Massage Therapy for Neck Pain & Upper Back Tightness

Massage Therapy for Neck Pain & Upper Back Tightness

Neck pain and upper back tightness can make turning your head, working at a computer, driving, or sleeping uncomfortable. Tight or restricted muscles often play a major role. My goal is to identify the muscles contributing to your symptoms and focus treatment on those specific areas. If you’re struggling with this condition, I’d be happy to discuss your symptoms and explain what I can and cannot help you with.

I also help clients with many other musculoskeletal concerns, including joint stiffness, sports recovery, and more.

FAQs

Pain is not always felt exactly where the problem originates. Tight or restricted muscles, trigger points, compensation, fascia, and surrounding soft tissue can all influence where discomfort is felt.

This is one reason I don’t automatically assume that the place you point to is the only place that needs attention. What I find when evaluating the area helps determine where the problem may actually be coming from and what needs to be worked on.

I’m feeling for differences in the muscle tissue—areas that are unusually tight, restricted, tender, or simply don’t feel the same as healthy tissue.

I’m also looking for trigger points and paying attention to how the tissue responds while I’m working on it. As an area begins to release, that response gives me additional information about where I need to work next.

The muscle causing the problem isn’t always located directly underneath the place where you feel the pain.

Muscles can refer pain into another area, and one restricted area can cause other muscles to compensate. That’s why I may work above, below, or around the area that hurts rather than spending the entire session directly on the painful spot.