Concussion & Whiplash Injuries
Most people who come to us after a car accident, a fall, or a sports collision are looking for the same thing: an explanation that actually makes sense. They’ve been told the impact was minor, or that their imaging looks fine, or that symptoms should have resolved by now. And yet they’re still dealing with headaches, neck pain, brain fog, and dizziness that are very real, very disruptive, and not going away on their own.
The Move Better Approach
Our first job is to listen. Where have you been, what happened, and what has changed since? Understanding the individual in front of us is the foundation of everything we do. Concussions and whiplash injuries are not one-size-fits-all diagnoses, and the path to recovery is rarely as simple as rest and time. What we see consistently is that the patients who struggle most are those whose injuries were underestimated early on — and whose nervous system and musculoskeletal system never received the support they needed to fully recover.
At Move Better, we evaluate all of our patients using our Movement Paradigm Evaluation, developed in-house, which gives us a detailed picture of how you are organizing yourself through movement. Following a concussion or whiplash injury, the body adapts quickly — often in ways that protect the injured area in the short term but create new problems over time. These compensatory patterns show up in how you hold your neck, how you breathe, how your eyes track, and how your balance system is functioning. Our role is to identify those patterns, understand why they developed, and offer the body a better option.
There are cases where our care alone is not sufficient, and we will always be upfront with you about that. We have built strong relationships with physicians, imaging centers, neurologists, naturopaths, and other allied health providers whose values align with ours. We also offer acupuncture and massage therapy in-house, both of which play a meaningful role in recovery from these types of injuries — particularly when the nervous system is sensitized, or when chronic muscle tension is driving ongoing symptoms. Whatever you need, our goal is to make sure you receive it.
What Is a Concussion?
Most people picture a concussion as the result of a direct blow to the head. But a concussion — or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) — can occur any time the head moves rapidly enough for the brain to shift inside the skull. That includes car accidents, falls, sports collisions, and even high-force impacts where the head never directly contacts another object.
What makes concussions complicated is that the injury is functional, not always structural. Standard imaging often appears normal even when a patient is symptomatic, which is one of the reasons concussion is so frequently underestimated by both patients and providers. The brain has been stressed. It needs the right conditions — and the right support — to recover.
Common symptoms include:
- Headaches or a feeling of pressure in the head
- Difficulty concentrating or mental fogginess
- Dizziness or problems with balance
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Fatigue or disrupted sleep
- Feeling “off” or not quite yourself
What Is Whiplash?
Whiplash is a neck injury caused by a rapid acceleration-deceleration of the head — the kind of motion that happens in a fraction of a second and faster than the body can react. Vehicle collisions are the most common cause, but the same mechanism can occur in contact sports, a cycling accident, a fall, or any impact that snaps the head forward and back with enough force. What matters is not the setting, but the speed and direction of the load. The cervical spine, which is not built to absorb force at that rate, is subjected to significant stress before any muscular reflex has a chance to protect it.
What is often misunderstood about whiplash is the relationship between impact speed and injury severity. Research consistently shows that collisions as low as 5-10 mph can generate 1-6 g of force on the head and neck, and that the effective load placed on the cervical spine can exceed 50-100 lbs of force depending on the dynamics of the collision. Vehicle damage is not a reliable indicator of injury risk. A minor dent or no visible damage does not mean the occupant was not significantly loaded.
Common symptoms include:
- Neck pain and stiffness
- Headaches, often originating at the base of the skull
- Reduced range of motion in the neck
- Tension or pain in the shoulders and upper back
- Dizziness or visual disturbances
Why Concussion and Whiplash Are Often Treated Together
This matters clinically because neck dysfunction can produce symptoms that closely resemble concussion: headaches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, and balance problems. If the cervical spine is not evaluated and treated, these symptoms can persist long after the brain has recovered — and patients are left wondering why they are not getting better. On the other hand, a neck that has been properly addressed often provides significant relief to symptoms that were assumed to be entirely concussion-related.
This is why our evaluation does not separate the two. We assess brain function and symptom patterns alongside cervical mobility and stability, balance and vestibular function, and eye tracking and visual-motor coordination. We look at the whole picture, because that is the only way to accurately understand what is driving your symptoms and build a plan that actually works.
A Note on “Low-Impact” Collisions
One of the most frustrating experiences our patients describe is being told — by an insurance adjuster, an ER physician, or even a prior provider — that their accident was too minor to cause real injury. We want to address this directly.
The biomechanics of low-speed collisions do not support that conclusion. Research in this area has demonstrated that collisions as low as 5-10 mph generate meaningful forces on the head and neck, these forces occur in milliseconds — faster than any muscular reflex can protect the spine, the amount of vehicle damage is a poor predictor of occupant injury, and the cervical spine is particularly vulnerable precisely because of how quickly the load is applied.
Your symptoms are not a function of how damaged your car is. They are a function of how your nervous system and musculoskeletal system responded to a real mechanical event. We take that seriously, and we will not minimize what you are experiencing.
How We Evaluate Concussion & Whiplash
Our evaluation begins the same way it does for every patient — with a thorough history. We want to understand what happened, what you felt immediately after, how your symptoms have changed over time, and what your life looked like before this injury. That context shapes everything.
From there, our assessment includes:
- Cervical spine evaluation: Range of motion, joint mobility, muscle tone, and the presence of any mechanical restriction or instability in the neck and upper back.
- Neurological and balance screening: Assessing how well your vestibular system, visual system, and proprioceptive system are working together — systems that are frequently disrupted following concussion or whiplash.
- Movement Paradigm Evaluation: Observing how you organize your body through fundamental movement patterns. Following these injuries, compensation patterns develop quickly and are not always obvious to the patient. We are looking for the details that other providers may overlook.
- Symptom correlation: Connecting the dots between what you feel and what we observe. Often the most useful clinical information comes from the relationship between your symptoms and specific movements, positions, or loads.
Treatment & Recovery
Recovery from concussion and whiplash is not passive. Rest has its place — particularly in the acute phase — but the research is clear that prolonged rest and avoidance of activity does not produce better outcomes. What does produce better outcomes is the right kind of active, progressive, individualized care.
At Move Better, your treatment plan is built around what we find in your evaluation, not a generic protocol. Depending on your presentation, care may include:
Movement-Based Rehabilitation
Addressing restriction and instability in the cervical spine, restoring efficient movement patterns, and retraining the postural and stability systems that were disrupted by the injury.
Vestibular and Visual Rehabilitation
For patients dealing with dizziness, balance issues, or visual symptoms, targeted exercises to support recovery of the vestibular and oculomotor systems.
Manual Therapy
Soft tissue work, instrument-assisted techniques, and targeted adjustments to reduce restriction, address compensatory tension, and restore normal mechanics to the cervical spine and surrounding tissues.
Gradual Return-to-Activity Planning
A progressive, evidence-based approach to reintroducing load — whether that means returning to a desk job, getting back to the gym, or returning to sport.
Load Management and Education
Understanding how to manage your symptoms during recovery is one of the most important things we can offer. We coach you on sleep, activity pacing, and what to expect as you heal.
In-House Massage Therapy and Acupuncture
Our licensed therapists work alongside our chiropractic team to address nervous system sensitization, chronic muscular tension, and the broader physical and emotional toll these injuries take. These services are not an add-on — they are a meaningful part of the recovery process for many of our patients.
When to Seek Care
You do not need to wait until symptoms are unbearable, or until you are certain something is “seriously wrong,” to come in. In fact, earlier intervention consistently leads to better outcomes following both concussion and whiplash injury. If you are experiencing any of the following, an evaluation is appropriate:
- Headaches or dizziness following an accident, fall, or sports injury
- Neck pain or stiffness that has not resolved
- Difficulty concentrating, brain fog, or feeling “off”
- Balance problems or visual disturbances
- Symptoms that are not improving — or that seem to be getting worse
- A prior injury that was never fully addressed and continues to affect you
The longer compensatory patterns go unaddressed, the more entrenched they become. We have worked with patients years and even decades after the original injury who still made significant progress — but we would always rather see you sooner.
Work With Us
If you are dealing with symptoms following a concussion or whiplash injury — or if you have never quite felt right since an accident that happened years ago — we can help.
Our individualized approach is built around understanding you: your injury, your history, your goals, and your life. We will give you a clear picture of what is happening, why it is happening, and exactly what we are going to do about it.
