Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self
Personal Shamanic Healing Ceremony
“Invitation to surrender to the silence within.”
“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
― Hermann Hesse
Featuring: Patricia Furtado de Mendonça as part of the “We are Water Project” (April 2019)
Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self
Your personal healing ceremony, a deep dive into your inner ancient remembrance facilitated by Zuzzie. Individual Sessions are available throughout the year and take place in a private 96 degree warm salt-water pool.
During your 90 minute session, you get to journey into the deep space within yourself. You are held in a compassionate presence of the practitioner while being rhythmically rocked and cradled into a gentle state of relaxation. Your journey gradually progresses to immersions and you will experience being effortlessly floated underwater, allowing your brain and nervous system to switch into a state of very deep relaxation.
During the session, your body has an opportunity to release physical and emotional tension, as well as trauma on a cellular level. The ‘Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self’ session facilitates deep ancestral healing, resulting in a profound sense of liberation and ease.
Many experiencers report a visceral remembrance accompanied by visuals, personally significant symbolic imagery, naturally dropping into a deep trance-like state, where transformation has the greatest potential to occur.
Often, experiencers report an emotional release washing through them, sometimes cathartic, leaving them refreshed and ‘‘re-born’’ afterwards. Experiencers have reported entering altered states of consciousness that resemble a very deep meditation, a shamanic journey or a mytho-poetic lucid dream. (photo credit: www.aguahara.org)
Meet Zuzzie Kapas:
Zuzzie Kapas is an inner exploration and self-discovery guide supporting individuals on their journey to dive deeper within. For over a decade she has been facilitating consciousness expanding personal and group journeys, honoring the body as a bridge between the worlds seen and unseen. Zuzzie is a level three trauma-informed Aguahara Practitioner, specializing in facilitating mind-body-soul integration founded in a somatic approach. Zuzzie facilitates transformational movement workshops on land and underwater, where participants have an opportunity to discover deeper pathways within through the doorways of sensation and dropping into interoceptive awareness. Zuzzie offers curated individual and group journeys through which participants have the opportunity to access the inner realms of their psyche.
Zuzzie was first introduced to underwater somatic movement in 2015, while studying Contact Improvisation and Body-Mind Centering in Europe. Her inspiration lead her to travel to Spain for a month long residency to deepen her underwater movement research. She studied directly with Alexander Siebenstern, the founder of Aguahara. Zuzzie completed three levels of Aguahara practitioner training over the summer of 2015 and after her practicum started offering individual sessions and transformative group experiences world-wide. Zuzzie traveled extensively, following invitations to facilitate Individual Aquatic Healing Sessions and Underwater Somatic Movement Workshops in Portugal, Catalunya, Ibiza, Thailand, India and Bali. Zuzzie has set up her private practice in the United States, currently offering sessions in Southern California. Zuzzie feels very passionate about practicing somatic work in the water, as Water offers a direct entry way into our unconscious, thus holds a tremendous healing potential.
Link to details about the clinical applications of Somatic Integration and Healing Practices can be found here. To read Zuzzie’s clinically focused bio, please click here. To learn more about Zuzzie’s trauma-informed somatic movement background and current relational movement workshops, please click here. To learn more about healing sessions and workshops conducted in warm-water, please click here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do I need to consider before booking a session?
Sessions are currently available on house-call basis in Southern California. Please, check whether sessions are offered within the radius of your location and feel welcome to initiate the conversation via the “Get In Touch” page, providing some information about yourself and what you are looking to receive from the session.
Zuzzie personally responds within 48 hours and sets up a good time to speak with you over Zoom. During the pre-session consultation (about 15-20 minutes), you will be asked about your physical and mental heath. It is important to note whether you have any current ear, skin sensitivities or inclination to motion sickness. Also, whether there have been any surgeries, tattoos, injuries or serious medical procedures or hospitalizations within the last year, including mental health and psychological trauma. If you are aware of any pre-existing trauma history, it is recommended you are prepared these sessions often bring up psychological and spiritual material that needs proper integration (which naturally happens during the following 2-3 days after session). It is recommended you have access to psychotherapy in case you need support processing the unconscious material that may surface. The ‘Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self’ session directly works with the psychosomatic symptoms that originate from unprocessed trauma and offers a powerful potential for healing.
During your ‘Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self’ session, Zuzzie provides sanitized ear plugs you can choose to wear and also provides a nose clip for your comfort. You’re invited to come wearing a bathing suit, have a towel and water resistant sunscreen already applied (if you choose to). It is recommended to not eat a full meal at least 1.5hr before session and to book your session on a day you can allow time for yourself to integrate immediately after getting home by taking a nap, meditating, and perhaps writing down in a journal any insights that may have surfaced for you while in the water.
Many experiencers use journaling and meditation to process insights. The integration process continues unfolding over the course of several days, especially during dreamtime. It is very common to notice synchronicities and experience to be more “tapped in” following the session and to have a renewed sense of self.
Similar to other modalities, a one-time session can be illuminating, but to instill lasting change, several sessions are recommended. Receiving a series of aquatic sessions would offer culminating results and support lasting transformation.
For more FAQ scroll down, please …
photo credit: www.aguahara.org
FAQ (continued):
How is the 90 minute session structured?
The aquatic therapy session breaks down into 5 parts:
1. Reflection and Self-Inquiry: We discuss why you are here to experience this healing session and what is arising for you in the moment.
2. Guided Breathwork: Facilitating relaxation and arriving to an open state of being receptive to the transformational effects of Aguahara.
3. A Ceremonial Intention Setting for the Journey
4. Underwater Somatic Journey: During the aquatic session itself we start out above water and proceed with gentle immersions. I always give you notice before you submerge. Your head would go under water.
5. Grounding and integration: Assisting you to return to the land and debriefing about experiences and tips for integration.
Could I book a session within the privacy of my own home?
Yes, absolutely. Zuzzie makes house calls for individual clients when within the radius of her current location and she is willing to travel oversees to offer sessions at retreats or private gatherings when a group of 8-12 clients are confirmed and travel costs and accommodation are provided for the duration of her stay.
Your pool will need to be heated to 94-96 degrees Fahrenheit in advance and kept at the temperature throughout the sessions.
How often do you recommend receiving an aquatic session?
Depending on your personal goal or treatment plan, the frequency of sessions can range from once a week, to bi-weekly or monthly. The benefits of a single stand-alone session can be profound, as well.
How much is a single session?
Prices vary based on location. Please, contact Zuzzie through the form and inquire about your location.
Do you offer packages and what are the benefits of buying ahead?
Packages are available for purchase for 4, 6 and 8 sessions with a discounted price on occasion. Please, check about current availability. Clients holding packages receive priority when booking. Sessions can be used within 6 months of purchase.
Single sessions are also available for regular price.
What is your cancellation policy?
Each session requires a $150 USD/person deposit to hold each person’s spot (Paypal, Venmo).
There is a 48 hour cancellation policy with a full refund for local sessions. In case cancelation is made less than 48 hours in advance, there is a $100 USD non-refundable fee that is retained. In case of out-of-town and over-seas bookings, there is a 1 month cancelation policy to receive a full refund for the group. In case cancelation is made less than 1 month in advance, there is a $100 USD/person non-refundable fee that is retained.
Testimonials
“I had an amazing session with Zuzzie Kapas, an incredible practitioner of Aguahara. I am so relaxed and centered today. I am enjoying closing my eyes recalling the unbelievable colors I have never seen before until I participated in this nurturing, centering and meditative experience.” - Mary, Client
“I was amazed at how profound my Aguahara session was. I generally am not an emotional person but towards the end of the session I began to cry. It took me by surprise, but I went with it and it felt like it was a release that I hadn’t given myself through standard means.” - Chris, Client
“My Aguahara session with Zuzzie was one of the most liberating and blissful experiences of my life. The process was incredibly graceful and supportive. It was very helpful in moving some stuck emotions after the end of a relationship. This is a one-of-a-kind healing experience.” - Zack, Client
External Resources
Enjoy selected videos that help you get familiar with the multitude of therapeutic healing modalities in the water.
Video Recommendations
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Deep gratitude to Alexander Siebenstern, founder of Aguahara, my dear teacher, colleague, collaborator and fellow aquatic consciousness explorer for inspiring my path through his love and devotion to Water and Community and for continuously inviting me to co-create.
In gratitude to Harold Dull, the father of aquatic bodywork, best known as the creator of Watsu, originally developed in the early 1980s at Harbin Hot Springs, California.
In gratitude to my teacher Jumana Sophia Harris, founder of AquaMystica ministries and Her Mystery School of Priestess Arts.
In a loving memory of Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, a practice of diving into the aquatic consciousness within the living cells of our body through sounding.
Research Articles & Books
The Secret Intelligence of Water
Veda Austin is a water researcher from New Zealand specializing in crystallography. She is the author of the book: “The Secret Intelligence of Water”. On her website you will find a large library of Podcasts, Interviews, Videos and Photos of her extraordinary research on programming water by thoughts and intentions, similar to Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work. Veda offers to teach us her techniques and shares remarkable insights revealing the intelligence of water.
Water’s Infinite Capacity to Store Information
“Research has shown that water is a liquid crystal with a pliable lattice matrix that is capable of adopting many structural forms. The structure of water gives it an infinite capacity to store information within its matrix. […] Much evidence points to water’s ability to effectively memorize energy patterns with which it comes in contact and retain the energetic memory of vibrational frequencies.
A particularly striking example of water’s memory of energetic information are the sources of water found […] throughout sacred sites […] are believed to have recorded within them the frequencies of spiritual or higher dimensional energy associated with each of the sanctuaries.”
New Research on Aquatic Therapy and the Brain
“Recently, I attended a world-wide evidence-based conference on aquatic therapy, International Conference for Evidence Based Aquatic Therapy (ICEBAT). This was the first time this conference has ever been held in the US. It was very exciting to learn about the recent research being done on the effects of water on the brain!”
The Water Code: Unlocking the Truth Within
Authored by Rainey Marie Highley, “The Water Code” explores the idea that water holds billions of years of planetary information within its molecular structure and is the keeper of Earth's Akashic Library.
Structural Changes in Water affecting DNA
“The technique involved studying the ability of the treated water to influence a biological system. Conformational changes in human DNA were chosen as the biological target since previous research indicated that heart-directed intentionality caused bidirectional changes in the conformation of DNA.”
“We are thousands of wave motions that converge to form what is now being called a “body.” Water is the medium of our deliverance. Form travels through us, leaving its bio-morphic imprint. The intelligence of unfolding form is encoded in our system.”
— Emilie Conrad “The Fluid Self”