Concussion & whiplash

After a car accident or a hit to the head, you’ve probably been told some version of: “You’re fine. Get some rest. It’ll resolve on its own.”

Sometimes that’s true. Often it isn’t. Concussions and whiplash are real injuries — including from collisions slow enough that the car barely shows damage — and recovery from either rarely happens passively. Bodies don’t heal by waiting; they heal by relearning how to move.

What we see in concussion and whiplash

Concussions and whiplash often happen in the same incident — the same forces that whip the cervical spine also rotate the brain inside the skull. We treat them together because they recover together.

A concussion is a functional brain injury from rapid head movement, even without direct impact. Symptoms can include:

• Headaches or pressure in the head
• Difficulty concentrating, mental fogginess
• Dizziness or balance problems
• Light or noise sensitivity
• Fatigue or disrupted sleep
• A general sense of feeling “off”

Whiplash is cervical-spine and surrounding-tissue stress from acceleration-deceleration forces. Symptoms can include:

• Neck pain and stiffness
• Headaches at the base of the skull
• Reduced neck range of motion
• Shoulder and upper back tension or pain
• Dizziness or visual disturbances

A note on “low-impact” collisions

Low speed (5–10 mph) generates significant forces, especially to the head and neck. The dent on the bumper is a poor proxy for what happened to the person inside. We see plenty of legitimate whiplash and concussion from accidents that “didn’t look like much.”

How we evaluate concussion and whiplash

Every patient at Move Better starts with a Movement Paradigm Evaluation. After a concussion or whiplash, we watch how you breathe, how you stabilize, and how you hinge — three foundational patterns that the injury often disrupts and that recovery depends on restoring.

In concussion and whiplash we usually find:

• A breath pattern that’s been pulled high in the chest as a response to neck and shoulder guarding.
• A brace pattern that stiffens the cervical spine to protect against the next hit, even when there isn’t one coming.
• Compensatory head, neck, and shoulder patterns that the nervous system locked in during the recovery period.

Read more about the Movement Paradigm →

The evaluation also includes cervical-spine assessment, neurological and balance screening, and symptom correlation across systems.

How we treat concussion and whiplash

Recovery is active, not passive. Treatment typically combines:

• Movement-based rehabilitation — graded movement that retrains the patterns the injury disrupted.
• Vestibular and visual rehabilitation — for the dizziness, balance, and visual symptoms common with concussion.
• Manual therapy — for the cervical spine and surrounding tissues that have been holding the post-injury pattern.
• Gradual return-to-activity planning — rebuilding capacity in steps, with the right inputs at each one.
• Load management and education — knowing what to push, what to back off from, and why.
• In-house massage therapy and acupuncture — useful adjuncts during recovery.

We coordinate with primary care, neurology, imaging centers, and other providers when the injury needs evaluation beyond what we offer.

Why early matters

The longer concussion and whiplash patterns go unaddressed, the more entrenched they become. The nervous system is plastic — but it’s plastic in both directions. If the body has been bracing the neck and breathing high in the chest for six months, those become the new normal, and the work to undo them is harder than the work to prevent them.

Early evaluation is the highest-value move. Even if you’re not sure how bad the injury was, an evaluation tells you.

When to seek emergency care first

Some symptoms after a head injury or collision are emergencies and need to be evaluated at an emergency department before a movement clinic. Go to the ER (or call 911) if you experience any of these in the hours and days after an injury:

• Loss of consciousness
• Worsening headache that doesn’t respond to anything
• Repeated vomiting
• Seizures or convulsions
• Slurred speech, confusion, or unusual behavior
• One pupil larger than the other
• Numbness or weakness in arms or legs
• Inability to recognize people or places

Once you’ve been medically cleared, we’re a strong next step for the movement and recovery work.