How we help
Neck pain, stiffness and the headaches that often travel with them. Desks, phones, pillows and old injuries all get looked at, because the neck is often not where the problem started.
The neck is the most mobile part of the spine and it carries the weight of your head all day. When some of that movement is lost, the segments that still move have to do more, and those are usually the ones that end up sore. Stiffness and pain tend to arrive together for that reason.
A lot of neck pain on the Northern Beaches follows the same pattern. Long stretches at a screen, phone use, a commute, and a head sitting slightly forward of where it should. The muscles at the base of the skull work continuously to hold it there, and by Wednesday afternoon they are complaining.
Headaches often come with it. Headaches that start at the base of the skull, sit behind the eyes, or come on after a long day at a desk are frequently related to the joints and muscles of the upper neck. Those are worth assessing properly. Headaches with other features are not a chiropractic problem, and part of the first appointment is telling the difference.
Assessment is careful before anything else happens. Murray checks how each part of the neck moves, examines it by hand, and screens for anything that would make adjustment inappropriate. If you have had trauma, if there is arm pain, numbness or weakness, or if anything in your history warrants it, that gets investigated before a plan is made.
Not everyone gets the same technique. Some people are comfortable with a traditional adjustment and some are not, and there are gentler, low-force options for necks that are acutely painful, for older patients, and for anyone who would simply rather. You will not be talked into something you are uneasy about.
Where the cause is your working setup, that is part of the plan. Monitor height, chair, phone habits and how often you actually get up. It is unglamorous and it is often the thing that stops the problem coming back.
Builds through the working week, eases on the weekend, returns by Wednesday. Load without variation, usually with a forward head position.
Woke up unable to turn one way. Painful, alarming, and usually a joint irritation that responds well once properly assessed.
Starts at the base of the skull and comes forward, often one-sided, often worse after a long day sitting.
Yes. There are gentle, low-force techniques that do not involve that, and plenty of patients here are cared for entirely that way. Tell Murray at the first appointment.
Headaches that come from the joints and muscles of the neck respond well to care aimed at the neck, and we see them every week. Headaches with other causes are not ours, so the first job is working out which kind you have. If it is not ours, you get referred.
Usually not, on its own. Noise from a joint is not a reliable sign of damage. What matters is whether movement has been lost and whether it hurts.
It can. Old neck trauma often changes how the region moves long after the pain has gone. Worth mentioning even if it feels like ancient history.
It depends whether it is an acute irritation or a long-standing stiffness, and you will get a specific answer once we know which you have.
Tell us when you book. Arm pain, numbness or weakness needs neurological screening at the first appointment, and it changes how the neck is examined and managed.
45 minutes, gentle options available, and a clear explanation. $59 for new patients.
Related: back pain, sports chiropractic, how our chiropractic care works.
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