About Rhythmic Movement Therapy
We each hold a story within our body: it is our own unique tale of our conception, of our birth journey, of how we arrived and how we arrived in this world.
Our very early experiences add to this story.
The way in which our mind and body processes these experiences has a direct affect on how we react.
For a baby these experiences can influence early feeding habits, how well they sleep and their reaction to touch.
As a child grows their connection with the world and their sensory experiences can be affected.
Their reactions could be:
Disliking tight clothing / or any clothing
Unable to sit still / hyper-active
Overly emotional / BIG reactions
Aggitated / overly aggressive
Clumsy / un-coordinated
These are just a few of the challenges a child may experience when the are not able to appropriately process incoming sensory information - their mind-body connection is unorganised and unanchored.
The key to mind and body development, is movement
Movement is essential to learning - that includes both the brain and the body.
Movement activates the brain to create and lay down neural pathways.
These pathways help the body to organise and anchor controlled movement.
They are also essential for emotional and sensory development.
If a child has experienced a stressful event - such as a traumatic birth - and hold this memory within their body, their movements and ability to move can be affected. In some instances, the impact on movement can be so subtle that it is unnoticeable.
As a child grows, the mind-movement connections needed for higher brain development may not be mapping out as planned ~ and this is when we may start to see children repeatedly react to situations impulsively and subconsciously, as though they are not in control.
They may show levels of anxiety or distress…all without being able to verbalise or explain how they are feeling or why they have reacted this way.
This is when we need to become curious; where are the points of challenge are in movement that are affecting behaviour, emotions, and interactions with the world around them.
What is Rhythmic Movement Therapy?
It all starts with those primitive reflexes
The primary role of our primitive early reflexes is to ignite movement that create connections within the brain.
These connections fire, wire and build links between different parts of the brain which lay the foundations for cognitive and physical development.
Reflexes have a timeline and and a specific purpose ~ children use the reflex to develop higher areas of their during that specified time; these higher areas eventually take over from the reflex and replace them with controlled and refined movements and responses.
They reflex should go to sleep (integrate) when their job is done.
If a reflex has not integrated when it should have done, it can remain active within the body.
This can create disorganisation of the mind and body - and this can make it difficult to understand our own body and its reactions, and create challenges connecting to others and our environment.
Rhythmic Movement Training explores these early reflexes.
Using specific movement patterns we aim to find refinement of movement - this helps to connect and organise the brain...which in turn builds our ability to move our body efficiently, smoothly and in an organised way.
Refinement and organisation take time ~ If the body is still struggling to organise and refine movement, the brain is also struggling.
We have two programmes, and different approaches, depending on your age:
1. for babies and young children
2. one for older children and adults.