What We Treat

Neck pain and headaches treatment in Seattle.

The headache that starts at the base of your skull by mid-afternoon. The stiff neck that makes checking your blind spot a whole production. It’s fixable, and it starts with a thorough evaluation, not a guess.

Tension headaches Stiff neck Desk posture strain (opens in new tab)Talk to a Specialist

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Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like you?

  • A tension headache that starts at the base of your skull by mid-afternoon
  • Migraines that flare up whenever your neck tightens
  • A stiff neck that makes checking your blind spot while driving feel risky
  • Hours hunched at a desk that leave your neck locked up by 5pm
  • Tension creeping into your jaw and temples by the end of the day
  • Turning your whole body instead of your neck just to look over your shoulder

Two or more? You’re the one who pushes through for everyone else. That’s exactly why the headache never gets dealt with. Keep reading.

Why It Happens

Headaches are a symptom. Something in your neck causes them.

Your neck doesn’t hurt for no reason, and it’s almost never just one thing. It’s usually some mix of four culprits: forward-head posture from hours in front of a screen. Tight upper traps and levator scapulae muscles pulling at the base of your skull. Stiff joints in the upper neck that refer pain up into your head. And deep neck flexor muscles that quietly weakened once the tightness set in.

None of that shows up on a quick glance. It takes a real, thorough evaluation to sort out which one is actually driving your headaches or neck pain. That’s why a heating pad or a generic stretching sheet so often falls short: they treat the symptom, not the source. Find the real cause, and the fix gets obvious.

Physical therapist assessing a patient's neck mobility and posture

The Honest Truth

Waiting on a stiff neck doesn’t make it wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • Headaches quietly go from occasional to daily
  • Your shoulders and upper back start guarding too. They tighten right along with your neck
  • You stop turning your head and turn your whole body instead. The stiffness locks in deeper

If you start this week

  • You know the actual cause by the end of visit one
  • Hands-on relief starts before you leave the building
  • You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits

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 your neck.

Every plan has an endpoint, one-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy, every visit. Here’s what the four phases look like for neck pain and headaches.

Weeks 1–2

Pain

Calm the pain down.

Hands-on techniques ease the tight upper traps and levator scapulae and calm the cervical joints referring pain into your head, starting your very first visit.

Weeks 2–6

Prime

Get your motion back.

Targeted mobility work restores rotation and side-bending in the stiff cervical joints that have been triggering your headaches.

Weeks 6–10

Perform

Make it strong enough to trust.

Progressive strengthening of the deep neck flexors and upper back builds the support your neck was missing in the first place.

Weeks 10+

Prevent

Return better than before.

Posture and workstation mechanics get tested under the load of a full workday before you’re cleared to go all-in: that’s the endpoint, not just another appointment.

I've been going to PT with Jacob Mosko for about a month now. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable and validated I felt after my first session, and my pain is almost completely resolved.

Grace A. · Google review

Before: headaches that showed up like clockwork by afternoon

After: full days at the desk, headache-free

Neck pain & headaches A few weeks

Related Conditions

Pain rarely stays in one place.

Compensation patterns often show up nearby. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Shoulder Pain

That catch in your shoulder every time you reach overhead.

Learn More 2

Low Back Pain

The stiffness when you stand up from the couch that never quite goes away.

Learn More 3

Elbow & Wrist Pain

The ache in your elbow or wrist that flares up after a day of typing or gripping.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking for neck pain and headaches.

Often, yes. Tight muscles at the base of your skull and stiff joints in your upper neck can refer pain up into your head, showing up as a tension headache or triggering a migraine. A thorough evaluation can tell whether your neck is a driver of your headaches, and if it is, treating the neck directly is often the fastest way to calm them down.

Usually not. Most neck pain and tension-type headaches improve without imaging, since forward-head posture, tight upper traps, and stiff cervical joints don’t typically show up on a scan. We start with a thorough evaluation to find what’s actually driving your symptoms, and if imaging ever becomes genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it. You don’t have to wait on a scan to start feeling better.

Most patients feel meaningful change within 4–6 visits. A full plan for neck pain and headaches runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, typically over 8–10 weeks, depending on how long you’ve been dealing with it. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint: you’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, not an open-ended string of appointments.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back, usually within two business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

5.0 · 250+ Google reviews

Typical response: under 2 business hours

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So we know who to look for when you walk in.

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Care this good, this close.

Forefront Physical Therapy

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