Bio-feedback to Postural and Dynamic Reflexes
Ivan Pavlov and his research staff!
When speaking of the origins of pain and inflammation, I am going to need to cover some of the neuro-science behind It. Otherwise, I risk sounding very “soft” or “fluffy” on the foundation of the real science behind our treatment protocols and the science(s) behind them.
The real moment of the European Intellectual Scientific awakening to some of the basic bio-feedback loops that could be stimulated was in the 1920’s thanks to the amazing research of Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov “proved” the ability to connect sensory input with a biological process or conditioning. In this famous case “Pavlov’s Dog”, a bell was sounded and shortly thereafter food was brought to the dog. After a period of repeating this ringing and feeding the dogs began salivating immediately at the sounding of the bell without ever actually seeing the food. The dog “related” the sensory (hearing) stimulus with eating (production of saliva). This has now been developed to an amazing level and is used in for psychology, biorhythms, relaxation, performance, etc. and takes advantage of all our senses.
However interesting, Pavlov’s work was limited to bio-chemical and behavioral processes. It did not take long though for other scientists to start working with Touch and the “bodily” responses that followed. By the 1960’s the basic childhood reflexes and their developmental stages was quite well established. Some of these Childhood or Primary Reflexes are; The Gallant Reflex, Hand Gripping Reflex, Atonic Neck Reflex, Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, The Amphibian Reflex, The Landau Reflex, The Perez Reflex and so many more.
These reflexes were also being observed to be related to behavioral and cognitive abilities of the infants. And for this very reason Gynecologists will test some of the more important reflexes like; The Bambinski Reflex, The Hand Gripping and Toe Gripping Reflexes, The Gallant Reflex, The Suckling Reflex and even the Fear Paralysis Reflex, to screen for signs of possible brain deficiencies.
There were a number of scientific works done by pioneers like Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov, Sir Charles Sherrington, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Sergei Leonidovich Rubinstein, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, Alexander Romanovich Luria, Alexei Nikolaevich Leontyev, Nikolai Aleksejevich Bernstein and Jean Piaget. However, It is Vygosky that was the most prolific and detailed researcher. Unfortunately, most of his work remains untranslated from his Russian mother tongue.
In the 1970’s two very important schools were founded. One is The Doman Institute and the other Brain Gym International. These two schools on the surface many seem extremely distant to one another, after speaking with Dr. Dennison, the founder of Brain Gym, in Brescia, Italy I understood just how much they were simply two sides of the same coin.
Doman goes head-long into the reflex patterns and “forces” the client into specific patterns by having therapists move the limbs and head etc for them. Following the specific developmental order of these childhood reflexes and eventually releasing the child of their deep pathological and non-pathological blocks. Doman also created an amazing learning system for “healthy” children that used the ability of these movement patterns to maximize the “working” potential of the human brain and taking advantage of some of its basic “abilities” by training them “unconsciously” when the child is only months old. The effects of The Doman Learning Methods are well documented after half of a century and is arguably the basis for the XMen Marvel Movies.
Dennison, on the other hand, after seeing what he perceived as too invasive and in the case of healthy and struggling children many parents were no longer supporting their children in their natural development, but, became aggressive and hyper-vigilant in their “coaching” of their very young children. Dennison also had access to Dr. Thie, the creator of the Kinesiological approach “Touch for Health”. So, Dennison created a “softer” approach to “turning on the brain” by using some of the Childhood Reflex integration work of Doman, some of the Kinesiological work of Thie and some of his own unique and ground breaking “hemispheric balancing”. Brain Gym is what it became.
Both of these approaches work from an instinctual deep brain integration for cognitive, behavioral and postural wellbeing rather than a top-down conventional compensatory approach.
In the 1980’s Svetlana Masgutova was made aware of the Brain Gym system and eventually the Doman Method. She had her first moment of large scale recognition for the unique way these Childhood reflexes can “heal” real psychological traumas when she assisted in the treatment of hundreds of survivors of a train wreck. After weeks many of the children and even adults were “locked” in a deep psychotic paralysis. Masgutova started to assist each person by matching the childhood reflex to what the survivors body position most resembled. And as a testament to the deep and powerful connection the brain has to these movement patterns (Reflexes) the survivors nearly instantaneously “awoke” from their psychosis. The Masgutova Method is now based in Florida.
These are the three main schools of this work in the world. Yet, there are so few therapists. The number is growing and gaining ground, as it should, but still the number is only in the many of hundreds of practitioners. The number of parent therapists is many times greater than the number of professional therapists.
The GHIMPR System, The Gillis Hierarchy of Instinctual Motor Programming and Reprogramming, take the understanding of sensory input, elaboration of input, motor output neuro-sequencing to a new and previously unrecognized level. What I had discovered, after arriving at a point where these approaches failed me when working with severely neurologically damaged children, and there was no possible way I could treat these children without being heavily invasive. Their little bodies were simply too “tied up” and delicate to start the classic integration protocols of these other methods.
So, I carefully started to apply pressure with my palms and fingers on what I knew as the “Bio-electromagnetic meridians” and watched the movement response. I held quietly but firmly these points until I perceived a release. Usually, the release came as a deep breath, twitch and/or relaxation of the “Activated” region from my touch. As time progressed, I discovered the basic full body reflex patterns that then self-organized into the evolutionary stages of the vertebrates of the GHIMPR System. These simple patterns were able to immediately release even the deep neuro-pathological tension in cases like Cerebral Palsy and Down Syndrome. Such simple and long-lasting release and regaining of proper functional motor control was previously not achieved with the other methods. These same, simple movement patterns of the GHIMPR System became Levels 1 and 2 of the Neuro FunC App.
Today, testing and expansion of the treatments goes on. We are creating new ways to test for neurological disfunction on every level, pathological to low functional to physical and psychological traumas to kinesiological/nutritional influences over these systems.
Stay tuned for more in-depth posts into all these aspects of interventions for the most delicate to the most decorated world class athletes!