Massage Therapy Journal Winter 2025

Winter 2025 • 21

Watsu: The Power of Water While not directly a Japanese massage technique, Watsu has evolved from the principles of shiatsu and Zen shiatsu. However, Watsu differs from both shiatsu and

Zen shiatsu in that it is performed with a client’s body immersed in warm water that has been heated to a temperature range of 95 F to 98 F. A client will never be fully underwater during a Watsu session. “Watsu is based on being with another person and stretching, which oxygenates the muscles and increases flexibility and range of motion. Warm water, and the continuous support it provides, is ideal for freeing the spine,” says Teresa Piddington M.Ed., LMT, and Watsu practitioner and instructor. “It takes the weight off the vertebrae and relaxes the muscles. Gentle, gradual twists and pulls relieve the pressure a rigid spine places on the nerves. The Watsu receiver experiences greater flexibility and freedom during and after a session.”

Despite taking from ancient Japanese techniques, Watsu is a relatively new technique that has its roots in California in the 1970s. “Harold Dull laid the foundational vision for aquatic bodywork and Watsu during the 1970s based in his personal studies with Zen shiatsu master Shizuto Masunaga in Japan,” says Ahara Vatter, senior worldwide aquatic bodywork instructor. “Other practitioners, skilled in varied forms of shiatsu, energy understandings, breathwork and bodywork also contributed.” By 1980, Dull had officially developed Watsu at the School of Shiatsu and Massage at Harbin Hot Springs in Middleton, California. Piddington lists both immediate and long-term benefits for Watsu clients.

Long-term benefits include: • Improved sleep patterns • Improved digestion • Improved healing and immune system response. • Decreased anxiety

Immediate benefits include: • Increased range of motion • Increased muscle relaxation • Decreased muscle spasm • Decreased spasticity • Decreased pain

• Greater decreases in pain • Decreased depression • Decreased chronic tight muscles

“Watsu facilitates freeing the spine and body and promotes deep systemic relaxation and stress relief by balancing the nervous and energetic systems,” Vatter says. “Though Watsu has beneficial effects for most people, it is used to address trauma, both physical and psycho-emotional, with therapeutic applications that include but are not limited to neuromuscular injuries, stress and pain, nervous system and orthopedic disorders, closed head injuries, discomfort during pregnancy and other special needs.” Over the years, many Watsu imitators have emerged, but for both Piddington and Vatter, none have reached the heights of Watsu. “Watsu is the original aquatic shiatsu therapy. It specifically focuses on breath-timed moves and shiatsu pressure point and meridian channel work,” Piddington says. Vatter agrees, “There are many imitations of the Watsu modality throughout the world, but not necessarily offered with the same ethical, scientifically based or professional bodywork standards.”

amtamassage.org/mtj