THE HISTORY of The GHIMPR System

The Gillis Hierarchy of Instinctual Movement Programming and Reprogramming

With 25 years of experience as a Natural Therapy Specialist specialized in Cranio-Sacral Therapy, deep tissue treatments and massage with a pre-med degree. 2008 I discovered the neuro-sensory-motor integration technics. Since this time I have seen well over 1000 clients and have thousands of treatment hours with a wide variety of clientele from neurologically damaged children to world class athletes. The clinical validity of these mechanisms are beyond all doubt real and effective.

However, as new partners arrive, within the university and research community, many more measurements and studies will have to be performed within ‘lab’ settings for better understanding of the neuro-mechanics behind these new postural/sensory phenomena.

The GHIMPER system  is what I believe to be a step closer to arriving towards making sense of what is commonly called ‘infantile reflex programming’, ‘primitive reflex programming’ or the ability of the body to activate/coordinate/integrate the neuro-sensory-motor programming used by the brain in order to make sense of all the sensory ‘input’ and the motor ‘output’. This ability to make ‘sense’ of the neuro-input and create a coherent motor -output is what give the brain ‘its’ innate ability to control our bodies.

We are the first to using a full body ‘functional’ ‘hierarchical’ structure, based upon the basic movements for survival strategies of the main evolutionary stages; amphibian/reptilian/mammalian/primates/homo sapiens. The GHIMPR System is unique in that rather than apparently disassociated individual so called, ‘Postural’ and ‘Dynamic’ ‘Reflexes’ as commonly done at the moment found after birth, we are using the primitive motor development of the first stages of the embryo.

Basically, I found, the key to these ‘new postures’ is the body position in the prone and/or supine position. Where the vestibular system, in a pronated orientation, activates specific evolutionary reflex movements associated, in this position, with the amphibian and reptilian postural movement that are ‘blocked’ when in the supine orientation.

These new developments are of such a new perspective that they could be difficult to understand upon the reading but hope that the simplicity of it slowly comes forward.

This work might be considered the third evolutionary step of the theory and mechanisms behind the instinctual movement patterns and their role in neuro-development;

1. The “discovery” and first childhood reflexes of the neuro-programming, Bernstein, Gallant, Perez et al.
2. Godard-Blythe/Doman/Masgutova et al. (researching each individual reflex and creating repeatable treatments)
3. Gillis, researching and implementing;
   1. high input sensory treatments which radically decrease the timetable for integration (in cooperation with Witting, Tom-Steffan),
   2. the introduction of the “triune brain + one”. the Enteric Nervous System Integration to reduce negative signals influence over mid-brain injuries.
   3. the introduction of the evolutionary postural and dynamic movement archetypes for each of the major evolutionary stages. (amphibian, reptilian, mammalian, primate and human).
   4. The concept of dividing the movement systems in two groups
      1. Navigation (ie, eyes, hands, feet) or MyARCs (Myofascial Articulation Control Systems)
      2. Locomotion (ie Quadratus Fem., Gluteus Max. Erector Spin) with the Myofascial Muscle Trains as described by Thomas Myers as the motor systems.
   5. The fundamental postural and dynamic intelligence of the connective tissues, myofascia, tendons, ligaments) for these process.

(THERE IS TO MY KNOWLEDGE NO OTHER LITERATURE OF THIS NATURE. HOWEVER, IF THIS IS IN SOME WAY SIMILAR TO SOME SYSTEM UNKNOWN TO ME IT IS ONLY AND PURELY BY CHANCE. I DO APPRECIATE RECEIVING ANY TIPS ON ANY RESEARCH OR WORK DONE OF THIS NATURE AS I AM NOT INTERESTED IN REINVENTING A WHEEL THAT ALREADY WORKS!)

The desire pushing me to simplifying and organizing in a more logical and straightforward manor was simply my confusion with the nature of how our body’s natural movement patterns and postures are organized and explained by classic Reflex integration systems I have studied and applied. I have experienced and than created “the GHIMPR system” thanks to my first ‘reflex integration’ teachers and also after my own personal observations and experiences thanks to direct and indirect feedback from the invaluable sessions, more than 10,000 clinical hours, with my varied and greatly appreciated clients!

As started out to learn this fascinating work of integrating the neuro-sensory-motor programming, because my son at the age of 5 was completely without understanding of simple addition. He had also great difficulty in completing the horizontal figure of eight as used by Dennison for ‘diagnosing’ different spacial abilities. So after searching the world I decided to learn the neuro-motor treatment as taught by Masgutova. The integration techniques and “homework” or exercises, worked very well in aiding my son. After only 5 treatments in a 4 week period he ‘discovered’ how to combine the two fingers on each hand and answer correctly for the first time what was two plus two. Also his ‘lazy eights’ from Brain Gym improved to where he was now able to cross the ‘horizon’ line showing signs of an integration of his upper and lower bodies. After all these results in such a short time I was hooked.

And within a short time even in my work with clients I saw important and obvious benefits. The recovery time from many and most traumas and dysfunctional situations also showed important reductions in numbers of treatments and quality of recovery. (Bad from a short term business point of view, however from a heartfelt Touch Therapists point of view with a competitive spirit for getting results faster and higher quality results than my colleagues, I was again intrigued by this new world that had opened before me..)

My initial enthusiasm slowly faded into frustration in finding many blocks and dead-ends with more complicated cases, i.e. children and adults with neurological dis-abilities, drove me to “watch” and “follow” what my client’s bodies were ‘showing’ me. Soon, I was able to define and later categorize, what I believe to be, certain previously un-described phenomena and behavior. I believe this new information by ‘simplifying’ and ‘organizing’ the instinctual postural integration/reprogramming process in a way that takes into consideration the evolutionary information created during the formation of our Triune Brain + One neurological systems. The result of which may be of benefit especially for parents with children of various challenges lacking any experience in touch therapy!!

The aspects of Neuro-Sensory-Motor integration are simply all inclusive. This work as associated with; 

• Learning and Behavioral Problems, Neurological training for Optimal Wellness (NOW) www.now-kids.me
• The Biological Systems, Neuro-Kinesio Organ Rebalancing (N-KOR)
• Neurologically Functional Exercise Program, Neuro FunC (cell phone app arriving summer/2015)
• Woman’s Health, ‘My Perez’ www.riflessodiperez.com
• Psychology, Neuro-Postural Psyco Analysis (N-PPA)
• Touch Therapy, Zero Point Technique

The world of neuro-motor and neuro-sensory integration work in the  occidental “scientific” fields of Psychology and Modern Neurology has roots back, at least, to the time of Dr. Pavlov in Russia. And there is an abundance of work done on many continents in the ‘60’s around the field of ‘activation’ of the “archaic reflex patterns” (Rus. Bernstein, USA. Clemmens, et al.) Most of the work by these researchers relies on the Triune Brain Theory (brought forward by among others Paul D. MacLean). The Triune Brain Theory perceives the brain as a construction of Three Brains; the Amphibian-Reptilian Brain, The Mammalian Brain and The Neocortex (in particular the frontal lobes).

It is, from this perspective, sewing together all the individual dynamic-postural reflexes into a “movement based” (rather than the classic Infant Dynamic-Postural Reflex Patterns, such as Babinski, Perez, Gallant and Landau) diagram hierarchy as related to our neurological evolutionary development of what, how and why one’s “instinctual movement patterns” exist and their influences over one another.

Best Regards,

Joshua Todd Gillis NTS. Founder and student of life