The Lane Cove rooms are at 2 Austin Street, directly opposite the Lane Cove Library and a few metres from Longueville Road. If you are coming from the village it is a walk of two or three minutes, and the parking behind the library is the easiest option in the middle of the day.
Lane Cove sends a particular mix of problems through the door. There are the desk-and-commute necks and low backs from St Leonards and the city, the shoulders and elbows of a suburb that plays a lot of tennis, and the knees and Achilles tendons that come with living on a hillside — the stairs down to Tambourine Bay and the streets off Burns Bay Road are their own kind of training load. Lane Cove also has a lot of people in their thirties and forties carrying small children, which is its own demand on a back.
A first appointment is mostly questions and movement testing: where the pain is, what makes it worse, what it stops you doing, and how it has behaved over weeks rather than days. From there you should leave knowing what is proposed, roughly how long it is expected to take, and what would mean changing the plan.
Worth bringing: any imaging or specialist letters you already have, a list of medications, and the shoes you actually walk or train in. If the pain is new and severe, follows a significant fall, or comes with numbness, weakness, fever or any change in bladder or bowel control, see a doctor first — that is a medical assessment, not a treatment question.
The nearest alternative if Lane Cove does not suit you is the Freshwater side, about 14 kilometres away across the Spit.
A stiff neck can make simple turns painful. Before gua sha is considered, a few warning signs need ruling out and the pressure needs agreeing.
Waking up unable to turn your head is surprisingly disruptive. Checking a blind spot, looking up from a laptop or turning to answer a colleague suddenly becomes something to plan around. For desk workers and people who sleep awkwardly, it can happen more than once a year. If you are thinking about gua sha for that kind of stiffness, the first step is a proper assessment rather than reaching for a tool.
Some neck symptoms call for a different path. A recent fall, knock or car accident, an unusual or severe headache, or new symptoms such as numbness, weakness, dizziness or pins and needles down an arm all need medical attention first. Mention any of these to Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, and contact your GP promptly.
Where gua sha is appropriate, agree on a pressure you can tolerate and explain which movements bother you most, such as looking over one shoulder or tilting your head down to read. Redness on the skin is not a scorecard, so do not judge the session by how much colour appears. A more practical check is whether ordinary movements feel easier over the next day or two. Keep a quick note of how far you can turn each way, so you have something concrete to report at the next visit.
Before any further session, tell Christine about lingering tenderness, irritation or bruising that seems unusual. The tool and technique should suit your neck and skin, not a picture of how someone else looked afterwards. Based on how you respond, Christine can talk through continuing, adjusting the approach or trying something else.
Neck complaints are a frequent topic in Christine's room at the Lane Cove clinic. If your neck stiffness keeps returning, it can help to note your desk set-up, pillow and sleeping position, since those details often come up in conversation and may point to practical changes worth trying.
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