Finding Home in Your Body: Craniosacral Therapy and Body Image
Understanding the Promise of Craniosacral Therapy
CST is a gentle, hands-on modality rooted in osteopathic principles. Practitioners place soft contact on the skull, sacrum, and spine, aiming to sense and support subtle rhythms of the craniosacral system that underlie cerebrospinal fluid flow.
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Why Being Present in Your Body Can Shift Self‑Image
Body image challenges—such as dissatisfaction, disconnection, or distorted perception—often come from a fragmented relationship with bodily experience. Emerging research emphasizes how pain, stress, or trauma can distort the brain’s body maps, making people feel disembodied or alien within their own skin bodyintelligence.com. Somatic therapies (like Somatoemotional Release, Hakomi, and Somatic Experiencing) work through resensitizing interoception (the process by which the body senses, interprets, and integrates signals from its internal organs and systems. ) and grounding clients in body sensation to gradually shift these internal narratives YouTube+5en.wikipedia.org+5Mapleton Craniosacral Therapy+5.
How CST Could Support Feeling More at Home in Your Body
By encouraging a slow, sensitive balancing of the to body rhythms, CST may help individuals gradually reclaim physical presence, reduce somatic tension, and foster a subtle, embodied reassurance: this is my body; I’m here. This experience might ease self-critical mental loops and cultivate a foundation for improved body valuation.
Craniosacral Therapy emphasize calm, centeredness, and self-awareness through its gentle touch, deep stillness, and nervous system calm reset. Just being held in a neutral and compassionate manner changes how a person relates internally. The techniques add another whole dimension to transformation and the healing process.
With the skills taught at the Upledger Institute, I support clients in deepening their connection with their body’s inner wisdom primariy through the craniosacral system. This touch-based work helps to nourish, cleanse, and protect the central nervous system—bringing calm and grounding, especially for those struggling with self‑image or discomfort in their bodies. It also can help to shape healthier boundaries with the body, different understanding of gentleness, kindness, and saftery, as well as a different understanding of the sacredness of the physical body.
For individuals whose bodies still hold trauma, these sessions—especially using SomatoEmotional Release® (SER)—can gently release and integrate emotional and physical stress with more ease and peace upledger.co.ukjournals.sfu.ca+13upledger.hu+13craniosacralis.hu+13. As someone begins to tune more deeply into their physical presence, breath, and soft, conscious touch, old emotional patterns and beliefs can shift, alleviating the pressure of body image distress.
When someone learns to experience their body as a safe, reliable place—learning to say internally, “I trust my body and how it works for me”—internal narratives around self-esteem and self-worth begin to change.
My training background includes two years of Hakomi training, advanced certification from the Upledger Institute, and also the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, grounding me in trauma-informed embodiment work. Adding the Upledger SomatoEmotional Release techniques to that framework has enabled many clients to heal and flourish—from those struggling with anorexia, distorted body size perception, to a full spectrum of body image experiences.
If trauma has left you feeling disconnected from your body, I invite you to explore gentle embodiment practices in a safe, supportive environment. Learning to become attentive to your body’s signals can help you gradually feel more comfortable, at home, and at peace in your own skin.
Sharon Hartnett CST-D, Hakomi, SPI
614 6538111
Serving the Columbus, Ohio Area
www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com