MY TRAINING

I consider my most important training to be learning to nurture and love my children.   When I realized how fulfilling it felt for me to give care and guidance to others, I was eager to study a profession where my gifts could be useful.  

After one year of massage school education (891 hours), I opened an independent massage practice in 1994.   In one year I completed the TRAGER Approach certification program (470 hours and counting).  By 1995 I was a certified Trager practitioner and I have maintained that certification to this day.

Two years later I received my first Watsu/Waterdance session…. Now I really knew what I wanted to do next!   By 1998 I was a certified Watsu Practitioner and by 2000 a certified Waterdance Practitioner (300 total hours of training for these combined certifications).  The Waterdance training was received at Kalani in the very special therapy pool built just for WATSU/Waterdance sessions!
 

MY PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

For several years in Seattle, Washington, I travelled far to find adequate pools and clientele I could interest in WATSU or Waterdance.  My Trager Approach practice was thriving as colleagues in the medical field made referrals to me on a regular basis.   Yet I longed so much to spend hours at a time in warm water doing WATSU, that I would pick up clients and drive them to the pool an hour away, driving them back again after the treatment.   My present situation, including a three minute commute to work, is a vast improvement!

Eventually I gave up trying to suppress my desire and dream to live and work in Hawaii.  Over three years, from 1998 to 2000, I took Waterdance Classes at Kalani Oceanside Retreat on the Big Island.  I never forgot the brand new WATSU pool that was inaugurated during one of my classes.  It was the perfect depth for several practitioners, large enough for two or three practitioners to work effortlessly together, and always heated to the perfect skin temperature.  I admit falling in love with this salt water pool.

For two years I have lived my dream come true.   My home is three minutes away from the Watsu pool.  I’m the primary caretaker of the Watsu pool.  I test and balance the water’s chemical composition.  I vacuum it two times per week.  I advocate for repairs when any of the complicated equipment needed to keep the pool clean and warm breaks down.   And the people I have been blessed to work with in the pool—for free fifteen minute samples or hour and a half long journeys—have been awesome!

MY FIRST WATSU EXPERIENCE

To understand my love of this work, it might help to read a description of my first session.

I have always loved the water and so told my therapist (Tom Cobian) that I would love to go under the water in addition to floating on the surface of the water. He showed me how he signals before taking me under water and then the magic began to unfold. The session seemed to last forever and I was so grateful for that because it felt like the most perfect place in the world for me. I remember staying against the wall of the pool for a very long time. I felt that I never wanted to come back to the "reality" I had lived before the WATSU/Waterdance session. Tom observed that I would either come back for many sessions or learn to do WATSU myself!

"This feeling is what Milton Trager was suggesting to clients on a massage table! I never want it to end!" Indeed, much to my delight, I have successfully integrated into my daily life much of the ease, grace and flow I have known in TRAGER and WATSU/Waterdance sessions! I often feel an equanimity that seems to soothe others. I handle disappointments and changes more easily than ever before. In other words, being taught to "go with the flow" actually works!

In this tumultuous world, it is a gift to find safe haven, a sanctuary where one feels cared for and safe. This is the most nurturing, loving "massage" I know. This is the gift I love to offer others!