614 653-8111 Sharhartnett@aol.com
Massage Your Feet at Home

Massage Your Feet at Home

How Can You Massage Your Feet?

One of the concerns expressed by some clients who get massage, structural integration and craniosacral therapy is that after a few days, their bodies start to go back into the old habit of movement.

My observation, especially after working with the fascia for so long, is that people continue to change after the session. Once the fasica has been touched or manipulated in any way, it changes the rest of the continuous web of connective tissue that envelopes the body.  After a 10 series of SI, the body has been taken into new places from different angles and various degrees of depth to bring the body back into structural integrity. The body is then in a work of process for many months while the body learns to integrate in a new way.

However, during sessions, while the work in my personal opinion, can be life altering, not everything can be “fixed”.  Often clients do come in wanting to feel great after a session or two with strong expectations.  While Massage and Bodywork can do wonders, it does take time create the habits that result in your personal posture.  So, it is helpful to think that it takes time and also personal responsibility to shift imbalances into correction. The body will shift and remold if you receive good work and re-educate the physical with new movement.

What I would like to recommend today is to take a look at your feet.  If you are walking around on the earth with stiff feet, how are you going to create positive change in the rest of your body.  We are so accustomed to wearing shoes for running, walking, playing that we have forgotten how to feel the natural movement of the naked foot on the ground.  In order to find balance in your body, explore your foot and how it rests on the ground.  Listen to the stiff areas and become mindful of how you relate as a whole to your feet.

Once you have a good idea of how your feet feel and move, look for ways to improve mobility, range of motion and flexibility.  An easy thing to do is to stand on one foot and build strength in the line of your leg.  Personally, I like to practice foot relationship on a body roller that is cut in half.  They are relatively inexpensive, easy to play on, and only a few minutes each day can make a profound change in how you walk.

Massage in Columbus

Free your feet!

 

Each morning, start your day by placing your foot on this roller and explore with different positions to release foot tension.  Notice how the alignment in your whole body starts to shift as your heels come down or your arch begins to relax. You might feel so much better than you feel like your feet have been massaged for an hour:)  There are also good sport classes such as gyrotonics and tai chi that will help you reconnect to the feet better as well!

When you visit your favorite Massage Therapist or bodyworker, she will have a much easier time getting into the foot and the more relaxed tissues of the leg.

Massage is a great way to awaken and open the body, but taking personal responsibility on a daily basis for physical change exponentially impacts the body in a healthy way.  This foot exercise is an easy way to begin self-care for your posture.

If you have any further questions, call Sharon Hartnett LMT for a free 15 minute phone consult.

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett LMT 

740 966-5153  

For a ball roller, look at:

www.optp.com

 

Find a Structural Integration Therapist in Columbus

Find a Structural Integration Therapist in Columbus

Looking to find a Massage Therapist for Structural Integration (SI) in Columbus, Ohio?

You have come to the right place.  Sharon Hartnett LMT has over 17+ years doing Structural Integration Therapy.  In the late 1990’s she found a local Rolfer in Mclean, Virginia who introduced her to the 10 series.  She fell in love with the positive postural changes and increased movement in her body that she decided to study Structural Integration herself.  She has been providing SI sessions with clients ever since.

Sharon Hartnett, Structural Integration

Relieve Chronic Pain and Find Better Posture

Learn how  Structural Integration Developed

Dr. Ida P. Rolf, a pioneering biochemist began to develop Rolfing in the 1930s after suffering from spinal arthritis. The direction of her work was focused on the role of fascia and unwinding tension patterns around muscles and joints in order to release pain and discomfort. While working in the 1960’s teaching her fascial work at the Esalen Institute in California, the term “Rolfing” was coined.   Her original thinking and experience of manipulating the connective tissue brought students from around the world.  She taught these practitioners how to support the body to function efficiently so that the force of gravity could flow through and support both the form and functioning.   Soon later, the Rolf Institute was found.  And as with most great work, different schools have branched out, extending the original work with same intention and yet with individualize perspectives.

 

Why Structural Integration Therapy?

Structural Integration is a system of bodywork that will encourage the body back into alignment and structural integrity.  Clients walk away feeling more freedom in their movement, a sense of lightness, greater flexibility, relief from chronic pain and more energized.  The Structural Integration model views the person as a whole that is self-regulation and self-organizing.  Between sessions, clients are given exercises to help them continue their work out into the world.  the body knows where it needs to go in order to find maximum motion.  It just needs to be re-edcuated how to do that so it can relate more optimally in fluidity.  After 10 sessions, clients take time to allow the work to continue and integrate with better posture.

 

Is Structural Integration Uncomfortable?

When you go to visit any type of bodyworker and therapist, it is a good idea to communicate your needs right from the start.  The therapist has tools and experience working with clients, but ultimately the client benefits the most by expressing what his/her level of  tolerance to pressure.  Each person is unique in how they like to be touched.  What Sharon does is ask,  “If you can feel the sensations and feelings that arise during the session without having to tighten or react, than allow yourself to do that.  However, if anything hurts or feels like it is too deep, please say “stop” or “lighten up”.  The client’s wishes are always respected.  With this said, often the fascia has historically tightened up in areas of the body around dysfunctional patterns.  There are time when that tissue is lengthened it will be uncomfortable.  Most clients though are so happy with the results and reconnection to their body’s that they return over and over with relief and commitment to themselves.

 

Is Structural Integration for Me?

Sharon offers free 15 minute telephone consults to answer your questions:  703 509-1792

Serving the Eastern side of Columbus, Ohio

www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

 

 

 

 

 

Structural Integration in Columbus

Structural Integration in Columbus

What is so great about Structural Integration (SI)?

You touch into one aspect of the fascia and you are relating to the whole body~ Sharon Hartnett

Structural Integration work is focused on working with the fascia. When a therapist touches into the fascia, she is not only working locally, but on the whole continuous membranous three dimension envelope that covers and transverses through the human body from head to toe.

Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration is a holistic approach to massage and bodywork. All the blood vessels and nerves move through this connective tissue that is composed of mostly collagen and elastin.  What this means is that both the circulatory and nervous system are greatly affected by fascial work not only because of the tissues at hands, but also because with just the most gentlest of touch, the whole web is affected on many levels. When there is an injury, compensation, twist or rotation,  the body’s fascial system will migrate in the direction of ease and show the therapist what needs to happen to release unhealthy tensions.  By following the motion of the whole web under our fingers, the whole body can decompress, unravel, soften, rehydrate and discharge stagnant fluids.  At other times, while still listening to the body’s pull, the therapist can move through restrictions until the tissues surrender and allow deeper access. Eventually, with patience and a healthy respect for touch and trusting the body’s intelligence, both the therapist and the client can gain access to the core.

For the client, Structural Integration brings about long-term changes, especially when the client learns to listen to her own body and make new changes. SI helps to reduce chronic pain, increases sports performances, and supports better functioning through changing the the body’s form.  The Whole picture approach to Structural Integration is what optimizes the body’s resilience and ability to restore itself and to become reinvigorated.

Structural Integration by Sharon Hartnett LMT
The Continuous Fascial Web…

 

Reach with new length and ease~

Structural Integration has been around the Columbus, area for a few years.  Now, Sharon Hartnett LMT is bringing her style of the work locally.  If you are interested, please call 703 509-1792 for a free 15 minute consultation.

Both offices:

6797 N. High St.  #333

Worthington, Ohio

and

5564 Mink St.

Johnstown, Ohio

Ask for Hot Stone Massage…

Ask for Hot Stone Massage…

Ask for Hot Stone Massage…

One of my loves in massage is aligning the body to relate easier in relationship to gravity.  I am a big fan of Ida Rolf’s work because she has placed a light on the horizon for massage therapists to help their client’s find better posture.  The quote below sums her insight of structure very clearly:

“Some individuals may perceive their losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in their back, others as the unflattering contour of their body, others as constant fatigue, yet others as an unrelentingly threatening environment.  Those over forty may call it old age.  And yet all these signals may be pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored: they are off balance, they are at war with gravity.”

–Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.

Sharon Hartnett
hot stone massage after a structural integration session feels good…

 

Structural Integration is such a beautiful modality of massage therapy.  It offers opportunities than can’t be found in a basic Swedish massage.  It works with lengthening the fascia and restoring structural integrity for more longterm results.

At the same time,  while I love the Structural Integration work, it does entail some deep feeling of letting go and touching into resistance.  So I like to offer an addition 15 minute massage with hot stones at the end of a massage session to give the body time to integrate and receive what has happened during the session.  If you are a person who enjoys hot stone massage, you may request the additional time for $20.00 extra.

Warm it up...