New tools, new hope

When I visited the families in Punakha a week ago, I was determined to see one particular young woman again, even though my schedule didn’t allow me to revisit the other three cases. She was the one I had written about in a previous blog post, when I left the therapy session feeling frustrated because I hadn’t achieved much. Her extensor tone was so high that I simply couldn’t reduce it.
Since then, I completed an online course that gave me new tools to better address her hypertonicity and understand her movement patterns. The course focused on primitive reflex integration. With this new knowledge, I now recognize how strongly retained primitive reflexes still shape her movements—reflexes that would normally become dormant after early infancy. This means her body is repeatedly triggered by stimuli and has little chance to move differently.
One example is the Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR): whenever she extends her head, her entire body shifts into an extension pattern. Her Spinal Galant Reflex is also still active, causing lateral flexion of the spine. This likely contributes, among other factors, to her severe scoliosis. Because she lies in bed most of the day, constant stimulation along her spine repeatedly activates this reflex, increasing muscle tension and reinforcing the scoliotic pattern.
This time, however, I felt intrigued rather than powerless. The course gave me a new lens through which to see her condition and a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Research suggests that innate rhythmic movements can help lay the foundation for later reflex integration exercises and calm an overactive nervous system, thereby reducing hypertonicity.
During the session, I taught her mother four variations of innate rhythmic movements from the course. As the young woman is older, progress may take time, but we now have a concrete tool to support her. Even during that short session, I sensed that her body responded more positively than before and relaxed intermittently.
I hope to visit the family again in Punakha to continue the therapy. Perhaps, step by step, we can achieve meaningful progress.