Relevance of the Atlanto / Occipital Junction

At the base of the skull and at the top of the spine there is a meeting place of body structure that I am coming to appreciate more and more. I had been taught that this is the first cervical joint and that it functioned in the same way as the other spinal joints do. As a bodyworker I often find myself nudging these spinal joints back into some semblance of symmetry, and usually with a little gentle rocking they quite easily reorganize to my liking. The Atlas, however, never cooperates. It seems to have a mind of its own, and when it moves I never have much confidence that the change will stick. The other vertebra have a lubricated donut shape cartilage positioned between them and this allows them a lot of freedom and space for the associated muscles to reestablish functional relationships. The Atlas and Occiput, on the other hand, actually have two hard connections that work with a sliding motion. A comparable joint might be a knuckle. The connecting muscles and ligaments are very short and any form of trauma locks them together.

Why this is worth mentioning is that our visual and balance systems will always attempt to keep our head upright. So the base of the skull is horizontal, but if the Atlas is mis-aligned the rest of the spine will have to loop around to meet the non-horizontal surface of the bottom of the Atlas. This results in accommodations of organization that reach all of the way to the feet.

Working with the rest of the body's structure produces results, but if the work does not shift the Atlas, the changes will have back pressure toward the old pattern. A misalignment of a couple of millimeters at the top of the Atlas is amplified as it progresses down the spine, similar to how a small shift at the base of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa has led to a progressive failure of its integrity.

Consequently, work focused on any of these intentions:

• Body language
• Symmetry
• More tightly integrating physical, emotional and cognitive function (congruency)
• Pain (anything associated with the nerves emerging from the spine)
• Fight or flight responses (reactivity)
• Blood flow to the brain
• Reflex response times

will be continually challenged by Atlanto / Occipital misalignment. When a client says " I have tried a lot of things, but nothing seems to last for more than a short while.", its a flag waving for checking the Atlas.

I feel very fortunate in my exploration of this subject to be learning several different techniques for moving and establishing a functional home position for the Atlas. The Atlas is becoming the first thing I check with my clients and it is showing in longer lasting corrections with better outcomes.