-
Behind the Eye Headaches
I work on quite a few massage therapists. One of them has a tendency to tell me exactly what area of her body she wants worked on. Typically this is arms, shoulders, and back. For our 10th appointment, she told me she didn’t know and to work whatever I thought. I decided to work her neck and head.
This woman has been a massage therapist for 16 years and has had lots of head and neck work. When I finished doing SMRT on her head and neck, she said, “that was the best work I have ever had on my neck, and the head was amazing, I think that was the best massage I have ever had!”
One of the reasons she might feel this way is SMRT’s focus on all structures in the neck and head, as well as the relationship between the two. For example, she has tension at the left suboccipital area, as well as behind the eye headaches. Knowing that this was probably caused by longus capitis in the anterior neck, I assessed the anterior neck. I found that longus capitis was very tight on her right side.
With SMRT it took 30 seconds to release and soften longus capitis. Because longus capitis inserts on the inferior aspect of the occiput, this instantly changed the position of the occiput. I was then able to access the left suboccipital muscles deeper and with less pain. And the change in the position of the occiput helped the alignment of the sphenobasilar joint (the articulation between the occiput and the sphenoid in the middle of the head), which was the first step in getting rid of her headaches.
Now she requests head and neck work every other session!
