Home » » Massage Therapy » Oh My Aching Head!!

Oh My Aching Head!!

© Chris E Barrett

When she first came to me three years or so ago, it was in desperation. Here she was, a young woman in her mid-thirties, about 5' 1", and weighing about 108 pounds. She suffered from daily headaches. Blinding ones that left her breathless, and unable to function some days. She was taking prescription painkillers and going through a bottle of acetaminophen in two weeks, roughly about 10 pills a day. She would wake up in the night to take painkillers just to be able to sleep through until morning. The last time she went to her doctor, he had told her, "Well, your father had headaches his whole life. You will, too. You'll just have to get used to it."

Someone else told her about massage. So, with nothing more to lose she made an appointment. She wanted a full-body, 90-minute session, and could I please help her headaches? I could certainly try.

Reading over the case history form she filled out for me, and talking with her, I learned that she worked in one of the fish factories as a fish cutter, and spent long hours standing on a concrete floor, reaching for the next fish with one hand, cutting with the other, her neck almost constantly in a bent forward position. She worked odd hours, depending on when the fishing boats brought in their catches for the factory, and some days might only work a couple of hours, or on a busy day, might work up to 10 hours or more.

All of this suggested to me that the headaches were coming from stressed muscles in her neck. The treatment consisted of the first hour on her body from neck to toes, front and back, including her arms and hands and shoulder muscles. Then the next 30 minutes was just for her neck. She lay on her back, covered by a flowered sheet (I prefer a less clinical approach...the crisp white sheets and lab coats favored by some Massage Therapists just scream "hospital" to me, and I don't relax as much as I could. To others it's reassuring and professional.)

I sat in my computer chair at her head, adjusting the height of my chair so I could reach her neck comfortably. I started with putting my hands under her neck and feeling all along the length for the tension spots, asking for verification of the places I thought should be tender. Quite a few of the tight spots turned out to be "trigger points" and referred pain into her head. Using a combination of kneading with my fingers, stretching her neck, trigger point therapy and gentle movements of her neck, getting her to breathe deeply and to relax her neck as much as possible, we were able to get rid of the headache she had come in with.

The copyright of the article Oh My Aching Head!! in Massage Therapy is owned by . Permission to republish Oh My Aching Head!! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.