Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy uses water in a variety of ways and methods to provide relief for a wide variety of conditions. Water is used in all its forms, whether liquid with pressure as water massage or hot as steam for steam treatments. Hydrotherapy offers you many opportunities for relaxation.

Are you interested in hydrotherapy, a spa holiday with this therapy or are you simply wondering what it is? Then you’ve come to the right place! On this page you will find all the important information about water therapy: where it originates, how it works, the types of hydrotherapy treatments and of course, where you can enjoy it for yourself.

The word “hydro” comes from Greek and means water. “Therapy” is also Greek and means treatment. Hydrotherapy therefore means “treatment via water”. For this reason, it is also sometimes called “water therapy” or “spa treatments with water”.

Using different temperatures and pressures, the water is used for pain relief, treatment of various health issues and, of course, relaxation. Treatments include things like water jets, underwater massage, thermal mineral water baths, spa baths, hot tubs and cold plunges as well as hydrotherapy physiotherapy (exercises in pools directed by a physiotherapist). These treatments are often part of health packages at specific spa hotels, which you will learn more about below.

Amongst all the healing spa therapies, water therapy is one of the broadest categories. It involves all therapies that primarily use water to improve the health and is effectively the grandmother of therapies like thermotherapy, thalassotherapy, Kneipp therapy, aquatic therapy and many more involving water. Perhaps your brow is furrowed as you ask yourself: “the grandmother?” You read correctly - between water therapy and her “grandchildren” there is also balneotherapy, the healing treatment with baths.

A hydrotherapy program takes place in a health hotel or a spa hotel. It is a hotel stay with healing treatments. These are either already fixed in advance (program description) or are tailored to you personally on site by the spa doctor. In this case you will find programs with descriptions such as "24 treatments prescribed by the doctor".

The hydrotherapy treatments are all beneficial treatments in which water is used. Thereby there is a large variety, which we would like to introduce to you briefly here:

Many spa towns and health spa hotels in Europe are specialized in water therapy. However, these programs usually have different names, depending on the region and the specific treatments to that region. In Italy you will find that it is called Fango therapy, which basically means a combination of thermal water treatments and thermal mud treatments. In Hungary and the Czech Republic hydrotherapy is often referred to as thermotherapy instead, as they combine treatments using hot spring water with hot massages and other heat treatments. The spa package name Complex Healing is also common in these countries and it means a health spa program with water therapy treatments in combination with other healing spa therapies as recommended by the spa doctor. In all coastal regions, hydrotherapy is referred to as thalassotherapy, as the water used in treatments is seawater. There is also the large category of Kneipp therapy, which today perhaps use the most water treatments overall, including many hot-and-cold alternating water jets.

As you can see, when it comes to choosing your water therapy package, it all depends on you and what treatments or water type you would like. On the individual pages of the spa therapy programs you can learn more and pick out your favorite hydrotherapy spa package. And if you can’t decide, don’t worry – try the different treatments out one by one: they are all good for you, improve your health and are a great deal of fun.