Reflections on Movement in Aquatic Bodywork and Therapeutic Aquatic Practice

“Movement is life. Life is a process.  Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life.”  — Moses Feldenkrais                                                                                                                                                                                 

As Aquatic Bodywork Practitioners have you ever paused for a moment and asked yourself — why do I move the way I do?

As human beings in motion, we are constantly expressing ourselves through movement. But how often do we stop to observe the quality, the intention, and the origin of our gestures — especially when we are in service of another?

In the context of Aquatic Bodywork, movement is more than just physical technique. It’s communication. It’s touch. It’s presence. Whether we are floating someone in warm water, supporting them in stillness, or guiding them (body-mind-spirit) through motion, our movements carry meaning. They can soothe, awaken, protect, or challenge.

But the real question is — where do the movements come from?

Are our movements shaped by habit? By ego? By an “inner script” — movement patterns we’ve written over years of training, personal story, and embodied experience?
Or do they arise from a deeper place of listening — to the water, to the body we hold, to the silent language of another nervous system speaking to our own?

This is not just a technical inquiry. It is an invitation into self-awareness. A call to explore the intersection between intention and intuition, between what we think we’re doing and what is actually being received.

In movement psychotherapy, we often speak of how motion reflects emotion — how every gesture can reveal something of our internal landscape: defense, resistance, fear, control, tension,  softness, joy, compassion or heart opening. From a physiological perspective, movement stimulates circulation, supports regulation, and helps integrate body and mind.

But in the water — especially in a therapeutic space — movement becomes something even more: a dialogue. A shared language between body and environment, between giver and receiver, between self and other.

So please, the next time you enter the water — as a practitioner or aquatic bodywork student — take a moment to observe your own movement:

• Where does it begin?
• What is your positioning in the water? Are you above the surface or at water level?
• Are you grounded and stable, or slightly off balance?
• Are you moving in a continuous free-flowing way, or are you introducing new, intentional movement elements?

Each of these choices already shapes the movement you’re creating.

And when the movement is transmitted to the receiver’s body, ask yourself:

• What is guiding this movement — your training, your habits, your ego, or the needs of the person you’re holding? 
• Is it fast or slow? Intense or soft? 
• What’s the quality of touch — clear, vague, hesitant, confident? 
• Are you repeating what you know, or allowing something new to emerge in flow?
• Does the movement serve the body, the mind, the spirit — or all at once?
• Do you understand what the movement contains — vectors, tissues, joints, intentions — direct and apply or is it spontaneous and intuitive?
  

All answers are welcome. There is no single truth, no one correct way. What matters is that you are asking — showing awareness, responsibility, and commitment.

Sometimes I observe — in real time or through the lens of social media — how movement is presented and performed. And I gently ask: Who is this serving? This is not about judgment. It’s about remembering. A gentle invitation to return to awareness.

Because movement is more than mechanics, looking good, or doing a job.
It’s meaning.
It’s a memory.
It’s medicine.

Every movement we offer in water carries a message. The more we listen before we act, the more healing we allow.