What is chronic back and neck pain?
Years of accumulated load show up in tissue, joints, and movement habits. The imaging often tells one story. The body usually tells another. We treat the body.
In plain language.
Chronic back and neck pain is pain that has been present for more than three months, often after years of accumulated load: long workdays at a desk, lifted weight, an old injury that never quite resolved, the wear of decades.
Imaging frequently shows disc bulges, herniations, or arthritic changes in patients who have no pain at all. The reverse is also true. The pain is treatable even when the imaging looks dramatic, because the pain is usually about how the body is loading those structures today, not the static picture on the film.
How it shows up.
Common patterns we see:
- Morning stiffness that loosens over the first hour
- Pain that worsens with prolonged sitting or standing
- Radiating pain into the leg, the shoulder, or the arm
- Headaches driven by neck and upper-back tension
- Flare-ups after activities that used to be easy
- Sleep disrupted by positioning
What makes our treatment different.
We treat the loading pattern, not the imaging report. Most patients come in with films that show disc and joint changes, and have been told the pain is structural. We assess how the body actually moves and what it tolerates today.
Hands-on first. Manual therapy on the muscles, joints, and fascia that are protecting the area, paired with the motor work needed to give the body a new pattern.
Same therapist, every visit. Chronic pain needs continuity. The clinician who sees you on visit one is the clinician who sees you on visit twelve.
Begin with a closer look.
Book a 60-minute evaluation, or call to talk through where you are first.