Aquapoetics

The year ahead on Aquapoetics: 2012

Perceiving the sun in the midst of the rain;
Ladling out clear water from the depths of the fire.  Zenrin

Aside from other intriguing ideas about 2012, it is also the year of the Water Dragon in the Chinese zodiac.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if this manifest in progressive healing of people and planet, with fiery dragon energy being put in service through the gentleness of water!

What better way than through aquatic bodywork?  As the start of the Water Dragon year approaches (4 February), I've been taking time to review my mission and to renew my purpose regards the healing art I'm deeply passionate about, aquatic bodywork.

This Aquapoetics weblog was launched in 2008 just over 3 years ago to share information and insights that relate to aquatic bodywork with other practising or aspiring aquatic bodyworkers and those interested in receiving aquatic bodywork.

I aim to inspire creative inspiration in both practitioners and receivers; to promote open-minded research and artistic expression in the practice of aquatic bodywork; and through this to reflect back to water the life-giving properties it so freely lends to us.

I hope I have succeed in some of this, and always welcome your feedback, suggestions and comments on posts or by email.  In the coming year, there may be fewer new posts on the blog but rest assured that this is not a reflection of any dwindling commitment.

I am focusing on resuming active practice - which is actually the source and inspiration for much of what you read on this blog - and also on consolidating my writing in book format.  At the end of this post, you'll find a list of my ongoing offerings on Aquapoetics.

Through Aquapoetics on Facebook and Aquapoetics on Twitter, I will continue to share information, insights and links.  I invite you to keep in touch with me there.  And, if you are not already subscribed to this blog, you can do so by following this link: Subscribe to Aquapoetics.

Please let others know about Aquapoetics by sharing this post too - Thank You!

Aquapoetics in practice

In my own aquatic bodywork practice - Aquapoetics - I aim to use the water experience to explore the potential for facilitating creative and insightful personal discovery. For me, aquatic bodywork is the ultimate movement meditation.

Aquapoetics is an aquatic art form designed to encourage creative inspiration and individual transformation.  I draw on Watsu® (water shiatsu) and its derivatives, and focus on encouraging each person to dance the body poetic, to listen to their own body's poetry.

I am committed to continuing to develop my own practice of aquatic bodywork,  while also sharing my passion for this wonderful healing art in the wider community of those interested in water-based therapy through this website Aquapoetics: Creative Aquatic Bodywork.

My dream for the future is to join with like-minded others in creating a retreat that offers healing sabbaticals incorporating modalities that come broadly under the umbrella of 'earth-based somatic psychotherapy'. Water and aquatic bodywork will be central. 

That dream is unfolding.

Who is behind Aquapoetics?

For those of you who do not know me and have not had time to explore the pages on this website (see links in the left-hand column) or my profiles elsewhere on the web (also in the left-hand column), I thought I would share some brief background here.

My name is Sara Firman (aka Sulis).  My interest in massage and aquatic bodywork began in 1989 when my dear friend Sally Bryant introduced me to Watsu in the remedial pool at the sports centre in Bath, UK. At that time I was a freelance editor of scientific publications.

Almost 10 years later, having trained in massage and practiced in a variety of clinical and spa settings, I had the opportunity to learn Watsu and other related aquatic bodywork modalities at Harbin Hot Spring in California.

I introduced Watsu to Bath, where it is now a signature treatment at the luxury hotel spa I managed and at the city mineral spa (where I worked during summer 2007). On moving to California in 2000, I co-created an aquatic bodywork practice called WaterJourneys.

From 2002 to 2007, I co-owned and operated a private spa-retreat specializing in aquatic bodywork in the Missouri Ozarks.  When the partnership dissolved in 2007, Aquapoetics emerged as my own practice and approach to this transformation aquatic healing art.

Below is a summary of some of my current offerings.  If you know of anyone else who may be interested in these, please share.  For those who do want to follow this up, here is a link to an inquiry form.  To ensure a speedy response you may also like to Email me.

Current offerings from Aquapoetics/ Sara Firman

Contracts at warm-water facilities as a versatile and experienced practitioner of aquatic bodywork, including assistance in setting up customized aquatic programs.

Mentorship for aquatic bodywork practitioners seeking to deepen their own practice and create a path of right-livelihood and service that is suited to their own nature.

Workshops for practitioners emphasizing intuitive skills in the practice of aquatic bodywork and encouraging documentation of the benefits of this water-based modality.

Writing services - commissions or collaboration on projects related to aquatic bodywork, including website creation and content.

Speaker for conferences or meetings, healing centers or training schools on topics related to aquatic healing practices.

May the Water Dragon bless our endeavors in 2012!
 

AquaPoetics: Creative Aquatic Bodywork: experienced and professional services that demonstrate commitment to high ethical and environmental standards, while promoting creative and innovative approaches that contribute to the evolution and recognition of aquatic bodywork for health and wellbeing.   

Aquatic bodywork: patterns of healing

I'm often thinking about the interface between science and art and whether they can meet without one drowning out the other.  Aquatic bodywork, with its inherent beauty of form and experience, might be one such meeting place.

Recently, I came across an article in the Institute of Sport and Remedial Massage (UK), Newsletter, March 2011(16). Its title was 'Underwater Massage Ballet' and its subtitle 'Exploring the muscle reprogramming potential of Watsu'.

Aside from the scientific tone of the subtitle, much of the article was an inspiring and experiential account of a session the author received from aquatic bodywork practitioner Stef Cerf.

The following paragraph leapt out at me. Ian Tennant wrote:

I was curious to find out more from Stef about the elegant movements used during the session. ‘I work with archetypal shapes such as the figure of eight, vortex, circle, and sinusoidal wave when steering clients through the water,’ explained Stef. ‘There is a force behind shapes and these somehow resonate with us.’ This left me wondering whether his treatment could help align a body with the universal forms, shapes, and patterns which are so commonly observed in nature.

As far as I know, the person who first brought these wonderful insights about shape to aquatic bodywork was Alexander Georgeakopoulos, a dancer who developed the aquatic modality called Healing Dance.

Alexander has the visual and sensory poetry you'd expect of a dancer. He wrote:

Healing Dance recognizes the power of the body mudra and expands it to include archetypal patterns not decreed by religion, but with an even deeper resonance rooted in the psyche. These postures include arching, the fetal position, self-embracing, reaching with one arm, opening both arms to sky or to the sides, and holding the hands in prayer position or over the heart. The aquatic receiver, even though not intentionally assuming these positions as in mudra practice, may discover a personal meaning once placed in them. Just as we offer movement, we offer body mudras with an understanding of their potential to see if they have relevance for the receiver. We hold a space for meanings to emerge. [Source]

Movement practitioner, Emilie Conrad writes of the ways in which: 'ALL fluids of the body - whether circulating blood, the tides of cerebrospinal fluid, the pump of the lymph system, the net of membranes or the swirl of viscera and brain - function as fundamentally ONE undulating stream of intelligence. [Source]

In the last year especially, her Continuum newsletters have referenced innovative studies of water and how these inform our understanding of our own watery bodies. The new field of Holistic Science offers more in exploring these ideas than conventional science alone:

For anyone who loves floating: inspiration for water fun

Most children enjoy water play: it's a sensory extravaganza and a sensational learning experience. One of the things I love about aquatic bodywork is that it can bring back these memories of joy and bliss. The movements are liberating: floating, submerging, skimming, spinning, rolling, bobbing, and - if you're using Floatli® - frog jog.

Recently, aquatic exercise expert Pamela Morse sent me some Floatli® - a set of floatation devices she designed - to try out. I hadn't had any instruction before using them, though I did take a peek at the short video on her website. What a wonderful time I had trying to work out what to do and laughing at my own aquatic antics!

Boundaries of possibility: creating safety with Integrative Aquatic Therapy

 

 

Beyond bodywork skills, training in somatic psychotherapy (combining body-based and verbal interventions), together with the ability to recognize and work appropriately with possible early developmental issues in a client, can greatly enhance the healing potential of an aquatic session.

When, as adults, we experience disproportionate symptoms of stress,  it may be that our primal brainstem memory is being triggered.   It has been suggested that adult anxiety, panic attacks, fear, depression and other symptoms, relate to womb, birth or other very early experiences.

Studies in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychotherapy indicate that how we respond to stress as adults is laid down before birth, long before we had words to express our pain.  Fetuses and babies have consciousness and memories, and react specifically to their experiences.

Those experiences may not have been preventable or avoidable (parental financial stress, medical emergency at birth, unexpected pregnancy, and many more possible issues) but they can still have effects ranging from mild to major upon a new conception, developing fetus, or newborn child.

The ability to work skillfully and nonjudgmentally with these very early expressions of unmet basic needs in adults in the course of giving aquatic bodywork sessions is something that is generally overlooked.  The consequences of not having any understanding of this might actually be harmful in some cases.

Below is an outline of a session I recently received from David Sawyer the developer of Integrative Aquatic Therapy.  This session established a safe space, a self-empowering starting point, for a week of exploring prenatal themes in aquatic bodywork.