Ideas for researching 'alternative' aspects of aquatic bodywork

[Sara Firman (Sulis)]

Evidence-based research is increasingly being sought for clinical aquatic therapies and the new medical spas. For the areas of potential in aquatic bodywork that interest me, and about which I have been writing on my blog Aquapoetics, this presents challenges I've just posted a piece on this that I hope might lead to some stimulating discussions and ideas for furthering such investigations. Please click here to read more and then I'd love to have your feedback or input!

[Sara Firman (Sulis)]

Here are some notes from the recent initial dialog between some of our members that came out of the blog post on my profile page on the Aquatic Network about Documenting Alternative Aquatic Practices . They were scattered around our site and it seemed valuable to collate them here.

Click on the blog title above to read the full post. Also note a few potential research areas I've highlighted in bold below.

I invite and welcome your ongoing input!


Keo Opton is a massage therapist with training in Watsu who is endeavoring to secure a grant to do a pilot study on Watsu that she hopes will allow her to continue to receive funding for more research. She currently rents space at a physical therapy center.

She presented at NIH's Office of Cancer and Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) conference in 2007 with Dr Bruce Becker (see below for more), and has been networking with the allopathic and alternative allied healthcare practitioners in the Gainesville, FL, area.

Keo works in a rural, federally funded hospital at at a Family Clinic run by Dr Dale Block who is supportive of alternative and preventive health practices such as massage and Watsu.

She says: 'I believe if we train practitioners how to use research protocols, or at least inform them and teach them to allow outside data collection from like-minded trained research practitioners, we will be able to collect evidence-based medical information that will substantiate the/ a modality.

'There are certainly more quality of life scales and case study information that could lead to publishing in realms other than our own crunchy granola newsletters.'

Her attempts to reach out to the oncology community in Gainesville have met with limited success. She wants to extend this outreach to end-of-life care and is also affiliated with a local Birth Center. She hopes connection with local acupuncturists will be valuable too.

Keo would be interested in collaborating in a large grant-funded to assess the efficacy of Watsu. She says: 'I believe we all need to work together and contribute to a longitudinal and/or cross sectional study as we all weave our data together.'

Diane Tegtmeier and Inika Sati (both teachers of aquatic bodywork and collaborators in developing an aquatic program for trauma healing) have registered their interest in research documenting the effectiveness of aquatic bodywork.

Diane and Keo have talked about developing a network of collaborators around birth trauma. They mentioned in particular these supportive people - Jurgita Sveda (Lithuania) and and Susan Levenstein, MD (Italy).

Diane wrote that she gave a session to a doula/ acupuncturist who was interested in collaborative work with pregnant and post-traumatic birth women, and suggested that if that happens it might provide some good research data on aquatic work with this population.

Keo referenced Bob Scaer's work on post-traumatic stress (PTSD, see below for more) and noted that he helped her to understand how Watsu aids brain repatterning after trauma and assisted with her presentation to NIH in 2007. Keo referenced Jen Schlee and Peggy Schroedinger's interest in this.

Laura Srygley has been blogging some very interesting anecdotal aquatic bodywork case studies on the Network. Her latest was on work with a sudden stroke sufferer.

In the discussion, Diane noted the 'value of the bi-lateralmovement inherent in our work, especially healing dance in enhancing bi-lateral brain communication'.

This is another potential research base, and Diane suggested that Cameron West might have a great deal of data and experience with stroke (Cameron added an interesting comment also). Diane noted that energy work might play an important role in this:

'[perhaps] aquatic bodywork initiated soon after stroke ... will be of amazing benefit in preventing contractures and all the other long-term sequele of strokes. I expect that adding energy work with touch, color and sound can also have a healing effect on the brain tissue and it's peripheral effects.'

For interest, here is more on Drs Robert Scaer and Bruce Becker:

Robert Scaer, M.D. received his B.A. in Psychology, and his M.D. degree at the University of Rochester. He is Board Certified in Neurology, and has been in practice for 33 years, twenty of those as Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services at the Mapleton Center in Boulder, CO. His primary areas of interest and expertise have been in the fields of brain injury and chronic pain, and more recently in the study of traumatic stress and its role in physical symptoms and diseases.

See: About The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human by Robert C. Scaer

Reader comment on Amazon: 'Our experiences of trauma sow the seeds of many persistent and misunderstood medical problems such as chronic fatigue syndrome and various maladies of the immune system. Because of our inadequate understanding of the relationship of mind and body in processing these traumas, many of us suffer needlessly from our exposure to life's traumas. Robert Scaer offers hope to those who wish to transform trauma and better understand their lives.'

For more than 30 years, Dr. Bruce E. Becker, medical director at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Wash., and a clinical professor at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, has studied the effects of a range of aquatic activities among athletes as well as those recovering from injuries and other physical ailments.

Dr. Becker and other researchers report that similarly dramatic benefits of simple immersion extend to the pulmonary, musculoskeletal, renal, and endocrine systems."There's a great deal of research that remains to be done," he notes "but it's fair to say that the science is in at this point: immersion in water produces a range of effects that are dramatically and uniformly beneficial."swimming-pool-phoenix.com/feed/ 2007

It is amazing to learn that Dr. Becker found such a parallel between relaxation and anxiety reduction with soaking in a 102 degree hot tub. It's something we've know anecdotally. But now we have scientific proof that hot water immersion does in fact improve working memory because of the increased blood circulation to the brain. Dr. Becker's work will have far reaching application for the future. www.hottubbliss.com/more-on-hot-tubbing-and-the-brain/ 2009

[Sara Firman (Sulis)]

Please see the following updates to this on my Aquapoetics blog:


Do you keep records of your alternative aquatics* sessions? (21 July 2009)

Alternative aquatics research (2 August 2009)

Quote:

I'd like to see much more reporting of results from alternative aquatics practices that are independent from clinical centers, as well as from practices that are being applied as complementary to other medical interventions.

[Sara Firman (Sulis)]

Here is an interesting discussion on the Massage and Bodywork Professionals Ning about the topic of Evidence-based research - I have posted a comment relating to my own thoughts re aquatic bodywork here too.