About Watsu
Watsu®, (WATer ShiatSU)Watsu® is a passive form of Yoga, Shiatsu and Hydro-therapy and combines elements of massage, joint mobilization, muscle stretching and dance. Watsu® helps increase motion range and has profound effects on the neuro-muscular system. It also soothes the Sympathetic and enhances the Parasympathetic Nervous Systems. While being floated, cradled, rocked and stretched, a range of emotions can arise and be released into the process of continuous flow.
Watsu® quietens the mind, relaxes the body and opens the heart. You leave a session able to face life out of the water, reprogrammed, with greater equanimity and flexibility.
About Penelope
Penelope discovered Watsu in 2007 and fell in love with it. She has explored many other warm water aquatic bodywork modalities along the way, with focus on Watsu and OBA (Oceanic Bodywork Aqua)
2011: Watsu Practitioner completion
2013: OBA Practitioner
2013: Woga teacher training
2017: ITC Watsu teacher training
She is a registered practitioner with the WABA (Worldwide Aquatic Bodywork Association)
Benefits of Aquatic Bodywork
Most people find WATSU to be “blissfully relaxing.” Physiotherapists, massage therapists, and other bodywork practitioners all over the world use it for big variety of treatments; treating stress, chronic back pain, orthopaedic problems, arthritis, sleep disorders, fibromyalgia, to name a few. So there is plenty to appreciate about WATSU on a purely physical level. But one characteristic makes WATSU and other aquatic bodyworktherapies stand out from massage and so many other forms of bodywork, it gives you the opportunity to go beyond the physical. When the body relaxes so deeply – as it can in the warm weightlessness of a water session – the mind can cease its chatter. And when the body and the mind are quiet, what you’re left with is the fundamental essence of your being. Your soul. Your spirit. The real you.
Concrete benefits of aquatic bodywork therapies
Psychological, emotional, and mental level effects:
• Profoundly relaxing
• Creating joy that restores your inner source of health, energy andvitality
• Induces deep states of gratitude and ecstatic connection with life
• Deepens your relationship with yourself, your partner, family and community
• Helps resolve traumas associated with water, birth and near-drowning experiences
• Improving efficiency by creating more calmness and focus etc.
• Beneficial for hyperactive children
• Lowering stress level for overworked adults
• Tension release (mental, emotional, psychological)
• Developing a non-verbal heart communication
• Developing qualities such as acceptance, tolerance… of oneself and others
• Feeling bliss and harmony
• Experiencing unknown often fascinating aspects of oneself
• Allows to discover untapped pools of creativity and inner peace
• Diving into different dimensions of one’s body and being
Physical effects:
• Relaxing
Post traumatic rehabilitation after fractures etc.
• Tension release
• Re-connecting with one’s body
• Increased flexibility
People with special needs:
1. Immediate benefits with first session:
• increased range of motion
• muscle relaxation
• decreased muscle spasm
• reduced pain
2.Long-term benefits after multiple sessions
• improved sleep pattern
• better digestion
• increased healing and immune system response
• decreased anxiety
• reduced physical and emotional pain
Overview of Aquatic Bodywork Techniques
The mother of aquatic body work was created by Zen shiatsu therapist Harold Dull in the early 1980’s in US and Japan.
Watsu is a gentle form of body therapy performed in warm water, (around 35oC.) It combines elements of massage, joint mobilization, shiatsu, muscle stretching and dance. The receiver is continuously supported while being floated, cradled, rocked and stretched. Moments of stillness alternate with rhythmical flowing movements, which free the body in ways impossible on land. The warm water relaxes the muscles and supports the spine. With this support and without the weight of the body, the spine, joints and muscles can be manipulated and freed in a way unique to water work. The effects include a very gentle, yet deep stretching and a release of muscular and joint restrictions, along with a state of deep relaxation, which encourages the release of stress and tensions.
WATSU® (WAter ShiaTSU)
OBA® (Oceanic Bodywork®Aqua)
Oceanic Bodywork® Aqua is a form of bodywork, that takes place in a warm water pool (34 – 35 °C). It combines elements of soft stretching movements, massage and joint release as well as energy- and breathwork in a unique way above the surface and a deep relaxation on a physical and emotional level can happen.
Specially designed movements allow your whole spine to swing and your energy can flow again. The radius of your joint movements becomes wider and your whole body can be moved in a playful new way because of its weightlessness in the water. Consciousness and perception of your body changes and you can perceive it with a heightened awareness. Chronic physical pain as well as emotional tension can be released. Oceanic Bodywork® Aqua nourishes the soul and invites you to get to know the healing energies of the water in a totally new way. Chronic physical pain as well as emotional tensions can be released. Meditation can happen in a very easy and natural way. Oceanic Bodywork® Aqua was developed by Nirvano Martina Schulz and Kaya Femerling at the end of the eighties, who first taught and developed it in Pune, Arambol and Zürich under its original name of „Oceanic-Aqua-Balancing“moving out from Osho’s rebalancing land technique.
Born in 2004, in Auroville, India. Created and thought by Dariya and Daniel out of love and need to share and spread the wonders of water work in and from India. It is a form of body work practiced in warm water, based and inspired mainly by the forms and qualities of Watsu, Aquawellness and Healing Dance. Creating spaces for deep relaxation and nurturing of body, mind and spirit.