Why Held By Water?

Why Held By Water?

People often ask why my practice is called Held by Water, and I often answer differently, as there are many reasons and evolving meanings.

The most obvious is geographical; my practice is held near the ocean—a beautiful place where a lot of people love to take a post-therapy swim, sometimes to cleanse old stories they no longer need or to honor their integration in an embodied way.

The next is a nod to our physiology: we are, quite literally, made mostly of water.

But the most personal reason is that I’m drawn to water and the way it mirrors our emotional lives. The emotions we hold in our bodies move and shift just like water—fluid, powerful, and sometimes overwhelming.

Before becoming a psychotherapist, I worked as a swim teacher, supporting children—and often adults with water trauma, including many migrants and refugees—who hadn’t had the opportunity to feel comfortable in water.

I saw firsthand how our bodies move into protective states: tense shoulders, shallow breaths, and rigid limbs bracing against the unknown.

This time in my life paralleled my own healing journey in therapy, and this deepened my fascination with trauma and the meanings I found in water.

Learning to float often meant asking people to do something that felt deeply unsafe: to lean back, put their head under, and surrender to the water’s hold. It wasn’t just a physical challenge; it was an invitation to trust, to let go, and to find safety in a new way.

I carried these early lessons with me into my therapeutic work. Just as in the water, our nervous systems learn to brace against emotional pain — against memories, relationships, or parts of ourselves that feel too overwhelming to face alone.

Held by Water grew from this understanding. Water holds and moves; it shapes and adapts—as we do. It is both gentle and powerful, capable of carrying us if we allow ourselves to trust it. Our emotional experiences shape who we are, hold our memories, and invite us into deeper connection with ourselves and others.

I’ve seen how important it is to create a space where people feel safe—where we can learn to float.

To explore our inner worlds without judgment, to reconnect with parts of ourselves that have been pushed away, and to discover new ways of being.