Neuromuscular therapy in the Inner Sunset
For pain that keeps coming back to the same place.
What it is for
Some pain is an event. You lifted something badly, it hurt for a week, it went away. Neuromuscular therapy is not for that. It is for the other kind: the ache that has been in the same shoulder for eight months, the low back that goes out twice a year, the neck that is fine on holiday and bad by Wednesday.
That kind of pain usually has a pattern behind it, and the pattern is usually somewhere other than the spot that hurts. Tight hips quietly hand their work to the low back. A head held forward of the shoulders loads the neck all day. Treating only the sore muscle gives you about four good days, which is why people end up believing massage does not last.
The work is finding what is actually driving it, treating that, and giving you two or three things to do between sessions so the change holds.
What happens in a first session
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Talk, about fifteen minutes
What hurts, how long, what makes it worse, what you do all day, what you have already tried. Bring anything a doctor or physio has told you.
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Assessment
Li watches how you move and works through the area by hand to find what is short, what is guarded, and which spots reproduce the pain you came in with.
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Treatment
Sustained, specific pressure on what the assessment found, which often is not the place you pointed at. You stay in conversation the whole time — pressure is adjusted as you go.
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Two or three things to take home
Usually one thing to stop doing, one stretch, one change to how you sit or sleep. Written down before you leave, not emailed later.
This is why a first neuromuscular visit is booked as ninety minutes. Fifty is enough to assess or enough to treat, not both. Once Li knows your pattern, follow-ups fit comfortably in fifty.
When this is the wrong session
- You want to switch off and not talk. That is a real and good reason to get a massage — book Swedish instead, and say so when you book.
- You are generally tight from training or a standing shift with no one recurring spot. Deep tissue is faster and cheaper for that.
- The pain started with a fall, a collision, or a specific injury in the last few weeks. See a doctor first.
- You have numbness, tingling or weakness running down an arm or leg, or any change in bladder or bowel control. That needs a doctor before it needs a table.
Price
| Length | Price |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | $65 |
| 50 minutes | $100 |
| 90 minutes | $150 |
New clients
20% off your first 50 and 90 minute session
One per person, first visit only. Applies to 50 and 90 minute sessions. Cannot be combined with gift certificates. Offer ends November 30, 2026.
Common questions
Why does the first appointment have to be ninety minutes?
Because assessment takes real time and there is no point doing it if there is no time left to treat what it finds. Fifty minutes buys you one or the other. After the first visit, when Li already knows your pattern, fifty is usually plenty.
Does it hurt?
It should feel like pressure you can breathe through, and often like the specific ache you came in with, which is a useful sign that the right spot has been found. It should not feel like something you have to brace against. You are in conversation the whole session and the pressure is adjusted as you go.
Will I be sore afterwards?
Often mildly, for a day or so, similar to the day after a hard workout. Drink water and move normally. Sharp or increasing pain is not expected — tell Li if that happens.
How many sessions will I need?
Li will give you an honest read after the first one. Something that has been building for years does not undo in ninety minutes, but you should feel a clear difference from the first session, and if you do not after two, she will tell you this is not the right treatment rather than sell you a third.
What should I wear?
Come in whatever is comfortable. You undress to your level of comfort and stay covered by a sheet throughout — only the area being worked on is uncovered, and it is re-covered before Li moves on.
Not sure this is the one
Start from where it hurts instead
Pick the area that bothers you and you will get a plain explanation of what usually causes it and which session suits it — including if that session is not this one.