freeing the body in water
Why aquatic bodywork?
Water has been used with healing for millennia. Our composition is around 60% water. Being suspended in water removes the effects of gravity, creating an exquisite freedom where our bodies can move in ways they cannot on land.
Deep relaxation, stress relief, reduced pain, and increased range of motion are just some of the benefits one may experience.
Come discover and explore with us the both unique and restorative world of aquatic bodywork.
What to expect
Before starting your aquatic session, we learn about your expectations, physical, mental and emotional states, pertinent history and anything else that can help support you in the session.
After entering the warm pool, we may attach floats around your ankles or knees. In chest deep water your practitioner will begin using one arm to support your knees and the other arm to support your head, literally cradling your body. We might also choose to float you on a head pillow with less close contact. As you relax, we move you through the water, exploring movement, stillness and flow. Throughout the session, the practitioner gently holds, rocks, stretches and moves the receiver who relaxes in the water’s womb-like embrace. In the above water sessions, the face stays above water, although your ears are often underwater. A more advanced session will bring you underwater with a noseclip and clear instructions on working with the breath.
Here are some descriptions of the aquatic bodywork Styles we might combine in a session:
Healing Dance is a powerful and beautiful aquatic technique developed in 1993 while Alexander George studied Watsu from its founder, Harold Dull at Harbin Hot Springs in northern California. Following the course he began experimenting and improvising in the Harbin warm pool. Alexander was influenced not only by his professional background in ballet and Trager Work, but also by the ways in which the body and water interact in movement. It incorporates hydrodynamic waves, spirals and spatial mandalas. The spaciousness of it creates flow, freedom and lightness. The practitioner ‘dances’ the receiver, who has an experience of grace and beauty,
sometimes leading to deeper emotional releases.
WATA or WaterDance was created by Peter Schröter and Arjana C. Brunschwiler, both of Swiss origin in 1987. It is a technique in which the receiver (wearing a nose clip) is gradually guided underwater in a three-dimensional gravity. Extensions, stretches, flexions, dolphin-like movements and snake-like rhythms release not only on the physical level, but can work on deeper levels. It uses the healing properties of warm water along with the calming effects of suspended and fluid breathing. Psychic tensions, blockages of emotional and psychological origins, may soften or even disappear entirely.
Watsu is an aquatic modality devised by shiatsu therapist Harold Dull at California’s Harbin Hot Springs. The union of water (wat) and shiatsu (su) birthed watsu in 1980. It interweaves seamless stretches, meridian work and stillness,
