The Composition of a Treatment

No two people are alike, and no two treatments are ever the same.

Every session tells its own story.

Therapy is a complex encounter — a meeting of one individual with another,

a meeting with the self, meeting with the water as environment.

A meeting of individuals as part of a group and a meeting with life itself as a mirror.

Protocols offer practitioners a path to follow —

welcoming, intake, the therapeutic process, ending and farewell.

Yet in between lie smaller encounters, micro-moments hidden within the major stages.

During intake, for example:

How does the person arrive at the session? How do we receive them?

Do they begin to speak while we listen, or do we invite questions and initiate guidance?

Do we notice their movement through the space — their voice, posture, vitality, and presence?

Do we allow time before entering the water, or do we jump straight in?

In the water:

Do we work on autopilot, focusing on our treatment routine patterns?

or do we compose a balance of motion and stillness, balancing between space and time?

Are we attuned to time — and if so, whose time? The client’s or ours?

What comes first?

What matters more, and what matters less?

As practitioners, what do we choose to leave out — and what do we choose to add?

Asking questions throughout the session keeps us alert and attentive, connected to the person, the group and to the water. These questions shape the composition of the treatment.

The way the practitioner moves in the therapeutic space, the quality of their actions — these already lay the path toward realizing the session’s potential.

It’s not about how much we do, but about what we do and how we do it.

In one session we may include more; in another, we may let go.

Every part of the treatment has its importance. Every action sparks a response.

All together, they form the chain of the therapeutic process.

As practitioners, we are obliged to adapt.

Questions and questioning, actions and adjustments, intuition, space, and time — these are the ingredients with which we compose the treatment.

The more tools a practitioner has, the more grounded and confident the therapeutic path becomes.

Yes, a treatment has structure and boundaries that we must uphold. But within that structure, everything must be tailored to the individual. As long as we work within the agreed timeframe, with sensitivity and empathy toward the person before us, the essential commitment is fulfilled.

Composition is not just the transition from one movement to the next or the flow between them.

The composition of therapy is a dialogue and a dance — between people, between micro-elements, between fractions of seconds.

It moves between what is and what is desired, between the “here and now” and “dream time.”

It is an invitation into a process — a path toward change.