Getting our Heads on Straight – By Chris Clayton

Over the last year or so, I have written six blog posts, each relating to one of our ‘Structural Essentials’ workshops which as a whole, we call ‘Part One’. There are three major parts to the training to become an Anatomy Trains Certified Structural Integrator.

They are;

Part 1 – Structural Essentials (Arches & Legs, Fans of the Hip, Tensegrity Spine, Opening the Breath, Shoulders and Arms, Head-Neck and Jaw),

Part 2 – Structural Strategies

Part 3 – Structural Integration

One of the common threads that I have noted in each of these blog posts, that have discussed the feet, hips, breath, spine, shoulders and arms and now this edition discussing the head, neck and jaw, is that I have managed to injure pretty much all of these areas at one time or another. A rough and tumble life it has been, it has also been exciting and wonderful at the same time.

Once again, I could start this blog with how I subluxated C2 in a full contact bout in 1983, or had an odd experience with my jaw in circa 2007 as a long term consequence of the rough games I have played. In this blog post, apart from what I have already written above about my own head, neck and jaw experiences, I hope to leave the details out. But I would like to thank those therapists, including the wonderful Structural Integrators that have helped me get my own head on straight.

It is advantageous for us to have our cervical spine, balanced by the 14 myofascial units that attach at C3 on each side (more if you count those that do not touch down at C3) sitting atop a healthy spine. This cervical structure then supports our neuro and viscerocranium that contains the brain and its meninges, including the visual cortex, Hippocampus, Parietal cortex, and all of the other amazing elements of the brain anatomy. The cervical spine also provides the structure that supports the viscera of the neck, Pharynx, oesophagus, arteries, veins and very large bundles of nerves. Enclosed in layer after layer of soft tissue like the platysma, investing layer of deep cervical fascia, those 14 muscles that I mentioned earlier and the supra and infra hyoids and so much more. These units are in turn related to the jaw, and facilitate speech, chewing and swallowing.
This brief anatomical explanation identifies that, if we can organise the head via its cervical column and the associated myofascia, we can greatly assist the cranium and jaw to come to, (as Tom Myers calls it) a “gentle agreement” to get their respective jobs done.

Following on from the last blog, which identifies how the shoulder girdle, in an unbalanced dysfunctional pattern could affect the structures above and below; we can now look at the idea that the head, neck and jaw can affect the shoulder girdle and vice versa.

Whilst you are sitting here reading, try this on.

1. Sit upright and as balanced as you can manage, open your mouth, take note of how it feels. Close your mouth and reset. Now moderately shrug your left shoulder towards your left ear, open your mouth again. How does it feel?

2. Reset again, this time lift both arms above your head, take note of the quality of that movement. Return your arms to your side, clench your jaw, lift your arms up again, what did you feel? I notice restrictions in both versions.

As you can see, we cannot and should not directly blame what is hurting for the problem. The issue may well be driven from somewhere else in our global body pattern. What hope has the cervical spine got to be aligned and functional when the pelvis, spine or shoulder girdle has a strong altered pattern? We must take it all into account, as well as balancing the head, neck and jaw to put our heads back on straight.

The clinical example that sticks in my memory is that of a person who could not yawn in the morning when they woke, if they did, their jaw would subluxate and it would be very painful, eating apples and corn were also obstacles to be avoided. By balancing the structures above and below (the pelvis in this case) followed with some detailed jaw and hyoid work, we then worked to integrate what was gained back into the whole as part of an effective system. The result, yawning and apples are now a normal thing and they now have space in that part of their world to express themselves as they choose.

Something that really interests me is the chewing and swallowing function and how it changes as we age. Men particularly become less adaptable in oropharyngeal space with advanced age, which means they tend to aspirate saliva when swallowing much more than women who are generally more adaptable (1). The epiglottis is very sensitive to anything other than air getting near the windpipe that it protects. In the case of the older person who is losing effective function in this region, it can cause bouts of coughing. The other problem with this aspiration is that it can be a part of pneumonia and other related health issues in the elderly.
If we work on balancing the structures and keeping them that way in their younger years as much as possible, then we might be able to alleviate some of that risk as we move into older age.

The Anatomy Trains ‘Head, Neck and Jaw’ workshop is the last in the series of six to complete ‘Part One’ of the Anatomy Trains Structural Essentials. It is a wonderful workshop that I and my fellow Certified Anatomy Trains Teachers dearly love to present. What we gain from this workshop makes such a difference to what we can offer to our clients. An integrated head, neck and jaw, allows them to look into the future squarely from a stabilised head that is supported by a resilient and adaptable neck, with this intrinsic support they can then express and share their thoughts and feelings with a balanced jaw and a full and happy smile.

Chris Clayton