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.   

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.

Water at the Heart of Intelligence: aquatic bodywork and heart coherence

Heart intelligence, subtle energies and the link with aquatic healing practices

by Sara Firman

Perhaps the greatest contribution of the HeartMath Institute  (IHM)  is its success in promoting recognition of the importance of heart-centered intelligence, especially in the corporate world and in education.  This has influenced my own work in water offering a form of aquatic bodywork based on Watsu® .  In At the Heart of Watsu Harold Dull, its creator, wrote beautifully about this.

From a more clinical perspective, aquatic bodywork has some well-established physical and physiological benefits for heart health.  In a valuable commentary Peggy Schoedinger, PT, and Watsu instructor, summarized the effects of aquatic bodywork on the heart and nervous system as follows. [Go here for more.]

At a thermoneutral pool temperature of 34-35 degrees C,  heart rate decreases and cardiac stroke volume increases.  Although heart rate decreases, the net effect is still an increase of more than 30% in cardiac output [1,2].  In addition,  Watsu-style bodywork has a balancing effect on the  autonomic nervous system (ANS) [3]. 

Researchers (like IHM) are finding that ANS imbalance is the basis for numerous disease processes and impairments, such as the increasingly prevalent fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder.  People who are trapped in their fight/ flight/ freeze response experience a physiological imbalance the effect of which is rather like pushing on the accelerator and the brake simultaneously.
 
In my experience of aquatic bodywork over several years, I came to recognize that there exist also far-reaching and little understood 'energy' effects in the healing potential of water.  In particular, the expanded awareness or altered state of consciousness that is possible with aquatic bodywork  is less-often acknowledged.

I believe, like the Institute of HeartMath, that

studies designed to advance our understanding of water's role as a bridge between the worlds of energy and matter will provide a crucial link between the realms of science and spiritual phenomena, bear profound implications for the betterment of human and environmental health, and may well help lay the foundations for a newly emerging scientific paradigm (IHM Research Center )

 

Writing case studies for aquatic bodywork (Watsu® and other modalities)

 

There is a great need for sharing and gathering of information on what is being done in our aquatic bodywork sessions, and of the successes and failures in treatments given. Though our therapeutic practice is becoming increasingly popular and well-known, there are few reported case studies to support its effectiveness.

This doesn't have to be a dry and tedious exercise as these recent anecdotal reports posted on the Aquatic Therapist social network by aquatic bodyworker Laura Srygley show: Some inspiring accounts of watsu sessions.

In the previous post, I shared a powerful case study from David Sawyer, the developer and creator of Integrative Aquatic Therapy (IAT).  David's work with shock and trauma in the water illustrates many of the themes that were presented in the earlier series of posts on Trauma healing.

I'm hoping this will give you an idea of what is possible for your own work with others in the water. 

Freeing the body in water: inspiration for self-care with Liz Koch

Aquatic bodyworkers, like all bodyworkers need some good practices of self-care if they are to be able to offer their best. 

For example, Ai Chi was originally developed by Jun Kono to provide an effective warm-up practice for Watsu practitioners.  The stance, breathing patterns and easy flow provide a good way to initiate the strong but relaxed presence needed when giving a session. 

There is also a wonderful wind-down practice, demonstrated (by the 'psoas lady', Liz Koch) below.  It offers an unstructured way to release any remnant tensions in your own body and also let go of the energy of the person you have just worked with.

Cultivating awareness in giving an aquatic bodywork session

A few years back, I practiced aquatic bodywork in my own private spa retreat setting where it was often possible to tap into the natural surroundings of peace and timelessness.  This hovering dragonfly reminds me of what that is like.  Likewise, an otter or dolphin might image creativity and playfulness.

Still, whatever the environment, we also need to create the same sense of integration or centeredness by our own presence and way of being with someone in the water.  It can't be done by acting a part but  rather in being truthfully aware of our own needs and actions, how those can impact another, and what to do with that.

As someone who tends to be absorbent of the emotions of whoever I am with, I've found it helpful to explore ways to safeguard my own boundaries while still staying present and responsive to those whose pain (emotional and otherwise) I wish to alleviate or at least not exacerbate.

Here are some guidelines I have used to help remind me about  creating an unseen but nonetheless tangible 'healing space' in my aquatic bodywork practice. Perhaps they will help you also in increasing the steadiness and strength of your therapeutic presence before, during and after each aquatic bodywork session. 

Please feel welcome to share your own ways of doing this below too.

Creating your own weblog for aquatic bodywork (Watsu-related)

Are you floating your ideas and practice out on the web?

In the last year or so, there has been a significant increase in aquatic bodywork/ Watsu/ aquatic therapy websites on the internet. As the public become more informed about our field, the ways in which they search and what specialties they are looking for, are naturally becoming more sophisticated.

For practitioners, just as important as a business card is a web presence that demonstrates your professionalism and also expresses your own unique style and offerings.  This can be a daunting task, especially if you're a self-employed, home-based or roving practitioner or work in a setting where Watsu is still not well known.

Most practitioners don't believe they'll have much time to spend working on keeping up a website because they're out there doing the work.  But I'd like to suggest that if you create (or get someone to create) a site that you can then easily interact with and access, it'll provide a great resource for you and your visitors.

Homo sapiens meet H. empathicus meet H. aquaticus

Homo sapiens meet Homo empathicus* meet Homo aquaticus

Elsewhere on this website, I have written that '[t]his is the story of my journey from science to soul through water'.  You'll find plenty of evidence for my ambivalence about its insistent pull, yet science has never quite let go of my tail.

A glance through my Special Series of blogs posts on Aquatic esoterica and Healing or therapy? will illustrate this quite well.    I suspect that it sometimes leaves a few people wondering where exactly I do stand - for or against?
 

 I'm lucky to have found a fellow explorer in my partner Joe Landwehr, also a scientist by training, whose healing modality is astrology.  He recently posted a series on his blog entitled Why astrology is not a science which had a Forum of his colleagues up in arms for weeks.  

You've got to be brave to question the power and omnipotence of science.  Many will assume you are anti-science and by definition lacking in cognitive intelligence or deluded by magical thinking.

So, when I came across Larry Dossey's brilliant lead article 'A Challenge to Science' (Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing July/ August 2010 (Vol. 6, Issue 4, Pages 197-214) - it felt as if all that I'd wanted to say or have said was right there in front of me.

There can be no better way to share where I stand with you, than by asking you to read that article.  

Extract:

For many years I've kept a file I call The Letter [write's Dossey], in which I save the written communication and e-mails I've received from premed and medical students over the years. There is a common theme among them. They describe how the student is dissatisfied with the overwhelmingly materialistic, physically oriented educational system he or she is in. Can I suggest a medical school where a broader view is supported? Where faculty members understand and address the evidence for the role of meaning and mind mediated effects in healing?

  

 Larry Dossey quotes Jeremy Rifkin, the man who coined Homo empathicus, frequently in his article.  For more fascinating insights read also Empathic Civilization: When Both Faith And Reason Fail, Stepping Up To The Age of Empathy.

Extract:

If empathic consciousness flows from embodied experience and is a celebration of life--our own and that of other beings--how do we square it with faith and reason, which are disembodied ways of looking at reality and steeped in the fear of death.

Finally, to bring us back to the water, here is a short extract from my own writing, Liquid in Motion: water as healer, on the embodied experience that is aquatic bodywork for me:

Aquatic bodywork has shown me that  I have a deeply resonatory nature, a melodious underwater life, in which all my experiences are embedded like beautiful overtones.   There is much scope for both scientific research and creative expression in the experience of aquatic bodywork.  Perhaps through such studies we can reflect back to water the life-giving properties it so freely lends to us.

See also Water Bridges a Therapeutic Gap

 

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  This work by Sara Firman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

 

Building a body of evidence for aquatic bodywork: drop by drop

 

Where does aquatic bodywork stand in the wellbeing, healing and medical arenas?  Recently, I highlighted some special series of posts on Aquapoetics, one of which was: Healing or therapy

It's a topic that interests and challenges me as I continue to explore what I most value about my experience and practice of working in water in this way.  And I admit that I'm often disappointed by the apparent lack of interest or challenge among most of my colleagues.

With evidence-based medicine becoming a buzz word of increasingly signficant regulatory influence in the spa world and in integrative health practices, it's helpful to know what David Sackett et. al. had to say in the British Medical Journal back in 1996.

Floating through pregnancy with aquatic bodywork

Water was ever my salvation
I dreamt of birthing a child
Into a deep blue pool
Glistening
With love

(Sulis)

We begin our lives afloat in the womb and an aquatic existence is part of our evolutionary origin. Perhaps this is why immersion in water, especially warm water, is so soothingly familiar. Wild water delights us too, as is so clearly visible in the above photo of a friend and her first beautiful baby. 

Recently, some truly astonishing aquatic work with babies and parents has come to my attention.  From Russia at the Birthlight Center, from the UK at Aqualight Babies and from France at Blue Vitae.  All these websites tell the story in images far more effectively than words ever could.

Just as this mother's story does too:  Pregnancy is heavy!

The extract below comes from an article I wrote when I began my own  aquatic bodywork practice.  I wanted to express how valuable this work can be at every stage of our life cycle.  For example, I've always loved seeing how a big grown man may experience his origins when floated in the water!