Head and Neck Pain (Part Three)

Hello all! I hope that this summer season has treated you all well. Whether you have been away enjoying the big wide world, or if you have been seriously thinking of turning the heating up during August here in England, (I confess I have succumbed), I hope you are feeling relaxed and happy.

Over the past month I have been writing about head and neck pain as it is a complaint that I see on a daily basis at Cornerstone Therapies. After looking at some typical 'Pain Patterns' over the past two blogs, I thought I could just sit down and write about how I treat them. However it hasn't been that easy and it has made me really think about how I approach my work with each client. For all of you who read this and see me at Cornerstone Therapies, I would like to thank you for pulling me up short in this area as I have had my eyes freshly opened once again to the fact that therapy can't, and never should, be a cookie cutter process.

Last week I treated 8 clients who have head and neck pain, which was exactly half the number of clients I treated, (I treat 16 clients a week). Looking back at my notes I can safely say that they all received a totally different treatment from each other. What did surprise me is that when looking back on that one week, the techniques I used for them where based on how they presented their pain emotionally as well as physically.

With this in mind I thought I would break down my approach to how I treat head and neck pain into 3 sections for you to read about. Although no one will fall directly into these camps as each person is uniquely different, I hope it will be a good introduction to the way that I work.

I will be writing about treatment plans based on head and neck pain for:

• People who are cautious of receiving massage therapy for pain.
• People who have tried many forms of therapy to help pain before they see me.
• People who really want massage to work for them but are not sure what I do!

I am already writing these posts so I will hopefully get them all up in the next couple of weeks for you to read instead of having massive gaps between them as I have done over the past month, (mainly due to being really busy at home).

Just a quick note to let you all know that although Cornerstone Therapies is closed for treatments next week (August 22^nd - 30^th) I am around. I am just taking that week to sort out the data collection sessions I need to do for my dissertation. So if you would like to email or call me to book your treatments, please feel free.

What I'm loving in the Treatment Room today:

I have to thank my Mum, (who was a massage therapist for 20 years) for this little trick of the trade. A lot of people (no matter who old they are) have thin skin. MyoFascial Release Techniques (MFR) can be quite painful if the skin is dragged or crushed too much, so Mum suggested that I use Talc as I can't use oil for MFR. I have been using Neal's Yard Baby Powder, which is a blend of Corn Starch and Propolis (a natural immune booster found in bees wax). It has been great in the treatment room and I will be using it from now on.

Music of the day:

The Ipod is on charge as I write this, but the CD player is spinning 'Tired Pony' at this moment. Joy.