Are you looking for a Craniosacral Therapist with a lot of experience and who is Certified at the Highest Level through the Upledger Institute?
Then you have come to the right spot. I have been in this business for close to 30 years. It’s one of the best jobs in the world. Over and over again, I see great results in helping people to release chronic pain, heal from concussions and even to feel better emotionally. Knowing that I get to be part of the healing process is very meaningful. Helping people to change is for the better great! It makes waking up everyday so much better.
If you want to make sure that you are finding a qualified Craniosacral Therapist, please check out The Upledger Institute for a CST near you!
Sharon Hartnett CST-D
614 653-8111
To find out more about Craniosacral Therapy, check out my main page.
A concussion is a traumatic brain injury. It’s something to take seriously.
If you have hurt your head playing football, have fallen or been in an accident, you may not show any external symptoms. Perhaps you did not lose consciouness either. But that doesn’t mean that you are fine. Always check with your physician and do follow up if you hit your head.
Some of the symptoms are:
Headache
Pressure in the head
Slurred speech
Tired
Dizziness
Temporary loss of consciousness
Vomiting
Problems sleeping
Confusion
Amnesia
Ringing in the ears
Nausea
Slurred speech
Delayed response to questions
If after time, you find yourself noticing sensitivity to light, loss of focus, change in sense of taste/smell, emotionally out of sync (depression), you may be experiencing the after effects.
Once you have checked in with your doctor, you may want to try Craniosacral Therapy. The Upledger Intitute has been offering football players the opportunity to receive Craniosacral work and there has been a lot of success. As a Diplomate Certified Craniosacral Therapist myself, I have worked with people who experienced Concussions, and have improved quite a bit.
You don’t have to just learn to cope. There is help.
If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Hartnett CST-D at (614) 653-8111 for a free 10 minute phone consultation with your questions.
Does Craniosacral Therapy help you to heal longstanding chronic pain, anxiety, stress?
It’s a great question.
The best that I can tell you is that in my 25+ years of bodywork practice, I have switched over my practice primarily to Craniosacral Therapy (CST) because I do see how much it benefits my clients.
Day after day, I see people relax and feel better than when they walked in. The most notable change is when a client comes in each week for a period of time. Why? Because with CST, we are addressing the Central Nervous System to find a way to heal itself. We facilitate the change, but we only do this by listening to your body’s own Inner Wisdom to heal. And as it was your mind and its relationship to your body that made all the choices to get to the point of pain, the mind must awaken and find another way to live. One that is kinder, gentler and more open. When stress leaves your body on a deep level, you’d be amazed at how much easier life becomes. It takes time to undo and unlearn all the bad habits from the past, and to create a more free authentic way of living for yourself.
Does it work is a subjective perspective for the client most often. From a therapist perspective, I feel the changes happening underneath my hands and fingertips. Fascia is unwinding, and organs and muscles find better motion. It feels like everything is becoming more revitalized and balanced. However, some clients feel a lot happening if they are sensitive to their bodies, and for others who don’t usually pay attention physically, they may not feel much at all. But that does not stop the work from doing what it needs to do to help produce more peace, alignment and yes—joy in the body. It’s always important for a therapist to meet the client where they are, and help them journey inward to release and integrate dysfunctional issues, and to bring a person back to center. This can take time and patience. It usually does. In the long run, I have seen lives changed dramatically in a positive way.
Sometimes I get clients in who want to be fixed in a day. This doesn’t work. Clients may feel a big shift in one session. I know that I have gotten off the table when I was a client myself, and felt like I had moved through lifetimes of stuckness which released. But to get the full effects, life is a process. We are multi-dimensional beings that have to shed behaviors and habits that no longer serve our bodies and our sense of self. This is not usually a one day fix. Rather, it is a commitment to work through whatever is holding you back so that you can lovingly break through and make a better “Present”.
I would recommend that people try at least 10 sessions. Yet usually one experiences an integrative positive change in 3. Sometimes the work is so subtle. Yet, usually after this amount of work, clients get off my table and remark how much different they feel, for the better. It has often been gradual, but it is more permanent than other types of bodywork/massage that I have practiced or received. So yes, Craniosacral Therapy works. But you’ll have to try it yourself to have your own experience! It’s important to invest in making yourself see yourself as valuable enough to show up and receive. If you’re wondering what a session is like, see the Craniosacral Therapy FAQs.
The belief that I carry with intention is that we are all worthy of feeling great and aligned in our lives, so that we can create abundantly and with peace and joy.
Can Craniosacral Therapy help relieve symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
To live through a deeply disturbing event, can afterwards lead a person into overwhelm. The ability to cope with every day life can become very difficult. Each person responds to a trauma differently. What one person can deal with, can be very scary for another to experience. With PTSD, a person could continue to feel anxious, sadness, experience nightmares, or flashbacks. There is help. In conjunction with psychotherapy, massage and bodywork can be very helpful in reducing stress, and in supporting emotional integration.
Reducing PTSD Stress
Healing Team between Psychotherapists and Bodyworkers
Many Massage Therapists and Bodyworkers train to be able to support people who process emotionally when they are the table. While this is not psychotherapy, there is a way that Craniosacral Therapy can offer a sacred space for people who have gone through difficult experiences to move through PTSD symptoms. By creating a safe environment with safe touch, we can dialogue with the Central Nervous System so that it can better regulate. I have witnessed many people release deep tensions, fascial restrictions, and more importantly let go of old stories that no longer serve their health and wellbeing. Often I work with clients who see their psychiatrists and psychotherapists as well. I look at this as the building of a healing team. A successful healing process includes whatever it takes to support the client safely navigating through a frightening internal journey to the other side.
Craniosacral Therapists (CST), in particular, who have gone through SomatoEmotional Release Education are professionally trained at the Upledger Institute to serve in this way. This work is very gentle, powerful and focused on helping the client to find his/her own inner resources to heal. How we do this, is by listening to the Craniosacral Rhythm for any significant stops. While this work is subtle through touch, a trained Craniosacral Therapist can feel when something meaningful is presenting in the body by the change in quality, symmetry, amplitude and rate of the rhythm. Once this happens, a meaningful dialogue whether through touch, feelings, speaking or spiritually oriented experiences often happens. Support and presence are key moment to moment.
On a personal note, I have worked with many clients who are living with anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks to the extent that they have a rough time functioning well on a daily basis. There are times when it may take many sessions before I even place my hands on the client. Intentional Touch has to be done by building trust, and strengthening the bond between the CST and client. Safe touch means taking the time needed to build the relationship necessary so that the Central Nervous System can calm down. This can be done with weekly sessions, but there are also Comprehensive Intensives through the Upledger Work to receive multi-hand work when a person is ready.
SomatoEmotional Release
I enjoy working with people hands on this way. As each client is unique, so too is each Craniosacral Therapist. Along the way, I have studied Hakomi at the Hakomi Institute, and Trauma work with Pat Ogden at SPI. I also studied at taught at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. There has to be a place where people can find a way to relax in their bodies and to find embodiment at their own pace and in a way that feels nourishing and secure. All people are worthy of a good life that is kind, compassionate and enlivening. I feel blessed to be a Craniosacral Therapist who works holistically with people. I feel honored to work with people who show up to be courageous and work through their dark times.
If you would like to find a SomatoEmotional Release Therapist near you, check out the Upledger Site. My recommendation is to look for a practitioner who is certified and has completed the first four classes. Ask for a consultation to find the best therapist for you.
It is the ability to keep finding solutions that is important; any one solution is temporary. There are no permanently right answers. The capacity to keep changing, to find what works now, is what keeps any organism alive.
Did you know that there are an estimated few million sports concussions and brain injuries each year? Many of those are young athletic children who hit their heads during their daily sports activities. Likewise, there are also many more people who hit their heads while involved in exercise, car accidents, falling off roofs, bikes, and also those who experience such mishaps as slipping on ice or tripping on a sidewalk. The symptoms of a concussion may not feel apparent at the onset of a fall, but these head injuries can often negatively affect the functioning of the brain. It’s important to keep an eye for any indications of a concussion after any forceful head impact. Even more critical is that you take good care of yourself until you heal and follow your doctor’s advice.
My Clients:
These are the types of people with whom I work. Many of my clients who have come in to see me have been in an accident. I’d say about half of them have experienced some type concussion signs. Some also find themselves in chronic pain. While most people do recover pretty well from concussions, there are those who do not. Some of the unresolved issues I have worked with are: confusion, blurry vision, headaches, imbalances, difficulties with concentration, fatigue, and sensitivities to light. Sometimes for months, and even years- my clients had not found any type of relief. Often Craniosacral Therapy is their last stop.
Brain Concussions and Trauma can become a huge disturbance in your life. I have worked with people who have had to quit their jobs and those who have been “let go”, only because there was no cure to pain and disorientation in their head. But rest assured, there is help. One of the places that encouraged me to become specialized in head trauma is the Upledger Institute. They have been doing Comprehensive Intensives with professional athletes at their clinic in Florida. The results of their work and reviews by clients have demonstrated time and time again that the brain can be helped to become better organized biomechanically and supported to self-heal. On a personal note, as I have attended a few 5 day intensives with the Institute both as a support and primary therapist, I have seen what seemed like miracles happen with many clients many time over. Observing improvements like that influenced me to go ahead and receive my Diplomate level expertise to treat just as effectively to bring out optimal health. Over the years, I have seen quite a few people walk out of my office happier and healthier people. They re-discover how to function more clearly in life again. A series of sessions can the symptoms disappear resolve and disappear.
How Brain Work Works
I have been doing massage therapy and bodywork for about 20 years, but the Brain Work that I have learned at the Upledger Institute has given me the tools I need to support my clients Inner Wisdom. During a session with a client who has experienced a concussion, I am often led to dialogue with different parts of the brain, while keeping a holistic picture approach. This can be done quietly biomechanically, but at other times, the client will speak and share his/her experience from this internal environment. The intelligence of the body leads him/her back to health and wellbeing like nothing I have seen before.
What I love about being a Craniosacral Therapist is that the work is so gentle, and it listens to the wisdom of the body to direct the session. All of the facilitation leads you back to the Inner Guidance inside of you leading the session toward your health. The results have been profound as the work releases unhealthy restrictions, and promotes more fluid flow and motion. I am the facilitator who uses learned techniques to treat, but the body and the essence of the person is what heals.
Self Care
If you have hit your head, or someone in your family has, please go see a physician and get yourself diagnosed and treated. It’s important that you focus on self-care. I will say, I have had personal experiences with concussion too. The worst trauma I felt was after I fell off my horse and hit my head. I rested for a month and could hardly do anything. No television. No computer. No reading. Just quiet rest. However, once I could travel, I went straight to the Upledger Institute and put myself in the hands of Craniosacral Therapy. I also found a local therapist here in Columbus too who helped me. I recovered. Ever since, I have made Concussion work my primary focus in my work serving clients.
Free Telephone Consultation If you have been diagnosed with a medical condition or are having questions after talking to your physician, please call me. I offer a free 10 minute phone consultation. Whether you come here, or need assistance to find a therapist near you, I am glad to help. My phone number is (614) 653-8111. I enjoy working with people who are ready to turn the tide back to health and wellbeing.
Three reasons why you should find a Craniosacral Therapist to help your headaches feel better:
Craniosacral Therapy uses a very light touch. The intention of the hands is to listen quietly. The benefit in this is that we therapists follow the craniosacral rhythm and the tissue’s own inherent wisdom to show us what needs to happen for release. The only place that the client feels deeper pressure is in the subocciptal area, right where the spine and head meet. And that usually feels pretty great. Headaches disappear when this part of the neck relaxes.
While Craniosacral Therapy works with the brain and the spine as the primary focus, the listening leads the therapist to all the places in the body that are also contributing to stress patterns. In Actuality, Craniosacral Therapy is a whole body treatment that helps the client to feel totally integrated and complete. Often headaches dissolve, but this is often because of the opening and reconnection between the head and the thoracic inlet. More blood and fluid flow between the head and the body which facilitates better circulation.
Craniosacral Therapy addresses SomatoEmotional Release too. For therapists that have trained in this, it is a very supportive tool that helps clients to have a conversation with the unconscious and conscious. Deeply set patterns in the body can often released when the stressful emotions arise and have space to be felt. Sometimes our stories from the past are held in the tissues. Freeing ourselves into the present can be very healing.
If you are suffering from frequent headaches, and associated pain- look for a gentle approach that actually helps.
Tension Headaches
Craniosacral Therapy looks to bringing more balance throughout the whole cranium. But it is also brings more awareness to the whole. Bringing a deep sense of peace and relief to those who live with headaches.
