09/02/2026
What a delight to present the Cervical Revolution course in my backyard! The team of Marcie Schwartz, Leslie Ayub, and Katka Vickova, physical therapists Pure Symmetry LLC in Bethesda, MD, did a marvelous job of hosting clinicians from around the DMV and the Eastern seaboard from NY to NC. Clinicians from a variety of fields, including an optometrist, were eager to learn what can happen “up the chain” from the pelvis and thorax when the human is held in a pattern of position and activity.
To quote from my friend and fellow faculty Dan Houglum: “We need joints and muscles as tools to move us, but they are not the instigators nor drivers of upright navigation against gravity. The concept of pressure management begins with sensory awareness of regions of pressure to promote upright alternating behavior.” Nowhere is this more critical than the occipital-atlas (OA) articulation. The neck and the OA articulation are highly sensitive to input from our postural reflexes. Micro-adjustments in head position are immediate to keep our vision and vestibular systems properly oriented for upright function and to align our airways so that we can breathe. Overactivity of our right temporo-mandibular cervical chain of muscles interrupts this articulation’s ability to slide, glide, and roll on each side. We lose the instantaneous alternating left-to-right contact, and our brain becomes over-reliant on the right OA contact sense for upright function. Over time, our necks lose their desirable 30 degrees of lordosis, critical to the neck’s ability to fully laterally flex and rotate. Our paired bones, the temporal bones, lock into a position of IR on the right and ER on the left, mirroring the position of our ilia, and no longer alternate. Cranial distortions are created, most notably left sidebend and right torsion. Malocclusions develop. The cervical spine truly is a conduit for proper occlusion, speech, swallow, sensory processing, and forward locomotion – all of which are thoroughly described in the tertiary courses.
This Supine Active Sacro-Spheno Flexion technique promotes de-rotation of the R TMCC pattern by pulling the R temporal bone into ER via the R Styloid.
