Watsu Therapy for Portland, Oregon and Watsu Therapy for Beaverton, Oregon with Sheila Montgomery at the Urban Haven: a Massage and Watsu Retreat in Beaverton, Oregon close to Portland, Oregon. Massage Therapy Portland, Oregon; Watsu Therapy Portland, Oregon; Massage Therapy Beaverton, Oregon; Watsu Therapy Beaverton, OregonWatsu

Freedom, healing, grace. Imagine being gently floated, stretched, snaked and cradled in 98-degree water, in a dynamic experience of movement and massage. Each watsu is unique: simply open to the safety, nuturing and deep relaxation of this amazing blend of modalities.

Watsu Therapy Sessions at Urban Haven

Watsu sessions are a unique experience of trust, freedom, and healing.

What is Watsu?

Watsu is a unique form of bodywork that takes place in a warm pool. The practitioner gently guides and "swims" the person receiving Watsu around the pool in movements created to provide therapeutic effects. Flowing, full-body stretches free spine and joints, release muscle tension and improve range of motion. The special properties of water calm the nervous system, reduce stress and anxiety, aid in releasing memories and unwanted habits and inspire new insight. People often experience significant physical, and sometimes spiritual, breakthroughs.


Special cushioned floats can be used to support head and legs to enhance your feeling of weightlessness.

What happens in a Watsu session?

For someone receiving a Watsu, a session can seem deceptively simple. You put on a bathing suit and get into the warm water, you receive a few instructions from your therapist, and are gently lifted off your feet and supported floating on your back. You don’t see anything but the interplay of light and shadow, because your eyes are closed. You don’t hear anything but the water, because your ears are submerged. And what you feel is the water’s warmth, and the weightless movements of your body as it gently waves and sways through the currents. Occasionally you might be aware of some deep massage in a tight muscle, or a big stretch. But very quickly all the touch and movements blend together into one harmonious, timeless, flowing dance. And what you notice is not the work being done on your body, but the results of it: a profound physical release, letting go, and relief from tensions and pain.

Therapeutic benefits of Watsu can include:

  • Increased mobility and flexibility
  • Decreased muscle tension
  • Reduction in anxiety and stress levels
  • Decreased pain
  • Improved sleep patterns
  • Improved digestion
  • Decreased emotional pain
  • General sense of wellbeing

Virtually everyone who receives a Watsu opens their eyes at the end of a session and describes it as “the most relaxing experience of my life.” It’s extraordinary – and something you have to experience personally to truly appreciate: a therapeutic bodywork session that can be spiritually opening...


Your practicioner's deepest trust and care create a beautiful and safe environment for healing.

The deeper practice within Watsu:

During Watsu sessions, many people are also moved by the remarkable depth of the work. Frequently, people report “a profound feeling of oneness – with myself, the water, the universe… everything!” For at the same time that your body is letting go, so too is your mind...

There is a theory among bodywork researchers that every physical pain carries with it an analogous mental thought pattern. If you’re holding onto soreness in your toe, for example, you’re also holding onto the emotional story about the circumstances surrounding the injury or accident. In Watsu, as your body thoroughly lets go of its physical discomforts, the corresponding mental stories are released as well. Not that you’ll necessarily notice your mind letting go...in fact, it is more like the absence of noticing. You might not have any thoughts - just a mental quiet and peace that accompanies the physical freedom of your body. And once your body is free and your mind is at peace, there is nothing left to keep your spirit from shining through.

What exactly do we mean here by “spirit”? For many people, it’s a sense of seeing themselves with a new, clearer perspective, It’s as if they forget about the daily stuff that they deal with – duties, obligations, busywork – and instead are freed to focus on who they are inside and what they truly want.

Watsu receivers feel comfortable and safe and protected. They feel understood and appreciated, beautiful and strong. They feel forgiveness, compassion and love for themselves and others. And many feel connected to a clearer purpose in their lives. Maybe that purpose has just occurred to them consciously for the first time during their Watsu session; maybe it’s something that they’ve always known. But somehow, the Watsu experience brings many people’s awareness back to that central knowing. It brings them back to themselves. It brings them back to spirit.

portions of this description are drawn from writings by Andrew Yavelow