(614) 653-8111 Sharhartnett@aol.com
Chronic Pain Relief in Columbus, Ohio

Chronic Pain Relief in Columbus, Ohio

by | Jan 3, 2026 | change, Craniosacral Therapy, healthy

If you’re living with chronic pain and you’re in Columbus or Worthington, I want to say this first: pain isn’t the problem. It’s a signal.

Most people try to push through pain or ignore it. Some rely on medication to get by. Sometimes that helps short-term. But chronic pain usually doesn’t resolve that way. It gets stored in the body. Over time, things tighten, movement changes, and the pain becomes part of daily life.

What actually helps is learning how to listen to the body and meet the pain in a way that is right for you.

Why Somatic Work Helps Chronic Pain

I’ve worked with people in pain for nearly 30 years. What I’ve seen again and again is that chronic pain doesn’t just live in muscles or joints. It lives in the nervous system, the fascia, and the tissues themselves.

This is where somatic work—like craniosacral therapy, gentle bodywork, or Hakomi-informed approaches—can make a real difference. Instead of forcing change, we meet what’s there and allow the body to respond.

Medication can dull pain. Somatic work helps the body reorganize so the pain doesn’t need to stay.

Pain Is Different for Everyone

There isn’t one kind of chronic pain. Everyone carries it differently. Body structure, stress, emotional history, and past injuries all play a role.

That’s why I don’t follow a formula. In my practice in Columbus and Worthington, I meet each person where they are. The body tells the story. My job is to listen. Most of the work is listening and gentle touch, but sometimes I do go deeper at points if that is what the body calls for. For some people, I will refer out if they need a wonderful massage therapist. One I recommend locally is Mia Mogavero. If I feel someone needs more active motion, I’ll add to the healing team and highlight people like Kelsey at Shift Motion. She offers great pilates classes which can help get movement, balance and strength in alignment. I am always looking toward my client’s real needs first.

Listening Changes Everything

Especially in the beginning, it can be important to talk about the pain—how it started, what it feels like, what makes it worse or better. Pain wants to be acknowledged.

After that, I listen more with my hands than with words. I follow the tissues, the fluids, and the subtle movements in the body. Over time, the body begins to show us what it needs.

Some people like quiet sessions. Others need to talk. Both are fine. There’s no right way to heal.

Chronic Pain Is Often Old Pain

Most long-term pain isn’t just about what’s happening now. It’s layered. Old injuries. Old stress. Sometimes old trauma.

Earlier in my career, I worked more assertively through Structural Integration. Change often happened quickly. Now I work mostly with craniosacral therapy. It’s gentler. Slower. Built on trust. For many people, it leads to deeper and more lasting relief.

When Trauma Is Part of the Picture

Some people don’t feel much in their bodies at all, especially if they learned early on to disconnect to survive. In those cases, we go slowly. Sometimes touch isn’t the starting point. Sometimes it’s simply sitting, listening, and establishing safety.

Healing doesn’t need to be forced.

Restoring Movement and Ease

The body is meant to move. Every tissue has its own rhythm. Chronic pain often shows us where that movement has been restricted—commonly in the neck, the cranial base, or the fascia.

When those areas are supported with care, things can soften. Movement returns. Pain often settles on its own.

The Way Through Chronic Pain

Pain isn’t something to fight. It’s information. It’s asking for attention and support.

If you’re looking for chronic pain relief in Columbus or Worthington, Ohio, my approach is gentle, respectful, and led by your body. You’re always in charge. We move at your pace.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D
(614) 653-8111
www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

Click Here to find out more about Craniosacral Therapy

Finding the Best Somatic Therapist to Help Resolve Your Chronic Pain and Discomfort.

by | Nov 28, 2025 | barbara brennan, concussion, Craniosacral Therapy, Energy Healing, grounding, hakomi, healing, meditation, migraine, Structural Integration, trauma, upledger institute

Click Here To Find Out More about Somatic Therapy
Healing Touch with Craniosacral Therapy

Finding the Best Somatic Therapist for Chronic Pain and Discomfort

I’m a craniosacral therapist working with an integrative somatic approach in Worthington, serving Columbus, Ohio. “Somatic” simply means I work through the body. I draw on decades of training and experience to help you feel better and more at home inside your own body — with ease, with peace, and often with a more natural flow of energy by the time you leave. When you book a somatic session with me, I want you to feel the value and quality of the work.

Symptom Relief: What My Holistic Therapy Can Help With

Through mindful listening and skilled, gentle touch, I work with people dealing with:

The body is deeply intelligent. With the right support, it moves in its own healing direction. If you’re wondering what this work actually does, I explain it plainly in What Does Craniosacral Therapy Do?

My Background as a Craniosacral and Somatic Therapist

My path started with energy healing in the 1990s. About 27 years ago I became licensed in massage therapy, though I didn’t practice massage for long — I invested instead in learning and practicing Structural Integration, and later attended and taught at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. One thing led to another: I studied Hakomi, then trauma-informed work with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. As the work evolved with my clients, I moved in the early 2000s into Craniosacral Therapy at the Upledger Institute and Visceral Manipulation at the Barral Institute. Today I’m certified at the highest level Upledger offers: Diplomate (CST-D). You can read more about my energy healing work and visceral manipulation on their own pages.

Why I Wrote This

When I searched for other therapists in the Columbus area, I found a lot of confusing marketing. I felt I had to speak up, because you — as a paying client — deserve to know what you’re getting when you call and book. Interview by phone and get a clear picture of credentials. Someone may rank at the top of a search for a modality they’ve never actually trained in. There’s also a big difference between a person who took one weekend class and someone committed to years of training and practice. And when someone markets craniosacral therapy as a kind of massage, that isn’t accurate. It’s not massage; it’s a whole other system. I explain that difference in somatic massage: what it is and how it differs from a regular massage.

My Recommendations

  • If someone advertises as, say, a visceral manipulation practitioner, ask about their training and experience. Are they being upfront?
  • If you want an expert craniosacral therapist, ask whether they’re certified — and at which level.
  • If you want a manual therapist trained in body-centered psychotherapy or trauma-informed work, ask which school they attended.

My hope is that when you search, you get accurate, useful information, so you end up in “hands of integrity.”

Ready to feel better? I’m Sharon Hartnett, a Diplomate-Certified Craniosacral Therapist (CST-D) through the Upledger Institute, with about 30 years of experience listening to the body and helping it heal. My office is in Worthington, Ohio, and I serve the greater Columbus area.

If you’re curious whether this gentle work is right for you, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation. Call or text me at (614) 653-8111.

Learn more about somatic therapy and trauma-informed healing, read answers to common questions about craniosacral therapy, or find out how to choose the best craniosacral therapist for you.

Best Craniosacral Therapist in the Columbus Area

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

 (614) 653-8111

Text: To learn about my Craniosacral Therapy services, visit my  my Main Page Here.   Link

 

A More Holistic Approach to Pain|Worthington Ohio

by | Nov 19, 2025 | barbara brennan, craniosacral, Craniosacral Therapy, Energy Healing, hakomi, healing, healthy, Structural Integration, upledger institute

Craniosacral Therapist Sharon hartnett Holistic Approach to Pain Medicine

A More Holistic Approach to Pain — Worthington, Serving Columbus

I’m Sharon Hartnett, a craniosacral therapist in the Columbus, Ohio area, and I offer an integrative, whole-body approach to healing pain.

Often enough, people don’t stay home when they’re sick to take care of themselves. Often enough they ignore pain because they’ve been taught to push forward at all costs. But pain usually finds a way to speak, and eventually it can disrupt your whole life.

Pain is a personal experience. How we relate to it is individual — based on our biology, but also on the psychological and social feedback we’ve received. Learning to ignore it won’t make it go away. Stored, maybe, but still alive in the tissues. That’s how chronic pain takes hold.

Craniosacral therapy is a form of manual therapy that listens to the body — to what’s being shared, and to what’s quiet. It’s in the melding between two people, in a relationship built on trust, that connection and support can shift the dynamics of a person’s life toward health. I explain what that looks like in What Does Craniosacral Therapy Do?

Allowing pain to be present and felt while being held through the craniosacral system can be rather miraculous. It can transform our perception of our body, and of our whole life. The body is a doorway to learning and discovering self, and the release and integration of our essential self is deeply empowering. For the courage it takes to face pain, there’s real reward.

Dealing with and facing pain can:

  • Improve your day-to-day mindset
  • Help relieve tension and suffering
  • Help you reach future goals

I’ve been working with people for about 30 years. Human connection, understanding, and support are vital to our everyday health. Whether your pain comes from an old injury, headaches, or stress that has settled into the body, there’s a gentler way through.

Ready to feel better? I’m Sharon Hartnett, a Diplomate-Certified Craniosacral Therapist (CST-D) through the Upledger Institute, with about 30 years of experience listening to the body and helping it heal. My office is in Worthington, Ohio, and I serve the greater Columbus area.

If you’re curious whether this gentle work is right for you, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation. Call or text me at (614) 653-8111.

Learn more about craniosacral therapy in Columbus, read answers to common questions about craniosacral therapy, or find out how to choose the best craniosacral therapist for you.

Click Here to Find Out How Craniosacral Therapy can Help You!

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

(614) 653-8111

To learn more about my Craniosacral Therapy services, visit my main craniosacral therapy page.

Brain Healing Through Craniosacral Therapy: Manual Biomechanics for Individual Recovery

by | Jun 21, 2025 | concussion, craniosacral, Craniosacral Therapy, healing, Healthy Body

Craniosacral Therapy for Brain Health: Gentle Healing Through Mindful Touch

How I use Upledger craniosacral therapy and hands-on listening to support brain healing and a calmer nervous system — Worthington, Ohio, serving Columbus

So many of the people who come to see me are tired of being pushed, adjusted, and medicated. They’re looking for something gentler that still works. Craniosacral therapy (CST) is that. It works with the craniosacral system — the delicate membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect your brain and spinal cord — using touch so light you may wonder whether anything is happening. Something is.

What the Craniosacral System Is

Your craniosacral system has its own slow rhythm, separate from your heartbeat and breath. It runs from the bones of the skull, face, and mouth all the way down to the sacrum at the base of your spine. Cerebrospinal fluid moves through it, nourishing the brain and spinal cord and carrying away waste. When that system is restricted — after a fall, a concussion, long stress, or old injury — the brain is living in a cramped, congested environment, and it shows up as headaches, fog, poor sleep, anxiety, and exhaustion.

How I Listen With My Hands

I use about the weight of a nickel. With that light a touch, after more than 30 years of practice, I can feel the gentle expansion and contraction of the cranial bones, the flow of the fluid, and the pull of the fascia throughout the body. I’m not correcting anything. I’m following what your body is already trying to do and giving it a quiet place to do it. I can pick up the rhythm anywhere on the body, and the Upledger 10-step protocol gives me a whole-body map to work from, but most of what I do is listen for where you’re held and wait for the tissue to let go.

A lot of the work happens in stillness. Some of the most powerful moments in a session are the quiet ones, when the body finds a stillpoint and reorganizes itself. This isn’t energy work — CST is grounded in anatomy and physiology — but the presence I bring to it matters as much as the technique.

What Craniosacral Therapy Does for the Brain

  • Better fluid flow and circulation. Releasing restrictions lets cerebrospinal fluid and blood move more freely around the brain, which is how the brain feeds itself and cleans house.
  • A calmer nervous system. The work switches on the parasympathetic “rest and repair” side of the nervous system, so the harmful effects of chronic stress on the brain start to ease.
  • Deeper sleep. Sleep is often the first thing clients notice improving, and sleep is when the brain clears and consolidates memory.
  • Emotional release. Stored tension — physical and emotional — has room to surface and settle.
  • Resilience. Working directly with the central nervous system helps it function better and bounce back faster.

Why the Relationship Matters

Your nervous system can’t heal while it’s on guard. The quality of attention I bring — gentle touch, no agenda, no force — gives your system permission to come down from high alert and into the state where repair happens. That’s why this work is so well suited to people recovering from trauma, chronic stress, or neurological injury, and why it’s safe for everyone from newborns to the elderly.

Every Brain Heals Differently

Some people feel a big shift in the first session. Others notice gradual changes over weeks. Some feel warmth or tingling on the table; others feel almost nothing until they realize a few days later that the headache didn’t come back. All of that is normal — it’s your body’s own intelligence leading the way, at its own pace.

In my practice I’ve seen craniosacral work support people with chronic headaches and migraines, fibromyalgia, and persistent musculoskeletal pain; people managing anxiety, stress, and trauma responses; and people recovering from concussions and mild traumatic brain injury who were still struggling with headaches, dizziness, fog, and emotional ups and downs long after the scans came back “normal.” Progress with brain work tends to be cumulative rather than dramatic, which is why I always start with an honest conversation about what to expect.

Why Certification Matters

Many practitioners take a weekend course and add “craniosacral” to their menu. There’s a real difference between that and a therapist who has spent years in advanced training, mentorship, and clinical practice. I’m Diplomate-certified (CST-D) through the Upledger Institute — the highest level available — because this work deserves that depth. When you’re choosing someone to work with your brain, ask about certification and ask how long they’ve been doing it.

Ready to feel better? I’m Sharon Hartnett, a Diplomate-Certified Craniosacral Therapist (CST-D) through the Upledger Institute, with about 30 years of experience listening to the body and helping it heal. My office is in Worthington, Ohio, and I serve the greater Columbus area.

If you’re curious whether this gentle work is right for you, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation. Call or text me at (614) 653-8111.

Learn more about craniosacral therapy in Columbus, read answers to common questions about craniosacral therapy, or find out how to choose the best craniosacral therapist for you.

Still Hurting After an Accident? Craniosacral Therapy May Help You Recover

by | Jun 19, 2025 | better posture, concussion, Craniosacral Therapy, migraine, mind body & spirit, trauma

Craniosacral therapist using light touch to help a woman recover from injury-related headaches and tension"

Still Hurting After an Accident? Craniosacral Therapy May Help You Recover

If you’ve been in a car accident, taken a hard fall, or suffered a head injury, you might still be feeling the effects — long after the moment has passed.

Every year, thousands of people experience accidents that leave invisible marks. Car crashes. Ladder falls. Horseback riding injuries — I’ve had my own. Some walk away feeling lucky, until the symptoms start creeping in.

Lingering headaches. Jaw tension. Brain fog. Dizziness. Chronic neck and back pain. For many people these symptoms don’t show up right away, and when they do, conventional medicine may not offer full relief.

That’s where craniosacral therapy comes in.

Accidents Are More Common Than You Think

  • Over 6 million car accidents happen in the U.S. every year. Even minor fender benders can cause whiplash or head injuries.
  • 500,000+ people are injured annually in ladder falls.
  • Horseback riding leads to 100,000+ injuries a year — many involving the head, neck, or spine.

Emergency care handles broken bones and life-threatening trauma. But many people are left with unresolved tension or dysfunction that lingers long after the body appears “healed.”

Traditional Medicine Offers Essential — But Sometimes Incomplete — Relief

After an accident, most people turn to:

  • Pain relievers (NSAIDs, muscle relaxants)
  • Physical therapy
  • Rest or immobilization
  • Imaging and diagnostics (MRIs, CT scans)

These treatments matter, and I always want you to follow your doctor’s guidance. But for people living with post-concussion symptoms, chronic headaches, or nervous system overload, the path to recovery can feel frustratingly slow — or stalled. Migraines, tension headaches, jaw pain (like TMJ), and hypersensitivity can persist long after the scans say “nothing wrong.”

Craniosacral Therapy: Gentle Support for Deeper Healing

Craniosacral therapy works with your body’s own rhythm to release tension stored in the central nervous system. Using a light, therapeutic touch — no more than the weight of a nickel — I listen to the subtle patterns in your body and help unwind the areas of restriction or shock that an impact leaves behind.

Craniosacral therapy may help:

  • Reduce headaches and migraines
  • Ease neck and jaw tension after whiplash
  • Support post-concussion recovery
  • Calm the fight-or-flight response
  • Improve sleep, mood, and focus

Unlike forceful manipulation or invasive treatment, this work creates a safe space where your nervous system can reset and self-correct — which matters most when the trauma is still “held” in the tissues.

What the Research Says

A growing body of studies supports craniosacral therapy’s role in pain and trauma recovery:

  • One clinical trial showed reduced pain and frequency of migraines after CST compared to traditional massage.
  • Case studies report improvements in post-concussion symptoms, including dizziness, fogginess, and neck pain.
  • CST has been shown to help with cervicogenic headaches, which often trace back to trauma in the neck.

Larger studies are still needed, but the evidence points to craniosacral therapy as an effective complementary therapy alongside medical care — especially when symptoms persist past the acute phase.

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone

Healing takes time, especially after trauma. It’s normal to feel frustrated when you’re not getting answers, or when people tell you “you should be fine by now.”

Craniosacral therapy offers another way: a craniosacral therapist who meets your body where it is, listens deeply, and supports you gently back into balance.

Ready to Explore a Different Path?

If you’re still hurting after an accident, you’re not alone — and you’re not broken. Your body may simply need the right kind of support to let go of what it’s been holding.

Ready to feel better? I’m Sharon Hartnett, a Diplomate-Certified Craniosacral Therapist (CST-D) through the Upledger Institute, with about 30 years of experience listening to the body and helping it heal. My office is in Worthington, Ohio, and I serve the greater Columbus area.

If you’re curious whether this gentle work is right for you, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation. Call or text me at (614) 653-8111.

Learn more about craniosacral therapy for post-concussion recovery, read answers to common questions about craniosacral therapy, or find out how to choose the best craniosacral therapist for you.