My wife has three compressed vertebrae at the top of her spine, at collar bone level, which pinches a nerve, creating pretty severe pain which travels across her shoulder blade and down her arm. Surgery is the only solution for a permanent fix, but we are not about to take that step since surgeries of this type are notorious for mixed results with up to 50% of patients being worse off after the surgery than before. Too risky, so we have to deal with it and manage the pain.Our maintenance basically consists of continual use of Aleve or Ibuprofen to control the pain and also very frequent massages of her area of discomfort. She is always asking me for an upper torso "back rub". When I saw this I thought, "Certainly worth a try since she could massage herself". So I bought it for one of her Christmas presents. She got very excited opening her present, after she realized what it was.She loves it and uses it for extended periods every day. Any time she is sitting still, she has it in place on the back of her neck. Watching TV or reading a book, it is always there. She also likes the fact that she can position it anywhere from the waist up, and does so, frequently moving it into a different position. I have not had to give her nearly as many back rubs anymore, since this does a super job on its own. This device has been somewhat of blessing to her and does relax her enough to relieve the pain.Although it may not be for everybody since the hard rotating massage balls can be somewhat uncomfortable if you apply to much forward pressure or you are against a fairly hard surface on the back side of the massager, because that would press the balls pretty hard into your body. But you have total control of that and if you want a more comfortable massage, you can fold a bath towel however many times you want to achieve the right amount of cushion, if you are looking for a more comfy massage.. For her it is perfect without anything in between her skin and the rotators. She wants the somewhat aggressive massage to get deep into her muscle tissue.She uses a massage therapist a couple times a month when she especially hurting, who really bears down hard at her points of discomfort so this device is much like going to the therapist. You just need to understand what you are looking for when you decide to purchase this. It is a great product for how it was designed and is ergonomically correct for the way it is used. A year ago, I bought her a massage device which sits in her office chair, kind of like a seat cover on a car. It has almost exactly the same rotating balls, with heat (makes me wonder if it is the same manufacturer), but it does not work nearly as well, because the rotating balls are far too high and really hit the back of her skull instead of on the shoulders. So she has to sit on pillows to raise her up enough for it to hit her neck and shoulders. With this, no matter how tall or short you are, you can find the perfect position for it, with your arms through the loops.She also likes the heat VERY MUCH, and uses it sometimes without the massage action, and always with it.I looked at quite a few units like this, which were a bit cheaper, but found too many average to poor reviews and decided on this because of its majority of 4 and 5 Star reviews. That was enough for me and I can say that she loves what it does for her and it scored some really big brownie points for me, even though I don't need any.