How to Massage the Neck & Shoulders

Video Transcript

"In this section we're going to work on the head, neck and shoulders. As you can see we have a head rest or a pillow here. So what I do is I gently lift the pillow up and then as I slide it out I'm sliding my other hand under her head. I'll show you that from the other angle. So again, I tilt her head up, roll it under my hand and now I have her head in my hand and I fully support it. Now with both hands on her head she feels comfortable and confident that I'm not going to let her head drop and she can relax her head. What I do is just gently start rubbing here at the base of her skull. This is what is called the occipital region and you just gently start massaging this area. Right here at the base of the skull is where a lot of tension is kept. So a nice gentle circular motion is perfect for this area and it just helps to relax so many of the neck muscles. Again, notice here her head is completely supported by my hand, so if I need to I can move her head at anytime in any direction. So she feels comfortable and confident that I'm not going to just let her head drop or fall to the side, because it's comfortably supported in my hand. Again, you just gently work your way down the side of the neck over here to the trapezious muscles and again you see my hand is under the trapezious, so as my thumb is working the top my fingers are working the bottom side. It's just a nice gentle kind of pulling muscles. But again staying gentle, we never want to go in too deep, we never want to go make the client grimace or have any facial expression from your pressure and you'll know it if you do whether they're verbal or nonverbal. So you always have to pay attention to your client's face and to their breathing. You can see here that her face is fairly relaxed and the breathing is relaxed as well. So I know that basically the techniques that I'm using and the strokes that I'm applying are providing some relaxation and some relief for her."