Firstly, let’s address the difference between these two styles of treatment.  Traditional Swedish massage techniques are smooth and flowing, focussing on pressure and increasing circulation, flushing resident toxic waste from congested areas.

Myofascial Release gives attention to areas of adhesion caused by inappropriate scarring from sudden injury, surgical intervention, or chronic occupational / recreational repetitive strains.  Scarring is a necessary body process, however we benefit greatly from lean, parallel, organized repairs rather than the bird’s nest or spider web-like adhesions that impair our movement.  Myofascial Release addresses these “stuck” areas by stretching the fascia which surrounds each muscle cell, muscle belly, muscle group, etc, thus allowing the body to move in a more balanced and biomechanically natural way. A beautiful side effect to this release technique is that circulation is also boosted flushing resident toxin, however unlike Swedish massage techniques the results are longer lasting and the areas treated are less likely to become congested again.

Here’s a great analogy: Imagine that we put these 24 wooden hexangonal pencils in a box while their paint was still wet. When they dry, they become one big glob which we can’t use. By breaking them apart we can use each pencil more readily even though the dry paint is not as shiny as it could have been — the pencils are at least functional. In this analogy, the stuck paint = myofasical restriction, the pencils = muscles, and breaking them apart = Myofascial Release.

As for whether this may help your chronic neck pain, it is really hard to say until you are subjected to some appropriate Orthopaedic Assessments.  Pain can be caused by a number of things such as muscles, bones, discs, nerves and joint capsules to name only a few.  While remedial massage can help all of these either directly or indirectly, to what extend would be determined only after those Orthopaedic Assessments are interpretted.  While I must use caution in making claims particularly as you are site-unseen, I believe it is fair to say that if you’ve been coping with pain for a long time you likely have a reduced range of motion because of it.  This, in turn, would mean the presence of primary or secondary muscular tension and adhesion which has been known to be positively impacted by Myofascial Release.  Before using this technique it is important to take a thorough medical history and refer to any diagnostic imaging that has been taken or may need to be taken based on your circumstance in order to determine if this or any technique is ideal or contraindicated.  It is possible that even with all precautions taken and the best of intentions on the part of the Massage Therapist, a temporary flare up may occur. 

Speaking as one patient to another, I have had a long history of chronic neck  pain stemming from breaking my neck in 2008 and a subsequent cervical fusion surgery — Myofascial Release has been a saving grace for me.  It may be the case for you too!