Alternative | Breathe Network

Understanding How to Become a Holotropic Breathwork Coach

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There are a number of reasons that a person would wish to engage in breathwork therapy. Some of these reasons include: stress relief, out of body experience, transpersonal experiences or even to get in touch with ones personal psyche. No matter what the reason is that a person wishes to take part in breathwork, there is a lot that goes into it.

Many people who engage in breathwrok, especially holotropic breathwork, believe in the therapy so much that they wish to become a personal breathwork coach themselves.

Here is what is involved with becoming an official certified holotropic breathwork coach.

1. Decide between educational and practitioner. You must first decide if you only want to be a personal holotropic breathwork coach or if you’d like to be a personal coach and lead seminars and conferances. The training involved in to become certified as education or pratitioner is very similar. There is slightly more education involved with being a pratitioner.

2. Attend several modules. To be certified you are required to attend a specific number of modules during the training period. Modules allow people to get hands on experience with breathwork and see for themselves what exactlly it does. As every person’s experience is different, attending several different modules allows people to see a wide range of reactions to breathwork.

3. Attend the closing intensive. A very intesive 2 week closing session is involved to become a certified holotropic breahtwork coach. These closing intensives involve training in different types of fields related to breathwork such as pshypathology, spiritual emergency and even in the training of how breathwork can help cure additions.

4. Attend personal breathwork sessions. In order to be certified you must take part in your own personal breathwork sessions. You must meet with a certified practitioner and take part personally in over 150 hours of holotropic breathwork sessions.

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How to Do Breathwork at Home

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Breathwork is a great alternative medicine way of dealing with stress. When you don’t want to turn to other more medical ways to deal with stress, then breahtwork just might be the answer to those problems.

Breathwork is a known way to handle those stressful times, bad emotions, physical stress and even past experiences. By taking the human breath and gaining a bit of control over it, it can calm, sooth and help a person gain a bit more control over their life and body.

Breathwork has been integrated into some of the world’s most ancient forms of meditation. There are beliefs that the flow of breath is so important that it can virtually control every aspect of a person’s life if it were to be used the right way.

If breathwork sounds like a great way for you to take control of your life and emotions then here are some of the most basic breathwork exercises that are known to work. Best of all you can do them all from home!

Deep Cleansing Breath. This is a practice that allows a person to take a deep breath as they breath in, gather all the unknown bad attitudes that they have and then let them out while breathing out. Think of it as pushing out all those bad negative emotions that are pent up in the body.

Don’t Hold Your Breath. Holding your breath is a sure fire way to having some of the most nervous pent up emotions around. Make sure that you are always breathing steadily and you’ll be less likely to develop a stressful life.

Cooling Breath. This is usually done at the end of strenuous workout routines. Simply sit down, control your breathing and it’s almost as if the body is virtually cooling down as you sit there.

Filed Under: Breathwork Groups, Health Tagged With: Alternative, Alternative medicine, Breathwork, Emotion, Health, Mental health, Shopping, Stress

A Look at Rebirthing-Breathwork

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It’s a sure bet that no one remembers the day they were born. Sure there are probably stories that your mother has told you about the day you were born but you really don’t remember it. However, some alternative medicine studies believe that the birthing event is so traumatic that it actually causes a person to lead a very traumatized life. In fact, these people are so scarred from the event that they have many mental and psychological issues from the event.

In an effort to try and reverse the effects of the event of a person’s birth people use the practice of rebirthing-breathwork to revisit it and smooth out any of the issues that come from it.

It is believed that the brain and body unconsciously process these traumatic events and file it away. In a person’s later years they process those events and the decisions and beliefs that a person has is developed from that event.

Rebirthing-breathwork allows people to take a moment and revisit that event to reprogram the brain to understand what happened and not have such a negative impact on the future.

To engage in rebirthing a person is lead by a practitioner in rebirthing-breathwork who guides how a person should breath. The breath is a continuous flow of in and out breathwork that allows a person to almost go back and feel as if they are being reborn again.

While this practice has many followers and people who swear by the results of a rebirthing-breathwork session there are also many critics to this technique. Critics believe that there is no scientific proof that the birthing process is so traumatic to a child that it impacts what they do in their later years.

At the moment there is no scientific proof but there are psychology schools that are conducting studies on it to see if it really does have an impact on a person’s thought process.

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What is Breathwork?

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Breathwork is a purposeful way of breathing in order to accomplish breath awareness and learn breathing techniques that enhance the human, physical, emotional, and spiritual condition. One of the major goals of breathwork is to obtain a “natural rhythmic” breathing pattern. Babies, small children and animals all breathe this way. Our natural breathing pattern can be inhibited by stress, trauma, suppressed emotions or everyday challenges of life.

If an individual does not have a healthy breathing pattern, they often breathe in shallow breaths, only breathe through their mouth, have short exhales, and do not take deep “belly breaths.” These negative breathing techniques will cause a person to feel more tired, less rested, get sick more often, and inhibit recovery from life’s stressors. Relearning to breathe in a healthy, natural rhythm will transform an individual from a stressed and ill person, to a relaxed and healthy person.

Breathwork is considered an alternative medical treatment, with practitioners treating clients all over the world. They are trained in breathing techniques, and how to assist their patients with learning or re-learning more effective breathing techniques. Breathwork is often used in conjunction with other healing modalities such as reiki, tai chi and yoga. Breathwork is meditative in nature, and using with other therapies will only increase the benefits of both modalities.

Changing one’s breathing techniques can help to reduce stress, rid the body of toxins, increase an individual’s energy level, and assist with managing pain. For this reason breathwork has been used to assist women during childbirth, it is used in therapy to reduce someone’s anxiety and panic attacks, and even in stressful work place settings to decrease the stress level of employees. Overall, breathwork is a transformative type of healing program. It can change how a person views life, lives life, and embraces their own body, mind, and soul.

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Breathwork and Childbirth

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Breathwork is a purposeful type of breathing that can help individuals obtain a certain goal (goal usually to relieve some kind of stressor or trauma) using breathing techniques. Breathwork can be used to lessen stress, increase energy, lessen effects of trauma or help manage pain. For a pregnant female childbirth is not only a wonderful and joyous occasion, it is also very painful, stressful and even traumatic for some. Using breathwork in childbirth can make it much easier to handle and accept.

The use of breathwork during childbirth is often called the Lamaze technique. Lamaze teaches breathing techniques to assist with managing pain during labor. The types of breathing done during childbirth are slow type breaths, baseline, blowing, patterned, and cleansing breathing. All five are used throughout labor to help ease pain and increase comfort for the mom-to-be.

Baseline breathing involves monitoring one’s normal breathing for at least a minute to establish how many times you take a breath per minute. Slow breathing is when you inhale and count to three, and exhaling while counting to three as well. Blowing breathing is inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Patterned breathing is the sound of the “hee hee hoo” technique
which most are familiar with. Cleansing breathes is taking deep, slow breaths through your nose and then exhaling with deep and slow breaths out of your mouth.

The use of Lamaze and breathwork during labor has been shown to be effective because the skills taught help increase a woman’s feeling of comfort, relaxes her during the painful contracting phase of labor, and she is using breathing to comfort herself rather than depending on medicines or others to provide her relief. This type of breathing forces oxygen into the blood stream, which will also increase her energy and stamina for the long hours of labor.

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Learn the Benefits of Breathwork

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Breathwork is not a new concept. Many people have been practicing it since the seventies. There are many different types of breathwork used. People use it to get through difficult times, handle past situations and emotions and get a greater sense of clarity.

One of the benefits noted is an increase in energy. The more oxygen you have in your body the more energy you will have. This breathing also helps to rid the body of toxins. Most toxins exit the body through your breathing. Thus, if you are doing more breathing techniques and breathing deeper this will help the body to cleanse itself.

Women in labor use a breathwork technique called Lamaze. This helps them get through the contractions and deliver the baby. It keeps them focused and gets them through a sometimes difficult and painful situation.

Breathwork is said to affect all areas of your life. You can become a more centered person and understand the difference between feelings and emotions. It has been said it can make you a more loving and caring person. It can connect you to past happenings that you may not have realized the effect they had on you. This breathing can bring you into a better state of peace in your mind and body. It also helps to bring more clarity to your mind.

Another benefit is this helps you to release anger. By relieving your stress and dealing with certain emotions you can release your anger. You become more in connection with your body and your mind and learn to have control.

There are many benefits to using breathwork. Many people use this in Yoga classes as well. Learning these techniques can help you handle those difficult situations better than before. This can help you to keep you calm and not react as previously done. Consult a breathworker to see how you can benefit from this and become a more centered and calm person.

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What is Breathwork and How Does It Work?

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Breathwork is a conscious way of alternating the way a person breathes, either for psychotherapy or meditation. Some people believe that this technique can aid a person in achieving an alternate state of consciousness and continued practices of this type of breathing can benefit the person spiritually or psychologically. There are many types of breathwork, including Leonard Orr’s “Rebirthing” Breathwork, Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathwork, as well as many types that have recently emerged over the past few decades. Each of these types of breathwork teach the person to control their breathing in such a way that they can easily change the length and depth of their breaths and inhale and exhale without stopping in between.

Holotropic Breathwork is a method of looking deeper inside yourself using breathing exercises. This method uses sustained, deep breathing and a musical background to take the mind from the everyday mindset into a deep, focused psyche for 2 Â½ or 3 hours. Sometimes, a session may also include a focused energy release before its completion. Because each person and session are different, when you begin your breathwork, there is a possibility that you may experience very intense emotions, unusual sensations, levels of awareness that you are not normally privy to, or may even be able to safely work through some issues of your past that have been unresolved.

You may be wondering how a session starts. First, there is a period of quiet, guided relaxation and then a participant will begin to breathe in a constant, accelerated manner to the accompaniment of music and possibly some bodywork. Each participant would set his own pace and can safely surrender to the sensations, emotions and experiences to aid in their own personal healing process.

Learning any of the above types of breathwork in an environment with certified facilitators can help any person achieve relaxation as well as the possibility of finding the divine within themselves.

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Working with a Trained Breathworker

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Breathwork is a way of breathing that can help to relieve stress from your body. There are many benefits of breathwork to those who choose to practice it. This also raises your energy levels. The more oxygen in your body the more energy you have. This will also cause the body to rid itself of toxins. Most toxins in our bodies move out through our breathing so learning how to deepen our breathing would help rid them from our bodies more.

This type of breathing also helps to release emotions from the body. This could be past experiences or things that are just not healthy to hold on to. This can help rid the body of those emotions and help you to move on.

Working with a trained breathworker will help you to learn the breathing techniques and get your body to feeling better. They will typically do an evaluation of you and one hour of breathing. They will be there to help you through any memories that may surface or emotions that may come up that you might not be able to handle on your own. During your evaluation the breathworker will discuss with you your goals of having a breathwork session. They will help you to determine a course of breathwork to get the results you want. Breathworkers are trained to help you process what may develop during your session.

The key to change is learning from past mistakes. Sometimes during the breathwork sessions things will come to mind on choices made in the past. Your breathworker can help you understand these choices you made and how to prevent them in the future. Sometimes things your life now are related to ways of thinking in the past.The breathwork taps into your memory section of your brain and may bring things to light you never remembered. Be sure to work with your breathworker to handle these emotions properly.

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Breathwork throughout the years

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Many forms of conscious alterations of breathing are referred to as Breathwork. An example of this would be hyperventilation or connection of the inhale and exhale when used with psychotherapy or meditation. Supporters believe that the technique may be used to attain alternate states of consciousness. They also believe that when the Breathwork technique is practiced that spiritual or psychological benefits may result.

Yogic Pranayama and Tibetan Tantric Tummo has been labeled as Breathwork.These are spiritual practices that most likely the western therapies used today have derieved.The term Breathwork is also used to describe Buddhist Anapanasti, “mindfulness of breathing” and is often misleading. This is because the mediator breathes naturally and does not attempt to change the length or depth of breath. Some practitioners would debate this and contend that when breathing becomes longer, deeper, and more relaxed.Tai Chi and Qigong also make conscious use of the breath while using movement.

The modern Breathwork therapies were first developed in the 1970′s.They were influenced by the ideas from psychotherapy and also influenced by the human potential movement.

Leonard Orr and Stanislav Grof have both contributed to the modern Breathwork techniques. Leonard Orr’s style was known as Rebirthing Breathwork.This was the technique of conscious connected breathing, inhale or exhale without pause inbetween.Stanislav Grof developed what is known as Holotropic Breathwork.This technique can about because of his study of healing potentials in states of consciousness that were not ordinary in the 1950′s.It uses a deep, fast breathing along with loud evocative music. The sessions of Holotropic Breathwork are directed by the client and believed to be guided by a innate healing intelligence. The trained facillator will support the client’s progress as they emerge the various techniques including the bodywork.

Over the last few decades many other types of Breathwork have emerged. This would include Integrated Breathwork, Transformational Breathwork, Shamanic Breathwork, and Clarity Breathwork. There are also classes that are being offered in the older non-western techniques such as Yoga, Tai Chi, and Chi Kung. These are being offered more today than in the past.

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Finding Relaxation with Rebirthing-Breathwork

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With so many stress-relieving activities to choose from, just finding the right therapeutic exercise can be overwhelming in itself. What many people don’t know, though, is that the tools to achieve relaxation are already close at hand.
Rebirthing-breathwork is a form of alternative medicine in which participants engage in breathing techniques to relieve stress. This breathwork works under the belief that humans are subconsciously traumatized by their births – so much so that it is said to affect people’s personalities and the choices they make in everyday life. Rebirthing-breathwork is said to connect people to the cycle of birth and death, and revisiting birth is believed to have therapeutic benefits.
Leonard Orr developed the series of breathing techniques that would eventually become known as rebirthing-breathwork. This technique was first used as a therapeutic process in 1974 as a way to assist the subjects in overcoming the trauma of birth. Rebirthing-breathwork has gained popularity throughout the world, and an estimated 10 million people have tried out the technique.
Rebirthing practitioners feel that this technique offers a noticeable and powerful physical experience when they practice conscious breathing. Rebirthing sessions typically last three hours. They begin with the subject exploring their personal issues for up to one hour. Then, subjects will continue the session lying down. They practice a breathing technique that has no pauses between inhalation and exhalation, working to find a rhythm to their breathing. The breathing session lasts about an hour. Following this, subjects are asked to discuss or reflect on thoughts or emotions that arose during the breathing session. Finally, subjects are asked to consciously integrate back into their normal life, taking with them the results of their breathing session.
Practitioners of rebirthing-breathwork believe that through completing these sessions, subjects will be more attuned to their own emotions and thoughts, thus achieving an inner peace. They will be able to leave these sessions better equipped to handle life’s challenges.

Filed Under: Breathwork Groups Tagged With: Alternative, Breathwork, Health, Leonard Orr, Medicine, Rebirthing-breathwork, Relaxation technique, Stress