Bring two numbers

Your ICBC claim number and your Personal Health Number. That is the entire administrative requirement. You do not need a doctor's referral for your first 12 sessions, and you do not need to wait for an adjuster to call you back.

If you have paperwork from a walk-in clinic or the hospital, bring it. If you do not, that is fine too.

The first appointment is mostly questions

Expect fifteen minutes of history before anyone touches you. Where were you seated. Which direction was the impact. Did the airbag deploy. What have you been unable to do since — check a blind spot, sleep on that side, lift your kid.

This is not paperwork for its own sake. A clear record from visit one is what supports your file if you need care past the 12-week window, and it gives us something concrete to measure against in three weeks.

The treatment will be gentler than you expect

Patients often arrive expecting a firm massage to "work it out." An acutely injured neck does not respond well to that. Early sessions are lighter and sometimes shorter, and they focus on reducing the guarding that stops you turning your head.

As symptoms settle over the following weeks, treatment gets more specific and more robust. Progress is measured by what you can do again, not by how hard the session was.

You will probably be sore that evening

Mild soreness for a day is normal, even after gentle work. Heat, water and short walks help. Sharp new pain is not expected — call us if that happens, and we will change the plan.

What happens with the money

We bill ICBC directly for the covered portion. If a user fee applies because our rate is higher than the amount ICBC pays per session, we confirm the exact figure when you arrive, before your appointment begins. Many extended health plans reimburse that difference.

How often you will come in

Twelve sessions across twelve weeks supports roughly one to two visits a week early on, tapering as you improve. Most patients do not use all twelve. If you still have symptoms at the end of the window, your therapist can support a request to continue.

Getting in the door

We are at Unit 321 – 141 Victoria Street, in downtown Kamloops. Paid street parking is available right outside.

Arrive five minutes early for a first appointment. After that, arriving on the hour is fine.

The intake form

You will be asked about your health history: medications, surgeries, conditions your doctor is managing, and anything that has changed recently. It is not a formality. Some conditions change what techniques are appropriate, and a few change whether we treat an area at all.

There is also space to say what brought you in and what you want to be able to do again. That second answer is the one we treat toward.

Draping, in plain terms

You undress to whatever level you are comfortable with, in private, and get under the sheet. Only the area being worked on is uncovered, and it is re-covered before we move on. Nothing is exposed beyond that, at any point.

You can stay fully clothed and be treated through the sheet if you prefer. Tell us and we will work that way without further discussion.

What you can decline

Any area, any technique, any time — including partway through, including after you said yes at the start. Pressure is negotiated out loud, and "that is too much" is a complete sentence.

If anything about a session is uncomfortable in a way that is not about the tissue, say so, or tell the front desk afterward. We would much rather hear it than not.

Afterwards

Expect to feel worked-on for a day if the session was firm. Water, movement and heat generally settle it. We will book you back in only if there is a reason to, and we will tell you plainly what that reason is.

The pattern

It arrives in the same shape most weeks: tightness across the top of the shoulders, a tender band at the base of the skull, and a headache that starts mid-afternoon and gets worse on the drive home. Often one forearm is sore as well, on the mouse side.

None of that is caused by a single muscle being weak or a single vertebra being out of place. It is what a body does after seven hours in one position, holding a head that weighs about as much as a bowling ball slightly forward of where it balances.

Why sitting still is the problem, not posture

Patients often ask which sitting position is correct. The more useful answer is that no position is correct for seven hours. Tissue tolerates load that changes and objects to load that does not.

The two changes that seem to help most are unglamorous: move position every 30 to 40 minutes, even briefly, and get the top of your screen to roughly eye height so your neck is not held in flexion all day. A stack of paper under a laptop does this as well as any monitor arm.

The dry-air part

Kamloops summers are hot and dry, and a lot of people here drink much less water than they think. Hydration is not a treatment for neck pain, and anyone who tells you it is has oversold it. What we notice is that patients who are chronically underhydrated report more general achiness and tolerate firm work less well.

Where massage therapy fits

Treatment for this pattern usually addresses the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, scalenes and the suboccipitals, along with the chest and forearm on the mouse side. Patients commonly report fewer headache days and easier movement afterward.

It is not a substitute for changing how the day is structured. The patients who do best combine occasional treatment with the position changes above, and come in less often over time — which is the outcome we are aiming for.

The bolster we use

We use a pregnancy bolster system that lets you lie face down comfortably through your appointment. It has contoured cut-outs for the belly and the breasts, so both are given room and support rather than pressure — you are resting on the cushion, not on the areas that need relief.

Position is what makes prenatal work comfortable enough to be useful. Being able to lie face down means we can work directly on the low back, gluteals and hips, which is where most pregnancy-related complaints turn up.

If face down does not suit you

Comfort varies between patients and from week to week. If lying face down is not comfortable at any stage, tell us — we treat side-lying with bolsters or semi-reclined just as readily, and you can change position at any point in the appointment.

You stay draped throughout. Tell us at the start if there are areas you would rather we skip, and we skip them without discussion.

What we commonly treat

Low back, gluteals, hips and ribs, plus the neck and shoulders. Pressure is moderate rather than deep. Where patients have been told to avoid a particular area by the provider managing their pregnancy, we follow that instruction.

Afterwards, and postpartum

Bathroom breaks mid-appointment are entirely normal; the washroom is on our floor. After delivery, most patients come in for neck, upper back and forearm tension from carrying and feeding. Abdominal or scar work waits until your care provider has cleared it.