When I begin to explain the primitive reflexes to a parent and child, it has the most heart warming effect. All of a sudden, there is a reason that makes sense. It's not just behaviour, or a disorder.. there is a reason why this symptom complex exists. A reason that makes sense, that can be traceable back to birth, to the childs first few years. "If only we knew..." is often the next words out of the parents.

Working with the reflexes is a profound for the child and for the parents.

They can understand that there is a survival mechanism that can't be controlled that is driving their childs behaviour.

For the child, they are no longer "a bad child", their fears, which have often never really been acknowledged, are verbalised and heard.

It's not just children who I see with active primitive reflexes, teenagers who shut down, develop eating disorders, have difficulty forming relationships and/or are diagnosed with ADHD often will also have active primitive reflexes.

Adults who have had severe trauma - they may have active primitive reflexes as well.

This is because the reflexes are a survival mechanism. They help us to survive and communicate, to ask for the most basic primal needs of food and nurture.

When we are born and the world is full of stimulation which we can't understand or process, when we don't know yet how to ask for what we need; these reflexes ensure that we will eat and attach.

As we develop understanding and connection to our world and our caregivers these reflexes make way for controlled movements. They 'inhibit' so that our brainstem no longer has complete control over our movements and instead our higher up cerebral function controls our movements instead.

In this course we are going to explore what happens when the reflexes don't inhibit, why they don't and how to help them to inhibit.

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The reflexes are ultimately controlled by stress. When a child has felt safe and held, their reflexes will inhibit.

When a child experiences stress- chronic or severe acute - such a birth trauma, conflict & injuries - it is more likely that their reflexes will stay active.

In other words - when the nervous system does not feel safe to let go, because there is not enough understanding of the environment and safety to feel in control, then the reflexes will not inhibit.

As Kinesiologists our role is to find the underlying traumas that lead to stress.

Working with the primitive reflexes has become a cornerstone of my practice and I hope that we can help you find confidence with them too.