A GROWING NUMBER OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF REFLEX INTEGRATION MODALITIES

Published in RMTi Rhythm, February 2023

I am delighted to have been asked as a Physical Therapist who consistently blends the teachings of RMTi into my professional practice to share my thoughts and experiences. In the last 10 years, there has been a growing interest by health care providers in the United States to learn more about reflex integration. Just this morning, I spoke with a young women who is finishing medical school. She explained how she was tutoring some younger students through their neurodevelopment classes; teaching them that a positive Babinski doesn’t always mean there is a hard neurological diagnosis to be found. Further “this is just part of development.” I wanted to give her a huge hug in agreement, as this was not the way I was taught about reflexes in medical school. We learned about reflexes as they related to hard neurological diagnoses rather than part of the developmental sequence.

From the time I started teaching classes as an RMTi instructor, the excitement and interest in understanding reflexes and movement patterns has exploded! Consistently, I am receiving comments that what our RMTi community is sharing is a huge missing piece. We are offering such deeper understanding and empowerment for serving others.

This hasn’t always been the case. In 2008, when I took my first RMT class, I was the only medical professional. I felt very alone, as I began my learning journey. I was often confronted by naysayers and colleagues that thought I was practicing “voo-doo”. In my colleagues defense, we have been taught and demanded to use “evidence based practice” throughout our sessions. And in the United States, “evidence based practice” is backed by research publications. Prior to the articles that have been published to date about reflex integration, I would share, “evidence based practice” can be as simple as setting an intention for change, assessing where immaturities lie, offering movements and assessing the change. I could write a case study and publish all of the changes noted for every client that I see. This too, of course, is “evidence based practice”.

The perseverance, passion and continued efforts as an organization is making a difference. I am motivated by the “buzz” to continue this journey, not only for the clients I serve, yet to help others learn so that they can bring the information back to their own practice. I encourage all of us to continue to share, educate and reach out. I love the phrase, “you can’t say the wrong thing to the right person, or the right thing to the wrong person.”