What are people saying about their Watsu sessions?

Ten years ago if you'd mentioned 'Watsu' to a spa goer or an aquatic physical therapy patient, they might well have said 'What?'  That's no longer the case. 

In this post I look at what people saying about Watsu.  Can we, as practitioners, contribute to the conversation to enhance and safeguard the perception of our work?  Could we glean some tips for promoting Watsu by reading blogs about it?

Watsu is listed in spa vocabulary and an increasing number of spas offer it as a signature treatment;  it is also a popular training modality offered at most of the National Aquatic Specialty Certificate Conferences organized by the Aquatic Therapy and Rehab Institute.

More and more Watsu (and related aquatic bodywork) practitioners have websites to showcase their work.  However, only a handful regularly blog about their own work.  You will occasionally find receivers blogging about their experiences though.

Reading and commenting on blogs by those who've received aquatic therapy is a great opportunity for practitioners to: 1. learn about receiver's experiences, and 2. share information and insights that might deepen or enhance those experiences.

For the last couple of years I have been intensively trawling the internet for blogs* about or including aquatic therapy (especially Watsu and its relatives) written by practitioners, receivers, or others with an interest in the topic  (whether health- or culture-related).

In December 2008 and March 2009, I gathered together some of these gleanings in what I called Aquatic Blog Carnivals.  You can read those two collections here: The water web - a blog carnival; Aquatic healing arts in the blogosphere.

Since then, I've been sharing other examples, as I came across them, with colleagues on the Aquatic Therapist Ning.  Here is a compilation of just a few recent ones with extracts and links to the full sources. Tip:  I keep abreast of these by setting up Google Alerts. 

Read the rest of this post for more on ...

Feeling safe and supported during Watsu
Seeing colors during Watsu
A first Watsu experience
Another Watsu experience
Good publicity for Watsu

What do your clients say about your sessions?
Have you been thinking about creating your own aquatic blog?

... get some inspiration at the end of the post.

 

Feeling safe and supported during Watsu

This blogger has Lyme disease.  She writes that  she was initially very reluctant to try a Watsu sessions but that the way in which the session was introduced verbally started her off feeling utterly supported.  You can read the full version here on the blog Just Till It Under 'Watsu' (April 2010).

 Extract:

I leaned back into Heidi at the opening of the session. And, I surrendered. I felt the grief from all the days, months, years I've felt unsupported. And, there I was, in full trust. Completely supported.

I wasn't afraid. I was held. She floated me. I trusted the flow completely. Within seconds of the enormous rush of grief, I was at peace. And, I was completely safe. I knew, without a doubt, what death was like. I remembered.

[Note: When I posted this, I did not realize that May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month.  The above writer's blog is a great resource for learning more about this poorly understood condition and what it is like to live with it.  Please take a look: Just Till it Under.  See also the Comment below.]

 Seeing colors during Watsu

Here is an extract which describes challenges with breathing underwater and the wonderful array of colors some of us have been lucky enough to enjoy during a session. It comes from Kim in Amazonas Brasil.  You can read the full version on his blog Kim with Light and Love (March 2010):

Extract:

Next day session three. This time in the middle of the day, sunny. It was very nice everytime I came to the surface this time, with closed eyes, I could see everything orange and yellow, shades of light red and dark orange furthest away from the sun, then as I took the long deep breath before being turned down into water colors became blue and green while being upside down.

Mark felt the relaxedness in me and we both noticed how I could hold my breath very long now, just letting out slowly but certain one by one small air bubble. Holding it, keeping the air with this calm and stillness.

Sometimes things felt funny, in a good way. Had to laugh a little when I came to the surface. Mark both push, pulls, shakes and moves me, sometimes holding me hands, sometimes the feets. hips, legs or body. I had many thoughts about healing.

A first Watsu experience

  This one is from a blogger whose passion is Food-Fitness-FreshAir (January 2010), writing about her first experience of Watsu at Harbin Hot Springs.  Like the receiver above, she had initial problems with breathing. 

Extract:

At the beginning of the session, I actually had a little trouble relaxing into the massage and felt a little short of breath. Andrzej told me that this was because the water was a little warmer than usual and probably because I had a subconscious fear of letting go of the control of my body. I took a brief break to hop out of the pool and dunk myself into one of the cold spring pools to calm and cool my body down, and then afterwards returned to the Watsu session. Following the quick break I was able to finally let myself relax, and I then entered one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

 
Another Watsu experience

This account of a Watsu experience was written by an artist and doctor I know, who has a very big internet following and is very likely to inspire her readers to try experiences she has enjoyed and benefited from.  Read the full post here.

Extract:

 

I am at Harbin, the birthplace of Watsu (water shiatsu) and it seems criminal not to experience this delicious and unique type of body work- but I am scarred. I received Watsu once before, when I was newly postpartum and my father had just died. It was, at once, one of the best and worst experiences of my life.

Good publicity for Watsu

My final example appeared on a blog advertising the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia to visitors in August 2009. Once again, the account provides some fascinating insights into what clients notice and how they describe their experience.  Read the full post here.
 
Extract:

I closed my eyes and surrendered to the movement, the music… and curiously felt a rising of emotion moving through me like a tide, carrying along old thoughts and memories, very old feelings from a long time ago. They just rose and rose and rose… and then dissipated, leaving me limp with wonder and peace. It was a strangely intimate and yet incredibly private experience

....

On the Spa web site, it was written that it was impossible to describe Watsu because the treatments vary from person to person, based on the physical ailments or issues they are experiencing, their comfort in the water, how motion affects them, etc.

Do you agree?


What do your own clients say about your sessions?

In another post this blog 'Aquatic bodywork: receiver's descriptions', I've given some examples of responses from receivers of my own aquatic bodywork sessions to the questions I include in my follow-up surveys:

• How would you describe this aquatic bodywork to someone who has not experienced it?

• How would you describe your first experience of aquatic bodywork?

Have you thought of asking your own clients questions like this? 

What other questions might you ask to learn more about what people actually experience?


And finally ...


Have you been thinking about creating your own aquatic blog?

If you already have a website (or are thinking of creating one), adding a blog to it can make your offerings really come alive. 

Update (2011): Creating your own blog

Subscribe to Aquapoetics Now and look out for future posts offering more on this topic for our particular specialty - aquatic healing and therapy.

More related posts on Aquapoetics:

• The water web: a blog carnival
• Aquatic healing arts in the blogosphere
• Aquatic bodywork: receiver's descriptions