Cervical pain: what is your body telling you?
Cervical pain: what is your body telling you?
How to understand the psychosomatic meaning of cervical pain? Which areas of the soma are involved? What can online therapy do?
Psychosomatics is an interdisciplinary discipline that studies the interaction between the mind (psyche) and the body (soma) and how this interaction can influence health and well-being. It is based on the idea that there are significant connections between the psychological, emotional and physical aspects of human health. Emotional stress can have a significant impact on physical health.
Psychosomatics seeks to understand how stress and emotions affect these conditions. Somatization is the process through which stress or negative emotions are converted into physical symptoms. People who somatize may experience pain, gastrointestinal disorders, or other physical conditions without an evident organic cause. Psychosomatics focuses on how psychological factors may contribute to this phenomenon.
Having a psychosomatic view means that every organ, every tissue is the repository of archaic images and primary functions, present in us since the dawn of time, representing a “way of being in the world”: for example, the dimension of the skin is that of the relationship with the world, that of the stomach is the willingness to receive, that of the immune system is the state of alert, etc. Each of us possesses all these dimensions, but as we grow we “inhabit” one or some of these preferentially: one may live in a state of alert, another acts based on “gut feelings,” and so on. This means that someone immersed in an organ dimension, when they have a problem or an unconscious inner conflict, will be able to express it more easily at the level of that organic function. (Istituto Riza di medicina psicosomatica, (2012), Dizionario di medicina psicosomatica, Riza, Milan).
Let’s look together at the meaning of cervical pain and what strategies can be useful in resolving the origin of the psychic conflict.
The symbolic meaning of cervical pain
The person who suffers from cervical pain is usually reliable and well integrated at work, socially and in friendships. The sense of responsibility is heightened and often leads to an overly rational approach toward the external world, showing a superficial empathy. The way they manage relationships is too much on a mental level and often involves controlling reality in all aspects of life.
Alongside control and the sense of responsibility, there is a tendency toward altruism that serves to avoid dealing with oneself, learning instead to turn one’s gaze inward.
The cervical sufferer is rigid and always “in their head,” which is why cervical pain flares up when there is an overload of mental activity, but also when sudden events occur, bringing out emotions that are too strong and disrupt the mental filter.
Sometimes cervical pain is due to incorrect postures, such as those of people who spend many hours a day in front of the computer. The lifestyle is centered on mental activities, and there is little use of the body.
It generally affects university students devoted to study, who deprive themselves of recreational-sports activities and other experiences in the emotional and sexual sphere.
Emotional people who are very controlled and unable to easily express their emotions.
People who struggle to accept changes (travel, moving, inner transformation).
People with insomnia, anxiety disorders, hypochondria and claustrophobia.
People who have difficulty saying no and take on many commitments and mental responsibilities, even those of others.
People who tend to always chase new goals and live in the future, in the pursuit of that result, and once it is achieved, they immediately chase after other goals.
According to psychosomatic medicine, each vertebra has a particular relationship with an old or recent conflict. This is important to uncover the conflictual and psychosomatic implications present in each vertebra. In this discussion we will focus on the cervical vertebrae, on the neck and nape area.
Let’s look in detail at the meaning of each of them.
Cervical area and neck area
On a symbolic level, the cervical vertebrae refer to movement and to problems of self-esteem. The cervical area has the function of protecting the spinal cord and supporting structure and movement.
The psychic conflict concerning this area refers to a sense of injustice in which one does not feel free and at peace. One feels powerless in the face of a sense of slavery in which lowering the head seems like the only possible behavior.
The neck is an area of information between the neck and head, and all information that passes through the neck can manifest itself and become reality. The conflict in this area reveals an inconsistency between thought and action, with feelings of helplessness and devaluation.
The conflict is expressed in two ways:
- Conflict of direction: pain blocks head movement on the auditory, visual and olfactory planes.
- Conflict of perception: neck pain blocks the sensory organs located in the head.
Other injuries or pains in the neck suggest difficulty in the different ways of seeing the world that we do not accept. The lack of flexibility in thought and in the way of seeing the world reflects the conflict present in this area. Often one refuses to see something only in the concrete or wants to see something only in the concrete.
Nape area
Supporting the head, it is one of the most delicate areas of the head and is located at the back of the neck between the scalp and the back. The conflict in this area reveals a state of alertness and danger and concerns having felt unjustly betrayed. The feeling that someone has plotted behind our backs, or regarding what we leave behind and cannot see, whether in relation to life or to someone. The muscle tension that affects this area means being unable to act according to our will.
What can online therapy do?
To reduce cervical pain, it will be important to reduce the load of commitments and adopt an attitude more aligned with one’s nature. Online therapy can be helpful for those who suffer from cervical pain and do not know how to adopt a lifestyle more suited to their way of being. One must abandon excess responsibility, eliminating unnecessary commitments and considering only the essential. Online therapy can establish healthy boundaries in relationships, learning to say no when it is not possible to take on more responsibilities, eliminating external pressures.
Regaining the ability to break out of habitual mental patterns and routines by changing the order in which things are usually done could provide greater flexibility and a different vision of ways of seeing the world. Accepting the unexpected and practicing not feeling powerless and devoid of resources.
Online therapy is also able to explore those situations in which betrayals were suffered or it was not possible to have a clear vision of how things went in life or in an experience with someone, freeing us from the sense of injustice and deceit.
For information write to Dr. Jessica Zecchini.
Email contact consulenza@jessicazecchini.it, whatsapp contact 370 32 17 351
