Completing What Was Left Undone

Interview with Ruth Murray

Ruth Murray left nursing to find answers for her children's neurological challenges when conventional medicine came up short. Her search revealed something unexpected: many human struggles trace back to incomplete neurological foundations—gaps in development that create cascading effects throughout our lives. Now she works with clients across the age spectrum, using targeted physical movements to help the nervous system complete crucial maturation processes. The transformations can be startling: lifelong patterns dissolving, hidden capabilities emerging, bodies finally able to move past survival modes they no longer need. Murray has mapped these connections through what she calls the Developmental Pyramid, revealing how our earliest neurological development underlies everything from emotional regulation to learning capacity to physical coordination.

Recently discovering Murray's work in my ongoing search for healers and different healing modalities, I was grateful when she agreed to share her insights through this interview. Her approach challenges conventional thinking about what's possible—suggesting that issues we've labeled as psychological, behavioral, or even degenerative might actually stem from the body's interrupted and incomplete mastery of fundamental developmental steps. From primitive reflexes that should have integrated in infancy to the profound effects of how we entered the world at birth, Murray's work illuminates how our bodies carry these unfinished processes forward, adapting around them until someone shows us how to complete what was left undone. What emerges from our conversation is both a new understanding of human development and a practical path forward for those whose bodies are ready to finish what they started.

With thanks to Ruth Murry.

Movement Solutions – Fundamentally groundbreaking. Innovatively effective. Utterly revolutionary.

1. Ruth, you've had quite a unique career path - from registered nurse to educator to your current work with neurodevelopment. What sparked this journey, and how did your experiences as a mother influence the direction you took?

I loved being a nurse, but motherhood took first priority when three of my four sons had symptoms of being neurologically atypical. Searched for answers, poured through textbooks and medical journals only to find that western medicine really didn’t have answers for them. I quit my job to find something that would help. I was astonished and not a little discomfited to find myself squarely in alternative medicine, where — without medication or diagnoses, I found things that substantively changed our son’s lives.

2. Can you walk us through what happens in a typical session with you? What might someone expect when they first come to see you?

A session is as individualized as snowflakes, but if they’re young, mom has generally filled out a lengthy questionnaire beforehand about their global functioning. We chat a bit, giving them an idea of what we do and why. We’ll try out a few basic exercises to break the ice and give me a first- glimpse of functional abilities.

Depending on how resilient I deem their systems might be, I might try some basic non invasive tests: walk sideways. Can you get on your hands and knees? How about tracking your eyes right and left and back again? Write your name or a sentence. I might have them demonstrate something that they have difficulty doing. If they appear to be quite sensitive, I’ll just try some basic exercises that help their situation. I’ve had a few people tire out just moving their arms slowly for several minutes, and others last a few hours, enjoying these simple movements.

Some are acupressure-related, others involve eyes with other movements, and others have elements distilled from movements babies make. Nearly always, client (and parent, if they have one) are surprised at how different they look/walk/ feel, even by the end of one session!

I then send them off with a written plan to practice one or more of these at home. Generally, this is anywhere from one minute a week to ten minutes a day. They’ll return to relate what has changed — gotten easier, gotten possible, or just improved — and we’ll tweak the program. Sometimes an entrenched problem simply disappears, and others it’s just better.

3. Your Developmental Pyramid draws fascinating parallels between Maslow's Hierarchy, brain architecture, and neurodevelopment. How did you first notice these connections, and what was that "aha" moment like?

While teaching about the brain and reflexes, I noticed the earliest steps corresponded with the earliest developing and lowest structures in the brain. One of my students, a mental health professional, pointed out that Maslow’s Hierarchy mirrored those as well.

I got really excited when I saw how comparing the three hierarchies suddenly made the need for system development very obvious. Everybody instinctively understands Maslow, sees the brain and how it works — and thus the need to have each step thoroughly developed.

4. You mention that many of our struggles - from anxiety to learning difficulties - stem from poor neuronal connections at the sub-cortical level. Can you explain this in everyday terms for those of us who aren't neuroscience experts?

It’s not a good idea to pass kids who can’t read or do arithmetic onto the next grade, because that next grade builds on those expected skills. Recognizing consonant blends leads to quicker word recognition, which will free up brain power to consider what’s being communicated, and thus evaluating the concept. Without that, reading speed, comprehension and retention suffer. In the same way, if we “graduate” to walking before we’ve absolutely thoroughly automated more fundamental connections, via crawling for instance (which in and of itself requires yet more basic learning), we’ll forever be trying to cope. Imagine trying to do calculus while you have to look up the arithmetic answers to 4 + 6! Yet, that is what we do when we can’t automatically point our eyes directly at a specific focus, or change focus as we look from paper to board. We need to be able to adjust our muscle engagement when our head is up or down or when we put our hand up to answer a question, or we’ll lose our balance. That has us somewhat like someone trying to write neatly on a ship in the ocean!

Enough of that, and our temper frays — the least additional requirement will have us losing our temper, or getting overwhelmed with noise and utterly shutting down. We can do only so many things at one time before we lose operating efficiency in our bodies!

5. Brett's story about not being able to get mad even when his mom tried to provoke him is remarkable. What exactly happened there, and how do these exercises affect emotional regulation?

Brett had a primitive reflex still active: his body was reacting as a defensive baby to anything he perceived as a challenge. The trouble is, he was a pre-teen, and could defend himself on that level too. So with both systems working: a minimally mobile, inexperienced infant, and a 12 year old, his body overwhelmed easily.

We had first role-played a typical situation that would provoke him, so we had a good baseline for an expected reaction. Then I had him do a lot of exercises that his body might have done as a baby to learn to shelve those reactions in favor of the newer ways to deal with potential danger. In a second role-play, Brett’s immature nervous system didn’t react at all. His conscious, 12 year old system knew it was an act, and was relieved to find he didn’t go into an automatic defensive attack.

The numerous changes that he and his family saw were indicative of how many coping mechanisms he’d been employing, just to handle life. One can maintain patience with only so many tasks to do at one time. Consider someone driving on ice, on the opposite side of the road than they’re used to (and let’s put them in a manual transmission car) and it’s rush hour in an enormous city. How much patience, empathy, and joy is he experiencing in those moments? People live with back-of-the- mind stress much of the time, and think it’s normal. Until they do our exercises, that is, and find who I think they’re really meant to be.

6. You've worked with everyone from newborns to 85 year olds to physicians. What surprises you most about how different people respond to this work?

I’m always surprised that such simple exercises reliably bring about changes. And no matter who it is, or which part they’ve recently matured each person responds the same way — a surprised delight at sudden new capabilities, at accomplishments without an enormous effort. When they realize it, they each stop to register what they have just done.

7. The idea of "somatic anxiety" - the body's anxiety being different from regular anxiety - is intriguing. How can someone tell if what they're experiencing might be somatic rather than situational anxiety?

Situational anxiety has a specific trigger, and diminishes with removal from the trigger. Can I drive home safely in the ice? Make a good impression in the job interview? Do well on the test?

With somatic anxiety, you’re anxious all the time, and it can come out as being high-strung, insomnia, continuously feeling of potential danger, just being unhappy or distrustful, inability to focus because you’re dealing with all of that. Frequently, providing the body with input aimed at maturing the nervous system will decrease somatic anxiety.

8. You describe birth itself as an extraordinary sensory experience that shapes our nervous system. How do different birth experiences (natural, induced, C-section) potentially affect someone's development?

(What a great question, thanks)! A natural birth gives input that works with the nervous system, and helps to mature it. There are a few reflexes active with birth that helps us wiggle down the birth canal. With each gradual increase in squeezing, we wiggle hips and torso to edge us through the vaginal canal.

Hopefully with a head-first birth, we will gradually feel a cooler temperature on the top of our head, and maybe a slight breeze. With the emergence of our head, we’ll become aware of changes in light and noise, and we have a moment of that generally before the rest of us gets born.

If birth is induced, the blood chemistry changes. It’s been decades since they’ve noticed more ADHD behavior in Pitocin- intensive births. If we think it’s harder to handle those sudden contractions of our uterus, imagine being on the inside end of that, with a sudden squeeze….no time to nudge a hip down a bit, or squeeze a shoulder into position.

With caesareans, imagine if you will, the difference between edging into a cold pool or jumping in. Baby has none of the squeezing and moving experiences (nor exposure to vaginal microbes (something that will turn out to be critical later, I believe), but it has no warning. Suddenly there’s more light as the uterine wall is opened, then the amniotic sac, and baby is brought into a sudden influx of brilliant light, breeze, an incredible change in its noise, a sudden experience of gravity…….all to a baby who has never experienced much in the way of changes!

We see a considerable increase in hyperactivity and learning issues. The body’s learning right from left has just skipped a step, and the back hasn’t had that lesson in squeezing and edging down the canal. Coping mechanisms that MIGHT happen from this are fidgeting, anxiety, attention and focus, difficulty with potty training (bedwetting after age 5 responds nicely to exercises).

9. When you talk about primitive reflexes like Fear Paralysis and Moro, you mention they can lead to very different coping mechanisms. Could you give us some real-life examples of how these show up in adults?

Both Fear Paralysis and Moro’s coping symptoms are alike — a need for control; negativity, especially about oneself; attention/ focus issues, hypersensitivity in any or all your senses — you don’t like light (ball cap and sunglass wearers, unite!) and respond especially poorly to fluorescent lights; you have hypersensitive hearing and have difficulty filtering out a conversation if there’s background noise. A marked dislike for tags in clothes, seams in socks, anything but soft fabric, dislike of anybody touching you. Picky eaters, people triggered by smells. A marked dislike for any change is another aspect of this, and it tends to go with the sensory processing issues.

Because this is one of the first things we learn, anything but fully learning to put aside these baby safety reflexes will show up in anything higher on the pyramid — social skills, organization, etc.

10. Christian's mom saying "NOT ONE!" phone call from school clearly made an impact on you. What changed for Christian, and why do these transformations sometimes happen so quickly?

It made an impact because I so clearly saw what a huge economic and social impact solidifying early nervous system development can have. Not only the child’s life, and his parent’s, and his teachers, and his friends, but the school administrators and even taxpayers who would save money by not having so much work trying to remediate behavior that the child is trying hard to overcome. I spoke with the special services director about how much money she was saving, how much better all lives were, with this child — but was not asked to present this information to the teachers/counselors because it doesn’t have (pharmaceutical-funded and approved) double- blind studies demonstrating efficacy. Christian’s changes were considered irrelevant.

Christian had difficulties with emotional control, had some problem talking, and he walked quite clumsily. His parents were quite dedicated to ensuring that he practiced the exercises I gave him, precisely — no more, no less, and it paid off.

If somehow you had not had any exposure to your times tables, it will take much longer to learn. But if you’ve got a partial understanding of and just need a bit of practice, it will go sooner. So too with nervous system development. Perhaps you’ve got a start on knowing how to stand or walk, for instance, and so mastery will come sooner. Also, in general the lower down on the pyramid the development is, the more needed is a very automatic mastery.

11. You've seen people overcome depression, Parkinson's symptoms, and "failure to launch" issues. What do these diverse conditions have in common from your perspective?

They are very different, aren't they?

I think all these conditions are a result of stresses on the nervous system. Many people believe depression is an imbalance of neurotransmitters, and chemicals from outside the body are the preferred solution. But few ask what CAUSED those feelings of depression; western medicine lacks any of the cause-and-effect cascade for mental illnesses that it proposes for other bodily maladies. Those people generally respond well to a thorough analysis and treatment of the components of bottom of the nervous system pyramid.

That creates, I believe, a strong argument for causation.

A similar argument can be made for diet and lifestyle changes, addressing inflammation of the nervous system and circadian rhythm.

12. There's something poetic about how you describe helping people whose bodies are stuck in survival mode when they don't need to be. How do you explain to skeptics that physical exercises can address what seem like purely psychological issues?

We know that physical movement helps depression, balances hormones, strengthens bones, helps heart health, clears thinking and more. To explain in person, I frequently will have somebody think of a stressor and give them a minute of exercise. Experiencing their stress level go down frequently gives the most insight and motivation. It also helps to create empathy for those who know no other way to live other than with stress.

13. You mention that trying certain exercises without proper guidance can actually make things worse. What's happening in the nervous system when someone has that kind of adverse reaction?

If someone is very sensitive, it’s hard to take in more than a little information at a time. Think of when someone has made their point, driven it into the ground, and then continues it even further. That’s frustrating to deal with. Another way of thinking about it is taking someone who’s quite dehydrated and hydrating them with a garden hose. They go into overwhelm and their bodies not only stop learning, but they rebel.

Fortunately, it’s easy to deal with, by judiciously removing some exercises and going gently with others.

14. Looking at your success stories, there's often this moment where someone realizes an obstacle they've struggled with for years has "suddenly melted away." What's it like to witness these breakthroughs?

It’s almost as though I get that joy too, and tremendously rewarding. In part because what was difficult or impossible now comes without monumental effort, and because they are much further on the way to being who they were meant to be.

15. What are you currently exploring or developing in your practice, and for those intrigued by your approach, how can they learn more or connect with your work?

I’m finding that while physical trauma (i.e., concussions due to sports or car wreck or the like) responds quite nicely just to movement, when it’s compounded by emotional trauma (i.e., IEDs, rape, etc.) there’s an involvement with the electrical part of the body and there are quite effective therapies out there to deal with this. Most often, those require both movement and therapies addressing quantum energies within the body.

For those intrigued and wanting more information, good books are Playing in the Unified Field by Carla Hannaford or Movements that Heal by Blomberg and Dempsey, and Educate Your Brain by Kathy Brown.

Good search terms are primitive reflex integration.

I see clients in my office in suburban Omaha, and online as well. My pyramid will be for sale via my website (also I think a good source of information) within the next month, for those who are interested.

Movement Solutions – Fundamentally groundbreaking. Innovatively effective. Utterly revolutionary.

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