It's an effort. My fourteen month old is still in the corner of our bedroom and does what you describe - standing up and staring at me through the dark. Oh, and screaming her head off.
Things have got better though. The most she does it is once in a night these days and many nights she saves it until 5/6am so is effectively sleeping through.
It took work to get to this point, but was a huge effort. When she woke, I would lie her back down, and she would scream, so I would kneel down next to the cot, holding her hand and talking to her until she calmed down. Tough, because this could take an hour or more... exhausting.
Worked though, night wakings went down from at least three per night to the three times a week stage we're at now. And lucky for me, we're moving soonish and she'll have her own room after Christmas.
CC might work. I'm not keen on it myself, and couldn't do it, but I really think it's harder to do when you're in the same room because baby knows full well that you're there.
Do you co-sleep at all? I found in the early months that this helped us both to sleep better, but by the eight month stage, we were both just keeping each other awake, and we were both tired all the time.
Sorry not to be more helpful.