Curious about aquatic therapy but unsure where to start?

Want to feel confident, safe, and clinically clear about water-based OT interventions?

Aquatic therapy offers unique opportunities for engagement, regulation, skill development and sensory integration.

This workshop goes beyond the basics, giving you the tools, evidence and confidence to bring aquatic therapy into your paediatric practice in a safe, effective and evidence-based way.

What will you learn?

Whether you’re brand new to aquatic therapy or looking to formalise what you’re already doing, this workshop will:

• Teach you the therapeutic principles behind aquatic therapy.
• Show you how to assess client suitability (including red flags and contraindications).
• Explore primitive reflex integration and why the water can be such a powerful context.
• Give you practical safety and risk management tools (including a risk matrix template).
• Highlight neuroscience and regulation links (polyvagal theory, sensory systems, interoception).
• Walk you through effective documentation and reporting so your aquatic therapy is clearly distinguished from swimming lessons.
• Explore outcome measures you can actually use in the pool (COPM, WHODAS, GAS, sensory tools).
• Provide strategies for sustainable practice – balancing clinical value with family logistics, funding, and access.
• Bring it all to life through real case studies (ASD, CP, trauma-informed care).

Who is this workshop for?

• Occupational Therapists working with children or young people
• OTs exploring new tools to support regulation, engagement and participation
• Clinicians wanting to formalise or expand their aquatic therapy approach

Why attend?

• Understand the therapeutic rationale behind aquatic therapy
• Learn to deliver sessions that are safe, effective, and fundable
• Build confidence in documentation, outcome measures, and clinical justification
• Walk away with templates, tools, and strategies you can implement immediately