Open Pathways to Learning, LLC

The Development of Brain Integration Treatment

The history of the development of modern Brain Integration Treatment is international in scope and spans much of the last century. It also encompasses the integrative bridging of some of the most important discoveries found in various Western and Oriental health treatment modalities.

The most thorough examination of the history of Brain Integration Treatment modalities is offered in Dr. Charles Krebs’ book, A Revolutionary Way of Thinking, which may be purchased here. An excerpt of this excellent book can be seen here. The following historical overview is largely summarized from this book with the author’s permission.

Brain Integration Treatment utilizes a modern biofeedback procedure known as Manual Muscle Testing or Muscle Monitoring, whose roots trace back to the early 1930s with the beginning of the creation of the modality known today as Applied Kinesiology. Boston orthopedic surgeon Dr. R.W. Lovett was working with people affected by the polio epidemic in the early part of the 20th century. Having observed that patients with neurological ailments displayed corresponding weaknesses in specific muscle groups, Dr. Lovett discovered by experimentation that he could utilize Muscle Monitoring techniques to more accurately assess neurological, organ, and muscle function relationships in his neurologically impaired clients.

In the mid-20th century Henry and Florence Kendall, who were working with people recovering from paralytic polio myelitis, expanded Dr. Lovett’s work into the field of Academic or Structural Kinesiology. They developed specific manual muscle tests for many of the individual muscles of the body.

In 1964 the Detroit-based chiropractor Dr. George Goodheart systematically synthesized the research and treatment work of a number of people in this field, pioneering a system that achieved remarkable diagnostic and therapeutic benefits. He also introduced the millennia old Chinese meridian system into this work, which offered thousands of years of empirical observations about the human body’s various electrical and energetic systems. Dr. Goodheart effectively created a synthesis of ancient Oriental knowledge and modern Western muscle monitoring technology, which formed the foundation for the system known today as Applied Kinesiology.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a colleague of Dr. Goodheart, Dr. John Thie, developed a simplified form of Applied Kinesiology he taught to lay people for self-help called Touch for Health (TFH), which spread rapidly to many countries in the world. TFH was more centered on the role of the Chinese Acupuncture Meridian "energy" system than Applied Kinesiology, but brought this work to a wider audience, where other individuals developed various systems using this muscle biofeedback tool in a variety of highly creative ways.

In the 1970’s Dr. Alan Beardall, a protégé of Dr. Goodhardt’s, methodically and innovatively expanded the base of knowledge of these treatments into what is now called Clinical Kinesiology. It was he who pioneered insights into how the body operates like a “bio-computer,” allowing for various deeper applications of treatment.

Another important contributor to this modality in the 1970’s was Dr. Paul Dennison. He suffered from serious dyslexia and was incapable of learning in traditional ways. As Dr. Dennison experienced treatments of Applied Kinesiology, he found many of his problematic symptoms resolved. He went on to work with many children suffering with learning disorders, first inventing Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K) and later creating what is popularly known as Brain Gym, which has benefited untold numbers of children and adults around the world.

Dr. Charles Krebs

Dr. Charles Krebs, an accomplished American research scientist and analytical chemist living in Australia, discovered Applied Kinesiology in the 1980’s after a near fatal accident that left him partially paralyzed and unable to move his legs. After many months of rehabilitation during which he used his strong will and determination to bring life back to his leg muscles, he was able to walk out of the hospital. Although he had made great progress, Dr. Krebs still walked with a severe limp and compromised posture. A friend arranged an appointment with Dr. Bruce Dewe, a New Zealand medical doctor who practiced Kinesiology. Dr. Dewe later founded the International College of Professional Kinesiology Practice. A single treatment with Dr. Dewe and two other Kinesiologists brought Dr. Krebs more improvement in his condition than his western science based training would have led him to believe was possible, triggering his interest to learn more about this powerfully effective modality.

Richard Utt

Soon after, in 1985, Dr. Krebs met Richard Utt from the United States, an expert in airplane flight control systems and electrical engineer who himself had had a lifesaving experience with Kinesiology. Like Dr. Krebs, Utt went on his own personal quest for knowledge and understanding, resulting in his creating his own course of study that he called Applied Physiology. One of Utt’s pivotal contributions to this field of work was inventing the means by which a properly trained practitioner could access stress (held within the client’s body) that was expressed as imbalances in the body's electrical and energetic circuitry. This new technique of acupressure formatting allowed direct assessment of problematic circuits in the client’s body and provided feedback as to the most appropriate techniques for correcting these problems. This discovery created exciting new realms of client treatment possibilities.

The next two years found Utt traveling to Australia to teach his Applied Physiology program. Dr. Krebs, who was already treating children with learning disorders in his private practice, took every course Utt offered. At this point in time Dr. Krebs was developing his own program that he called LEAP, the Learning Enhancement Acupressure Program. LEAP is an Applied Physiology based protocol that effectively resolves a wide range of learning and brain disorders by using acupressure formatting to locate "stressed" brain functions and then, via application of various acupressure techniques, re-synchronize brain function.

Dr. Krebs maintains a practice in Australia and spends much of his time teaching LEAP to new practitioners around the world and developing research-based applications for his modality. He runs an on-going professional two-year LEAP training with the University of Salzburg's Study and Management Center in Saalfelden, Austria, and recently founded a new professional LEAP training center in London that is collaborating with public schools in treatment initiatives. He also runs LEAP training programs in Australia and the United States.

Susan McCrossin, AP

In 1988 a fellow Australian, Susan McCrossin, came into Charles’ life, first as a client, then a co-worker and eventually his wife. When they met, McCrossin was a computer systems expert who subsequently gave up her career to devote herself to studying Kinesiology and became certified in Applied Physiology. She and Dr. Krebs established a joint practice which they called Melbourne Applied Physiology. McCrossin also attended university during this time and achieved dual BS degrees in neuroscience and psychology. In 1999 McCrossin moved to Boulder, Colorado where she established The Learning Enhancement Center. McCrossin has a successful practice and teaches Crossinology® Brain Integration Technique. She is the author of the excellent book Breaking the Learning Barrier, available through her website: www.crossinology.com. An excerpt from McCrossin’s book can be seen there. She regularly teaches students who wish to become certified in her modality (see her website for details).

Brain Integration Treatment is only one area of healthcare in which Applied Kinesiology is practiced. Various forms of Kinesiology are utilized in a variety of healthcare settings around the world, including by physicians, chiropractors, dentists, nutritionists, physical therapists, nurses, and others.

Open Pathways to Learning’s Mary Dravis-Parrish and Nancy Evans are both fully certified in Crossinology’s Brain Integration Technique (BIT), and Nancy has also had the opportunity to study with Dr. Krebs as well. Both Nancy and Mary have, additionally, studied with Dr. Alan Beardall’s accomplished son, Dr. Christopher Beardall.