flying.pool.project

Birth, Memory & Water Symposium
12 - 14 June 2025
Arillas, Corfu, GREECE

A Symposium brings together experts to present and discuss a specific topic or theme. It emphasizes the exchange of knowledge, research findings, and insights among participants. In Ancient Greece, it was a popular way of socializing after dinner which involved food, wine and conversation.

This first Pre and Perinatal Aquatic Symposium brought together a select group of leading water and birth professionals, to explore the intersection of birth, memory, and the healing qualities of water. The symposium offered a natural space for deep discussion, knowledge sharing, and collaborative exploration on how these powerful elements can aid in both healing and empowerment during the experience of giving birth and of being born.

Themes that showed up during the Symposium regarding the container were:

- What is the purpose of the “Container”, how do we hold and care for it?
- How safe do we feel in a natural environment?
- What is our capacity to listen and to ask for what we need?
- How able are we to hold our own stories and contain ourselves?
- How do we create a continuum and how do we deal with seemingly conflicting opinions?
- What is our capacity as a birth team and how do we show up for one another?

Indeed, there might not be a ‘safe’ container to be born into after all, only a brave one.

BIRTH MEMORY IN WATER
Birth, Memory & Water Symposium
12 - 14 June 2025
Arillas, Corfu, GREECE

"What if we remembered that the apple was actually an apricot and that pleasure is our Birthright?

What if we remembered that our Bubble is our Birthright and that Life is wanting us to express our needs, desires and unique human potential?

What if we remembered rather than imagined the complex layers of awareness that inform our being in utero?

What if we could strip away the layers of confusion, numbing, medication, trauma, separation, and witness the essence of what truly remains?

Slow is the new fast and soft is the new deep in pre and perinatal aquatics so that the space in between can be seen, expressed and gently integrated."

Sophia Michalopoulou, founder of AQUAGENESIS led the enquiry into Birth Memory in Water as an Integrative Aquatic Therapist and educator who specializes in pre and perinatal trauma release. She is also a newborn and baby swimming educator as well as a pregnancy and birth doula. Sophia supports the entire birth experience from conception, pregnancy and birth with water in order to create a more gentle and conscious fluid continuum for future babies and children.

Sophia grew up by the sea on the island of Corfu, Greece and her love for water became her life path and service. After experiencing a number of aquatic bodywork modalities, open water practices, therapeutic and teaching methods on land and in water, she dedicated herself to the path she found the most depth and capacity to hold herself.

Immersed in warm water, Sophia began to remember her own birth journey while studying with David Sawyer and to see birth from a baby’s perspective. Sophia’s thesis, “MY BIRTH STORY” outlining her exploration and embodiment of Vanishing Twin Syndrome, became a podcast on Spotify. She facilitates the process of remembering more of who we are so that we can overcome a sense of separation and live our lives from our fullest capacities while expressing our unique human potential.

📍 flying.pool.project
📸 Photographer Corfu - Elena Kipriotis