Marion Rosen and the history of Rosen Method Bodywork

Marion Rosen [1914-2012], founder of Rosen Method bodywork, was “Born…in Germany and was of Jewish origin, (although she was unaware of this until the persecution of the Jews began).”(1)

“In 1936, when Marion was 22 years old, she began studying touch therapy with Lucy Heyer in Munich. Lucy Heyer was trained by Elsa Gindler, one of the leading innovators in body-oriented therapies in Europe. Lucy was also the wife of Gustav Heyer, a physician in the circle of Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung, Wilhelm Reich, and other leaders in the budding field of psychotherapy. During her apprenticeship, Marion worked with many patients undergoing psychoanalysis and drew on touch therapy as a way to access unconscious memory, feelings, and past events that had been forgotten or suppressed. This early experience would later inform her unique forms of bodywork and movement.

Marion eventually left Germany in the late 1930s, landing in California after a stay in Sweden. While in Sweden, she studied physiotherapy and continued that study in the U.S., becoming eventually licensed as a physical therapist.” (2)

“She developed the Rosen Method through many years of experience in her private practice of physical therapy. She developed a reputation amongst physicians and others of being someone who could help those who were not improving through traditional means. She began to teach others her method in 1977; currently there are training centers in Europe, Australia, Russia, Israel, Canada, and the United States.” (3)