Healing a Workplace Injury

Nonfatal injuries that occur in the workplace keep many employees away from the job.

Traditional medical approaches such as medication, surgery and physical therapy may not totally support the recovery of a workplace injury.  Most Massage Therapists that I have spoken with agree that there can be residual effects for their clients that make it difficult to go back to work if not addressed holistically.  Healing touch and presence is where massage can enhance the return process to health.

Work injury

Massage help for Work Injuries

Massage Therapy is much more than a simple rub.  For starters, clients often like to talk during sessions when they feel stressed.  Everything in a session is confidential and the client is able to get things off their chest.  Anxiety for one is a common side-effect of workplace injury and by feeling safe to feel deeply in the body with care and trust can really help.  After work related incidences, clients can feel off kilter.  Being gone from work or believing that your job may not be there when you are ready to go back can be frightening.  Just having a person to listen in an intimate zone is healthy.  While massage therapists do not replace psychotherapy, many learn basic techniques to hold space and to allow for the avenue of expression to open while applying massage techniques.  The wisdom of the mind, body and spirit is able to align more easily with this type of approach. Craniosacral Therapy, in particular through the Upledger, is supportive to this process for those who are experienced with SomatoEmotional Release Therapy.   Most types of trauma can be helped with mindful massage and bodywork.

Physically,  massage relieves tension and creates healthier dialogue within the body.  Massage Therapy helps decrease pain transmitters.  When clients are in less physical pain,  it’s easier to find your way out of depression and lack of sleep.  Most adults need between 7-9 hours of rest to function optimally.  Without it,  employees may feel fatigued, unable to cope with stress, have difficulties making decisions and feel less creative.  Quality sleep will help you to get back to work and perform more easily.  Feeling better mobility and range of motion from therapeutic touch will brighten your day too!

As a Massage Therapist for about 17 years,  I have spoken to many people who have received massage and other types of bodywork.  For them, almost every person said they would like to receive more massage therapy, but it isn’t covered by insurance in a lot of instances. This most likely means that people who have gotten hurt,  run into the same challenge.  The cost is prohibitive to them in their thinking.   But I’d like to remind people that massage is not just a luxury.  Massage Therapy is one of the greatest ways to relax and unwind.  Letting go of your stress patterns is essential to good health.  When you find a good parter for you to help you to relax with therapeutic means, life just feels better.  So whether you have been injured at work or are experiencing stresses from everyday life,  imagine a world where you chose to feel better.

Sharon Hartnett LMT

Serving the Columbus, Ohio area.

740 966-5153

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

For more info on massage:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/massage/art-20045743

 

 

Massage- Feel It

Massage Therapy helps you to feel rather than think.

In the big picture, it doesn’t matter why something happened or to blame a circumstance for your unhappiness or difficulties. Reliving anxiety situations keeps your attention there.  If you want to feel better, focus on getting into the flow of your life again by relaxing and feeling the pleasure of being here now.

One way to change things around is to find a good Massage Therapist who can help release any tension you feel in your body. It’s very difficult to be happy when you are feeling in pain or uncomfortable.  When you find a massage therapist who had great contact and listens to your needs, almost nothing can feel better.  Getting out of those vicious cycles of stress from work, relationships or whatever else is bothering you is key to finding your joy again!

massage therapy

massage therapy

If talking about things isn’t doing the trick,  try a sensory approach.  By working with the soft tissues, massage helps reduce stress hormones such as cortisol and increases endorphins.  Endorphins help us to feel connected and at ease, even happy.  Most clients walk away with a sense of wellbeing after a good massage.

Making massage a regular part of your Self-Care routine may do wonders for your mind, body and spirit.  It’s much more than a luxury, it’s a proactive choice to bring you back to center.

Sharon Hartnett LMT, CST, SI, BHSP

740 966-5153

Massage Therapist Columbus, Ohio

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

Massage and Cool Things

My guess is that many Massage Therapists go to school and get into business because they love massage and it’s a great way to help people.

For me, massage is very healing and there are many ways to approach working with an individual.  Massage Therapy is very creative and artistic in its own right.  Over the last 17 years, I have studied different techniques, and then used the best where I felt there was overall improvement or enhanced my clients’ lives in an important way.  As with most massage therapists,  I have learned to integrate many different journeys into the moment.  How a massage looks and feels is a dance that happens as therapist and client dialogue, whether it is in silence or whether it is through conversation.  It’s the presence, the listening and contact which makes the session worthwhile or not.

A good Massage Therapist will visit other LMT’s and continue to get educated in their specialties and beyond.  Often I enjoy going to therapists who do myofascial therapy, stretching and with whom I can feel a connection.  Recently, I was down in Florida and I decided to visit a new Spa there, called Cloud 9.  It was new and they just opened.  Although I usually prefer the types of techniques I use, I was open.  It’s important to grow in our work so that we can deepen within ourselves and better help our clients.  That’s my thinking anyway.  I took my massage with a therapist named James.  He was quite good.  With a combination of myofascial therapy and Thai massage, I felt pretty terrific after my hour.  I was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the session because I am rather picky as most massage therapists are.   And then- I partook in the water flotation station there as an added treat.

Floatation tanks in Columbus aren’t well known.  In fact,  I think there is one or maybe two business there-and I am not sure how many people know about them.  So I will explain to you what it’s like.  The client enters the room and showers well.  Next, the subject goes into the encapsulated vessel that is pitch blank to then lies down and floats in about a foot of epsom salt water that is very concentrated.  In the water, which is matched to skin temperature, he/she floats for an hour in the dark.  In that wonderful silence and lack of other stimulation, the body and the brain being to relax and let go of all the busyness in the world.  The more often one goes, it gets easier and easier to just float in that dark empty void.

floatation tank

 

I have been in Columbus working about 2 years on/off.  Sometimes in Florida, but I just closed my business there in order to stay more full time in Ohio.  While I usually prefer the contact of a person for a session, this added avenue of experience presents clients with a whole new way of self-discovering deeper peace and relaxation. But I do have to say, that it was exponentially better in combination with a great massage.

I hope one day to meet some other therapists that have the same dreams as me to create a very sacred environment spa which is focused on feeling well, but  specialize in therapy rather that fluff.  And surprisingly, the flotation spa really helps release our locked up thinking.  Although I don’t offer these at this time,I like to keep clients updated on the newest feel good therapies. So for now, if you get a chance to add a floatation spa to your hands-on massage treatment,  try it out.  My experience in Florida  was spectacular and I went back.

Sharon Hartnett LMT

740 966-5153

 

 

 

Healing Old Trauma with Massage

Love with Contact is the Best Healer

Children are naturally trusting and they have basic needs. They look to adults for acceptance, love, nourishment and so much more so that they can grow and thrive in this world.

Yet statistics say that child abuse is reported every 10 seconds.

In most cases, children adapt and survive many cases of abuse and trauma, but that doesn’t mean that the mind and body have processed the whole experience/s. So as adults, often in a trusting massage relationship, emotions and sensations come up as the body eventually reveals old patterns that may have developed as a defensive reaction. Traumas can include something like falling off a bike as a child, being scared by a loud argument, re-occurring abandonment situations or being terrorized by an event. Most people have touched into some type of trauma whether small or life impacting and developed strategies to cope with life without being fully aware. But through a series of mindful massage and bodywork the body’s own intelligence can set the pace for healing. Not only in the body, but the sensory information is related to the brain as well to restore balance.
Opening the human heart through gentle contact to heal past trauma.

 

craniosacral

Craniosacral Therapy

As a massage therapist, Sharon Hartnett LMT, has trained to work with trauma at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and the Upledger Institute to understand how the body holds and can release trauma in safe environment. She has worked with soldiers, victims of rape, neglected children and adults who face physical challenges due to accidents in their childhood. In the massage therapy sessions, counseling is not provided , but what does happens is that dialogue can help the process open up. As the younger “child consciousness” show up organically, support and love are held without judgment. When the younger energy is acknowledged, accepted, cared for, and allowed to feel deeply, often the process is able to complete and no longer circulates as anxiety and reactionary systems anymore.

Sometimes, when talk therapy doesn’t help with a physical challenge, going to a trained massage therapist LMT, who trained in ethics and in holding a compassionate container to support their clients in this process, will be the way out. When no other avenues have helped you to integrate, the body intelligence may be able to complete your healing through the mind, body, and spirit connection.

It’s important to say that this is more of a self educational type of session as Massage Therapists are not licensed psychologists or such. The Massage Sessions are one of Self-Discovery that has helped many to find inner peace and love.

All information shared during sessions is confidential.

For more information, contact Sharon Hartnett LMT in Columbus, Ohio   740 966-5153

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

 

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Resolving Carpal Tunnel Syndrome symptoms…

It’s interesting to me that clients who come in with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome have been told that the main issue is a pinched nerve in the wrist that causes pain, tingling and numbness.  While this is true on one level as the median nerve is compressed, many massage therapists and bodyworkers have found that the shoulder and neck posture or tightness are also main contributors to this condition. A holistic approach is often needed if the problem does not go away on its own.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Some of the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

  • Pain
  • Tingling
  • Numbness
  • Weakness
  • Stiffness
  • Swelling

Carpal Tunnel Syndrom is a gradual process of dysfunction.  Repetitious movements can be a big contributor. The smartest thing to do for the easiest healing process is to face it straight on when experiencing the above symptoms at the onset.  If you treat for it immediately by resting or stopping activities that aggravate it, it may go away on its own in a couple of weeks.  Working with a PT and/or a Licensed Massage Therapist can also help alleviate pain and support the nervous system as well.  By working with the shoulder girdle, scapula, neck and ribcage, arm and wrist- basically anywhere from where the spinal nerve leaves to it’s end facially,  the client can often find a reduction in symptoms in a few weeks.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can take you out of work.  Consider listening to your body when you notice any of the above imbalances.  Being proactive is always easier than being reactive!

Sharon Hartnett LMT, CST, SI

Columbus Ohio Massage Therapist

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

(740) 966-5153