{"id":481,"date":"2025-07-22T05:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/headoverhills.com.au\/?p=481"},"modified":"2025-09-12T05:25:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:25:38","slug":"healing-after-trauma-how-integrating-reflexes-supports-emotional-healing-and-neurological-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/headoverhills.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/healing-after-trauma-how-integrating-reflexes-supports-emotional-healing-and-neurological-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing After Trauma: How integrating reflexes supports emotional healing and neurological resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the unfortunate need for trauma recovery increases in our world, it is important to ensure recovery is holistic and takes into account addressing the body\u2019s reflexive responses to trauma. Integration of primitive reflexes is an essential part of trauma recovery addressing the sub-cortical effects of trauma that other cognitive therapies do not. While talk therapy and other mental health interventions are crucial, they may not fully reach the deep brain patterns formed in early development that are reactivated by trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is a summary of a published case study where reflex integration was used as an intervention after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The modality used in this study was Masgutova\u2019s Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration (MNRI) developed by Svetlana Masgutova. MNRI, while different to Rhythmic Movement Training, also involves repetitive rhythmical movements performed to integrate retained or reactivated primitive reflexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the Body-Brain Link in Trauma<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trauma impacts more than thoughts and emotions\u2014it deeply affects the nervous system. When a child (or adult) experiences overwhelming stress, their brainstem (where primitive reflexes reside) and survival systems activate, reactivating primitive reflexes that have previously been laying dormant in the brainstem. This reactivation can keep the body in a constant state of \u201cfight, flight, or freeze,\u201d disrupting normal development and self-regulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this study, rather than starting with cognitive therapy which requires access to the cortical layer of the brain which is often difficult for a traumatised child to access or sometimes re-traumatising, MNRI worked from the ground-up or brainstem-up by calming and re-patterning the body\u2019s reflexive responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflex Dysfunction after Trauma<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the months following the Newtown shooting, Masgutova\u2019s team conducted 264 MNRI sessions with 134 children and several adults impacted by the event. Each participant received assessments of 30 core reflexes, such as the Moro (startle), fear-paralysis, and tonic labyrinthine reflexes. These reflexes are often overactive in the trauma survivors, leading to symptoms like anxiety, sensory overwhelm, poor motor coordination, and emotional instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial assessments showed significant reflex dysfunction, consistent with post-traumatic stress when compared with typically developing children who hadn\u2019t experienced similar trauma. The children exhibited high levels of retained or hyperactive reflexes, affecting their ability to self-regulate, concentrate, and feel safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cumulative results from MNRI work with trauma survivors has found that in 100% of cases, the defensive reflexes associated with the body\u2019s fight or flight response, the Core Tendon Guard Reflex and the Moro reflex remain hyperactive for 4-12 months after the traumatic event in the case of the tendon guard, and 4-13 months after the even in the case of the Moro. The physiological effect of this is that the body remains in a state of alarm and is subject to an overproduction of stress hormones while this reflex remains active which has a damaging effect on neurological structures of the brain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results and Improvements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After participating in MNRI sessions however, most children showed measurable improvement in reflex integration. The outcomes were striking and improvements in reflex function began to be noticed after only 2 sessions of MNRI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children demonstrated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n