I have been seeing an explosion of classes and trainings focusing on primitive reflex integration these days.
I am happy for this because focusing on the reflexes when you are trying to achieve a goal is highly effective.
When I was first doing my own brain gym training, I had an experience of a chronic back pain disappear in the course of a session because it was being caused by a reflex, and ever since then I have been fascinated by this whole field of learning.
Just a little background—as people may have different definitions of what a reflex is.
Primitive reflexes (put very very simply), are like inborn movement programs in the brain, which are there to protect you, or teach you a skill.
They are mainly unconscious, and happen as a response to sensory input from the environment.
They lay the foundation down for future movement patterns, and also for our thinking abilities.
For example, if you place your finger in the palm of a newborn, their fingers will automatically close around your finger because you have stimulated the palmar reflex.
The baby is not thinking about it, it just happens in response to a stimulus. But this reflexive reaction lays the muscular and neurological foundation for grasping which is needed later to manipulate objects.
There are a sequence of reflexes that have a specific window of time when they usually make an appearance, do their thing, and then be incorporated into our larger motor scheme.
My mentor, Carol Ann Erickson has the most amazing way to explain reflexes.
Imagine all the ingredients of bread as different reflexes.
When you mix them all together, they are so incorporated into each other that you can’t separate them out, and they in turn create something completely different.
So when the reflexes integrate together, they create a seamless movement fabric on which you can do the rest of your learning and living.
Sometimes when there is a problem with a reflex integrating, it’s as if the ingredients haven’t been mixed well. Imagine an egg in batter, where there are yellow globs that haven’t been incorporated into the rest of it.
That’s like an unintegrated reflex, not mixing with the other ingredients and potentially causing some problems in the final product.
By the time we are adults, these reflexes should be integrated, but certain factors can cause them not to be, or to come back.
Unintegrated reflexes can show up in adults as chronic pain, asymmetrical tension in the body, challenges with thinking/processing information, and other times where it feels like your body is controlling you versus you having control over your body.
Like I said before, reflexes are unconscious and stereotyped, so it’s impossible to get a handle on them through your thinking. It must be integrated the way nature designed us to do in the first place, though movement.
But even if you move, when you are past that specific window of development, it takes a little more focus and refinement to make lasting change.
That’s where Brain Gym and the related work Movement Exploration comes in.
Brain Gym is a learning readiness modality that is influenced by developmental movements.
Nature, the great designer of our nervous system, does not give us reflexes without a way to actually integrate them.
Like I mentioned before, reflexes in nature are designed to protect us or teach us a skill through movement opportunities and play.
At first, the body moves us, and then through play and exploration, we master the reflex and we in turn learn to move the body.
So you may be asking,
“If humans survived for thousands of years and somehow learned to move and function without Brain Gym or any other reflex integration programs, why do we need it now?”
Because these days, people of all ages are not getting the frequency, duration and intensity of movement that the brain needs to grow and maintain their nervous systems.
Kids are being carried around in car seats and other supported seating rather than being on the floor and struggling to gain mastery over their body against gravity.
They are being put on the screen much too early.
They are also being asked to “sit still and learn” much much too early and for much too long.
As adults we are also chronically stressed and most are on screens a lot and not getting enough movement.
Brain Gym and these other programs have come into existence because our nervous systems need support.
I am observing that even kids in “gifted and talented” programs are having immense difficulty with writing, focus and concentration.
In my almost two decades of work as an occupational therapist and brain gym teacher, I have gotten to study with many brilliant teachers of integrating primitive reflexes. I have worked in intensive camps with Svetlana Masgutova, the creator of the MNRI program. I have had many trainings with the creator of Developmental Kinesiology, Renate Wennekes. And in more recent years, have been mentoring and working together with the creator of the Movement Exploration series of classes, Carol Ann Erickson.
The information in these courses have been amazing and have informed the ways in which I assess the individuals I work with, and create positive outcomes
But overall I have found most of the work to be dense and not user friendly. All except for Brain Gym and Movement Exploration.
Whenever I have taken a reflex integration training and come back to teaching Brain Gym, I realize that so many of the techniques and things that can help integrate primitive reflexes is actually baked right into the fabric of the Brain Gym program.
AND now this brings me back to WHY I have the picture of pasta sauce above.
Back in the 80’s there was a commercial for Prego pasta sauce that always ended with:
“Prego……it’s in there!”
One of the catchphrases of Brain Gym is:
“Learn to Move, Move to Learn”
And nowhere is this more true than when it comes to reflex integration.
When it comes to Primitive Reflex Integration and Brain Gym, I would like to quote the great Prego Pasta sauce commercial and say,
”It’s in there!”
The way to integrate Moro? It’s in there!
The way to integrate STNR? It’s in there!
The way to integrate TLR? It’s in there!
The way to integrate ATNR? It’s in there!
You get the idea.
If you have been looking for an easy and effective way to help your clients reach the next level in terms of their movement and thinking abilities, you don't need to go a complicated reflex class because Brain Gym can achieve those great results.
I am not discouraging you to go learn about reflexes because the information is valuable. But in my own experience of trying to bring these techniques into practice, Brain Gym is the easiest and most user friendly method I have found.
It may be an amazing addition to your existing practice or even the basis of a whole new one.
If you would like to speak further about how Brain Gym may be an amazing addition to your practice, check out the course offerings below!
If you would also like me to create a smaller mini workshop on Brain Gym and Primitive Reflex Integration, please drop me a line and let me know!
If you yourself have been struggling with a chronic physical, mental, emotional challenge that has been plaguing you for years (or just more since covid happened) and you want to get a handle on it at the brain level, let’s set up a time to speak about some brain integration coaching.
You can set up a free consultation conversation HERE!
I look forward to chatting with you!
xoxo
Mari