Educational Kinesiology consultations help the client to build on what they already know how to do, accepting them just as they are without any judgment of capabilities. The Brain Gym model sees the Consultant as a facilitator to help the client develop latent potential rather than to fix problems. Consultations are client centred, built around the drawing out of the clients’ goals and finding the best tools to help them through the learning and changes necessary to achieve them.

Skills of self-observation or noticing of physical, emotional and mental states are encouraged as part of a learner-led process and adapted to the age and ability of the client.

The practitioner will take details of the client’s history and, especially with a child, any developmental issues. These might include difficulties with the developmental milestones, such as crawling, speaking, walking, interaction with others, ability to listen and follow instructions etc.

The clients’ general goals in coming to the consultation will be identified and any current challenges explored.

The client and Consultant will jointly encourage a relaxed yet alert state, grounded in the body, as a preparation for the change process ahead, by doing a sequence of four Brain Gym activities, known as “PACE”.

Most consultations involve the identification of a specific goal for that consultation. An example of an adult goal might be: “To feel confident, clear and fluent when presenting new ideas in meetings”. A goal for a child might be: “To catch the ball easily when it is thrown to me” or “To understand what I read”. Goals always have a physical, practical basis so that any progress can be observed.

Key to an effective outcome is that the goal be meaningful to the person aiming for it – the client.

The goal achievement process, called a “Balance” in Brain Gym terminology, allows observation of physical skills before and after the intervention with Brain Gym or Educational Kinesiology techniques. The most important element of this, and the one that brings the greatest changes, or learning, to the client, is their own self-noticing through the process:

• before the Brain Gym activities – What is familiar and already mastered in the skill? What is there still to learn? What are they most aware of when they are involved in the skill?

• and after the Brain Gym activities - Is the skill easier and more automatic? What changes are they now aware of?

Clients begin by experiencing and noticing the level of ability or comfort currently involved in the target skill in a practical way, for example:

• where a child wishes to improve hand-eye co-ordination, they might be asked to repeatedly catch a ball and the number of catches or misses recorded;

• for pen grip, the activity might be to hold a pen and write, observing grip (gross or fine motor), posture, secondary movements and stress level;

• for reading, a baseline could be to read out loud or to oneself and notice how much one has understood of what has been read.

 Activities from Brain Gym, or other aspects of the Educational Kinesiology programme, will then be selected. Consultants are trained in the use of other tools, such as Vision Gym™ Movement Re-education and sensory organisation profiles.

	A Brain Gym Consultant demonstrates The Calf Pump activity to the client.
The client gets in position for the activity with help from the Consultant.

After a selection of Brain Gym activities, as described above, the initial physical skills, such as catching a ball, holding a pen or reading, will be repeated and observations drawn from the comparison between before and after.

For younger children, this process is adapted in an appropriate way.

The client will be given a small selection of Brain Gym activities, usually based on those practised in the consultation, to do daily at home for an agreed number of days or weeks. The time involved is usually between 5 and 10 minutes once or twice a day: the duration, often a few weeks, may vary.

Brain Gym is a client and learner centred programme and is based around what the client wants to achieve and how far they feel they have moved towards it. The question of how many sessions a client needs will be based on this and in discussion with them.

This is determined by the needs of the client.

Some adults come to work on specific issues as they arise every few months; some children need consistent input into their challenges and may come for 5 -10 consultations initially and then re-evaluate the situation. Children with greater challenges may need steady input over longer periods as they grow and mature at their own pace.

The follow-through after the consultation with the daily Brain Gym home activities has an impact on progress, so in many cases there are intervals of 2 or 3 weeks, or more, between consultations to allow the effects to become securely available to the person.

The range of issues that can be addressed by Brain Gym (Educational Kinesiology) is very wide. It covers changes in behaviour, attitude and physical skills as well as the learning examples given above and any combination of these. Clients come from, for example, the worlds of professional or amateur sport, performers of drama, art or music, business/sales people and many who simply say “I would like to: … feel better about myself, my health or my abilities, … be able to do this, … or stop doing that …” . Their ages range from very young children to those in their eighties.

Click on Professional Directory for Consultants listed by geographical area. All Brain Gym Instructors are also qualified as Consultants.