Weeks 1–2
Pain
Break the one you have now.
Hands-on release at the base of the skull and along the upper neck eases the referral that is sending the ache into your head.
What We Treat
Headache treatment in Reseda.
The 3pm headache that starts at the base of your skull and takes the rest of your afternoon with it. It is fixable, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, because a headache coming from your neck needs a different plan than one that is not.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- A dull ache that starts at the base of your skull and creeps up behind one eye
- Keeping the same bottle of tablets in your bag, your car and your desk drawer
- Turning your head to change lanes and feeling the headache tighten as you do
- Screens, bright lights or one long drive setting one off within the hour
- Your family reading what kind of evening it is off your face before you say a word
- Sleeping the whole night and waking up with it already there
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
The headache is the alarm. It is not the fire.
Most of the headaches we see are not mysteries. They come off a short list. Overworked muscles at the base of the skull and across the tops of the shoulders, which never fully switch off. Stiff joints in the top of the neck, which is what a cervicogenic headache is: pain that starts in the neck and gets referred up into the head. A jaw that clenches all night. And a work setup that parks your head in front of your shoulders for eight hours, so nothing gets a chance to let go.
You are the one who works through it. You have gotten good at working through it, which is exactly why nobody has looked at your neck yet. A cause-first evaluation tells us which of those is driving yours, and it matters, because the plan for a locked-up upper neck looks nothing like the plan for a clenching jaw. It also tells us when a headache is not ours to treat, and you deserve that answer too. Tablets and a dark room buy you an evening. They do not change what keeps producing the headache.
The Honest Truth
Waiting it out doesn’t make them come less often.
If you keep waiting
- Twice a week quietly becomes most days, and you stop keeping track
- The neck that is feeding them keeps stiffening, and the shoulders join in
- You start declining things in advance: the long drive, the late meeting, the dinner
If you start this week
- You find out at visit one whether your neck is producing the headache
- Hands-on work on the upper neck and shoulders eases the pressure the same day
- You get a plan with an endpoint, not a standing prescription
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for headaches.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent look like for headaches.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Free up the neck it comes from.
Mobility work at the top segments of the neck and across the mid back, so your head has somewhere to sit besides forward.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Outlast the workday.
Deep neck and shoulder blade endurance work, so holding your head up until 5pm stops being the trigger.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Keep the trigger list short.
We rebuild the screen height, the chair and the pillow, and you leave with the two or three things that keep one from starting: that’s the endpoint.
They all work as a team to meet the client’s needs. They take the time to ask questions of the client and to explain answers to the client based on their individual needs and concerns. I highly recommend Jewel PT.
Shared by Barbara E. · Google review
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for headaches.
If your headaches are brand new and severe, changed suddenly, or come with things like vision loss or weakness, see a physician first. That is the right order, and we will tell you the same thing. For the far more common pattern, the one that starts at the base of the skull and builds through the day, California lets you come straight to a licensed physical therapist without a referral, and the evaluation tells us quickly whether your neck is involved.
Often, yes, when the neck is where it starts. A cervicogenic headache is referred pain: the joints at the top of the neck and the muscles at the base of the skull send the ache up into the head. Restore motion there, settle those muscles, then build the endurance to hold your head up, and the headaches usually come less often and hit less hard. If your evaluation points somewhere else, we tell you that instead of treating you anyway.
The first phase is aimed at the headache you have now, and hands-on work at the base of the skull often eases the pressure the same day. From there the plan runs through Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent, and it ends. You will know which phase you are in, what has changed and what is left, and we give you that timeline after the evaluation rather than promising one before it.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back during business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed
- (818) 341-3791 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- Saturday appointments, 8:00am to 12:00pm
20+ 5-star reviews on Google
A real person calls you back, not a robot
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time, and we’ll answer your insurance questions on that same call.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Suite 200, on Sherman Way between Reseda and Northridge. Street and lot parking are both there, though the lot is a little tight for a large vehicle.
Jewel Physical Therapy
- 17750 Sherman Way, Suite 200, Reseda, CA 91335 (opens in a new tab)
- (818) 341-3791
- Fax: (818) 341-3794
- admin@jewelptinc.com
- Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed