Aquatic Therapy Foundation Course

Greetings to all. The foundation course which started as a one day introduction course almost 15 years ago is growing with certified programs. Efforts are continuosly made to offer maximum information in an effective manner.

This time we have some guest speakers, sharing their experiences in clinical work as part of the course.

What's app your queries to +97466230328 we have few seats left.

A lot has changed since the last post. Life has been busy and focus had to be given to the changes that were happening. The ICEBAT conference was a great work done by our wonderful team who contributed from their heart. We had a great deal of people who came from different countries to India. It was an honor to organize such a big event for the first time in India. More information will come thru hopefully by this weekend.

 A lot has evolved over the absence of updates. The biggest change has been the move to another country for a greater experience that can be brought back to India. I have become a full fledged Aquatic Therapist at Qatar Rehabilitation Institute of Hamad Medical Corporation at Doha, Qatar. A decision taken after so much dilemmas. The experience has been great so far, the management has been supportive and am able to bring out the ideas of an aquatic therapy facility into reality. More on this facility will be shared soon with pictures !!

Students will be missed from my previous job, as they were always a constant source of energy with their young mind, new ideas, opinions, style and their small revolutions. Teaching continues only in the workshops, so that will be another big miss in my present situation. Nevertheless learning has never stopped. There are always new information to learn and old information to be strengthened.

Pressure is off, and time has arrived to be back. I should be able to post more frequently now.

Until then

Adios Amigos.

This year is a fantastic year for Aquatic therapy in India. After almost a decade of consistent and sustained work, we are able to take the next step. It is an exciting moment for me to be the organizing chair for the 4th International Conference on Evidence Based Aquatic Therapy and for the first one for India. The website for the conference has been launched in 2016 and the registrations have started. The focus is to promote the aquatic professionals to gather at one platform and do an exchange of expertise in their line of work. The keynote speakers are from different parts of the globe.

Aquatic Therapy workshop

Am happy to share the first Aquatic education program of this year is hereby announced. We will be training practitioners for this program to enhance their skills in Aquatic therapy.

MY POOL

One year has been a great challenge, it took some hard work, persistence, many best wishes and help from wonderful souls to make a dream come true. Yes Now I have my own pool which is heated. The first step into it on a beautiful morning almost a year back will always be etched in my memory, the tears flowing down was very natural and I could understand value of every one drop. My life has started flowing ... so many possibilities have opened up to reach out to so many individuals and professionals...

 It is an indoor pool with plenty of windows for light and cross ventilation. I have done what best possibly could be done given the resources. It could always be better and an attempt will be continuously made to make it the best.

This will be one stop for all aquatic therapy related queries in India. This will also be the office of ATNI.

The Pool will be a Research Center, Therapy Center and also an Education Center. It appears the path is charted and many more steps to climb. There are many ideas on the cards and will be executed systematically.

It has been a very long time indeed that something was posted. So many wonderful turn of events. Updates will come along. I believe, if you are honest in your intentions and are willing to do all it takes to make things happen,  they are bound to happen.  Until the right time comes along everything will be on hold and at the right time all the details play right.  Have a great day 

The Later half of the year of 2015 was hectic and busy, Was occupied in construction of our therapeutic pool, it was an exciting process and did take away a lot time and create plenty of stress, but at the end of the day it was all worth it. I share some of the pictures of the pool. This was already done in other social media, but missed uploading in the blog. It is indeed a stressful but enjoyable process of having our own pool. YESSS now I have my own pool to do all the work related with water and I have started seeing patients in them and some success stories are already out.

The second half of the year is going good for Aquatic Therapy. The first Basic Aquatic workshop got over in Latur, a small but important town of Maharashtra. We did one parental orientation program at Bangalore to enable parents to handle their children in water. This was received very well among all the parents. we will be hosting another program by this month end again. The second Basic Aquatic Therapy Workshop is happening from tomorrow(8/10/15) at Pune. Hope to hold the last program at my own pool. It will be a big task though.The deadline is this month end. Also hope to come out with the first draft of  standards and guidelines for India by this month end. Lot of Work n little time. One more parental orientation will be getting organised by November at Mumbai. Keeping fingers crossed and praying all things will fall in place. The next six months are crucial months for Aquatic Therapy. 

The first half year of 2015 was quiet on Aquatic awareness, but thanks to Bangalore physiotherapy network for breaking the silence and inviting me to speak on Aquatic therapy - scope and clinical application. Had an interesting interaction with other resource persons and presented the talk with few takers for Aquatic Therapy, may be they did not feel like getting wet on a good day.

 Had a very nice interaction with the members of BPN and enjoyed their energetic conversation and spirit to do hold the conference. something to pick up for our conference in India.

Greetings, India is doing well this year on Aquatic therapy front. Awareness is coming to its age. Many pools coming up on various parts of India. And in the year 2016 we will be organizing a certification program on WST and BRRM in India by Johan Lambeck. This will be first such program for therapists in India.Hope this starts a trend to learn aquatic therapy in India.

The details of the program is given here. Anyone interested please send me an email on prashuphysio@gmail.com for registration details.

Prerequisite will be to have a minimum education on Aquatic Therapy. Either Basic Aquatic therapy module taken in India or equivalent.

Conference at Leuven - Aqua leuven 2015

Conference at Leuven - Aqua leuven 2015

Interesting scientific sessions, interaction with international delegates, updates on recent advances and work being carried out at different levels of therapeutic intervention, networking and a lovely dinner sums up the Aqua Leuven. Daniel Daly taking the lead ensured smooth running of all the events on time. Some interesting clips



Dinner with the IATF board. Leuven has a street
Munstrat with many restaurants lined up and it is very tempting to simply sitdown to experience the place.








My presentation on "Aquatic education in India - obstacles and strategies for success" was received well with some countries facing a similar issue on setting up Aquatic Therapy. Also Presentation was supported by Amruta Paranjape from India and Baris from Turkey voicing the lack of awareness and inputs on how to make it a sustainable venture.


The topic that drew my attention was the state of art wireless EMG analysis of swimmers muscle performance.Wish I was a part of the team for analysis. The technology was amazing and the research possibilites plenty.

This was followed by a wonderful demonstration of EWAC Medical team on the use of monitoring activity intensity on underwater treadmill, aqua cycle, aqua jogging and aquatic exercise wirelessly using bluetooth and heart monitor. Demonstrated by enthusiastic models and Ben Waller from Finland

 The man behind my constant persuation of Aquatic therapy, Johan has been there consistently replying to all my emails for keeping the aquatic spark alive.







There is another greatest news I want to share with you all. The next Aqua Evidence conference will be hosted by India by an enthusiastic team of therapists. I had the previlige and pleasure to invite everyone on behalf of India. The conference will be happening in 2017. Further details will come very soon. Early Bird Registrations will commence from this very year end.

WE have huge work to do in the coming Two years. Wish to have everyone's support in making this a successful event.

The year 2015 is posing New Challenges and it will be one long year for aquatic therapy. After looking at education and awareness, now the goal is to develop a working model of aquatic therapy center. It is a Herculean task of setting up a pool. Hope it can be achieved this year.

Am planning some new advanced programs in aquatic therapy this year along with the basic workshop that is going on. If everything works out we might have invited international faculties for taking workshops on Halliwick, Badragaz, and may be Ai Chi.

One good news is my paper on aquatic therapy education in India has been selected  for presentation at Leuven Belgium. Am looking forward for a good interaction and some recharge for my motivation to last the year.

There will be more to come once pool is ready.

The year of 2014 was one of the year with so many activities on aquatic therapy, hope the awareness spreads and the patient population  benefit with this concept.



Aquatic education seems to be the first step towards establishing a strong foundation to develop the concept. After going through the syllabus of various universities, it was found that the hours dedicated to aquatic therapy was just 5 hours at the most.

Currently the basic Aquatic therapy workshop being conducted is giving 32 hours since 2014 with one exclusive day for clinical hands on. This was developed after trying various hours of teaching and trying to understand what will motivate the therapists to start clinical application. Of course this will be reviewed after another year to see whether it is reaching the patient population. The year has been an exciting and hectic journey through my academic work, house construction, travelling, conferences, brain storming and many sleepless nights. End of the year the fruits are wonderful. My family has been tolerant towards my eccentricities, my absence & passion.

Colleagues at my Institute SDM College of Physiotherapy were supportive towards taking care of things while I was away. Got my promotion as Associate Professor in the middle of the year which was encouraging for the work being done. All in all a year full of activities, hope this year brings in some importance to clinical work from the participants of the workshops. Looking forward for surprises, certainties and growth in Aquatic Therapy for India.

Looks like some serious updates are missing, as I mentioned earlier, this year has been fruitful for me as well as the aquatic therapy scenario in India. Two important steps have been climbed, I have become Watsu Practitioner and am registered under WABA now and can offer watsu Sessions. This was the first event of the year.

The second most important event was becoming the Member of International Aquatic therapy faculty and ability to use IATF logo in the courses happening in India. Also few hours of Halliwick therapy will also be recognized by IATF. It has been a wonderful journey so far, and will only become better now onwards. Waiting for An Aquatic therapy Pool to come up that will be all in one, Therapy, training and research center. Keeping fingers crossed until it is ready. All patients in India can start taking benefits once it gets established. And the education in India will start having some recognition at international level, though it is a small step.

This year has been very good for aquatic therapy, there were conferences and few awareness programs. Still further programs are on the way, will highlight the events that have happened in some time. Meanwhile after completing one of the basic workshop at Mumbai, the second Workshop is coming up again in Mumbai this October. The four day program will have clinical hands on with patients on the last day for understanding the benefits and challenges in aquatic therapy.

The workshop is again directed towards Physiotherapists and occupational therapists who want to start their career in Aquatic Therapy.

Workshops for the year 2014

It is pleasure to announce, the Workshops being held in India on Basic Aquatic therapy module 1. This is an effort to bring Aquatic Therapy In India in a systematic way. This year the workshop is going to be for four days with greater importance to project clinical application. The workshops are being held in Ahmadabad of Gujarat and Mumbai of Maharashtra.







All therapists in India can take advantage of this. Anybody needs more info can mail me at prashanth_c_g@yahoo.com. Also you can get in touch with the organizers. We will be doing two to three workshops at the most for this year to regulate quality and quantity of therapists !!

Welcoming 2014

The year 2013 has been a very busy year indeed, we concluded with the publication of article in Physiotimes on Autism. It gave me lot of learning, knowledge, aspirations and more friends. It brought me close to many people who were busy in their life all these years. It made me feel humble in front of larger things to achieve yet.

Wishing all a very Happy Happy and a lovely New Year, hereby welcome 2014 with all the challenges it can pose for the growth of Aquatic Therapy In India as well as personal growth. If I have not mentioned earlier, there is closed group established through the ever popular FaceBook to support all the people related with aquatic therapy in India. It is called "Aquatic Therapy Network of India" (ATNI). If you are a therapist willing to learn or contribute you can send in your request to be a member with a message how you are related with water works.

2014 appears to be a challenging year as there are lot of things that will have to happen, which will not be entirely in my hands. Will have to only wait for the outcomes. The first and the great news is I became a Watsu Practitioner and my name is entered in the Registry of WABA from India. It is one of the greatest pleasures to share. Also, it pleasantly appears that am the first Physiotherapist to have made it from India into the Registry. At one moment I felt the long duration of study since 4 years has come to an end and at the other realized I have just begun as a practitioner and the learning never ceases.

Thank you Watsu India and Thank you WABA

Some more links at the end of this page is added. There are various Organizations, Networks, Groups and Associations working towards Aquatic Therapy. It feels simply wonderful to see how the awareness is on in so many ways. Hope it will grow in India too.

I have updated my aquatic profile recently and made some changes in layout. Am planning to put some case pics shortly and also add more website links giving information on aquatic therapy for everyone

This year began with learning OBA and New Watsu, later a pre conference workshop was scheduled by the National Indian Association of Physiotherapy at the national conference at Goa. Unfortunately the program did not take place but, due to the promotion of conference activities the word did spread around for aquatic therapy. This was in Febraury

Then it was great time at Turkey conference on Aqua Evidence, and presentation of paper on this platform was a great boost to keep the work going on at India. This was in March.

After returning from conference, there were two back to back workshops scheduled on basic Aquatic therapy at Mumbai and later at Mysore. Both received wonderful response. This was in April. 

May had a wonderful family trip to Sikkim for almost half a month. A great Break. Following month i.e. June had the first workshop on Ai Chi Basic for the therapists, at Lonavla a picturesque place near Mumbai. Following months had another conference in Mysore. 

The third basic workshop was in Pune for therapists. This workshop had a person from A-Technologies presenting the intricacies of establishing a pool. This was in August. September gave me an opportunity to talk in a Conference at Delhi Neuraxis on aquatic Therapy organised by AIIMs and APMR Institutes. Am looking at another Ai Chi Program for corporate population. Another month to go.

October went on having some brainstorming for the article on Aquatics in Autism in Physiotimes. This should be coming in the next issue.

Meanwhile membership is growing in ATNI, Aquatic Therapy Nework of India. An indigenous way of preparing water dumbells was designed and the first shipment to an aquatic therapist was done. The technique is still evolving and may be will be ready by the year end. Also a Set of guidelines is getting prepared for therapists, pools and safety. Hope to have it ready by year end. A database of centers In India currently employing the pool for aquatic works is prepared and will be updated periodically. The next update on this list will be released shortly.

Phew I am really enjoying to see the changes and spirit going up. Plans have been laid to have a complete aquatic therapy center by mid of Next year. Hope I will have more to update before the year ends.