Introduction
Welcome!
We are so happy you are here to share with us this amazing journey into the world of reflexes and how they influence our perception of the world and support or not our ability to shift our awareness. It is where the body meets awareness and consciousness. What is unique about this course is how it broadens your therapeutic horizons by bridging a part of our physiology to our psychological make up.
This course aims to bring the knowledge of how some primitive and postural reflexes when retained can contribute to your clients’ repeated behavioral patterns despite your best efforts as a therapist (and their willingness as clients) to help them expand their consciousness and grow. Its goal is to link your daily life and your work with this valuable tool and the benefits it brings.
Stephen Porges’ work on the vagus nerve and his Polyvagal theory allow us to more clearly see the interaction between physiology and psychology. If your vagus nerve is in blue or red, your chances of engaging socially with others is severely limited if not downright stopped.
His theory of neuroception looks for danger and safety signs so that our autonomic nervous system can decide on the best course of action for us that would keep us safe. This neuroception skill represents one of the instances that biology precedes thought.
Reflexes are part of the central nervous system (CNS), mostly controlled by the brainstem and below conscious control. They are mostly used in the treatment of children with learning difficulties and disabilities in the field of specialised kinesiology. If, however, a child does not integrate a reflex, for whatever reason, they take this unintegrated reflex with them as they grow up and create a different ground upon which they build their innate reactions and ways of perceiving life. This work aims to explore and experiment with these 5 primitive reflexes in a non-invasive way and see how they influence adults in their everyday life once they integrate. The exercises presented are only some of the existing ones. All have been used by hundreds of professionals, myself included, in the fields of education, special education, OT, PT, movement therapy, etc., to support children. The use of these same techniques in the adult population is a novel and experimental proposal, and where research is in progress. Reflexes is another one of those instances of primacy of biology over conscious thought. They are the first step on our developmental ladder. Their constant activation in the womb supports the building of muscle tone, survival and natural birth of the child. During the first year of life they ensure its basic needs can be met on a physical level and its basic sense of safety, belonging, curiosity, boundaries and bonding built. They foster the maturation of the central nervous system.
In educational and specialized kinesiology we have long known the importance of movement for learning and how reflex re-education supports academic performance. When it comes to the adult population and as focus is brought on this subject, it would seem that the effects of retained reflexes on a person’s basic understanding of life on a body level persists beyond early infanthood.
Psychotherapy, whether body or talk is another way to approach all the information the body stores within the nervous system, central and autonomic, the muscles, tendons and physiology in general.
Wilhelm Reich was the first to bring the body into psychotherapy. His categorisations with respect to the basic character structures are different from the ones used in this course. However, the basic categorisations later created by Pierrakos (Core Energetics) and Lowen (Bioenergetics) which form the theoretical basis of this course, were inspired by Reich’s seminal work. Lizbeth Marcher (Bodynamic) and Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), among others, also connect our physical bodies with behavioural and psychological ways of being in the world.
Regardless of the different approach each psychotherapy school uses, our basic defences are created from our life in utero already, when our sense of connection and the safety of our existence were compromised. This is when our nervous system took strategic decisions of actions and reactions to external stimuli and how our basic defences started to build. Psychotherapy in general works on expanding our awareness and increasing our inner sense of safety so that our threshold of fear increases and we are triggered less easily.
What follows is the classification of defences/character structures used by Pierrakos and Lowen.
The 5 basic character structures:
- Schizoid
- Oral
- Psychopathic/Narcissist
- Masochistic and
- Rigid
Three of those defences, Schizoid, Oral, and Masochistic, develop during the first 3-4 years of a person's life. It is the same timeline that primitive and postural reflexes take to mature and integrate, supporting the maturation of the central nervous system and making higher brain functions readily available.
Bringing reflex awareness into the picture bridges two worlds and enlists physiology for the healing of consciousness.
When at its root the body and the nervous system have not integrated those basic, primitive reflexes, our default mode is triggered much more easily, and we turn on our survival mechanisms much faster than our conscious awareness would consider desirable. And since there is no cortical involvement in the process, we seem to be unable to change our reactive patterns.
The 5 reflexes we present you with here, are chosen on the basis of the importance they have in how we perceive life when under their influence and how this perception can shift once the body and the central nervous system that controls them are given a second chance to mature and integrate.
These 5 reflexes could potentially affect mainly the Schizoid Character defence which is the enormous capacity and talent for connection with AND disconnection from our inner and outer worlds.
5 Reflexes every therapist should know
● Fear Paralysis Reflex
● Moro Reflex
● Parachute Reflex
● Bonding Reflex
● Pavlov Reflex
Why those 5
When reflexes are still active past their time, whether primitive or postural, they create a constant state of unrest and anxiety on the body level. Given how reflexes are not consciously controlled this anxiety underlines every experience. It is rare that any one person has perfectly integrated reflexes at all times as life happens, and those reflexes are there for our survival and so will activate if this survival feels or is at risk. However, it is important that they are activated when the danger is real and not only perceived as such.
Those 5 reflexes greatly influence the way we perceive the world, take in information, relate to others, have a sense of self and unity with ourselves, and set our boundaries in a flexible yet strong way.
Remember, we need our reflexes! They are there for our survival, and it is vital that they come out to support us whenever we really need them.
However, in order for our lives to be what they can be, a celebration of life and a lifelong path of growth, evolution, and transformation, it is equally important that they, our reflexes, are inhibited, creating the solid and safe foundation of physiology upon which higher-level functions—cognitive, affective, and relational—can be erected.
Whether you are a body psychotherapist, a talk therapist, a psychiatrist, a doctor that is regularly called to share challenging news with their patient, an HR consultant, a psychologist, or in any capacity in touch with people, this course is for you!
Because unless we can shift from our survival mode to a safety mode, life cannot be lived to its fullest extent!
So, let us begin!
What are Primitive Reflexes
• They are “automatic, stereotyped movements, directed from the brain stem
and spinal cord and executed without cortical involvement” (Sally Goddard)
• A motor reaction to a stimulus
• The building blocks for higher-level learning, thinking, planning and moving
• They form the neurological basis for the development of controlled movements
and in so doing open a space where choices can be made.
• Inhibited by higher brain areas as those develop and then integrated within the nervous system
• Our trusted allies as we come into this world!
• More than anything else, they are there for our survival.
• A support for the integration of the HUGE amount of stimuli the baby is
bombarded with after birth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8l1631YPXU
Potential Causes for a retained (non-integrated) reflex.
No cause and effect link has firmly been established between the existence of any of the following symptoms and the retained primitive and postural reflexes. However, it is observed that amongst the children with learning or developmental difficulties with retained reflexes, a number of the following issues are also present.
DURING PREGNANCY
• Severe sickness
• Severe viral infection during the first 12 weeks or between weeks 26-30
• Use of alcohol, drugs or smoking
• Radiation
• Severe stress (mother).
DURING PREGNANCY
• Severe sickness
• Severe viral infection during the first 12 weeks or between weeks 26-30
• Use of alcohol, drugs or smoking
• Radiation
• Severe stress (mother).
DURING BIRTH
• Prolonged labor or too quick a labor
• Placenta previa
• Use of forceps or ventouse
• Breech baby
• C section
• Umbilical cord around neck
• Fetal distress
• Premature/post mature baby (2 weeks on either side)
INFANCY
• Illnesses with high fever, convulsions in the first 18 months, delirium
• Adverse reactions to any of the vaccines
• Late learning to walk or talk – later than 18 months
• Miss one or more developmental milestones – eg. crawling
NEWBORN DISORDERS
• Low birth weight (under 2,5kg)
• Incubation
• Prolonged jaundice
• Resuscitation
• Heavy bruising
• Problems with feeding in the first 6 months
What happens when primitive reflexes don’t integrate
✔ In some cases this may be an indication of a structural weakness or immaturity of the Central Nervous System (CNS).
✔ They will impede the solid development of postural reflexes – balance.
✔ Bilateral coordination will suffer resulting in clumsiness, difficulty in engaging in sports activities and a general sense of unease in the body.
✔ High anxiety that affects social skills, self-confidence, diminished use of language and communication skills lacking.
✔ Learning is hindered as sitting and paying attention is lacking. Ocular motor skills are not developed enough and this may lead to possible difficulties with establishing dominance.
✔ Although retained reflexes do not cause disorders there seem to be a number of them when a disorder like Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, various genetic disorders, ADD/ADHD, Autism and others are present.
✔ The CNS is in a constant state of stress; and the autonomic nervous system is on red alert. We call it fight or flight, sympathetic dominance.
✔ The energy necessary to contain the anxiety and control the body makes conscious choices regarding a person’s behavior much more difficult. That means that we re-act more than we are able to act consciously.
✔ If nothing is done to address the issue and support the reflex integration we take these challenges with us into adulthood and unwittingly reinforce the images we build on who we are and what is possible for us!