Noah Karrasch

Like all of us, an interesting journey to this time and place...a Midwesterner, born and bred. I began my careers as a musician and music teacher, until in 1984 I picked up Ida Rolf's and Rosemary Feitis'; book "Ida Rolf Talks about Rolfing and Physical Reality". It was on a used book table for only $1.00 and it called to me; I truly feel at this stage of life Dr. Rolf looked at me and thought, "Well, he's the best chance to do some good with this copy." On reading her line suggesting the gospel of Rolf was that getting a body right in gravity heals many issues, I was hooked. I inquired on trainings, ventured to Boulder, Colorado to the Rolf Institute, and in 1986 became certified as a Rolfer.

By 1991 due to politics of the Institute and personal preferences, I disaffiliated from the Rolf group, but continued practicing and evolving my own craft. I created what I called CORE Massage, which became CORE Bodywork, as I realized I was less interested in rubbing bodies and more interested in touching cores, or as I think of them, bodymindcores. After 37 years of practice, I'm basically retired, yet continue to write, think, and share my ideas. I truly believe I have something to offer the fields of bodywork but also of self-help.

Over the years, and through happy circumstances, I began writing my first book, "Meet Your Body", a client textbook that discusses how using movement and awareness can enhance anyone's health. My second book was primarily for massage therapists and bodyworkers: "Freeing Emotions and Energy Through Myofascial Release". This book was followed by "Getting Better at Getting People Better", a guide to anyone in a helping/healing profession to help polish their communication and caring skills. After this book, a student asked me to write a guide for Pilates instructors to help them understand what I think of as core in a different way: I asked two students to help and the result is "BodyMindCORE Work for the Movement Therapist". After a pretty severe surgery and the treatment I received in hospital I had to get "The Self-Care Guide To Surgery".

At this stage my publisher, Singing Dragon, decided as I no longer wanted to travel to teach from my books, they chose to not publish my newer offering. I decided to self-publish the next two books, which may be my final ones. The first, "The Essential CORE: Bodywork with Hands, Head and Heart" is primarily a textbook for bodyworkers, describing how I do my five sessions of a bodywork series. The final book is "Finding and Sharing Resilience: Coping in a Crazy World" as I believe we all need to learn to help each other become more resilient in this pretty difficult world we now occupy. In this book I share the principles and some of the techniques of my five sessions, then offer ideas and guidelines for how a lay person can implement these ideas into their own lives and help those around them likewise incorporate these ideas. I'm pleased with this last book, and currently feel it may be the culmination of my work. Though one never knows!

I divide my time in retirement between Springfield, MO, where I've lived the past 37 years, and eastern Crete, where we purchased a vacation home in 2017. My partner Gloria retired five years ago from her academic career; I let go of office space during pandemic times, and move more slowly and more on purpose in these days.

If you are someone interested in learning more about your own body, in taking care of self and helping others to do likewise, I hope my books will be of value to you! I continue to sporadically share blogs and posts on our website, www.corefascialrelease.com. I invite you to have a look at our pages and see whether CORE work makes sense to you!