Trust in Touch Course
Trust in Touch is an exploration of conscious touch where presence creates safety, boundaries become clarity, and relationships unfold as a field for healing.
Trust in Touch I is a 25-hour open class designed for anyone wishing to evolve in relationship — personally and professionally using nature as a model for skillful healing relationships.
Led by Diane Tegtmeier, this experiential training invites participants beyond theoretical discussions of boundaries and ethics and into a lived, embodied understanding of right relationship. Through role play, self-inquiry, experiential exercises on land and in warm water, and reflective dialogue, students explore how nature manages connection, boundaries, and healing.
The course satisfies ethics continuing education requirements and is open to bodyworkers and practitioners with at least 50 hours of bodywork training (or by instructor permission)
Trust in Touch
Trust in Touch offers an embodied exploration of ethical and healing relationships. Instead of relying on rigid external rules, the course turns to nature specifically to the intelligence of the living cell membrane as a model for how healthy boundaries and exchanges are created and maintained. A cell membrane is neither closed nor indiscriminately open; it is responsive, discerning, and in constant dialogue with its environment. This natural wisdom becomes the foundation for understanding professional relationships.
Throughout the course, participants gradually discover the six principles by which cell membranes regulate connection and protection. These principles are not studied abstractly; they are brought directly into real bodywork situations. Through guided role play and experiential exercises, students practice a structured five-step process for meeting ethical dilemmas with clarity and presence, learning how to respond rather than react.
Trust in Touch addresses the moments that practitioners often find most challenging: when a client is difficult or makes an uncomfortable request; when issues of power, money, sexuality, or dual relationships arise; or when one’s own desires, projections, or longings begin to blur professional clarity. Instead of avoiding these realities, the course creates a safe space to face them consciously.
Participants reflect on the subtle dynamics of dual relationships and the complexity of sexual energy not as something to suppress, but as a force that nature itself manages with intelligence and boundaries. Ethical codes are examined not as imposed regulations, but as reflections of deeper natural laws governing healthy exchange. Within a trusting peer environment, students also begin to recognize their own relational patterns, bringing awareness to habits that may unconsciously shape their work.
Ultimately, the journey of Trust in Touch is a movement away from conceptual ethics toward embodied wisdom from following rules to cultivating consciousness in relationship.
04- 06 OCTOBER
Intensive full-day training
POLYNESIA WATSU CENTER
Moorea – French Polynesia
Course Fee: 45,000 XPF
(including pool entry)
3-Day Course
6 Hours of International WABA Ethics Certification Credit
16 Hours of Credit Toward the Healing Dance Practitioner Path
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Retreat Package: 10,800 XPF
This package includes :
● Lunch
● Snacks and water
Note: The retreat package is optional and not included in the course fee.
Diane Tegtmeier
Aquatic Bodywork Teacher • Author • Healing Relationship Specialist
Diane Tegtmeier has devoted her life to exploring how healing unfolds through relationship. Her work brings together science, psychology, bodywork, energy healing, and spiritual practice into an integrative approach to therapeutic presence.
Her professional journey began in biochemistry research and environmental activism, where she developed a deep fascination for the intelligence of living systems. This systemic understanding later shaped her view that healing is fundamentally relational.
After raising two children, Diane pursued graduate studies in social work, drawn to the ecological perspective that sees individuals within the networks of relationships that shape their lives. During her years working in hospital settings, she accompanied people through vulnerability, crisis, and profound transitions, deepening her understanding of the healing power of human connection.
Seeking a more embodied dimension of healing, she trained in energy healing and gradually integrated talk therapy and touch-based practices into her private work. Yet it was through aquatic bodywork that she discovered the practice that truly unified her path.
Experiencing Watsu®, Healing Dance®, and Waterdance revealed a new way of working where science, somatic awareness, and relational presence came together. Holding clients in warm water while attuning to breath, tissue, and subtle energetic shifts allowed Diane to support healing in a uniquely profound way.
Since 2000, she has lived and practiced at Harbin Hot Springs in California, one of the pioneering centers for aquatic bodywork. There she has worked with thousands of clients and students, developing a deeply integrative approach grounded in somatic awareness, energetic sensitivity, and ethical clarity.
Diane is also an ordained minister in the Hearth Consciousness Church and trained in Reconnective Healing®, expanding her understanding of healing as a process that unfolds naturally when the right relational conditions are present.
She is the author of Relationships that Heal: Skillful Practice within Nature’s Web, a book that explores how principles observed in nature — especially cellular biology — can guide practitioners toward healthier and more ethical therapeutic relationships. These insights form the foundation of the course Trust in Touch.
Today Diane teaches internationally, sharing a synthesis of science, somatic awareness, relational ethics, and spiritual presence. Her teaching invites practitioners to move beyond rules and cultivate an embodied understanding of ethical relationship rooted in awareness, compassion, and respect for the intelligence of life.
POLYNESIA WATSU CENTER
Moorea Island (French Polynesia)
Located on the mystical island of Moorea, the Polynesian Watsu Center is nestled by the serene natural lake of Temae, within a nationally protected area rich in unique flora and fauna.
In 2022, we completed the construction of a 10-meter by 3.5-meter infinity pool, seamlessly integrated into the natural environment. This saltwater therapeutic pool serves as a dedicated space for various aquatic therapy practices, including educational programs and private sessions. The water temperature is maintained at approximately 33°C, creating the perfect setting for water-based therapies.
Our center is situated in the Temae area of Moorea, just five minutes from the iconic Temae Beach, near the golf club and the airport.
We also offer a spacious terrace of over 100 square meters, designed for land-based therapeutic activities and courses. Surrounding our center, you will find more than 100 different plant species, which we nurture with love and passion, ensuring harmony with the natural environment.
Trust in Touch
Program course
Trust in Touch – 25-Hour Professional Training
A Core Ethics & Relationship Training for Bodywork Practitioners
3-Day Immersive Training in Relational Mastery
Join us for a powerful 3-day immersive experience designed to transform the way you understand boundaries, ethics, and healing relationships.
Trust in Touch moves beyond theoretical discussions of professional conduct and into embodied awareness. Using nature and specifically the intelligence of the living cell membrane as a guide, this course teaches you how to create relationships that are safe, clear, responsive, and alive.
Through experiential exercises on land and in warm water, role play, guided inquiry, and reflective dialogue, you will develop practical tools for navigating the most sensitive and complex relational situations in professional practice.
This course satisfies ethics continuing education requirements and is open to practitioners with prior bodywork training.
Program Highlights
Each day builds your capacity to remain centered, discerning, and compassionate — even in challenging circumstances. You will explore how nature regulates exchange, maintains boundaries, and fosters growth, then apply those principles directly to therapeutic relationships.
The course builds upon foundational aquatic bodywork training, offering:
Course Objectives
During this training, participants will learn to:
The six principles by which living cell membranes manage healthy boundaries and exchange
A 5-step process for resolving ethical dilemmas with clarity and grounded presence
Practical applications of nature’s model to real-life bodywork scenarios
Role-play explorations of difficult client interactions and challenging requests
Conscious navigation of power, money, sexuality, and dual relationships
Recognition of personal triggers, longings, and projections that may arise in practice
Embodied listening and centered communication skills
A safe learning environment that supports self-reflection and containment
SCHEDULE
● Day 1: 14:00 – 18:00
● Days 2 to 3: 09:00 – 18:00
(Each day includes a 1.5-hour break)
● Recreational Activities: Lagoon Tour & More
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Who is this course for?
Trust in Touch is designed for practitioners who understand that technical skill alone is not enough that the true depth of healing lies in the quality of relationship.
This course is ideal for bodyworkers, massage therapists, aquatic practitioners, and wellness professionals who wish to strengthen their ethical foundation and relational awareness. It is equally valuable for movement educators, somatic therapists, and anyone working with touch who desires greater clarity around boundaries, power dynamics, and professional presence.
Participants who have completed Introduction to Healing Dance® or foundational aquatic bodywork training will find this course a natural and essential next step in their development.
Trust in Touch is for those ready to move beyond rules into embodied ethical consciousness — and to cultivate relationships that are safe, skillful, and deeply healing.
Do I need any previous experience to participate?
Trust in Touch is designed for people already engaged in bodywork or therapeutic touch practices who wish to deepen their relational and ethical skills.
Participants are generally expected to have at least 50 hours of bodywork training, or equivalent experience, as the course explores professional situations that arise in therapeutic practice.
Students who have completed Introduction to Healing Dance® or other foundational aquatic bodywork training will find the course particularly relevant, though it is not limited to aquatic practitioners.
If you are unsure whether your background meets the prerequisites, participation may also be possible with instructor permission.
How are the activities structured during the course?
Attending a Healing Dance class may be unlike anything you have ever experienced. It combines experiential learning in the water with cognitive learning on land. In the water you will learn by giving and receiving movements that form a sequence. On land you will review the material you practiced in the water, going over the details and asking any questions you have. Time is also devoted to sharing and exchanging grounding bodywork to balance the hours spent in the water. So, water time alternates with land time throughout the course.
What can I take home after the seminar?
After completing Trust in Touch, you will leave with a deeper understanding of how to create safe, ethical, and healing relationships in your professional practice. The course offers practical tools to navigate complex relational situations with clarity, presence, and confidence.
You will gain a clearer awareness of boundaries, power dynamics, and the subtle ways personal emotions or projections can influence therapeutic relationships. Through experiential practice, you develop stronger skills in self-reflection, active listening, and centered communication.
Most importantly, you take home an embodied understanding of how nature models healthy exchange learning to respond to challenging situations not from rigid rules, but from awareness, balance, and relational intelligence.
Can I work professionally after this course?
Trust in Touch is an advanced professional development course that deepens your understanding of ethical and healing relationships in bodywork practice. While it provides valuable tools for navigating boundaries, communication, and complex relational situations, it does not by itself qualify you to practice professionally as a certified practitioner.
This training is designed to complement existing bodywork education and is often taken by practitioners who are already working in the field or who are following a professional training pathway such as Healing Dance® or other aquatic bodywork programs.
By strengthening relational awareness, ethical clarity, and embodied presence, Trust in Touch supports the development of safe, skillful, and responsible practitioners but professional qualification depends on completing a full certification program within your chosen discipline.