Janzu: A Rebirth
"Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Image from Case de Artes Aquaticas
July 21st, 2025
📍Tepoztlán, Mexico 🇲🇽
¡Saludos desde el desierto!
I am thrilled to be learning a new water-based art form and healing technique that will become a significant part of Loto’s immersive retreat experiences moving forward. Janzu unfolds not just as a water therapy, but as a living, aquatic meditation—a ritual in warm water invoking primordial, womb-like origins. As humans, our life begins in the amniotic fluid of our mother’s womb. This water-based technique helps to reconnect our consciousness and our bodies to this essential element of life.
What is Janzu?
Originating in Mexico around 2000 under the guidance of Juan Villatoro (Patik), it has rippled globally, reaching communities from Spain to Argentina. I’m grateful to be here in Tepoztlán, Mexico, learning from Maria Ornelas, the woman who developed the training alongside Villatoro. After nearly a week of working in these waters, I am already learning a great deal.
At its core, Janzu is a somatic journey: the facilitator cradles the receiver in body-temp water, guiding slow, rhythmic movements that coax the brain into deep Theta relaxation—a gateway to releasing stress, trauma, and emotional blockages while reawakening cellular memory and primal consciousness. This practice—often dubbed "rebirth therapy"—invites participants to revisit birth-like thresholds, fostering reconnection with the body and the Self.
Video from my Level 1 Janzu training at La Casa de Artes Acuáticas
Janzu ceremonies weave together art, somatic therapy, and ritual, extending beyond relief into transformation, creativity, and inner communion with the water element. As Vogue recently attested, participants often emerge feeling reborn, liberated from gravity and trauma, and enter a space of surrender, peace, and a sense of homecoming.
In an age of disconnection and cognitive overload, Janzu reminds us that life begins in hushed silence, in the support of water. It’s a testament to the power of water to hold us, reorient us, and buoy us back to wholeness.
Beside the body-temp Janzu training pool
Reconnecting with Self
I’ve also been learning a great deal about myself during my time in the water at La Casa de Artes Acuáticas. While I enjoy experiencing other cultures, it’s not always easy to be the only person in a room who isn’t fluent in the native language. Even with a translator, my time here started as an uphill battle to make strong connections across the language barrier (I’ve been talking about doing a Spanish language immersion course, and this is much like that, except I’m the only student). The people pleaser in me, which my therapist and I call my “chameleon,” started out wishing I blended in more with the others.
There is an inherent intimacy in this Janzu practice, both for the giver (the Janzu “mother”) and receiver (the Janzu “baby”). A lot of trust is required in both roles, and receiving the Janzu is helping me to expose and release those parts of myself that want to shape-shift to connect more easily with my fellow Janzu students.
The water is helping me let go of that desire and be held and received by these women, exactly as I am (and vice versa); this is important for my inner child work. Nearly two weeks in, and I’ve now made friendships that will last long after this training is done. I’m so grateful for these new friends who are dreaming with me about the future.
A fellow Janzu “mother” (R) finishing up with her Janzu “baby” (L)
Mothering
As someone without children but who considers herself a spiritual mother, being a Janzu mother to women in the water has been equally as powerful as my role as the baby receiving the Janzu. I’m finding that this practice is another pathway to do something nurturing for others.
As the facilitator, the Janzu mother, I am taking care of the receiver like my baby, being in touch with and caring for her needs as we both dance through the water. In a hands-on way, I am finding out the type of mother I am—confident but gentle, present, and loving. I am learning the art of softness in my body and the power of the water as a conductor of energy for co-regulating my nervous system with my Janzu baby.
Full Circle
I am still in awe that the Janzu seed planted in my heart back in October has come to bloom in my life in this way. Attending the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (the patron saint of this town) on July 22nd is going to bring me back full circle to where this Janzu journey began, and I’m excited to share that with you next week upon my return to Colorado.
My plan is to incorporate the Janzu technique in the upcoming Renewal retreat in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in April 2026. Until then, I will be offering Janzu in warm waters across Colorado. If you're in the area and interested in working with me, please drop a note in the comments below, and I’ll reach out to you directly.
With Love,
Jennifer
P.S.—I’d love to hear from YOU! Rather than emailing me or dropping me a DM, please post a comment below 👇
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click through a link and make a purchase, it may earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you! See our disclaimer for details.
Keep Reading…
Dig Deeper…
