11/03/2026
Steve was one of the founders of the Body Intelligence training, who I learnt from and continue to teach with. I was privileged to work with him in 2014, on a craniosacral PG; Working with Emotions: Heart, Belly and Throat.
His distillation, the OMG technique; Orient, Move, Ground, has just been highlighted in The Guardian. So important to remember how we must create safety - we are mammals first and foremost and need to get ourselves out of threat. Conscious and unconscious. Such a big part of what I support clients with.
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Old parts of the brain do run, jump, fight or shutdown. They do not do Shakespeare, Mozart, Turing or complex concepts in general.
They respond to simple stimuli; Orienting, Moving, Grounding, OMG.
My favourites to teach clients: slow head turning, really slow head turning, feeling power in the limbs by pushing and squeezing, tuning into the size and shape of the feet. It still amazes me how often feet feel tiny and far away.
‘Old parts of the brain’ means old in terms of evolution. Brains got bigger and more complex by adapting what was already there. Deep in our nervous system, we have reflexes that originated from reptiles and mammals.
Researchers also use ‘critter brain’, ‘primitive brain’, ‘reflex brain’ or ’quick brain’. All these descriptors tell us the old brain is not a talking, reflective, abstract concepts kind of place.
Feeling and moving your way out of trauma responses is almost certainly a better strategy than trying to remember or understand the events that may have triggered protective reflexes.
Please visit www.bodycollege.com for books, courses and training in anxiety, pain and trauma
