The Aquatic Therapy Institute (ATI) was born from real clinical experience, real patient needs, and a deep belief in the transformative power of aquatic therapy.

Behind ATI is a team built on years of hands-on work in rehabilitation, movement, and aquatic programming, led by Karen Snyder and Irene Hammerich, co-founders of LiquidGym Therapy & Training Centre.

Karen’s passion for aquatic therapy became deeply personal after breaking her leg while playing hockey in 2008. After months of traditional physiotherapy without the progress she had hoped for, she turned to the pool — recovery accelerated, movement improved, and a new vision began to take shape.

That experience became the foundation for what would eventually become LiquidGym — and later, ATI.

For over the past 12 years working with patients in the aquatic environment, our team saw both the incredible value of water-based rehabilitation and the major gaps that existed in the field.

We took what we had learned through experience, patient care, program development, and clinical problem-solving and turned it into a structured educational system designed to help clinicians understand how to apply it with purpose, safety, and professional confidence.

The Aquatic Therapy Institute was born!

We are passionate about sharing this knowledge because we have seen firsthand what happens when aquatic therapy is delivered well: patients move better, recover with more confidence, and experience possibilities that often feel out of reach on land.

Our biggest goal in teaching is to help clinicians move from uncertainty to confidence. We want to provide the knowledge, structure, and clinical reasoning needed to elevate aquatic therapy from an underused option to a powerful, purposeful part of modern rehabilitation.