Engagement and exchange

• The client telephones and arrives. Two human beings meet: they hear each other’s voices and have eye contact. Body language and verbal signals register consciously and unconsciously. The client is forming an initial impression on different levels.
• Watsu is built on trust. A process begins that has the potential to access a deep level of trust. The care and thoroughness with which we verbally introduce Watsu and gather information demonstrate our professionalism. This inspires trust.

a. Beginning at the Wall

• The client leans her back against the wall. By clarifying that the session will also end in this position, we set up a tactile anchor that will prevent ambiguity at the close of the Watsu for first-time receivers.
• The length and degree of intimacy of the verbal exchange at this point can result in a synchronizing effect. Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) has shown that in close physical proximity to each other, a resonance tends to occur between people. The receiver becomes entrained by our psychic emanation, and we as the holder of the space, begin to feel the receiver. You are moving toward each other.

b. Surrendering to the Water

• By using appropriate language in a verbal induction, the development of trust continues. Language that guides and suggests without controlling, offers choices, asks permission and shows respect will access the most personal experience in the Watsu. Techniques of hypnosis may be used without disempowering the client. Following such an approach she is able to go inside without friction.
• The verbal induction proceeds in a manner that evokes relaxation from inside, empowering the receiver and establishing subliminally that Watsu is not something done "to", but rather an experience of inner choosing.
• Watsu has roots in Tantra. A sense of attunement to each other arises as we breathe together and look into each others eyes. Watsu provides a safe and powerful transpersonal setting for bonding. Although this is therapeutically valuable in its own right, attuning to self is in most cases more important for the client than sustaining a sense of unity.
• As giver and receiver stand facing each other, their shoulder and hip joints of themselves assume what is called the "rest position" or the "physiological position". The shoulder joint abducts, flexes slightly and rotates internally. The thigh flexes, abducts and rotates slightly out in the hip socket. In both joints the surrounding muscles and ligaments relax maximally, and at the hip, the femur co-apts snugly into the acetabulum. This position belongs to Tai Chi and Chi Kung and is the basic Watsu stance for the giver. Watsu is natural.
• Sunk to the level of the occipital ridge, only 1 % of the body’s weight remains to be supported by the legs. With the torso flexed slightly forward, this is the most relaxed position for the body while standing.
• The dive reflex activates when the body is immersed in water. This entails enhanced venous return from the limbs and a consequent slowing of the heart rate, (bradycardia) with a calming effect.
• Following our directions, the receiver focuses awareness on how she rises and sinks with the breath. Her breath tends to deepen and slow down, enhancing relaxation. As the receiver senses the water, allowing the body to become more like water, and surrendering to the water, further relaxation occurs.

a. Water Breath Dance

• In the transition to the horizontal it is vital that the crook of the elbow remains firmly in contact with the back of the neck, and that the laying back in the water be slow and sure. The reason for this care is that there are two infantile reflexes (Moro’s reflex and the startle reflex) activated by the sudden loss of support of the head. Although they are apparently no longer operative in an adult, the infant part of the mind is often reached and re-experienced in Watsu. It is conceivable that subliminal fear and consequent distrust could ensue from mishandling of the head, especially later in a session when a deeper level of vulnerability is attained. (Moshe Feldenkreis, author of Awareness Through Movement and founder of the Feldenkreis Method posits that the same startle reflex is operative, generating misalignments of posture and disturbances in breathing, regardless of age.)
• At least six factors associate Watsu with the fetal state: the watery environment (similar to amniotic fluid), the warmth, the movement, the state of passivity, the omni-directional quality of sound when the ears are immersed, (The greater speed at which sound travels through water than through air reduces the time lag between ears by which direction of sound is sensed.) and the enveloping presence of a nurturing being.
• The horizontal body position is that of rest, receptivity, ease of musculature and balanced circulation; in short, a position in which we are free to embark upon an inner journey. The horizontal fosters Being, as the vertical is for Doing.
• As partner feels our touch for the first time and experiences our support and the sensitivity with which we follow the breath, our credibility is established, paving the way for further relaxation. This is a step beyond the degree of trust a purely verbal exchange can foster.
• A transition takes place--from self responsibility and independence to dependence upon another. This is a retro-journey, a return, and takes time. By entrusting us to maintain the nose out of the water, the client is placing her very survival in our hands.
• About relaxation in water: "One of his (James McMillan, the developer of the Halliwick method) early theories suggests that warm water temperatures are not entirely responsible for the decrease in muscle tone often observed with aquatic rehabilitation clients. This notion has been supported by aerospace research. Instead, tone is influenced by proprioceptive input stimulated by gravitational forces. In other words, tone is a function of weight. When a person is immersed in water above the T11 level, or lies horizontal in the water, the force of gravity is neutralized. Tactile sensory systems are then used to monitor body position and movement. After the effects of weight (gravitational force) have been neutralized by 15 minutes of immersion, a person’s tone automatically decreases. This change in tone can also be noted for up to 1.5 hours after leaving the pool."
• The 12th thoracic vertebra down to the hip joints constitutes a linked chain of articulation, in which compensation through the pelvis and lumbar spine facilitates leg movements at the hip socket in all directions. The strong Y ligaments across the front of the pelvis require that we support under the sacrum, lest the weight of the legs tilts the pelvis forward and hyperextends the lower back. Even supported under the sacrum, however, clients exhibit some tendency to protect the lower back by contraction of the abdominals. By moving our support inferiourly down to the apex of the sacrum or even onto the backs of the thighs or by using leg floats we can alleviate this.
• The intervertebral joints and the muscles along the spine normally support and stabilize within the field of gravity. During the waving WBD, in the passive, buoyant water state, the proprioceptors in these structures send the brain quite a different message, along the order of, "I am flexible."
• Joint decompression occurs throughout the body as the bouyant force counters gravity with a consequent reduction in muscular contraction. The more spacious messages that the brain receives via the proprioceptors as the spine is waved are virtually affirmations. The bodymind learns, "I am free."

• This is a linear movement, contrasting to the majority of movements in Watsu, which are curved. For those receivers tending to feel dizzy or nauseous, such linear movement is recommended over curved movement. It is registered through the macular organs within the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear as linear acceleration, and as such constitutes the first real introduction to movement through space in the session.

c. Offering

• This movement occurs on the receiver’s frontal plane as lateral flexion of the lumbar and thoracic segments of the spine

d. Free Spine

• The spinal column is invited to feel its own flexibility, plasticity in lateral flexion initiated alternately from the spine’s two poles: the sacrum and then the head.

e. Spiral Offering

• Rotation and traction to the spine combine as the body as a whole is taken through a curved path in the "waterspace".

• In this move the receiver discovers it is safe to have a leg held and articulated at the hip socket independent of the other leg. Be careful not to abduct the near leg separate from the far leg.

g Two Leg Offering

• The rotation and weight transfer of the previous move prepares the receiver for the Mirror transition move into Open Arms. The hip joints of the receiver are in the physiological position, one of comfort and familiarity, and the back can more completely relax than in the previous holds. A position of increased intimacy, as the receiver is rolled in slightly toward the giver and the knees and hips are now bent. As the body swings out and back from the giver, as in the move Swing, the receiver is soothed and gains trust.

h. Accordion

• In the open position in this movement cycle, supporting under the occiput and the knees in the horizontal, no muscular contraction whatsoever is necessary. The space has been created for complete physical release.
• This position approximates the physiological position of the shoulder and hip already familiar from the standing WBD. It is rather like lying in a barcalounger; only the lemonade off to the side is missing.
• The folded up position of the Accordion is one of the most psychologically "loaded" positions in Watsu for these reasons: (1) Mothers the world over tend to carry their infants with the head near the left chest, nearer the heart--just where it is now in the sequence. (2) Not only is the position reminiscent of infancy and childhood, but the receiver notices that she is carried easily, as when she was so tiny. (3) Nursing infants are typically held in this position, (First Position), with the arm around the mother’s side. (4) The breasts of a female practitioner will brush against the receiver, further strengthening this association. (5) With the knees drawn up to the chest, the fetal position is duplicated, a place of primal safety in which many of us still sleep or retreat to in stress.
• The Accordion is the first of many Watsu movement cycles in which the body alternates between a rounded position and a splayed out open one. The psychological import of this is profound: the safety of the closed, rounded posture and the freedom of the open one arise out of each other, flow into each other, and co-exist. They are neither separate nor antithetical to each other; rather part of a continuum.
• In the opening and closing of the Accordion, our breath and the receiver’s breath coordinate conspicuously with the movement. According to Chi Kung and yogic tradition, this expands the chi or prana in the body. Breath synchronized to movement is a key feature of Watsu and many other bodywork and movement disciplines.
• Movements reoccur and repeat in the sequence. The reoccurrence of the Accordion and the other basic moves throughout the Basic Flow provides a comforting familiarity out of which the new arises. The repetition of any move gives multiple opportunities to let go.
• The erector spinae and the gluteus maximus muscles stretch in this move. Due to the bulk of these muscles, what might otherwise be thought of as resistance is actually the natural tone of the greater number of fibers. It is therefore appropriate to use somewhat more strength than usual in bringing the knees to the chest. The posterior pelvic tilt in the fold-up reverses the lumbar lordosis, stretching that area; and bent knees allow greater hip flexion. Many Watsu stretches are with bent knees to allow the thigh to flex forward. The hamstrings are not stretched in this case, as they would be if the knee were extended. The manner in which the hamstring tendons pass over the posterior bulk of the femoral condyles is responsible for this effect.

i. Rotating Accordion

• The body is now truly set in motion, arced back and forth across the water’s surface. An increase in vestibular feedback, registering movement of the head, results, as the head rolls from side to side. Dizziness may be noted for the first time in the session.
• In addition to the flexion of back and hips, the spine undergoes a slight counter rotating stretch as the thighs are alternately adducted. The muscles stretched are the transversospinalis group, the erector spinae, the abductors of the hip, gluteus maximus, the deep lateral rotaters and the obliques of the waist.

j. Near Leg Rotation

• In this movement the legs either relax and open, or are held together by the adductors. This is especially so in the phase of the movement rotating clockwise to the right, toward the feet. Women hold their legs together more frequently than men. When it happens we could assume it is because the receiver does not feel safe or comfortable for the legs to be spread. Although it may be an indicator of issues relating to sexuality or security, we have to admit that in any given case we really do not know.
• In the rotation toward the head, the hip flexes, adducts and rotates inward. The back flexes. In this position the erector spinae, gluteus maximus and the hip abductors lengthen. In the opposite phase of the movement, the Near Hip is tractioned, abducted, flexed and outwardly rotated, as the Far Hip is put into extension by hydrodynamic force. The adductors of the Near Leg and the flexors of the Far Leg, including rectus femoris and iliopsoas, are stretched. In addition, the abdominals receive a stretch to the extent that the torso faces the direction of the pull.

• The body alternately rotates away from and toward the therapist. Clients tend to experience this movement as quite intimate. It should be used with sensitivity this early in the sequence, perhaps maintaining a distance between bodies as the receiver rotates toward us.
• The far leg is alternately abducted in the rotation toward the head, then flexed and adducted in the rotation toward the feet. The near leg follows passively, at first slightly abducted, then extended through the resistance of the water.

With partner’s far knee draped over our shoulder, we must again determine if the intimacy of this position is appropriate for our partner at the onset of a session.

1. Arm Breath Squeeze
2. Hand Hold

• Arm Breath Squeeze and Hand Hold are the first actual "bodywork" in the Basic Flow. Later the sacrum will be worked, the face massaged and the hara kneaded. Pressure and point work with the hands give a sense of personalized attention more so than stretches or movement. They are specific and penetrating. The inclusion of this dimension of Shiatsu work rounds out the Basic Flow.
• Relatively little of the Basic Flow addresses the feet, hands and arms. The primary focus lies in the torso, hips and thighs.

1. Arm Around

• We encounter this pendulum movement first in infancy when rocked in a cradle. The practice of generations of mothers attests to its soothing effect. Later in childhood on playground swing sets, we soar as high as possible to experience the thrill of weightlessness at the top. Both the soothing effect and the delectable moment of suspension at the apex are present and sustained in time in the Pendulum, yet another move rich with associations and kinetic charm.

• A new physical intimacy begins in this position—that of the heads touching, of the cheeks touching in a sustained manner.. This is a closeness normally reserved for lovers, or for children with parents or relatives. The receiver hears and smells the giver’s breath. His beard or unshaven stubble brushes the cheek with its male associations of grandfather, father, uncle, brother, or son; her delicate smoothness invites us to nestle closer to grandmother, mother, aunt, daughter, or sister.

• In this movement part of the body is stabilized, held close, involved in an intimacy, while the rest is traveling through the water, waving freely and being stretched. Other movements exhibiting this hallmark integration of polarities are the Basic Moves, Seaweed, and Lengthening Spine.
• The excellent leverage in Arm Leg Rock makes a powerful stretch possible. It is a counter rotation to the vertebral column, which is most safely done with a sense of spiral elongation, so that the chest and knee press not only across, but away from each other.
• Along with Accordion, and Near Leg Rotation, Arm-Leg Rock loosens the musculature of the torso, which when tight, inhibits the full expansion of the abdomen and ribcage in breathing.
• The position of the hip is the same as in Far Leg Over later in the sequence: flexion, adduction and internal rotation combine to stretch the gluteus maximus, the deep lateral rotaters and the hip abductors. In the back the paravertebrals receive a stretch. Across the front, the abdominals and pectoralis major lengthen.

• This strong flexion of the hip stretches the gluteus maximus muscle, and in rounding the lumbar spine, the muscles through that region as well..

• The hand on the chest can be experienced in different ways, from invasive to heart-soothing. Place it with care, especially with a woman who might be uncomfortable having her breasts touched. And remember the "courtesy thumb", gentlemen!
• As in Arm-Leg Rock and Hip Rock, the receiver experiences that interesting combination of being held securely and waved freely at the same time.
• The wave movement exerts a strong appeal, resonating back to the fish stage in our ontogeny. To paraphrase the Beach Boys, "It takes me there, but I don’t know where."
• In one phase of the movement the back arches and the hips extend. The hip flexors, including iliopsoas and rectus femoris, are thereby stretched. Rectus abdominus also receives a lengthening as do the erector spinae in the lower back as the sacrum is tractioned. In the second phase of the movement the back rounds and the hips flex, elongating the erector spinae. The arm over the shoulder is abducted, extended and medially rotated.
• In this and in other wave movements, spontaneous spinal adjustments routinely occur.

• The entire vertebral column tractions in Spine Pull, opening up the intervertebral joints, especially at the atlanto-occipital joint and L5-S1, the two places where the hands apply leverage. The fascia across the sacrum also elongates from the clawing action of the fingertips, if we knowlingly apply this deep tissue technique.

b. Undulating Spine

• This a wave, like Lengthening Spine, but with a much faster oscillation and smaller amplitude. Like the SSR, when sustained long enough, it hearkens us back compellingly to our developmental roots.
• Administered with intention, it has the effect by virtue of its longitudinally traveling waves of releasing horizontal bands of tension across the hips and chest, the so-called "rings of Reich".
• As we stabilize the head and generate the wave from under the pelvis, the hip joints, and the lumbar and thoracic regions are most affected. The cervical spine moves less due to the necessity of stabilizing the head.