Primitive Reflexes and Adults

A late middle aged couple sat in a cafe sharing a drink and a joke

I don't generally have a lot of adult clients, I do mainly see children, which I love, but it's nice to work with adults occasionally too. Usually adults come to see me with some degree of anxiety that is restricting their life and their choices. Often they live alone or they don't want their partner to get involved with a movement program, so we have to keep to movements that they can do alone. There are a number of options that we can use to address different retained primitive reflexes.

With anxiety we are invariably looking at retained fear reflexes, sometimes Fear Paralysis Reflex, sometimes Moro, sometimes both. So we have options that will help calm and encourage those reflexes to integrate. Some rhythmic movements, some isometric pressure - where pressure is applied to slightly restrict the reflex pattern, which helps to integrate it and some massage. Very gentle, effective and resuts are good.

Recently I had a client come to see me with bladder issues. This was unusual, I see a lot of chidren who are late bedwetters, but not many adults. When I'm training I often tell the story of a lady on one of my courses who went home and sneezed and didn't wet herself for the first time in many years. This client had heard this story and wanted to give it a try. I explained that the outcome wasn't guaranteed but we could have a go and see what the results were. We did need her husband's help in this, I'm sure he thought I was quite mad as I guided him through the sequence of where to put his hands as his wife lay on her side moving her hips and shoulders up and down. We also found a couple of rhythmic movements that she enjoyed and demonstrated a hand massage that either her husband could give her or she could do herself. She came back after a month for her first follow up and had already seen a significant improvement in her bladder control. Her husband was now less sceptical! We went through the movements that she was doing at home, tweaked a couple of things technique-wise and changed one of the movements altogether. She came back the following month and again there has been an improvement. I look forward to seeing her at her next appointment and seeing what progress she has made again.

Finally I had a new client come and see with memory problems and issues with focus and attention. He was concerned that he may have ADHD but didn't want medication or even really look for a diagnosis. He'd seen some of the videos and information that I'd been posting online and thought he would give it a try despite being in his 60's. We looked at some movements that he could do himself at

home and off he went. He returned after a month, not much had changed so we went through his movements, made some adjustments and added in another movement. A month later he came back so excited that he felt that both his memory and his concentration had improved. Again we adjusted his program and each month there had been a noticeable improvement. Even his friends and family had noticed. After 6 months we decided that things had improved enough and he has a program that he can continue to do a few days a week in order to maintain his progress.

So if you are an adult and feel that primitive reflex integration might help you, please get in touch Niki@OrganiedMind.co.uk