LeWatsu.com
ABOUT
Georges Amir Künzler
More Than Twenty-Five Years of Practice, Teaching, and Discovery
For more than twenty-five years, I have practiced and taught Watsu® across Europe and the United States, working with thousands of people in the water and training practitioners in Switzerland, France, and internationally.
Over the years, my understanding of aquatic bodywork has continued to evolve. What began as an exploration of techniques, movements, and sequences gradually became something deeper: an exploration of the relationship between practitioner and receiver.
Today, my teaching brings together experience, anatomy, movement, breathing, sensitivity, and presence—helping practitioners move beyond simply knowing what to do, toward understanding what is happening.
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Watsu® Practitioner · Teacher
Aquatic Bodyworker
AQUATIC BODYWORK & MASSAGE AT LAVEY
Available mid-November to mid-March
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From Harbin Hot Springs to Switzerland
I discovered Watsu in the late 1990s at Harbin Hot Springs in California, where Harold Dull developed the practice.
There, I was introduced to Shiatsu and aquatic bodywork and went on to train extensively in Watsu®, WaterDance, and other approaches to movement and touch.
In 2001, I brought this work back to Switzerland and began practicing at Les Bains de Lavey.
For more than twenty years, I have worked with thousands of people in the water and taught Watsu to practitioners in Switzerland, France, and internationally.
Over the years, my understanding of aquatic bodywork has continued to evolve. What first appeared to be a discipline of techniques, movements, and sequences gradually revealed itself as something more subtle: a living relationship between practitioner and receiver.
This experience—session after session, body after body—has profoundly shaped the way I understand and teach aquatic bodywork today.
Understanding the Body
Anatomy
Early in my practice, I felt the need to understand more precisely what was happening beneath my hands.
This led me to several hundred hours of study in Anatomy for Movement with Blandine Calais-Germain in France, exploring the spine, breathing, the abdominal structures, the voice, and the relationship between anatomy and movement.
Anatomy became an important foundation of my teaching. But knowledge of anatomy is not there to tell the body what it should do. It gives the practitioner another way of understanding and responding to what the body is expressing.
Beyond the Movements
Over the years, I came to realize that a meaningful Watsu session does not depend on how many movements a practitioner knows.
A simple movement, supported by sound body mechanics, anatomical understanding, sensitivity, and presence, can become remarkably profound.
Breathing is one of our most important guides. It tells us about effort and release, comfort and resistance, rhythm and change.
This exploration gradually led to the development of my work with Water Breath Dance, Watsu of the Five Elements, and Beyond the Flow.
A Dance Between Two People
Healing Dance® movement — developed by Alexander Georgeakopoulos
It is a dance
Perhaps the most important thing these years in the water have taught me is that Watsu is neither about imposing the practitioner’s will on the receiver nor simply listening and following.
There is a subtle balance between the two.
The practitioner offers a direction, a movement, an intention. The receiver responds through breathing, muscle tone, relaxation, resistance, or movement. That response, in turn, influences the practitioner and changes what may come next.
A physical conversation in which each person influences the other.
Experience gives the practitioner the tools to guide this dance. Presence and sensitivity allow us to recognize when to propose, when to follow, when to wait—and sometimes when to allow what is emerging from the receiver to lead us somewhere unexpected.
For me, it is within this balance between intention and listening, offering and responding, guiding and being guided that Watsu becomes a true encounter.
My Work Today
My work continues between Europe and the United States, where I practice, teach, and continue to explore aquatic bodywork through more than twenty-five years of experience.
Through my trainings, videos, and educational resources, I share this experience with new generations of practitioners while continuing to question, explore, and learn.
After all these years, I am less interested in teaching practitioners simply what to do in the water.
I want to help them understand what is happening—and from that understanding, discover what to do next.