Find the tragus of your ear with your index fingers. It’s the small pointed flap of cartilage in front of the opening to the inner ear. Feel on the forward side of your fingers for the bony ends of your cheekbone or zygoma. (Zygoma means yoke in Greek.) The zygomatic arch makes a yoke across […]
Treatment of posterior neck pain in my Boston area Neuromuscular Therapy center always begins with the suboccipitals. For anatomical drawings of the muscles in the following treatment protocol, refer to Neck pain: Understanding the posterior muscles. To treat the suboccipitals, pressure is held for 8-12 seconds under the skull with fingertips or thumbs to soften […]
Understanding the muscles of the neck, where they are, what they do, where pain refers from each is key to figuring out what’s causing your pain. As a Neuromuscular Therapist in the Boston area, these are the five muscle groups that I find are most often in trouble when you feel pain in the back […]
When a patient presents with neck pain, what are the possible muscular causes and what can help relieve the pain? What was important in the case of Sukie B? Neuromusclular Therapy teaches that there are 6 factors to consider in discovering the reasons why muscles have become dysfunctional. The first is Trigger Points that refer […]
When Sukie B. came into my Neuromuscular Therapy center near her hometown southwest of Boston, her neck pain was chronic and so bad that any kind of exercise hurt. Sometimes it made her nauseous. Even walking with her arms swinging could cause a flare-up. It was becoming a real problem at work. She had taken […]
These five stretches target the most important muscles that cause headache pain. Forward flexion for the suboccipitals: Sitting up straight, bring your chin in toward your throat and try to tuck it in the notch between your collar bones. Clasp your hands behind your head and gently pull so that you feel a stretch at the […]
During the treatment of Melinda W., suffering from years of chronic headache pain, she told me that one of the most important things she learned in her healing process was to “touch the places that hurt.” That’s a hard thing to do when it causes more pain, but holding pressure on places that hurt will […]
As a Neuromuscular Therapist, how do I think about chronic headache pain? If medical reasons for headaches have been ruled out, the cause is probably muscular Trigger Points. Examining the muscles in the neck and shoulders usually turns up at least one cause. But finding unhealthy muscles with Trigger Points is only targeting the symptoms. […]
In the case of Melinda W., I found a scoliosis and lower limb length inequality (LLLI) that were tilting her shoulders, causing tension in the jaw (TMJ) and neck musculature and giving her chronic headaches. I recommended trying a heel lift to level her out, and she scheduled a TMJ evaluation at a major Boston […]
A 38 year old fit mother of two little ones was referred by a professional acquaintance to my Neuromuscular Therapy center near Boston for treatment of twelve years of chronic headaches. There had been no accident or initiating event. They had come on insidiously and had grown steadily worse to the point that the quality […]