Here’s How to Build Intimacy Safely
Intimacy Within Actually most people who find their way to see me are searching to find a deeper intimacy within themselves. The symptoms they usually express include stress, and quite often pain. These though are truly only layers. With somatic bodywork, the body...
The Quality of Touching Fascia and the Craniosacral System.
Touching the Facia and Craniosacral System from an Artistic Craniosacral Perspective.I love this floral picture of the various layers in color. It reminds me of how when I am listening to the Craniosacral System inside the human body, that the fascia is so closely...
Build a Quality Life Worth Living
Choosing Quality Pain usually gets a bad wrap. However, have you ever considered that Pain is the body’s ally when it comes to telling you something needs to change? As a Craniosacral Therapist, I often touch a person with light or medium pressure, and they’ll...
Find The Best Craniosacral Therapist For You.
To Perform Craniosacral Therapy (CST) at a High Level, takes many years of training. Personally, I studied at the Upledger Institute. I believe that they teach with skill, and provide a great foundation for Craniosacral Practitioners to help their clients heal and...
I AM Here. You ARE Here.
There are arguments for how many universes exist. It's all a matter of perspective and understanding. Which, of course, is still very limited in the human way of thinking. We have no idea what exists out there, although we have plenty of ideas. Still, one thing we...
Embody The Deep Ease Within
Peace Inside Recently, I have noticed that the people on my table find peace and are very deeply relaxed after a Craniosacral Therapy Session. Sometimes, they even fall asleep. When they wake up, they don't necessarily notice huge changes, but they yawn and walk away...
Craniosacral answers the question, “How long until I get better”.
Every person has the capacity to heal. Sometimes physically, and sometimes not. But there is always room to a find more deep connection, peace and a sense of faith of Self. This is the way I approach helping my clients to heal. The modality I primarily use is the...
Embracing Wholeness and Wellness
Knots on the way to WholenessThis morning, I woke up considering wholeness. Dreaming about my early childhood. I was bathing in that quiet serene place where I felt connected to my father’s side of the family. Memories of cousins, and second cousins. aunts, and...
Young people and older people are getting forward neck posture. All the computers and the cell phones contribute greatly. But also all the sitting Americans do. It’s not good. If I had to do it again, I’d start squatting and learn yoga or pilates early on. I’d make them a life practice. But life being what it is in our culture- our postures are often misaligned as we get older. But there are things we can do to have more freedom of motion.
In my opinion, massage can help. But someone who specializes in fascia is the best bet. The fascia wraps around and through everything in the body superficially to the deep. From macro to micro and reversed. It’s a living tissue that contains and keeps us alive and in motion. When we nourish the fascia and help it remember its ability to be vital, pain can disappear.
I have clients in their 50’s and on up. They can hardly move their necks when they first come in. They are told it is arthritis. Well, they may have arthritis, but it’s the tissues that restrict or allow motion. It’s the fluids dancing with the structure that makes the change. If things can start to soften, spread and move, the bones can be adjusted or perhaps move back on their own. It’s like a wrapping. If it’s tight and stiff- how does life nourish or relinquish what it no longer needs?
Of course there are minerals, vitamins, PT and other things which can help (all part of the HELP team), but the fascia is key. People, whose doctors tell them it’s arthritis often don’t talk about the benefits of fascial work. I think this is a big mistake not including it in health protocols. In addition, learning Feldenkrais, Continuum and other movement exercises that are gentle can be essential and really help too. People don’t have to stay stuck or frozen internally. At any age, we can make choices that will help us. It may not correct the issue 100%, but it can make a huge difference.
Friends, move yourself in different ways. Be proactive with your health. We all have habits that aren’t easy to break, and when this happens- there is always someone out there with skill and experience who is willing to help. It may take time and patience. Take care-no matter which route you take.
Sharon Hartnett CST-D
7035091792
www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com
Healing through Gentle Touch
Why Craniosacral Therapy Works
I could get into the whole Craniosacral System (CS), but that may or may not bore you. Not all people are physiological geeks like I am. But I will say, that by Listening well to this CS rhythmic motion that has a deep inter-relationship with the Nervous system, an experienced therapist can help you way more than you ever imagined.
Just today, I had two clients with so much pain. Unlike massage therapy (which I also do appreciate) I didn’t have to go after muscles or do anything heavy handed. Believe me too when I say many people (who are in pain) who call thinking I do massage, ask for very Deep Massage. I used to ask for and do the same thing with Structural Integration too until I learned better. I stopped doing that because, for me, I found a better way. I am not interested in a strong handed approach. I know there is a way to let go of dysfunctional patterns and to help the body integrate longer term without forcing anything.
Some Massage Therapists are excellent at learning to layer, and to help the body to release myofascially. I have my favorite people who are awesome with this. Full of gratitude for their work. However, from my most profound experience, often the best work is done by listening to the CS rhythm and allowing both the fascia and the CSR to lead to long-term change. Why? Because when gentle hands-on listening follows the body’s own inherent self-correcting direction, there is no need for the body to fight aggressive hands massaging. It focuses on the the fascial system that holds everything together, promoting health and motion. No need for defending when the pain feels to raw or too much. The fascia and CS start to unravel old patterns that are no longer needed organically. No more sessions needed feeling very sore and overstimulated.
Just today, my first client seemed astounded how great she felt after the session. Not really my doing, but my support helped. Her body’s ability to relax and let go when reminded how to did the trick! I reminded her, this is the way you feel when you are not holding tension. This is more the real you, interconnected within yourself with fluidity and healthy structure.
My second client was surprised that her arm pain disappeared when It may not have felt like a lot was happening during the session. Although, I could tell she was deeply relaxed:) Pain does not necessarily go away by forcing one to feel pain that is not ready to let go. Pain may show up even in a gentle session, but only because it feels supported enough to slip away. I wonder sometimes if we want to feel our pain pushed because it’s all we know? But I am here to say there is a new way. Also, sometimes what feels like arthritic pain, is actually fascial restriction. This can change and it can heal. Gentle nourishment may be what is needed for neck and back pain to disappear.
Yes, there is still more to align most of the time, and old patterns need to shift cause life happens, but when someone has vitality and it is tapped into with the CSS, it’s amazing how much a body can heal. We can change our posture, and make choices which help us. Sometimes it takes a long time, but each session brings a new awareness of the “essential self” and that does know how to live in ease. Trusting your own body’s “knowing” is so important. Listening to it and allowing others to listen to it with supportive touch shifts the world inside.
So next time, you are thinking you want deep massage that hurts, ask yourself if you really need that? Or might it be better to learn to live with more gentle interactions that show the body what peace feels like.
Sharon Hartnett CST-D
703 509-1792
www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com
