When the Headache Keeps Coming Back
You take something for it. It goes away. Two days later, it’s back. Same spot, usually somewhere around the base of your skull or across one side of your head, and almost always paired with tightness in your neck.
A lot of people treat these headaches for years without ever asking where they actually come from. The answer is not always the head.
A significant portion of recurring headaches, especially the ones that feel worse when you move your neck or come on after a long day at a screen, originate from the cervical spine. That is the column of seven small bones that runs from your shoulders up to the base of your skull. When joints in that area stop moving properly, or when the muscles around them get overloaded, the pain can travel upward and show up as a headache.
We see this regularly at Pro Motion Clinic in Kelowna. Someone books in for neck stiffness and mentions, almost as an aside, that they have also been getting three or four headaches a week. They have been treating them as two separate problems. Often they are one.
The Connection Between Your Spine and Your Headaches
What Is a Cervicogenic Headache?
Cervicogenic just means the headache originates from the cervical spine. The pain starts somewhere in the joints, discs, or muscles of the neck and travels upward into the head. It can land behind one eye, across the forehead, or at the top of the skull. The path varies.
What makes these headaches tricky is that they can look a lot like tension headaches or migraines from the outside. The key difference is what happens when you move your neck. If turning your head reproduces or worsens the headache, if pressing on specific spots at the back of your neck sends pain upward, or if one side of your neck consistently feels tighter than the other on the side where you get headaches, the cervical spine is worth assessing properly.
How Tension Headaches and the Neck Are Connected
Tension-type headaches are the most common kind, and neck pain and dysfunction show up in the majority of people who get them regularly. The group of small muscles at the top of the neck and base of the skull, called the suboccipital muscles, can develop significant tightness. When they are overworked or restricted, they refer pain upward into the scalp and head.
Poor posture loads these muscles heavily. Hours at a desk, extended screen time, or sitting with your chin forward all ask the suboccipital group to work harder than it was designed to. Kelowna residents who also cycle, golf, or ski are putting additional repetitive load through the cervical spine on top of whatever their work posture is already doing. By afternoon, the neck and head are both done.
What Is Actually Loading Your Neck
Desk Work and Screen Posture
The head weighs around 4 to 5 kilograms in a neutral position. Tilt it forward to look at a laptop and that load increases significantly. Do that for six or eight hours and the joints and muscles in your neck will eventually object. For a lot of people, the objection sounds like a headache.
Active Lifestyle Load
This one catches people off guard. Cycling in an aggressive forward position, spending hours looking down during a golf round, or skiing with your chin tucked are all repetitive cervical loads. None of them feel like they should cause problems. But over a season, or a career of weekends, they add up. The neck gets chronically stiff, range of motion narrows, and the headaches start appearing with more regularity.
Patients coming to us from the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, Knox Mountain, or the hills around Big White often have this pattern. They are fit, they move a lot, and their necks are a mess.
Old Injuries That Were Never Fully Resolved
A whiplash from an ICBC claim three years ago. A hard fall on a ski run that shook you up but seemed fine after a week. A collision in a rec hockey game at MNP Place. These injuries can leave restricted joint movement and tight muscle tissue in the cervical spine long after the immediate pain settles. The compensation patterns your body adopted during healing often stay in place permanently unless someone specifically addresses them. Months or years later, a new stressor tips things over the threshold and the headaches start.
Stress Landing in the Neck
Emotional stress tends to accumulate in the upper trapezius and neck for a lot of people. Chronically tight muscles create restricted joints, and restricted cervical joints can produce headaches regardless of whether the original cause was physical or psychological. The two pathways are different, but they end up in the same place.
Our Chiropractic Treatment Process at Pro Motion Clinic
Initial Assessment
Your first visit starts with a proper history. How long have the headaches and neck pain been there, what makes them better or worse, what you have already tried, and what your daily activities and movement demands look like. This context matters.
The physical examination covers cervical range of motion, joint mobility at each level of the neck, muscle tension in the suboccipital and upper trapezius region, and movement screening to check for patterns elsewhere in the body that may be loading the neck. We look at your whole picture, not just the painful area.
Personalized Treatment Plan
Your chiropractor builds your plan around what the assessment actually found. Someone with restricted upper cervical joints and suboccipital trigger points needs a different approach than someone whose neck pain is driven by thoracic stiffness and poor shoulder mobility. Your plan will reflect your specific findings.
Hands-On Treatment
Chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine target joints that are not moving as they should. Restoring normal joint movement reduces stress on the surrounding tissues and can help relieve the mechanical source of headaches that originate from that area. At Pro Motion Clinic, our chiropractors also use myofascial release therapy, instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, and cupping where appropriate to address muscle tension alongside joint restriction.
For some patients, RMT headache and migraine therapy with one of our Registered Massage Therapists complements the chiropractic work and helps manage soft tissue tension between appointments.
Rehabilitation Exercises
This part matters more than most people expect. Strengthening the deep neck flexor muscles, the ones that support the cervical spine from the front, is one of the most reliable ways to reduce recurrence. When these muscles are weak, the neck compensates using surface muscles that were not designed for that role. Your chiropractor will give you specific exercises to address this between sessions.
Progress Monitoring
Your chiropractor checks your headache frequency, neck range of motion, and pain levels throughout care and adjusts the plan based on how you respond. If you are not making progress after a reasonable course of treatment, typically four to six weeks, we will say that plainly and discuss what makes sense next, whether that is a different approach within the clinic or a referral elsewhere.
Why Kelowna Patients Come to Pro Motion Clinic
Pro Motion Clinic is located at #202-3030 Pandosy Street in Kelowna. Our team includes four chiropractors, Dr. Lars Seitzinger, Dr. Tait Cuthill, Dr. Jamie Gallo, and Dr. Austin van den Brink, alongside two registered physiotherapists and a full team of Registered Massage Therapists.
Our approach is multidisciplinary. Where it makes sense, your chiropractor and RMT work together on the same problem. The headaches and neck tension that drive so many patients through our door respond well to that combination.
We accept ICBC claims and offer direct billing to most extended health insurers, so the administrative side does not slow down your care. New patients are welcome and no referral is needed.
We serve patients from across Kelowna including the Mission, Rutland, Glenmore, downtown Kelowna, West Kelowna, and Lake Country.
Ready to Find Out If Your Spine Is the Issue?
If recurring neck pain and headaches have been part of your life in Kelowna and nobody has properly assessed your cervical spine, it is worth finding out. A clear assessment gives you a real answer, not just another bottle of ibuprofen.
Call Pro Motion Clinic at (236) 420-0660, book online, or contact us here. We are open Monday through Thursday 8 AM to 7 PM, Friday 8 AM to 5 PM, and Saturday 9 AM to 3 PM.
We also offer a complimentary 10-minute virtual chiropractic consultation if you want to talk through your situation before booking a full assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions: Neck Pain and Headaches in Kelowna
How do I know if my headaches are coming from my neck?
A few signs point toward a cervical origin. The headache tends to start at the base of the skull or the back of the neck. It is usually on one side. Turning your head in specific directions makes it worse. Pressing on certain spots in the upper neck sends pain upward. You also have noticeably reduced or stiff neck movement. These patterns together suggest the cervical spine is involved. A Kelowna chiropractor can assess this properly in your first visit.
Can a chiropractor in Kelowna help with tension headaches?
Chiropractic care may help reduce both the frequency and intensity of tension-type headaches, particularly when neck dysfunction and muscle tension are present. Research supports manual therapy and cervical mobilization for tension headaches in appropriate patients. How much improvement you experience depends on the specific cause and how long the problem has been there. Your chiropractor will give you a realistic picture after your assessment.
How many sessions will I need for neck pain and headaches?
Most patients with cervicogenic or tension-type headaches respond within six to eight sessions over four to six weeks. Some people improve faster, especially when the problem is more recent. Long-standing issues or more complex presentations often take longer. Your chiropractor sets an initial plan after your first visit and reviews it regularly as you progress.
Do I need a referral to see a chiropractor in Kelowna?
No. In British Columbia, you can book directly with a registered chiropractor without seeing your family doctor first. Most extended health benefit plans in BC cover chiropractic directly. Check your plan details to confirm coverage before your first visit.
Is chiropractic adjustment safe for neck pain?
Chiropractic care for neck pain is generally well-tolerated and considered safe for appropriate candidates. Your chiropractor performs a thorough assessment before any treatment to identify contraindications. If anything in your history or examination makes a particular technique unsuitable for you, the approach will be adjusted or you will be referred elsewhere. All chiropractors at Pro Motion Clinic are registered with the College of Chiropractors of British Columbia.
What if my headaches are migraines rather than cervicogenic headaches?
Migraines and cervicogenic headaches can share symptoms and sometimes overlap. A thorough assessment helps distinguish between them. If your headaches appear to be primarily migraine-driven, your chiropractor will be direct about that and discuss whether there is still a role for chiropractic care in reducing your overall symptom load, or whether a referral to your family doctor or a neurologist makes more sense.
Does Pro Motion Clinic offer anything beyond chiropractic for headaches?
Yes. Our Registered Massage Therapists provide specific headache and migraine therapy that complements chiropractic care. For some patients, the combination of chiropractic work on the joints and RMT work on the surrounding soft tissue produces better results than either approach alone. Our team works collaboratively, so if that combination makes sense for your situation, we will build it into your plan. Learn more about headache therapy with our RMT team.