I know that most people don’t even know what fascia is…
That’s why I have been talking about fascia on my blog here and also in Florida www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com. There is so much new information coming out about the importance of fascia and how much the quality of its health determines how we are feeling and living.
If you haven’t ever had a visual of this living tissue, I have found a great youtube clip that I would like to share here:
Fascia may not look like much to you, but this material is what enables you to support your bodies in everything that you do. This continuous fabric of life envelops all the organs, bones, muscles and allows communication and nourishment so that we can exist. This is very exciting that we are now looking closer at and understanding the importance of fascia in our everyday living.
Sharon Hartnett LMT, CST
(740) 966-5153 in Columbus Ohio
Certified Advanced Craniosacral Therapist integrating Structural Integration and CST to help you feel aligned on every level!
Wellness through Craniosacral Therapy is our goal.
Often clients are faced with challenges that take them off track for some reason. It could be unrelenting chronic or acute physical pain, feelings of anxiety, anger and rage that have no place to be expressed, or a sense of disconnect from the rest of life. Whatever your problem is, if you are having a hard time resolving it alone, you have come to the right place to start your journey to Wellness. We work holistically within our practice, and with other therapists and doctors as a team. We are here to help you move toward your goals of health.
How does Craniosacral Therapy Work for You?
Craniosacral Therapy is a system that requires an experienced practitioner to listen to the healing intelligence of your body, and energy field to support your health. By bringing our technical and palpation skills to your session, your body can begin to self-correct and release old dysfunctional patterns. This is accomplished by gently following your body tissues and moving along with your natural CS rhythms to enliven and hydrate the tissues and nervous system. As new information is introduced, a dialoguing process activates more efficient body functionality overall. When the mind of the body gets re-educated, the brain changes too.
At the end of a session, clients often get up off the table feeling relaxing changes working throughout their bodies and thinking. When people talk about the mind, body & spirit connection, it means that by sensing change on any of the physical, emotional, or other aspects of life, one spectrum can support healing onto the other. As bodyworkers, often our intention is to awaken your sense of Source through skilled touch. As indicated by the title of this blog, “Wellness is a connection of paths: knowledge and action.” One system connecting with another opens the possibilities to shift into a more whole way of living.
Wellness
At Lighten Up Therapies we offer an array of different modalities to help you on your journey to Wholeness. Our hope is to help you awaken to your Source. It is in the richness of the inner experience that healing can be activated.
For more questions on Craniosacral Therapy in Columbus, Ohio, please call Sharon Hartnett LMT at:
-When I tell people I specialize in Craniosacral Therapy, they often ask me to describe what it is. While Craniosacral Therapy has been around for a while, it is just now coming more into the forefront as being known as an effective integrative health approach. So in order to bring even more clarity to this field of healing, I want to present this short blog entry. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me, Sharon Hartnett, LMT, for a free 15 minute phone consultation
703 509-1792
Craniosacral Therapy is a light touch type of bodywork that enhances the functioning of the whole body by working primarily with the Cerebrospinal fluid around the nervous system. This is done with palpation from the feet all the way to the head. The name “Craniosacral Therapy” can be misleading because while the main focus is on listening at the cranium and the sacral area, this gentle manual therapy may be approached from anywhere on the body. During a session, a client remains fully clothed and lies down on the table for about an hour. The therapist will follow listening stations and help the body find its own healing course. Craniosacral Therapy’s relaxing and balancing effects may be felt physically, emotionally and spiritually throughout the session and afterwards.
Craniosacral Flow
A Craniosacral Therapist is a listener of the craniosacral rhythm much like a Counselor may listen to the words of a client. As the session progresses, the client often calms down and lets go of stresses and pain. The therapist is guided by the body’s own intelligence to follow any dysfunctional patterns and to help the system to self-correct. The quality, symmetry and strength of the craniosacral movements are strong indicators if there are restrictions or weakness in a certain area. As certain patterns are tenderly touched, unwinding and lengthening may occur allowing healthier interaction between the nervous system and the tissues. Often people who come to a Craniosacral Therapist for a series of sessions after finding no relief elsewhere end up feeling more vitality and release of deep pain patterns.
For a quick Youtube layout of the work, check out one of my earlier teacher’s explanation of the work:
Craniosacral Therapy has been helpful with relieving traumas from the body on many different levels. Once these traumatic experiences are processed in a healthy environment, the person usually feels freed up to live more fully from a clear more positive intentional place.
Sharon Hartnett CST-Diplomate specializes in helping people with anxiety & related issues, concussions, and chronic pain.
Craniosacral Therapy can help you to find center. With any questions, call Sharon Hartnett LMT at 703 509-1792
Let Craniosacral Therapy help you in your Healing Process
An Article on how CST helped Dr. Wayne Dyer
Dr. Wayne Dyer
I enjoyed this article because it talks about the responsibility of self-healing. While is up to each of to take good care of ourselves, it is also in the hands of others that we can go that extra step in remembering the way. The skill of a Certified Craniosacral Therapist/s will help you to discover deeper inner peace, as well as giving your body new information to release painful patterns. The touch is so gentle and the effects are profound.
Craniosacral Therapy is not a one time fix it job. The gift of this work is an ongoing releasing of tension and dysfunction. Proactive work will keep you moving with better health and stamina. Give yourself the gift of Healing!
Call Sharon Hartnett LMT in Columbus, Oho for more information
It’s been almost a year now since my neck surgery. I had a bone spur pressing into my spine and was in excruciating pain. There were not many options, so I made the best decision I could and went in for my first surgery ever to replace my disc.
After the first week or two, I felt very weak in the neck, but the pain was minimal. I said goodbye to my pain medications and hoped to feel back to normal quickly. Well, that did not happen. The doctors say it may be 6 months or so, but it can take longer. And I am here to tell you that if you want to feel better, it is up to you to take responsibility for your own self care. Once the surgery is done, only you can find the best healing plan for you.
Recovering after Spine Surgery
What worked for me
My body had gone out of alignment from a combination of factors. I was a little overweight, I didn’t pay the best attention to my posture while I was working on the table with clients, and my body type wasn’t balanced. So even with the surgery, I needed to form a plan to feel better longterm. I have focused a little on each one of these, but I do make my own personal plan where to spend most of my energy to accomplish a more holistic sense of health and wellbeing.
What I found that worked:
Positional Release
Physical Therapy
Healthier Diet
Exercise
Basic Stretching
Massage, Craniosacral Therapy, and Structural Integration
Yamuna Balls and Rolling
Finding a gentle traction machine to use at home.
Find a chiropractor with a good reputation.
Most of these, you may have a good idea how to follow and do. But I want to talk a bit about Positional Release because rarely do you hear about this form of therapy and it helps wonders. It is so easy and comfortable that you might be surprised at how great the results are and how you feel afterwards.
With Positional Release, all one has to do is put the body into a comfortable position to release pain and dysfunction. If you go see a Massage Therapist, he/she will listen to your body to locate a position that will activate nerve reflexes to relieve pain. As the musculature and joints are stimulated, the body frees up and more range of motion and easier movement become quickly apparent. At the beginning, it is very helpful to see a massage therapist who can hold the positions and teach you how to do this yourself. However, as you start to get a sense of how this works, it becomes something that can become part of your daily practice, like a mini yoga routine without the work.
My favorite way to do Positional Release to support my neck and body is to lay in bed every morning for about 30 minutes and practice what I preach. I will go into spine rotations and prop myself with pillows so that I feel into my discomfort and a minimal threshold. If you use a scale of 1-10, you might want to start with about a 2-3 noticing a little resistance however you place your neck. It is important to listen to your body and make sure you are not resting in anything more painful than that. Movement into a position should be slow and mindful. Once a position is established, just rest there for about a minute or so, while sensing the discomfort either arising or diminishing. If it is too much, move away from it until you do feel comfortable. In my experience, I often lay on my belly and prop the pillow and turn my head at different angles and just rest until I find more ease in my neck.
At the beginning after my surgery, I was stretching and doing exercises, but it was too much. This positional release on a daily basis was gentle enough and has finally started to give me the freedom in movement I want again. It also helps me to trust my body’s own healing mechanisms and work in a range of comfort.
Positional release techniques are often used with other healing interventions that focus on soft tissue. It is great for surgerical aftercare, headaches, postural issues, fibromyalgia and general flexibility. It’s so easy to do and it is empowering because it is something anyone can do at home without any problem.
This January, my first year after surgery will be complete. My neck is feeling much better. The muscles are more balanced and looser. These days, I look at my current health by constantly listening to my body. It is always an ongoing process to stay in self care as it easy to get off-course with the busy schedules so many people have. But our health begins with us and it really is important to start from Within.
Anyone who has undergone surgery, my heart is with you. Listen to your own inner wisdom and the freedom rests there!
Lately I have been getting calls asking if Structural Integration (SI) work is the same thing as Rolfing®.
So in order to clarify this, I have decided to write a short post on the subject. I hope this helps.
The Rolf Institute for Structural Integration
The Rolf Institute® blossomed as Dr. Rolf’s students began to branch out her work into the community and eventually throughout world. The original pioneers of this work called themselves, “Rolfers®”. The school and all its teachers did a great thing in expanding her education and healing work outward.
As with most types of bodywork however, the work began to evolve and different practitioners created their own new approaches to her foundational template. The next generation of Structural Integration Therapist. Thus, the spread of this craft based on fascial work sprouted new wings and took off in different directions.
Currently, there are many schools, some who keep with the original 10 series as Dr. Ida Rolf taught, and others with different formulas. These new practitioners call themselves “Structural Integration” Therapists because they attended the newer schools Also, the “Rolf®” name belongs to the Institute. But- what is similar is that all Structural Integration is originated from the original 10 series. The goal is to create better structural alignment and functioning and ease of movement for the clients.
Ida Rolf’s teaching
She found much success in this Structural Integration work because of the its wonderful ability to re-organize the connective tissues in the body which envelopes and contains all the working muscles, organs and just about everything within. Dr. Rolf established her 10 series “recipe” to be the foundation of this work to address the body from a superficial level to down deep in the core of the body. By focusing on a certain area of the body each session, the body learned how to let go of certain dysfunctional patterns from one week to the other, until they whole body began to relate to itself in a very new way without the habitual stresses from before. This is the whole of integration.
At Lighten Up Therapies in Columbus Ohio and Johnstown, Sharon Hartnett practices Structural Alignment with the basic 10 series as originally taught by Dr. Ida Rolf. She works with the same idea of moving from superficial to deeper, but now with a lighter touch. Communication is key with an ongoing dialogue to make sure the client is comfortable and able to move through the changes well. Connective Tissue massage (fascial work) is beneficial too and may be requested also in hourly sessions. It’s also helpful for people who want to continue their manual therapy on a regular basis.
There are different schools out there and “fascial” work seems to have taken root and is now being taught in regular massage schools. If you are interested though in the “original” series, make sure you ask to see if the work is the same. There are many Structural Integration Practitioners such as Sharon who have not veered off the original intent and have helped clients discover positive change. Dr. Ida Rolf created her work a certain way based on years of experience with great results. The recipe works!
Wishing you the best of finding the best Structural Integration Therapist for you in your area
* This is based on my opinion after conversations with other Structural Integrations who have studied at a variety of schools. If there are other opinions, please add to my blog.
