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116 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k m a r c h / a p r i l 2 0 1 4 most clients, you'll be able to slowly take the chin to the chest without causing discomfort or guarding. A large amount of cervical flexion is not the goal; focus instead on sensing your client's comfortable limit. Be sure you are very comfortable in your own body, as well. Your ability to stay relaxed and extremely stable will be key to the effectiveness of the technique, as you'll be holding your client's head up for several minutes. If your client is much larger than you, or has a particularly heavy head, you'll need to experiment with hand and body positions to find variations that work for you. Although I typically use the hand position pictured in Image 6 (seated with one hand under the head, forearm on the table, and my elbows close to my sides), some practitioners find it easier to stand, cross their arms behind the client's head with hands palm-down, right palm on the client's left shoulder and left palm on the client's right shoulder, and lift using their legs and body, rather than just the arms. Whatever your position, make sure your supporting point of contact is physically beneath your client's head. The supporting sensation of touch on the back of the head feels reassuring and safe, and this will help encourage release and relaxation. Once both you and your client are comfortable in this lifted-head position, begin to gradually lower the head, ever so slowly, bit by infinitesimal bit. MYOFASCIAL TECHNIQUES At this point, we come to the most important part of the technique: as you lower the head in super-slow motion, feel for your client's ability to let the head go, every millimeter of the way. If you're sensitive and slow enough, you'll feel small variations in the perceived weight of your client's head along the way. If your client's head seems to get lighter, it means you're lowering faster than his or her ability to release; stop, back up a millimeter, and wait for your client to surrender the head again. Avoid casual chatter or other talking that might distract your client; however, verbal cues that help him or her focus can be invaluable. If you wait for a while with no release, try a gentle verbal prompt: "Just allow your head to be heavy," or "On your next exhale, let your head release a little more." Asking for small, slow, active eye movements or conscious exhaling can also help when release is difficult. EFFECTS ON THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM Though it requires patience and sensitivity, this technique is procedurally very simple. So, how does it affect the vestibular system? The head and neck's orienting reflexes are initiated by vestibular signaling. The small fluctuations in your client's ability to let the head go are signs that his or her vestibular system and brain are renegotiating the habitual muscle tension related to orienting and righting the head. Your super-slow head lowering provides just enough rotational stimuli to evoke a vestibular response. The positions where you feel your client subtly stiffen may correspond to angles and positions where the inner ears' semicircular canals are hypersensitive, or where they might be habitually accustomed to raising the "bracing needed!" alarm. Waiting or subtly backing up in the places where you feel this slight Specialized mechanoreceptors within the inner ear's passageways. The ampullary cupulae ( Image 4, center) sense the movement of fluid caused by rotational movement, while two types of sensitive hair cells ( Image 5, brown and green) sense the inertia of the stone-like otoliths ( Image 5, top of image) in linear movements. Images courtesy Primal Pictures, used by permission. 4 5