What i find as massage therapist is that many Headaches seem to start from 2 points and many practitioners and clients do not realise this.

Point 1.

Whenever a client has a sore neck and wants to massage this area or at the base of the skull or side of the head where the pain seems to be. Yes this helps in soothing the pain but it really does not stop the headache. From my experience when doing seated massage the best place that i have found to work is by massaging down the muscle between the scapular and the spine and gently edging my thumb up behind the scapular on the effected side of the headache. This is one point that seems to stop the headache in it tract.

Point 2

It is often missed by many because most of the focus is mostly on the back and lower back and neck.
what i find is that when doing the arms this realises tension to the head more so than when your doing the back. If you where to think about this then it would make sense as you have a lot of nerves going from the neck down in to your arms and when you are on the computer for may hours of the day muscles start to become more tense and so blood flow slow down this creates pressure on the nerves and in turn this can send messages to the brain resulting in stiffness and i some cases headaches.

By combining these two strategies of massage techniques my clients have been able to get on with their work and then carry on for the rest of the day rather than thinking they cant wait to get home or indeed going home. Ether way the benefit to the client is one of relief and to the company over the long tern this saves them money and a back log of work.

Seated massage is truly one of the fastest ways to be able to do this when in an office environment and as many people work in offices it seems like the best place to go and saves clients from having to go to your clinic.

Article by Ross Brouard

http://www.therapy4u.biz

When one talks about using massage for headache relief, you typically picture someone being massaged around their temples or even the back of the neck but what I’m going to talk about in this article has nothing to do with that, in fact you can actually massage headaches away by making use of acupressure points that are nowhere near your head.

What many people don’t realize is that the acupressure points for the head are based in the hand and there is one in particular that can give wonderful headache relief. This point is found in the webbing that is between the forefinger and the thumb - right in that tender area. When pressure is applied to this area in a consistent and circular motion, many people report relief from all types of headaches although it seems to work particularly well for tension headaches.

So how do you massage headaches away?

This is one of the simplest headache relief methods. Simply take the thumb and forefinger of one hand and massage in between the thumb and forefinger on the other hand - you want to get right in the webbing and massage with a firm pressure. You want to go in a circular motion about two or three rotations per second. Some people say that you should massaged the hand of the side that your headache is on and others say that doing both hands is ideal. If you don’t have someone standing by to massaged both your hands for you, you can do one side yourself and then the other one afterwards. Massage each side for a couple of minutes.

This technique will actually relieve most types of head pain including sinus pain and even toothache however, anyone who is pregnant should avoid this massage technique because it has been known to cause contractions.

Now there are also other massages for headaches thAT do involve massaging the head and, depending on the type of headache you have these can also be very effective. Some involve massaging the front of the head while others involve massaging the base or neck. If you have a tension headache that is due to strain then these could be quite effective.

All in all, using massage for headache relief is a great way to try to find pain relief that won’t leave you with side effects. You can use it in conjunction with any prescriptions that your doctor has given you or, if you prefer not to take prescription drugs you can combine it with other alternative methods such as aromatherapy and acupuncture.

Tags: thumb, rotations, contractions, massage technique, massages, couple of minutes, temples, circular motion, tension headaches, tension headache, forefinger, types of headaches
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