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Principles of Manual Medicine

Treatment - Suboccipital Release


This is a soft tissue technique is appropriate for reducing tension in the soft tissues of the cervical spine, in particular the upper cervical, suboccipital aspect of the spine. Tension in this musculature may result from sympathetic reflex activity from organs innervated by the cervical sympathetic ganglia.

Protocol
  • The patient should be positioned supine on the table with the operator seated at the head of the table.
  • The finger pads should be placed over the suboccipital muscles bilaterally, just inferior to the superior nuchal line down to at approximately the level of C2. The patient’s head should lifted so the weight of it is supported upon the pads of the fingers.
  • Traction is then applied with the fingers in an anterior, lateral, and cephalad direction. The amount of traction that is used results in a force being applied to the tissues without producing significant movement of the structures.
  • This position is then held until the tissues relax, which may take anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute.


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