Physiotherapy
Neck Pain Physiotherapy in Singapore
Written by Shiv Mohan Banka and Ching Yee, Principal Physiotherapists at Phoenix Rehab.Clinically reviewed by Louise Yow, Principal Physiotherapist & Director, AHPC A1300363H.Last reviewed 27 September 2026.
Most neck pain settles on its own. Yours has not, or you would not be reading this.
A neck scan past the age of forty will almost always find something. Disc changes, a bone spur, some narrowing. That is not the same as finding the cause, and it is why people get a diagnosis and still have the pain.
$230 per 45 minute appointment. No referral needed to start.
Where are you right now?
It started in the last few weeks
Woke up with it, or it built over a week at a desk. Most of these settle inside six weeks with movement and a few adjustments. Coming in early is about ruling things out and not making it worse.
It keeps coming back
Settles for a fortnight, returns. That pattern is usually load and control rather than damage, and it responds to different work than an acute episode does.
There is pain or numbness down the arm
That points at a nerve root rather than muscle, and it changes both the assessment and what is safe to do. Worth getting looked at rather than stretched.
What is usually behind it
Three different problems that feel similar
Musculoskeletal
Muscles, joints and soft tissue: mechanical neck pain from sustained posture, muscle spasm, neck strain, facet joint irritation, osteoarthritis, cervical spondylosis, whiplash. The most common group by a distance, and the one that responds most reliably to loading and movement.
Nerve-related
A nerve root irritated or compressed where it leaves the neck, producing pain, pins and needles, or weakness down the arm in a pattern that follows the nerve rather than the muscle. Cervical radiculopathy is the usual name. It needs a careful assessment because some treatments that help mechanical neck pain make this worse.
Referred
Pain felt in the neck that starts somewhere else. Shoulder and upper back problems refer here routinely. So, occasionally, do things that are not musculoskeletal at all, which is the next section.
Send us your scan report or referral letter
We will tell you what it means for your rehabilitation, when therapy should start, and roughly how long it takes. No appointment needed to ask, and no charge for it.
We explain what the report means for your recovery and the likely timeframe. We do not diagnose from documents, which needs an assessment.
Read this part properly
Neck pain that is not a physiotherapy problem
Most neck pain is mechanical and safe. A small amount is not, and the neck is the one area where getting that wrong matters most.
- Call 995 and do not drive yourself if neck pain comes with slurred speech, a facial droop, weakness down one side, sudden loss of coordination or vision, or the worst headache of your life. Also if it comes with chest tightness, breathlessness, sweating or jaw pain.
- Emergency department now after significant trauma such as a fall from height or a road accident. Also for a stiff neck with fever, headache and discomfort in bright light. Also for numbness or clumsiness in both hands, unsteadiness on your feet, or any change in bladder or bowel control.
- A doctor the same day for neck pain with fever, or neck pain with a history of cancer, or severe pain that came on at rest with no injury.
- A doctor soon for arm weakness or numbness that is getting worse week by week, or unexplained weight loss alongside the pain.
If you are reading that list and recognizing yourself, act on it rather than booking us. We would rather send you to the right place than treat you.
How the work is structured
Four stages, and you move up on criteria
You progress when the neck meets the marker for the next stage, not when a number of weeks has passed.
- Calm & Protect. Settling an irritable neck. Movement within tolerance rather than a collar and rest, because necks stiffen fast.
- Move & Mobilize. Range trained back through the neck and the upper back, which almost always shares the blame.
- Rebuild & Strengthen. Deep neck flexors, scapular control, endurance under sustained load. This is the stage that decides whether it comes back.
- Return & Perform. A full working day at the desk, the gym, the long drive, sleeping through.
None of the four is passive.
If it has stopped moving forward
Months of treatment and the same neck
A neck that has plateaued is usually being treated for pain rather than for the thing producing the pain. Passive treatment that feels good for two days and wears off is the clearest sign of it.
The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same therapist, because a plateau cannot be measured in one visit. $690.
What it costs
$230 per 45 minute appointment
One therapist, the same one every visit, for the whole 45 minutes.
Nett, no GST. Same price for your first appointment and your last. Most of that 45 minutes is treatment: manual therapy, joint mobilization, soft tissue work and graded loading, with assessment continuing throughout. You do not pay for a consultation and come back another day to be treated.
A neck program is 12 appointments, $2,760 in all, paid as you attend. If you need more, your physiotherapist shows you which stage criteria are still open, and each extra appointment is $230.
Questions we get asked
Do I need an MRI first?
Usually not. Imaging changes the plan in a minority of cases, and degenerative findings are so common past forty that a scan often adds worry rather than clarity. Where your symptoms suggest imaging would change what we do, we say so and refer you to a doctor for it.
Is it my pillow?
Rarely the cause, sometimes a factor in how you feel on waking. It is worth a change if you wake worse than you went to bed, but a pillow will not fix a neck that hurts all day. Do not spend money on one before you know what the problem is.
Will cracking or manipulation help?
Manual therapy has a place, and so does joint mobilization. What it does is open a window in which the neck moves more comfortably, and that window is worth using to load and train. On its own, repeated indefinitely, it becomes a treatment you need rather than one that finishes.
How long should I give it before I come in?
If there are none of the red flags above, a couple of weeks of staying active is reasonable. If it is not clearly improving by six weeks, or it keeps returning, that is the point at which something structured beats waiting.
Can I keep going to the gym?
Usually yes, with changes. Complete rest stiffens a neck and deconditions everything holding it up. Which lifts to keep, which to modify and for how long is one of the more useful things that comes out of the first appointment.
Where we are
Clinics across Singapore
ORCHARD
400 Orchard Road #12-12
Orchard Towers, S238875
NS22 Orchard MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Orchard →
WhatsApp 8800 1830TAMPINES
9 Tampines Grande #01-20
Asia Green, S528735
EW2DT32 Tampines MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Tampines →
WhatsApp 8780 9608SERANGOON
265 Serangoon Central Drive #04-269
S550265 · Lift C only
NE12CC13 Serangoon MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Serangoon →
WhatsApp 8892 4121TANJONG PAGAR
10 Anson Road #02-77A
International Plaza, S079903
EW15 Tanjong Pagar MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Tanjong Pagar →
WhatsApp 8227 7074JURONG EAST
2 Venture Drive #02-02
Vision Exchange, S608526
NS1EW24 Jurong East MRT
Opening 20 October 2026
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Jurong East →
WhatsApp 8242 7340Find out which stage your neck is in
Tell us how long it has been there and what it stops you doing. That is more useful than a pain score, and it is what the first appointment works from.
Neck physiotherapy is available at all clinics. $230 per 45 minute appointment, nett, no GST.
What our patients say
Google reviews from our clinics in Singapore.
