Rosen Method bodywork was developed by Marion Rosen based on her long years of experience as a physical therapist and a body/mind healer. Her unique approach to bodywork and movement has earned her an extraordinary reputation as a pioneer and leading authority in the field of body-oriented therapies.

In the 1930s Rosen studied breath and relaxation in Munich, Gemany with Lucy Heyer, who taught "breath massage" and who was the wife of Gustav Heyer, a Jungian analyst and colleague of C.J. Jung. Lucy Heyer worked in the tradition of Elsa Gindler, a seminal figure in German body therapy. Both Heyer and Rosen saw patients for hands-on breath work who were in Jungian analysis at the same time. There was a context for learning how to reach the unconscious through touch.

Rosen then emigrated to the U.S. just before the Second World War, and became a licensed physical therapist. In the early 1970s she began teaching the store of knowledge of the mind/body connection she had brought with her from Germany. Students in the U.S. flocked to her to learn the secrets of emotional healing through touch and body awareness that she had developed and synthesized into Rosen Method.

Rosen's purpose was to realize a vision of health and well-being by making the benefits of the Rosen Method widely available to the general public.