Aquatic bodywork as a form of somatic psychotherapy

 

As water takes the shape of the pipe it flows through,
so our lives take the shape of our thoughts.
- Joseph Murphy, in The Power of Your Subconscious Mind


The field of body or somatic psychotherapy includes a wide variety of innovative practices.  Some of these come out of psychotherapy with an added but often cautious inclusion of touch and movement.  Others, like some ways of practicing aquatic bodywork, give the body center stage and include limited talk analysis. 

Aquatic bodywork can be practiced as a purely physical form of manipulation in the safe and supportive medium of water. It also offers opportunities to work more holistically with someone since immersion in warm water, of itself, seems to facilitate body-mind integration.  However, few  AB practitioners are trained to work intentionally this way unless they bring outside skills to their practice.