Structural Essentials: Head, Neck & Jaw

The Structural Essential series is a set of intensive soft-tissue technique courses divided into functional regions.

Combining movement and manual techniques for the most efficient and long-lasting results, and using the latest research on the interaction between skeleton, muscles, joints, and fascial proprioceptors, this series of workshops will take you to a new level in therapy.

Designed with the busy manual therapist in mind, each Structural Essentials event gives you a new understanding of the relevant area. The content will outline how the structural and functional anatomy relates to many common issues as well as to the rest of the body. Based on many new and established approaches this series will give you the skills in palpation, BodyReading and functional analysis needed for the modern multidisciplinary therapist.

Head, Neck and Jaw

The neck is a remarkable feat of biomechanical engineering, giving a combination of wide range of movement but maintaining a structural strength.  It is often seen as the last site of compensation as it corrects for any alteration from below allowing the eyes and ears to orient to the horizon. Patterns can of course work their way in the other direction and particularly from the jaw and its many possible patterns of movement and holding. This course will focus on key areas of the neck and jaw complex to allow you to build successful strategies to ease these potential problem areas alleviating the issues working in both directions and setting the body up for a longer lasting change.

Highlights include:

• The sub-occipital muscles
• The laminar groove & deep cervical muscles
• The muscular wires of the front of the neck – anterior scalenes & longus colli muscles
• Intra-oral work for the hyoid complex, the tongue, and the floor of the mouth
• The jaw muscles, TMJ, the palate & facial muscles

Note: You must take the Anatomy Trains in Structure & Function course before taking the SE courses. Familiarity with the Anatomy Trains lines and concepts is key to getting the most from the program.

The Structural Essentials workshops are most easily absorbed in the order outlined below but you can do them in any order as time permits.

1. Arches and Legs – 3 days
2. Fans of the Hip – 2 ½ days
3. Abdomen, Chest and Breath – 2 ½ days
4. Tensegrity Spine – 2 days
5. Shoulders & Arms – 2 days
6. Head, Neck & Jaw – 2 days