what is Primitive Reflexes integration therapy?

No, it is not. Reflex Integration Therapy, not to be confused with Reflexology, is new to the health field in Canada. It is typically sought out as a more specialized solution.

  Reflex Integration is stimulation of specific reflex patterns through touch or movement, to restore or mature primary movements and reflexes for coordination, skill development, brain function and sensory-motor integration processes. This technique awakens natural, genetic motor memory, motor cognition and sensory motor integration functioning which is foundational for more complicated stages of activity and development.

  Reflex Integration can help with trauma recovery by changing behaviors and how the body reacts, responds or copes with sensory input and output which effects your capability for stress management. It can also benefit people with learning delays, diagnosis or challenges, improve gross and fine motor and coordination, cognitive functioning, and planning. People whom have had physical injuries or emotional traumas, can also benefit from reflex integration practices to help with grief, relief, closure or processing.

  The final phase of reflex integration is the movement or behavior. When the individual practices basic, small, primitive movements this is how the new pathway turns a dirt road into a paved one. Once the new preferred pathway becomes the main response then the body doesn’t go back to the old behavior, it has literally upgraded it’s software. This is how a baby goes from crawling to walking, once a child starts to walk it prefers to stay walking, the body just does it there is no conscious choice or way about it. You may or may not be asked to practice small movements sometimes the integration process happens more naturally and shows up in your behaviors after the session.

  Reflex Integration is working with your innate human design as it is wired from the body to the mind. We will be working with the electrical system that flips a switch and your body just “does things”, like on auto-pilot. You are designed to have stimulation points of contact through your skin that activates electrical signals in the mind, then that sends information to the body to do specific tasks. The more "automatic" movements that are mastered the individual has the higher chance of survival. 

As an example: When a baby is putting things in it’s mouth it is unconsciously activating this through the pressure points on it’s hands. The upper limbs are “wired” to pick up food and put it into the mouth through the skin on their hand. The activation of the palm of the hand tells the brain stem to move the hand to the mouth, and this is before the child has developed any executive or cognitive skills. 

Opening the mind for change happens when the neurons disconnect from existing partners that were originally firing the immature reflex pattern. This is the state of “letting go” and when that neuron voluntarily disconnects itself in the mind, it will seek a new connection or new partner to start a new sequence of reflexes which results in new behaviors. This new connection in the mind can then help the mind-body sequencing of the body’s reflexes that are hard wired for your survival and more complicated movements. 

 For example, when a reflex has not integrated or is immature in a child, they are often given a diagnosis, this diagnosis can become anchored in the mind as a "fixed state". Our behaviors are the sum and sequencing of our reflexive movements. In a "fixed" state of mind, letting go of behaviors of the “old self” can make it difficult to shift people into a new way of being. Mindset can be the gateway to birthing a new way of behaving, reacting and thinking.