You feel it in your head. It often starts below it.
An occasional headache is normal. A headache that keeps coming back is not, and it changes how much of your week you actually get to use. Tension headaches are the most common type, usually described as a tight band around the head and set off by stress, muscle tension, poor posture, or jaw clenching. Cervicogenic headaches start in the neck and cervical spine and can look a lot like a migraine, but they come with neck pain, stiffness, and limited range of motion.
That is the part physical therapy can get at. Your neck, your upper back, and the muscles across your shoulders carry the load of every hour you spend at a screen, in a car, or under stress, and when they stop moving well they refer pain straight up into your head. We assess how your neck moves and what it is being asked to do, then treat what we find. What we do not do is diagnose your headache for you. If the evaluation points somewhere outside physical therapy, we say so and send you to a physician.
What your headache pattern is telling you.
Headache types overlap, and plenty of people have more than one. These are the patterns worth an assessment.
A Tight Band Around the Head
The classic tension headache description. Pressure rather than pulsing, and it usually builds through the day.
Neck Pain and Stiffness
Cervicogenic headaches travel with the neck. If the headache and the stiff neck arrive together, that is a signal.
Limited Neck Range of Motion
Turning to check a blind spot, or looking up, is restricted or uncomfortable on the same side the headache sits.
Tender Spots That Reproduce It
Pressure at the base of the skull or across the upper shoulders brings on the familiar pain. Those are trigger points referring into your head.
Jaw Clenching and Stress
Stress, muscle tension, and clenching are named triggers for tension headaches. Most people do not notice they are doing it.
It Tracks With Your Day
Worse at the end of a desk day, after a long drive, or after hours held in one position. Poor posture is a listed trigger, and it is a load problem we can change.
We treat the neck. We do not pretend to be your physician.
Treatment starts with hands. Manual therapy, including soft tissue work and joint mobilization, restores movement in the neck and upper back and takes tension out of the muscles that refer pain into your head. From there it is therapeutic exercise: strengthening the neck and shoulder muscles, improving posture, and changing the mechanics that keep reloading the same tissue. Then education on your own triggers, your workstation, your sleep, and how stress shows up in your shoulders.
Dry needling is the other tool that matters here. Dr. Matthew Nelson worked five years to pass the legislation that lets Utah physical therapists use trigger point dry needling, and he has taught the technique since 2009. For the trigger points in the neck and upper shoulders that refer into the head, it is direct and it is fast. Everyone treating you here is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and that defines the lane. We treat movement, tissue, and load. When your headache belongs with a physician, we tell you and we refer.
No referral needed. Utah has direct access to physical therapy, so you can be assessed without going through anyone else first.
Schedule Your Appointment
No referral needed. Utah has direct access to physical therapy, and we are in network with 11+ carriers plus Medicare.
Your first visit runs about an hour, with your Doctor of Physical Therapy in the room the whole time. Tell us everything. Leave with a plan.
You’re all set.
We’ll reach out within one business day to confirm your appointment. If you need to speak with us sooner, call us directly.