The new paradigm of the bodymind changes our understanding of how we learn, how we heal, and how we change. Robert Cooper Ph.D. in his bestseller Get Out of Your Own Way points out that we have not one brain, but four brains-the brain in our head, the brain in our gut (the enteric nervous system), the brain in our heart, and the one in our spine. All brains together make one collective brain. The integrated input from the collective brain creates our highest intelligence and adaptability and the path of our greatest evolutionary potential (155).

The parts of the collective brain that have long been unappreciated and unrecognized connect to the limbic-related areas of the brain in our head that give rise to what Cooper calls "emotional intelligence" (156). I prefer to call it bodymind intelligence ; some people call it intuition. Whatever you call it, its influence is vast. Cooper comments that "as much as 95% of thought, emotion and learning occur somewhere beyond the conscious mind" (158). Access to this 95% is through the body and emotions, not the rational, neo-cortex where spoken and written language are generated. That's why we all know people who voraciously read self-help books, but can't quite seem to make tangible lifestyle changes in the areas they know need to change. It's also the limit of traditional talk psychotherapy, which can be excellent for intellectual insight and awareness, but can access the unconscious only through language which resides in the neo-cortex, the newest part of the brain in our head. Candace Pert, Ph.D. in Molecules of Emotion points out that the unconscious is the body . Therefore, we can best directly access the unconscious, where the majority of learning takes place, through the body itself, and through the circuitry that connects spine, gut and heart to the much older limbic part of the brain. In my practice, I use touch, talk and movement simultaneously to involve 100% of our native intelligence to produce the immediate emotional, embodied feedback that medical studies of cardiac patients show drive large lifestyle changes that last (281).

The Rubenfeld Synergy Method® is a psychophysical re-educational method that is in alignment with the latest theories of how the bodymind works. The basic tenet of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method is that "the body tells the truth." RSM recognizes the innate intelligence of the body. It recognizes that this intelligence is distributed across a bio-chemical energetic field that extends deep into the molecular structure of cells and also out into the external environment, into the Unified Field. Again, language can be misleading. In reality, we are the Unified Field, we are a part of the totality. The communication systems of the bodymind include the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, digestive system, and cardiovascular system-all operating as one intelligence that articulates through the muscles and skeleton from consciousness to action, and from action into consciousness. On the cellular level, emotions are vibrations that cause chemical changes in the cell's receptivity to the internal bioterrain. An intuition, creative insight or impulse is literally "a vibe" experienced in the body. Thus we use the words "biochemical energetic field" to describe the bodymind.

Within the bio-chemical energetic field of intelligence of the bodymind, brain wave frequencies that are slower such as alpha and theta frequencies are associated with "super-learning" states. For this reason, RSM is done in a state of deep relaxation that is also restorative for the body, lowering blood serum levels of the stress hormone cortisol and increasing endogenous opioids. Left and right brain wave synchrony has been shown to accompany creative insights and higher problem-solving and learning capacity. RSM uses language, touch and movement to engage both sides of the brain simultaneously and to integrate neo-cortex (rational/linguistic), limbic (emotional/sensory), and hindbrain (fight/flight/freeze responses). Working with the bodymind's innate field of intelligence, RSM supports higher states of quantum awareness, recognizing that perceptions are located throughout the body.

The Rubenfeld Synergy Method® helps clients adapt by supporting a new functionality in which body, mind, emotions and energy are synched-in synergy . The founder of the method, Il ana Rubenfeld, mapped the dynamics of the bodymind with the skill of a musical conductor able to cognize and track more than 30 lines of music at one time. She brought to her bodymind integration method musical training at Julliard, Gestalt training with Fritz and Laura Perls, movement therapy with Moshe Feldenkrais, and Alexander Technique. She devoted her lifelong career to developing the method in New York City , and now resides in Ashland , Oregon , bringing the method to the west coast, where she often conducts workshops at Esalen.