What's a Session like?

Imagine floating in warm water in safe and nurturing arms; being rocked, waved, stretched, massaged and danced by your practitioner. A Healing Dance session starts when you decide to get a session after hearing a friend talk about their experience or seeing in a video the caring presence the practitioner has for their client.

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Then you contact a practitioner and talk to them about the work. They will tell you what to bring: a non-glass water bottle, bathing suit and towel. Once you arrive at the pool, you may be given a brief form to fill out regarding any health concerns, including Covid information. You take a shower, washing off any lotions and cleaning well with soap. Don’t forget to rinse your hair beforehand so any chemicals from the pool stay in the pool and not in your hair. Many pools use chlorine or bromine to disinfect, though some pools are using a copper/silver ionizer which has no smell and leaves the water feeling natural.

Your practitioner greets you and if you haven’t filled out a form prior to the session, will ask you about your body:  do you have any injuries, sensitivities or boundaries you wish to mention? Have you had any experiences in water that stand out? Anything in particular you would like to work with during the session? They will tell you what will happen in the session and how it will end. Before the start, the practitioner will find the right leg floats for you so your body is well supported and your back stays comfortable. They may guide you through a short meditation in the water while standing in front of you, holding your hands. This allows you to let go of what went on before, inviting you to feel your body and find the present moment. Your practitioner will ask you to squeeze their hands when you are ready to be picked up.

Squeeze: they pick you up; your feet leave the floor of the pool and you lie face-up in the water, your ears below the surface. Your nose and mouth will always be out of the water, unless you have chosen to receive an underwater session. In this case the practitioner will have outfitted you with a nose clip and explained how signaling and reading the breath before each submerging works.

You hear your breath and feel your practitioner’s arms under your head and sacrum. You might notice they are feeling your breath with you and you start to relax. The water becomes the vessel, the container for what arises in the session. It’s like a third partner. You feel free of your body, able to fly with spirit or maybe you just feel an increasing sense of relaxation. It could be you have never been held like this since you were a baby.

We all bring our stories to the session to be healed. Even, sometimes without us being aware of it, our body brings its own stories to a place of three dimensional unwinding, letting go of trapped energy. The practitioner is trained to be present with and support any movement or breath inspired impulse that arises.

Healing Dance is a series of moments: flow, dance, waves, spirals, stretches, quiet spaces--not a set sequence. There are principles that the practitioner follows to create freedom and space in the joints, movement that feels like you and the water becoming one and peaceful sanctuaries. Each water journey is unique.  

As the session comes to the end, your practitioner gradually brings you upright with your feet grounded on the floor, your back resting against the wall of the pool. As they move away, you can notice what is in the present moment. Sometimes, this is the most important part of the session, as you integrate the experience into your life. Sharing with your practitioner could be part of this process or you may choose to keep your experience to yourself.