Water, touch, and social communication are three significant elements for a healthy and balanced nervous system.
Just as a contracted or lethargic muscle has difficulty feeling itself and the environment, so do we when we navigate the world from a place of chronic tension, restlessness, reactivity, or sensory and emotional numbness. When space opens up for us to breathe, let go, sense, feel, and choose, a whole world of connection unfolds, both within ourselves and with our environment. We can acknowledge pain in the body while also finding joy within it, learning to flow with life as it comes, free from manipulation, forgetting, or survival strategies. Our internal capacity expands, fostering resilience that carries over from our experiences in water to our daily lives.
Through curious exploration and awareness of the body, we gain a deeper understanding of the processes within us and how to navigate them. This enables us to integrate everyday events into the flow of our lives rather than being overwhelmed by a constant sense of struggle, avoidance, or collapse into exhaustion and helplessness.
In encounters with water and another person, incorporating sensory experiences of movement and touch allows us to slow down and embark on a journey of remembrance. Water can evoke a somatic memory of our primary embryonic experiences in the womb, a developmental stage where we had yet to form ideas about ourselves and the world. It provides a space of freedom not often accessible in everyday life, from which creativity and intelligence can emerge.
In a safe environment, water can reflect everything that has formed within us, become stuck, or frozen in time, bringing new movement to the layers of our being and facilitating change at the cellular level.
A treatment involves techniques from both above and below water, incorporating principles from approaches that integrate the body and mind, along with modalities for addressing stress, anxiety, trauma, regulation, and well-being.
