Reflexes

Our hormones and nervous system operate as complex "feedback loops", constantly sensing our external and internal milieu and influencing our internal states and external actions. The intention of this relentless activity is to optimize our bodies for survival moving forward based on information about the meaning of our current sensory feedback. This information is essentially thresholds, where a stimulus reaches a certain intensity and triggers a response.  If the response was inadequate, the threshold is then adjusted, leading to more functional adaptations to the current environment. These "feedback loops" are generally known as reflexive patterns or reflexes.

Reflexes can be as simple as blinking on sudden stimulus in front of the face, or more complex than the inter-related sensory response dynamics of standing. Trauma, developmental and genetic issues, and many other reasons, some yet  to be discovered, will often isolate response triggers from their normal range of adaptation to changing conditions.  When trigger thresholds remain outside this range of self regulation, it leads to chronic imbalances experienced as anxiety, insomnia, muscle pain, and a seemingly unending list of other symptoms or diseases. Pharmaceuticals have proved effective when they can mechanically move a threshold back into a functional range, but this does not influence the underlying self regulation glitch and as soon as the drug is discontinued, dysfunction  reoccurs. 

Masgutova Method practitioners are trained in working with non-functional stimulus / response patterns. Our intent is to guide reflexes into a functional range by adding information to the stimulus until we see the appropriate response. We do this primarily through touch and experience about what an appropriate response looks or feels like.  We trigger a response to stimulus and then work with that response until it automatically performs within its functional range. Our experience is that once a body recognizes a more functional response to stimulus, it's innate intelligence will usually quickly adopt the new threshold. This is often presented as a demonstration of our intrinsic ability for self regulation and ability to embody higher function with lower stress. 

Perhaps the most important distinction between the focus of Masgutova practitioners and that of PT's or OT's is that we are trained to isolate  and work with specific stimulus response patterns. The farther a response threshold is from its normal range, the more difficult it is for a global therapy to recalibrate it. The ability to train a specific pattern and  then integrate it within behavior is characteristic of Masgutova's work. Once response thresholds are close to their normal range, physical or occupational therapy can be very productive. The proof of this is that so many PT's and OT's have studied Masgutova her trainings have been certified for continuing education units nationwide for these therapists.

Brian Esty

04/10/10