Imagery for the Neck

Move your C7 towards your jugular notch!

For people with forward head posture, a difficult task for the therapist and the client is to train the client to correct for the wrong posture, move the head back to the neutral position. We usually ask the client to maintain a neutral spine, the head should be stacked over the cervical spine with the shoulders relaxed.

The usual exercise we can give is the “chin tuck”. Or we can ask them for a guided imagery of “head lengthening” : Sit tall, imagine that a string is lengthening your neck and pulling your head up towards the ceiling. In Alexander technique, we are instructed to “Allow the head to go forward and up from the spine.”

Imagery is quite powerful and acts as a stimulus for developing kinesthetic awareness and producing bodily change. Another simple imagery exercise that I recently learnt is to ask your client to “bring your C7 towards the jugular notch of the sternum” (the large notch in the superior margin of the sternum). This is a simple imagery exercise that is quite powerful in bringing the head back to neutral position. Try it.