About Our Therapists

KELLY TATUM ZIMMERMAN, CMT, E-RYT, CERTIFIED WATSU® PRACTITIONER

Kelly Tatum is the founder of Hydra Yoga Spa and became a Certified Massage Therapist in 2009 with the goal of helping others to live with less pain and have more energy. Kelly began studying Hot Yoga in 2010 to help her fatigue and abdominal pain. Impressed by the results, she began studying Tibetan Buddhism and picked up a book on Thai Massage and started practicing with friends at a nearby dance studio.

She completed her 800hr Massage course at Virginia School of Massage in Charlottesville Virginia and 200hr Yoga Teacher Training with Yax Yoga in Richmond Virginia. She became a specialist in Thai Massage, Structural Integration and Trigger Point Therapy, which she blends, calling it Integrated Thai Massage.

Finding that some people still can’t let go, even through meditation, yoga, and light or deep massage, she was inspired to study Watsu. Watsu manipulates the nervous system to teach clients to release in warm water, by gently swaying the client back and forth. She received her full Watsu Practionership through Minakshi in the Florida Keys.

Determined to learn everything about Vinyasa Yoga, she took a couple courses with Rolf Gates in Tulum and Indianapolis. Currently she is a passionate devotee of David Garrigues, studying with him several times with Michelle Dorer in the Outer Banks and in Philadelphia.

About Hydra Yoga

What makes Hydra Yoga different is simply the level of education the instructors receive. Yoga Teachers are given the curriculum geared toward their interest in Yin or Vinyasa yoga AND the applicable curriculum a Massage Therapist would receive in their area of interest. In this way they are able to understand and treat the body with more accuracy and confidence.

The name Hydra means hydrant, which celebrates the internal healing force or spring of life-giving energy within the body. The name Hydra means vessel, which symbolizes the thoughts and feelings that move through us which we are taught not to identify with, our ego. The Hydra, as most people know it, is the 7 headed dragon of Revelations, symbolizing the 7 deadly sins. Conversely, their opposing 7 virtues offer the path to peace and true happiness within. This path corresponds to the central channel described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Hydra, like hydration, is the understanding that our body is mostly water, like the warm water of our Watsu treatments. Like the 7 heads, we offer a range of massage services and vigorous but safe yoga practices. Like the 7 heads, we understand the body as a multifaceted model and resist the itemization and quick-fixes of the modern day medical industry.

About Integrated Thai Massage

Integrated Thai Massage combines both Thai and Deep Tissue to benefit clients the most without requiring them to schedule separate appointments. Traditional Thai Massage, with its deep compressions, Acupressure points and dynamic stretching, is known for releasing the body from head to foot in less than an hour. Through Thai Reflexology, the body’s aches and pains connect to internal organ energy. Although she was incredibly impressed with the power of Thai Massage, Kelly still found it limiting in terms of being able to get into the muscle tissue and relieve knots. Trigger Point, Myofascial, Structural Integration and Russian Sports massage are integrated to provide Medical Massage relief. Russian Sports massage is crucial in help the range of the massage go from the lightest touch of sweeping lymphatic strokes and pressure point to deepest pain relief massage.