Research on Watsu

Research Project with Chronic Pain 7/14/2005

This Research, tracking the reduction of pain medication with Aquatic Bodywork, has protocols that can be replicated. Prospective observational study of Aquatic Bodywork in patients suffering from chronic pain Context:

Pain is a complex phenomenon that happens to our body as well as to our soul. The treatment of pain with modern pain therapy methods offers a variety of different approaches. Some of those approaches are based on very different fundamental assumptions. Normally, the origin of pain is supposed to be eliminated or reduced by using any of these healing methods, which are surgery, analgetics, and spasmolytics, drugs that cause muscle relaxation, calcium antagonists and therapeutic local anaesthesia. However, these “conventional” methods often do not have a satisfactory therapeutic effect. It is therefore often patients who are considered to be “resistant to therapy” who turn more often to out-patient clinics for pain treatment. Besides the approaches of orthodox medicine, pain clinics often also use methods of complementary medicine. For several years, they have been increasingly using movement therapy in warm water to treat pain.

The following theories about Aquatic Bodywork are being looked at from different angles in this study: 1.Supported by the warm water and held and moved rhythmically by the therapist in time to his/her breathing in an Aquatic Bodywork Session, the patients have the chance to get rid of their body’s old posture and movement patterns, which are often helping maintain the pain-related illness. The patient’s body can learn physiological movement patterns again. 2.Through the profound relaxation state and the flow of movements during the water session the patients can work on a new way of being in their body and dealing with its limitations. 3.The feelings of profound trust (in themselves, in the water, the therapist, in life itself) repeatedly experienced during the water sessions can be carried into everyday life and enable patients to face everyday life in a new (more active) way.