What is the practice of using water for physical and emotional healing called?

The practice of using water for physical and emotional healing is called hydrotherapy. The term covers therapeutic methods that use water’s physical properties, including temperature, pressure, immersion, and movement.

Hydrotherapy may involve water jets, underwater massage, mineral baths, whirlpools, hot tubs, or cold-water treatments. In modern healthcare, aquatic therapy is often used as a form of physical rehabilitation for pain, mobility limitations, and other conditions.

The stored answer, hydotherapy, is not the standard spelling. Hydrotherapy is also historically associated with hydropathy, sometimes called the water cure, although modern hydrotherapy includes a broader range of therapeutic and physiotherapy practices.

Claims about emotional or curative benefits vary by method, and evidence is not equally strong for every use. The vocabulary answer remains hydrotherapy.