Harold Dull (1935—2019) was an American aquatic bodyworker and poet best known as the creator of Watsu, originally developed in the early 1980s at Harbin Hot Springs, California.
He experimented with floating people in the warm water natural springs, incorporating breathing patterns, meditative presence, and meridian stretches in sessions.
[3]: 137–138 Dull, with his background in creative arts, poetry, and English teaching, originally focused on Watsu as a meditative and nurturing practice, and emphasized "heart connection".
[4]: 118–119 By the late 1980s and early 1990s, physical therapists and other healthcare providers began to use Watsu with their patients for diverse orthopedic and neurologic conditions.
In those early years, there was some resistance to Watsu among those trained in conventional healthcare, primarily because of the roots in Shiatsu and the close physical contact.
He lived there beginning in 1980 as a teacher and resident, owned and ran the massage school from 1985 to 2008, and helped design and build the extensive Watsu aquatic facilities.
[8] Harold Dull developed Tantsu in order to "bring back onto land Watsu's nurturing holding, and the joy of the movement freed when floating someone level with the heart".