sharing.

Moylan Ryan: When we feel empowered, we empower others. When we feel disempowered, we disempower others. So it's the use of this power that we have, this divine power, and that's the work that you're doing through your podcast. It's the work that I do. We're empowering others because we're these conduits of love, of compassion, of support, and that's all to do [00:45:00] Dhar.

Moylan Ryan: I think sometimes, you know, when people come to me and they have suffered some type of, um, challenges, traumatic experiences, especially around their youth and whatever, where they had an experience where they had to disassociate from themselves, they became dysregulated. So they live as, um, James joins said, you know, outside themselves, um, getting them back into their bodies.

Moylan Ryan: And, um, I, I'm sure Gabor Matte talks a lot about this, you know, and, [00:45:30] um, Beel Vanko and, and people like that. And it's, it's how do we get them back into their bodies? Oh, okay. But it's through this Rolf thing that we create an expanded version of the, so they can take up full occupancy of themselves, they can enter a body that's so compressed, there's not even room for them and their own body.

Moylan Ryan: Let, let, let alone having a relationship with somebody else, they don't have space in them for somebody else. This is the story of our society, but we're expanded, we're inclusive. Oh my God. [00:46:00] Now we can grow, we can plant seeds of consciousness in that beautiful landscape. And I think that when you were with me, we talked about movement, we talked about, um, one of my favorite Saudis is Aikido and how empowering that is.

Moylan Ryan: But it's a gentle power. We use the power of, we use the, um, the protective use of force. It's not the power over model. And this is very important to realize that. When you were in a body that at some stage you experienced some type of trauma where you had to, the [00:46:30] only way you could survive was disassociation.

Moylan Ryan: So whoever was, um, you, you were dealing with at the time was bigger, more powerful than you, whatever. But that part of you, that disempowered part of you still lives in your body through practices such as a keto practice. We go into the dojo and we find. This way of replicating, um, what it's like to be held, what it's like to be challenged.

Moylan Ryan: And we [00:47:00] develop a capacity as an adult to be able to resolve that with great effectiveness, but not with, um, violence. And it gives that. In the power to go back, and I would even use the word rescue, that part of themselves. So taking the work, a lot of rolfing is done on the horizontal, on the table, but the work really has to be brought into the vertical world.

Moylan Ryan: So how we move, how [00:47:30] we perceive are we in this expanded? And so having practices, uh, like Guido and whatever, it's really helps to restore that parts of ourselves. And I've seen many, many ways, but that's why I use that mortality and encourage people, especially people been traumatized and have to disassociate.

Moylan Ryan: This is how to get back in. This is a powerful thing. I don't really see many people speaking about that, but, but I know that myself, this is what I've seen and, and I've been a teacher of Aikido food for many, many [00:48:00] years and a student for well over 35 years. And, and so I've seen people really take full responsibility for stepping into their power, but not in a violent way, in a very effective way.

Moylan Ryan: And I thinking. Breath work, a keto practice. This to me is the, is where the rubber, is this, where is the rubber hits the road. Is that 

Chandler Stroud: I love that. No, you actually found me a really credible and local, a keto [00:48:30] practitioner that I, obviously with my injury, I haven't had time to reach out to, but I, I, this is like.

Chandler Stroud: On my list is my next thing to do because you sold it so beautifully and I'm so convinced by the value and the practice and what I could gain from it, especially given my own childhood experiences and the disassociation and. I have done a lot of horizontal work, as you say. So like, you know, being on MFR tables, acupuncture, you name it, right?

Chandler Stroud: But like [00:49:00] the vertical and I do a lot of that with yoga I find to be really helpful in like moving with my breath and you know, re embodying myself. But like there is something about the movement and the values that a keto presents that really fascinates me. 

Moylan Ryan: And I think that practices like yoga, tai chi, meditation, they're all fantastic, but they're solitary.

Moylan Ryan: Mm-hmm. So you are sitting in an undisturbed environment. It does not portray the disturbance that you've embodied. You can [00:49:30] take IDO into the dojo. It's a lot of disturbance, it's a lot of chaos. People are coming at you, often groups of people, and you have to find your center. You have to be grounded, you have to be responsive.

Moylan Ryan: You have to take full responsibility for not just you but them, the imbalances in them. So you are really, really empowering aspects of yourself. It's the only way that I've seen, you know, and, and I have great admiration for those other modalities, but they go, they're unchallenged. 

Chandler Stroud: Will you come back and talk about a keto [00:50:00] sometime?

Chandler Stroud: A feeling? We need an an episode. We, I'm gonna go try it 

Moylan Ryan: two 

Chandler Stroud: hours. I'm gonna go try it and then I would love to have you back to talk about this again. 

Moylan Ryan: Oh, I would love to, would love to you back. You. Thank 

you. 

Chandler Stroud: And now it's on my to-do list. I'm calling that Dojo in Stanford and I'm, I'm in. You sold it today.

Moylan Ryan: Wonderful. Wonderful. 

Chandler Stroud: I know we're at time and we have to go. I just, I love leaving our listeners for those who might not be ready to go hire a Rolfer, are there any simple at-home practices that women can try at home first [00:50:30] if they aren't ready to go out and get a professional to assist them? 

Moylan Ryan: I think that to become aware of these, what I call microtraumas, that we go through each and every day.

Moylan Ryan: Mm-hmm. So we're, we're going about our business and next minute we realize. We're struck with this internal resistance, this holding pattern, this frightening motion that comes through the body. It's like a, it's reflective, especially in our breathing in the diaphragm. A, a good practice will be that [00:51:00] when you're driving your vehicle and every time you come to a red light is to check, where are my arms?

Moylan Ryan: Am I holding on excessively to the steering wheel? How's my pelvic floor? How would it be if I just relax a little bit? How's my diaphragm? Can I drop down a little bit? Where's my shoulders and how's my jaw? So then we go back and we do another drive. I mean, obviously we gonna go into red lights, always a red light.

Moylan Ryan: So instead of just looking. Out the windscreen. We're looking internally, [00:51:30] checking into ourselves, and in doing so, we're developing anchors. You see, you could listen to this podcast or listen to me pontificate about Rolfing and, and, and it's, it's, it's a beautiful, um, unfolding, you know, of, of this valuable story.

Moylan Ryan: But we need to develop anchors in our body. Anchors in our body to be able to center ourselves, to feel grounded. And by doing so, we have a place to return to regularly who we meet these, um, microtraumas of each and every day. So [00:52:00] we we're not as, um, affected by them. There's a beautiful word, um, in perturb ability.

Moylan Ryan: It's a new word in my vocabulary I didn't really realize, but I love that word. Imperturbability means the ability to choose what it is that affects you. I remember R Steiner, the founder of the Wall of School System, he said, I must develop the inner capacity to allow ex impressions from the external world only to reach me in ways that I myself have chosen.[00:52:30] 

Moylan Ryan: So imagine being that that comes from having anchors being anchored to your center and the red light, you'll always be driving and come to red lights. So you go there, pelvic floor, diaphragm, jaw, shoulders from my hands, just relaxing bean and gravity. That's the beginning of building an anchor and then you can begin to, uh, build from there.

Moylan Ryan: That's a simple exercise I would recommend to any of my clients. 

Chandler Stroud: I love that it's so [00:53:00] accessible and easy for anyone to try. I really appreciate you sharing that with us today. All of what you shared today is just so helpful and so well articulated. Thank you for being here. It means so much that you were willing to come on and share more about your story and teach our listeners about the beautiful practice of Rolfing.

Moylan Ryan: Thank you, Janer. I was, it's been an ex an extreme pleasure and it's a subject that I hold dear to my [00:53:30] heart. And thank you for, um, allowing this to unfold. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Ugh. 

Chandler Stroud: I'm so glad that you said yes and. I look forward to our next conversation on Akido. Get excited everyone. I gotta go do a beginner's session.

Chandler Stroud: Couple of them first before I can really get my arms around it. But it's happening. Just, just you wait. 

Moylan Ryan: Beautiful, beautiful. And akido means the way of harmonizing energy. That's what it means. Harmony. Harmony. That's what [00:54:00] it means. No longer being in, in conflict, but it's a very, it's an, it's a martial art, but it says etheric art, so, but.

Moylan Ryan: It gives you this beautiful alignment with gentle power, gentle power. 

Chandler Stroud: Well, the end goal at the end of my journey is to be in better alignment with myself, and if a keto can help me get there, then I am all in, all in. So thank you again for being here and to those tuning in, if you enjoyed today's conversation, [00:54:30] please share it with friends and don't forget to follow the show.

Chandler Stroud: You can also visit healing heroes podcast.com to get resources, meet our heroes, and share your ideas for future episodes. Thanks for listening, everyone, and until next time, remember, be curious, be courageous, and be kind to yourself. You've got this.