The Fluidics Practitioner's Guide
Available as a PDF file: 88 pages, $15.
|
I love Watsu®. From the beginning, the work in the water completely hooked me. For three consecutive years, I took, audited, and assisted every Watsu class -- and every Waterdance class, Healing Dance class, and every other kind of aquatic class -- I could find. I even became a WABA-certified Watsu instructor. And when I went out in the world and started to practice professionally in earnest, I assumed that once anyone had a taste of Watsu, they'd be junkies like me and keep coming back for more.
But I noticed pretty quickly that that wasn't happening. Oh sure, almost everybody did love their sessions. They loved the water, the weightlessness, and the holding, quiet, swishing, and flow. They loved the connections with the practitioner, themselves, and the divine. Many of them were, in fact, completely blown away. But few of them booked repeat sessions, and I couldn't figure out why. So I asked them. And a lot of people told me that Watsu felt too yin and non-specific: that if they were going to invest the time and money to receive bodywork, they wanted to feel like they had received bodywork. They wanted their muscles rubbed, and their tissue issues addressed and resolved. What they missed, they said, when they received traditional Watsu, was massage. And that's why I developed Fluidics. |
A complete massage curriculum for aquatic bodyworkers.
The Fluidics Manual's Table of Contents. Click to enlarge.
Fluidics is an approach to working in the water that allows you to combine a variety of massage and other land-based bodywork techniques with whatever aquatic modality you're practicing. Whether you're doing primarily Watsu, Healing Dance, Waterdance, Jahara -- or just making it up as you go along! -- the information in this manual can add a new dimension of specificity to your work, and give you a practical way to assess and meet your clients' soft-tissue needs.
The Fluidics manual is a comprehensive curriculum that's easy to learn from, because it approaches its subject from a variety of perspetives. To start, it gives you the big picture: what Fluidics is in theory, intention, and practice; where the various ideas and techniques come from, and how to think about them; plus extensive discussion about how to approach and structure a session that includes specific bodywork. The Manual also describes the basic principles for doing this type of bodywork; so if you're a practitioner who likes to be creative and improvisational, these principles can give you the framework for that.
Most practitioners, though, appreciate detail and clear direction, and so the manual also gets very specific in describing exactly how to do effective integrative bodywork. It begins by detailing how to prepare and use your body, hands, sensing, energy, and mind. Then then it goes into specific techniques -- how to do them, and where on the body to use them -- for mobilizing and loosening the skeleton; for volumizing and lubricating muscles; for stretching the fascia, muscles, and joints. And it gives you exacty-how-to-do-them descriptions for 19 different massage techniques (squeezing, rolling, wringing, plowing...), as well as a variety of techniques for helping you to integrate all this specific bodywork throughout your clients' tissues, systems, and being.
The whole first part of the Manual (43 pages) is appropriate for pracitioners working on land, as well as those working in water. So whether you're an aquatic bodyworker wanting to learn more about how to do land massage, or a massage therapist looking for new and more effective ways to use your hands and address specific soft-tissue challenges, this material alone is (as I used to say in my previous career in the ad biz) "well worth the price".
The Fluidics manual is a comprehensive curriculum that's easy to learn from, because it approaches its subject from a variety of perspetives. To start, it gives you the big picture: what Fluidics is in theory, intention, and practice; where the various ideas and techniques come from, and how to think about them; plus extensive discussion about how to approach and structure a session that includes specific bodywork. The Manual also describes the basic principles for doing this type of bodywork; so if you're a practitioner who likes to be creative and improvisational, these principles can give you the framework for that.
Most practitioners, though, appreciate detail and clear direction, and so the manual also gets very specific in describing exactly how to do effective integrative bodywork. It begins by detailing how to prepare and use your body, hands, sensing, energy, and mind. Then then it goes into specific techniques -- how to do them, and where on the body to use them -- for mobilizing and loosening the skeleton; for volumizing and lubricating muscles; for stretching the fascia, muscles, and joints. And it gives you exacty-how-to-do-them descriptions for 19 different massage techniques (squeezing, rolling, wringing, plowing...), as well as a variety of techniques for helping you to integrate all this specific bodywork throughout your clients' tissues, systems, and being.
The whole first part of the Manual (43 pages) is appropriate for pracitioners working on land, as well as those working in water. So whether you're an aquatic bodyworker wanting to learn more about how to do land massage, or a massage therapist looking for new and more effective ways to use your hands and address specific soft-tissue challenges, this material alone is (as I used to say in my previous career in the ad biz) "well worth the price".
Techniques, moves, sequences... even poolside notes!
But wait there's more! Because the remainder of the Manual (over 40 pages) is all about moves and sequences.
The Manual breaks them down, body-part by body-part: how to "Fluidicise" the breathing, the neck, the shoulders, mid-back, lower back and pelvis, belly, feet... It takes you into several familiar aquatic bodywork positions (First Position, Head Cradle, Seaweed, Freefloat, Figure Four), and describes exactly what moves and bodywork to do in each position -- and how to do them -- to address restrictions in the body, and to help release the affected bodyparts.
Finally, for those who appreciate having a clearly laid-out structure to learn from and use, the Manual gives an outline for a full-length Fluidics session, as well as a complete, move-by-move sequence for a great session of an hour or longer. With this sequence, you'll see exactly how to put together all the Fluidics material with your familiar aquatic techniques -- for a seamless and powerfully effective session. And just to make your learning easier, the Manual also includes a handy set of poolside notes.
I believe very strongly in the benefits of using integrated bodywork techniques both in the water and on land; and I also believe that this is a great practitioner's manual. If you have any interest in deepening your exploration and use of integrative bodywork, I encourage you to click the button below, and give Fluidics a try!
The Manual breaks them down, body-part by body-part: how to "Fluidicise" the breathing, the neck, the shoulders, mid-back, lower back and pelvis, belly, feet... It takes you into several familiar aquatic bodywork positions (First Position, Head Cradle, Seaweed, Freefloat, Figure Four), and describes exactly what moves and bodywork to do in each position -- and how to do them -- to address restrictions in the body, and to help release the affected bodyparts.
Finally, for those who appreciate having a clearly laid-out structure to learn from and use, the Manual gives an outline for a full-length Fluidics session, as well as a complete, move-by-move sequence for a great session of an hour or longer. With this sequence, you'll see exactly how to put together all the Fluidics material with your familiar aquatic techniques -- for a seamless and powerfully effective session. And just to make your learning easier, the Manual also includes a handy set of poolside notes.
I believe very strongly in the benefits of using integrated bodywork techniques both in the water and on land; and I also believe that this is a great practitioner's manual. If you have any interest in deepening your exploration and use of integrative bodywork, I encourage you to click the button below, and give Fluidics a try!
|
Fluidics Pracitioner's Guide
Available as a PDF file: 88 pages, $15. |