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I recently recommended The Breathwork Experience to a client who had come to therapy for support in the pursuit of a new career. A few weeks into the process he was surprised by the surfacing of intense feelings of shame and guilt about childhood traumatic experiences he had managed to keep under locked doors until then. As therapy progressed, he became increasingly aware of how much of his energy had been kidnapped by the effort of keeping those doors locked, and how his uncertainties about his ability to reach his goals were not related to lack of organizational or leadership skills, but rather, to the fear of the darkness lurking behind those doors. One day, after stretching out on the couch, he spontaneously shifted his breathing patterns. I held a reassuring and knowing space for him while he navigated the dark waters of both fear and somatic memories. He was startled by the physicality of his process and welcomed the opportunity to read about it. "How did you know that this is exactly what I needed to read?" was his comment at our next appointment. "I could hear myself speak in some of the testimonies. Reading this book was an amplification of your words of hope. The more I let go, the more energy I have for my life and I even feel closer to my partner. I have a way to go, but now I have less fear."
I am confident in recommending Taylor's book to appropriate clients, knowing how well the comprehensive description of what to expect in a Breathwork workshop, and the detailed explanation of the process of healing trauma, will satisfy their curiosity and concerns. Taylor's book is a clear, concise, and well-documented introduction to the therapeutic value of addressing dissociated and unconscious material under the guidance of facilitators trained in accessing Nonordianry States of Consciousness (NSC). It also provides a map for those who, having already experienced Breathwork, are interested in the philosophy and theory behind this powerful door into inner territories. While Kylea Taylor, MFT, does not claim that Breathwork, and in particular Holotropic Breathwork (HB), is the best or only way to access inner material, her book clearly shows that this deceptively simple approach is undeniably an effective avenue to deepen and enhance one's personal inner workóan avenue that has freed, empowered and enriched the personal and spiritual lives of thousands in 36 countries. The discussion of the transpersonal and perinatal theories of Stanislav Grof, M.D., the developer[*] of HB, offers further explanations of why Breathwork heals trauma and assists in the recovery from addictions.
The chapters about PTSD, childhood sexual abuse, and recovery from addictions, are especially useful to clients who are struggling with the fear of confronting the pain encapsulated in their memories, or have a sense of hopelessness about their ability to overcome the impact of trauma. The chapters deftly build up, layer after layer, a verbal portrayal of an experience that is hardly describable by language. The intense emotional and physical experiences that often accompany the remembrance and the processing of trauma are validated, explained, and normalized. The testimonies that complement the theoretical explanation document with detailed clarity the successful encounters with the lingering "inner demons" of past traumatic experiences, and express the resulting profound sense of release and the joy of newly found inner freedom. The book also lists different "schools" of Breathwork and other related resources.
Although, as a therapist, I may be tempted to find certain small parts of the book repetitive, I recognize how such repetitions provide reassurance for the uninitiated readers' doubts, and offer answers to their potential questions. I also welcome being reminded of the importance of staying open to surprises, tuned to the information that transpires from a change in the breathing pattern, a facial expression, a body movement, a shifting of the eyes, as well as to trust my clients' perceptions of what is helpful. Taylor and HB assert that, after all, we are our own best healer.
In spite of being over 10 years old already, this quick read is still an excellent resource, useful to clinicians who work with trauma and addiction, to facilitators of Breathwork at any school, to those using Shamanic techniques, deep relaxation and visualizations with transformative goals, to those seeking NS through movement or isolation, as well as those who experience NSC spontaneously. For the clinician whose curiosity is stimulated by this primer, a remarkable anthology of 144 essays by 85 authors can be found in a second volume Exploring Holotropic Breathwork, masterfully edited by Kylea Taylor and published by Hanford Mead in 2003. Both volumes are well-organized, easily accessible, and have references worth adding to a therapist's bibliography list, as well as to the list of adjunctive therapeutic resources for clients.
Review in The California Therapist Vol 18:6:72-73 Nov/Dec 200 by Mariabruna Sirabella, MS
*[Christina Grof was the co-developer of Holotropic Breathwork with her husband, Stanislav Grof.]
I recently heard about Holotropic Breathwork, rebirthing, and other associated non-ordinary states on consciousness from an online alternative healing forum. It seems like an interesting concept. A way to allow the body and mind to let go of whatever obstacles it's holding onto so that healing can naturally occur. I wanted to learn a bit more so I started looking for more resources.
The Breathwork Experience by Kylea Taylor is the foremost guide to Holotropic Breathwork. The book intuitively covers all of the answers that those new to this methodology would ask: what is it, how does it work, what happens during a session, can I do it alone, etc. The author also cleared up a lot of confusion that I had about the qualifications that I should look for in a good facilitator, extremely important being as the process requires such openness and willingness to experience what should occur. Now, I am armed with knowledge and some further resources about Holotropic Breathwork and other programs.
Dr. Tami Brady, TCM Reviews Oct 12, 2007
Drawing on many years of rich therapeutic experience and on intimate personal knowledge of nonordinary states of consciousness, Kylea Taylor has created an invaluable guidebook for practitioners, clients, and students of consciousness. Written in a clear and captivating style, The Breathwork Experience is a gold mine of important professional information as well as profound life's wisdom.
Stanislav Grof, M.D. author of The Future of Psychology, The Holotropic Mind, The Adventure of Self-Discovery, Manuals for Living and Dying, Beyond the Brain, and co-author of The Stormy Search for the Self.
In The Breathwork Experience, Kylea Taylor has done a masterful job of drawing together facts, case histories, personal and professional strategies -- just about anything that might arise during the practice of breathwork. Kylea writes with intelligence, heart, humor, and the wisdom that only comes through experience. This is an important contribution.
Christina Grof, author of The Thirst for Wholeness and co-author of The Stormy Search for the Self.
This is an essential book for everyone who has an interest in breathwork, whether they are client or practitioner, whether the breathwork they are interested in is Holotropic, Rebirthing, Conscious Breathing Techniques or any other form that has a therapeutic outcome or that gives access to altered states of consciousness. Everything relevant is simply and sufficiently explained. This is a wise book. Its tone is compassionate and nonjudgmental.
Joy Manne, author of Soul Therapy, from a review in The Therapist
I hope Kylea Taylor will forgive me for saying so, but although the book is about Holotropic Breathwork, it is an excellent textbook for Rebirthers. It covers all the aspects of a breathwork session from: who is suitable to do breathwork; what physical and psychological sensations may occur during a session; the role of the "rebirther" or sitter as they are called in this context; psychological background in the form of Grof's COEX system and matrices; to its wider scope of being a spiritual path.
As I said the book is not about Rebirthing, it is about Holotropic Breathwork. This leads to the other interesting aspect of the book; to compare the similarities in the two techniques. Reading a "different version" of my work, immediately raised the eternal question of what exactly causes the reactions in a breathwork session. Being trained by Leonard Orr myself, I put rather a lot of emphasis on guiding the breathing pattern during a session. I do this to avoid "uncontrolled hyperventilation", or "unnecessary and useless" pumping of air, that leads the client nowhere. I try to guide the client to the "inner breathing", the moment when we start to breathe both energy and air, i.e., when we use the breathing that has a significant and beneficiary effect. In the typical Holotropic session, however, the emphasis seems to be more on creating the right environment, with the help of music, etc. Nevertheless the results seem almost identical for both techniques!
Being used to a lot of questions and statements about the dangers involved in breathwork, it is also interesting to read all the positive explanations of hyperventilation, why it occurs and how it can be transformed into healing energy.
Another obvious reflection after having read the book, is how important it is to bring all of us breathworkers together in the form of the International Breathwork Foundation or other similar organisations. In the preface Kylea talks about her difficulties finding books on breathwork. She says that when she first looked around in 1984, she couldn't find an introductory book on breathwork and when she looked again ten years later, the situation still hadn't changed.
Gunnel Minett, author of Breath & Spirit and former General Secretary of the International Breathwork Foundation, from a review in Breathe magazine (August 1996).
[The Breathwork Experience] provides a down-to-earth explanation of the process and theory of breathwork and answers many of the questions that might come to mind in those who are just beginning their breathwork journey, as well as deepening the experience of those who have been working with this technique for a while.... Personal accounts are sprinkled throughout the book, grounding the theoretical information in the experiences of the diverse participants in this work.
Selene Vega, co-author of Wheels of Life, from a review published in the Spiritual Eeergency Newslet|er
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Preface
Section I: Experiencing Breathwork
Section II: Healing Trauma
Section III: Breathwork on Your Own Path
Chapter Notes
Glossary
Index
The breath is our key to reconnecting with aspects of life from which we have become split off. We may have unresolved issues from the past that are affecting everyday life. These issues can keep our emotional or physical energy from flowing naturally and may even appear as physical illness or unwanted recurring behavior patterns. If this energy continues to be stuck, our ability to respond fully to life decreases. We may feel disconnected from our own spirit. Experiences of the spirit, such as when we feel close to nature, when we are in love, when we are feeling grateful, or when we feel tuned in to other parts of life -- these are the experiences that feed our souls. When we deprive ourselves of such experiences, we find it more difficult to be inspired or creative. If we reconnect to this element of life, we can transform the rest of our experience of life.
The breath is invisible, yet it affects the visible. The Greek word, "pneuma" means "spirit" as well as "breath." Through the breath we can connect our consciousness to our unconscious thoughts, our bodies, our emotions, and our spirits. Because breathing is both voluntary and involuntary, we can bridge these parts of us by controlling the breath.
Controlled breathing has been used for centuries as a technique for psychological and spiritual development. Breathwork is the modern term for a system using the breath combined with a variety of supportive techniques to mobilize our bodies, minds, and spirits for spontaneous healing.
When the breath energizes the psyche for healing, it does so in much the same way as our bodies enlist forces when we are injured. We do not have to think about or direct the healing. The body just goes to work spontaneously, sending more white cells to the injured area, repairing tissue, and bringing wholeness and healing to the body again. The psyche also has this ability. When the body and mind enter a state of non-ordinary consciousness through controlled breathing, our inner wisdom uses the opportunity to work toward physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing, and even developmental change.
Can we have powerful healing and transforming experiences simply by controlling the breath? For those who have not experienced breathwork, this seems hard to believe, but it is true. One man wrote the following after his first breathwork experience:
It took me across the whole spectrum of my emotions, from the most traumatic to the more pleasant. I was extremely skeptical going in, but very pleased after I came through the whole experience.
People attend their first breathwork workshop for many reasons. A friend recommended it. They feel curious. They are in the midst of major life changes. They have read about non-ordinary states of consciousness and want to try it. They have done psychedelics in the past with good results, but now want to enter a non-ordinary state without taking a substance. They find themselves attracted to participating, but cannot really say why.
For a while I asked first-time participants to write down the reasons they were attracted to doing breathwork and what effect they thought it would have on their individual developmental process. Some of the answers I received in my public workshops were:
A friend recommended it. I like the opportunity for growth, the limited defined period of time and the food. I'm not sure what effect it will have.
One woman wrote:
Her experience during that first session was very full. She relived childhood events, birth, and a past life. She felt grief, happiness, sadness, anger, fear. She became compassionate and forgiving toward others and herself. She said she felt closer to God, had a sense of her life's purpose, and felt unity with everything. She summed it up by saying:
I came away with a general sense of empowerment; knowing I will make good decisions and choices. It was good for clearing, healing, refocusing. It would be good for someone writing an autobiography!
A man writes after attending his first workshop:
Another man writes:
These examples illustrate different motivations for deciding to participate in breathwork. We each may have a different reason. Here is a closer look at some of the reasons we step into this unknown territory.
When we are in the midst of life changes, we may want to do something like breathwork. We are usually attracted to breathwork at a time when we are willing to explore. We come when we have the flexibility and the sense of adventure required to expand our idea of who we are and what life is about. Our psyches have called us to attention, and we have responded with the courage to jump into the unknown.
Sometimes that inner call to exploration comes out of the blue. Everything else is working well in our lives, but we still have an urge to experience and understand more. Sometimes we become more willing to undertake the risks of new exploration when we are in crisis, when the urge to change arises from the dissolution of familiar structures in our lives. When we feel in some sense that we have little else to lose, or we need larger, newer structures to accommodate our larger sense of ourselves, we want to try something new.
Such crisis comes in many forms. It may be a change in an external situation, such as loss of a home or the loss of an important relationship through death or separation. It may be a sudden change in our beliefs about life or the world. It could be a change in our own sense of identity. Changes in identity can come about through shifts in career, aging, a change in health status or the sudden recovered memory of childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Any of these can trigger an urge to explore, heal, and move on.
If you are already in therapy and want to complement cognitive understanding with deep experiential exploration, breathwork may attract you. Artists or writers who are experiencing a block in the creative flow or those practicing some spiritual discipline that has become mechanical, may have a longing to feel reconnected and inspired. Through pain or crisis, through joy or discomfort, or through various spontaneous psycho-physical events, the motivation to define and experience our true selves grows stronger.
Occasionally the call to begin some deep experiential work like breathwork sounds as a gong deep inside us. It is as if our organism has reached a new stage of development in which the task at hand is to delve deeply into our own inner experience. We feel a compelling need to heed this inner urging. Other life options seem to hold less nourishment, less interest than the choices highlighted by our inner call. One choice is bright and glowing, other choices are drab. With such clear demarcation of where our "bliss" awaits, it is not hard to "follow your bliss," as the late Joseph Campbell said when interviewed in popular television series: The Power of Myth.
Anyone who is attracted to breathwork and who feels willing and ready to do this deep experiential work is a candidate for breathwork. Many of us who come to breathwork sessions say, "I have never done anything like this before." Still, we feel drawn to inner exploration, and we are willing to experiment. Attraction and willingness to explore three out of four of these are the chief requirements of participants.
Some of us have been spiritual explorers or meditators for a long time, involved in one path or another. We may feel that breathwork is the next step, the next learning tool for us. Some of us, although not thinking of ourselves as spiritual explorers, have been students of science, medicine, philosophy, or psychology. We are curious observers of ourselves, of others, and of life itself. Our curiosity extends to breathwork. Our past backgrounds are not as important as our present commitments to inner development, self-exploration, and pragmatic self-observation.
There are a few exceptions, having to do with health and fitness. We need to be in basic good health because the experience may be strenuous. Age itself is not a factor. If we are older, we may be more likely to have some of the conditions (see Contraindications in this chapter) that preclude participation in Holotropic Breathwork. If we do not have these conditions and we engage in regular exercise, we are good candidates for breathwork.
Stanislav Grof's Maps of Consciousness, or the cartography of the non-ordinary state experience, is very helpful. Our minds need some way of collecting and sorting information. Of course we need to remember that a map is not the territory, and that we eat the meal, not the menu. Such a map only points to the experience but should not be confused with the experience. Still, this particular map is a carefully observed and traveled one. It is useful because it increases understanding and allows us to give ourselves permission to express and experience whatever is necessary for us. We can use it to chart our progress and to reassure ourselves that others have successfully traveled through this territory and these stages before us.
In the Grof Maps of Consciousness, there are four categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness: experience: (1) Sensory experiences and motor manifestations, (2) Biographical experiences of events that have happened to us from birth to the present time, (3) Perinatal experiences from the fetal experiences during gestation and pregnancy, through the birth process, to the experiences immediately after birth, and (4) Transpersonal experiences which can take us beyond our bodies and our own personal (ego) identities. Breathwork is therapeutic but not therapy.
In Holotropic Breathwork there is no external therapist in the traditional sense. There is no agenda for a session. There is no way to predict that a particular breathwork session will bring up some specific thing from our biographical histories. Even if it does, there is no way to determine what particular part of that issue will come up or what needs to happen for the issue to resolve itself.
For example, I would not come into a breathwork session wanting to "work on my relationship with my mother (or father)." In fact, to do so would be to cheat myself of the chance to surrender and receive whatever my own inner healer has in store for me. Rather than finding some issue in therapy that we want to "work on" in breathwork, it is better to allow and welcome whatever experience emerges in breathwork and then, at a later time, to work further with this material in the traditional therapeutic setting.
The advantage of a breathwork session is that this inner healer (rather than the conscious mind) selects what is appropriate for us to experience at any given time. The inner wisdom (or the unconscious) seems to have an advantage over the conscious mind or someone outside ourselves in knowing what we are ready to deal with and how far we can go with it just now.
Modern psychiatry has greatly underestimated the effect of birth trauma in shaping later life. Traditional Western medicine holds that the brain cortex of the fetus is not yet myelinized and, therefore, can retain no memory of the birth trauma. However, experiments with single-celled organisms have shown that memory (conditioned response) does not require a brain or complex nervous system. Because these studies show that a single cell can retain memory, our human cellular memory is at least a theoretical possibility. For those of us who have seen thousands of breathwork sessions, it is not only possible, but simply true. Here a 39-year-old woman in her first breathwork session describes a related group (or COEX) of memories that pertain to pain in her thigh. The earliest memory was post-natal:
I started to feel pain in my right thigh from an old injury. The handle of a hand truck came down on me, creating a mark that is still there. I was wondering what I was still holding on to around that injury, when I felt myself a newly born infant, and the doctor's hand was on my thigh. His hand hurt, and I was screaming. He was taking me away from my mom. Then I saw myself as an infant in an incubator, strapped down and crying.
This woman wrote to me a week or so after the session to tell me that she had difficulty believing her breathwork birth "memory." She therefore telephoned her mother and talked to her about her birth for the first time. Her mother told her that she had indeed been taken from her, placed in an incubator, and transferred to a different hospital.
Transpersonal means beyond the personal. This category of experiences includes any that take us beyond our limited personal identity in present space and time. Alan Watts calls personal identity skin-encapsulated ego. The transpersonal category covers any experience that is not included in the other three: sensory, biographical, or perinatal.
One type of such an experience has to do with experiencing archetypes. We may communicate with an archetypal figure or have an experience of becoming one with the archetype. Any figure that symbolizes or embodies some principle of the universal life energy or some facet of human experience is an archetypal figure. Archetypes confer some special wisdom or understanding from which we benefit. Saints, Hitler, Kennedy, power animals, angels, or traditional gods or goddesses of many religions are examples of some archetypal figures. There are many other archetypal images that communicate a certain truth, in much the same way as a poem uses metaphor to portray more than the sum total of the literal meaning of its words. This 53-year-old woman experienced herself as an archetype of healing and life-giving energy:
Others were screaming and suffering and I felt much compassion. I tried to send the energy out to heal them, too. Most of it stayed around my body though. I felt like a healer goddess, but not sure how to transmit the energy. After I went to the bathroom, the energy changed. Now, when people cried out, I felt I was giving birth to them, pushing them through into life. It was like labor, but not painful.
This man experienced seeing, without actually becoming, an archetype of freedom:
This eagle was soaring high above me, right directly above me. It was really symbolic of being free and unique.
Jesus is a frequent archetypal figure in transpersonal sessions. The personal relationship and communications with Jesus as an archetype often have a profound healing effect. This is a 43-year-old woman's experience in her second breathwork session:
Jesus appeared, first hugging me close. There was some sexual confusion when he did this which he was aware of so he safely just held my hands, then held my hands up to his heart. He cried for my confusion. I then held his hand while we traveled the world about ten feet in the air so I could see the world's suffering. I remembered an orthodontist who made a sexual advance that forced me to put all male authority figures at a distance, including Jesus. I felt after this realization a tremendous connectedness to God. I felt tremendous bliss and ecstasy as I experienced God's love. The sadness was the realization that I don't feel worthy so I block that feeling of wonderful joy. When I cried, I felt more open to the world and could experience it even more intensely. I felt a "calling" at this time to be even more active in being of service to God.
(Note: Breathwork experiences can include sensory, biographical, perinatal (birth) and transpersonal experiences. Trauma recovery (biographical reliving of traumatic experience) is only one of the kinds of healing experiences which can occur using breathwork, but for many participants it has been an important part of their breathwork. There are three chapters on trauma recovery in The Breathwork Experience. One concerns Post-Traumatic Stress, another is about Childhood Sexual Abuse Recovery. The third is on Addiction Recovery which is excerpted on this site at http://www.hanfordmead.com/books/bwe-excerpts-cpt7.php
The traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) outline a path to addiction recovery. The philosophical basis of the program is spiritual, recognizing a Higher Power, or power greater than ourselves, to which we can surrender. Inherent in the concept of a Higher Power is the belief that we can transcend the wound. We can, through having a spiritual experience and by surrendering to a Higher Power, die to one story and be reborn to a larger one.
Breathwork seems to accomplish deep and healing change for some people in recovery and provides a valuable adjunct to therapeutic work in the Twelve Step community and in therapy. The philosophy of Holotropic Breathwork and the philosophy of the Twelve Step model come from the same truths.
AA categorizes alcoholism itself as a disease. This enables recovering addicts and alcoholics to see themselves as whole and healthy if they do not drink or use drugs. Except for naming the disease of addiction, neither system categorizes people under pathological labels based on behaviors and symptoms. Both systems acknowledge that there is a reason for past or present experiences. The Twelve Step model focuses on the disease of addiction as the cause. Holotropic Breathwork acknowledges the presence of trauma at various levels of experience. Both systems recognize the importance of increased awareness in recovery.
The "Ten Opportunities for Recovery in Breathwork" listed on the next page of this book interface with the Twelve Steps. Those who are in recovery usually will find their breathwork experiences are an integral part of working the Steps.
Breathwork is a natural method for entering non-ordinary healing states without drugs. Because it satisfies that innate drive to enter non-ordinary states without the need to take substances, it is a good method for those recovering from addiction. It satisfies an intrinsic need to enter deep states to seek healing and wisdom. By mobilizing the psyche, breathwork facilitates many experiences that seem particularly appropriate to the healing process of addiction recovery outlined in all Twelve Steps. As we have seen previously, breathwork provides access to different kinds of inner experiences: sensory, biographical, perinatal, and transpersonal. Healing occurs on any of these levels or on several levels simultaneously. This multi-level healing work provides internal therapeutic support for dealing with the complex situation that creates and maintains addiction. Breathwork opens the inner door so that we have access to the healer within.
Breathwork provides many opportunities for participants in recovery from addiction. These opportunities are consistent with the goals of their recovery programs. They include the gentle release of denial mechanisms through private insights and understandings, self-empowerment through validation of our inner healing abilities, connection with our own experiences and bodies, deeper connections and intimacies with others, emotional and energetic releases, and spiritual reconnection and peace.
Most alcoholics and drug addicts have experienced intolerable amounts of pain and fear, especially in childhood when they were often at the mercy of at least one abusive parent. Coming to terms with these experiences, fully feeling the tensions and vocalizing the cries of fear and grief, can be a tremendous relief. This man in his thirties describes the opportunity to revisit and release the stored hurt and fear from his childhood during his breathwork session:
"I saw myself at nine or ten years old with my father who was drinking while I was taking care of him and keeping other family members out of harm's way. It was very realistic. My Dad was getting cut up by glass he broke. I was taking care of him. He was holding me while he had passed out, and I was afraid to move and wake him up. I was so many times in that situation."
Many addicts and alcoholics have inflicted this kind of pain upon others as well. This young man in his twenties relived his part as a perpetrator:
"I went back in time and relived crimes, mistakes, good times, and sad events that had affected my life deeper than I imagined. I was involved with street gangs before coming into recovery. We were involved in an armed robbery. The victim was shot, robbed, and left to die. At the time my feelings were hidden beneath a hard mask of machismo. I had the image I was made of steel and that no one could touch me. I relived these events today, and this time I was able to show my true feelings. Today I shed tears for the victim, his family, and also for the terrible person I was to actually go through things like this. My true feelings were remorse, sadness, hate (for myself), and unwillingness to do these things. These things are already done and cannot ever be changed, but letting out the true feelings that were bottled up inside for years is such a big relief."
In the sharing group that is part of the Holotropic Breathwork workshop is Fifth Step work. It is an opportunity to share the experience with others who understand and do not judge. The structure of the sharing group is similar to that of a Twelve Step meeting. While one person shares, the others listen with compassion. Neither the other participants nor the facilitator analyzes the contents of the sharing. Participants who attend Twelve Step groups often feel so at home at a Holotropic Breathwork sharing group that they automatically begin their sharing, Hello, my name is ____.
The issues of addicted women deserve special mention. Women born into this culture already have had less chance at building self-esteem than their brothers. When they have built up enough self-esteem to bear the legacy of the past, breathwork can be a very appropriate vehicle for women's recovery. Within the context of relationship (breather and sitter), there is at last someone to see through their invisibility, to acknowledge their pain and the reasons behind the lack of self-esteem.
Seeing other women undertaking the journey of deep healing can inspire and recommit a woman to this often difficult process. Just knowing that I am not the only one who feels such low self-esteem can move the concept of the problem. From feeling as if low self-esteem is something only I experience and that I deserve personally, a woman can begin to see the systemic, cultural error of inequality and its effects on other women besides herself.
Many women, whether or not they are in recovery feel invisible and unheard. This experience, connected to a lack of self-esteem, is more intense in many recovering women. Within the safe context of the breathwork session, as painful feelings and images come up, there is permission to move and make sounds. In the course of breathwork, we can feel and express the outrage of victimization, the loss of children, abortions, and the grief over the unrealized possibilities of our lives. Women grieve, women rage. Women finally connect themselves again to their emotional and physical experiences and to their own personal power.
"My feminine wisdom is in my body and I have to bring it up through my body. Standing up, speaking my truth, clearing my body so it can be a channel for what will come to me, as well as what will come from within me. I'm not angry at or afraid of men anymore."
"Since "breathing" I have come a long way. It helps me risk appropriate telling and openness and helps me to change my approach to asking for help. I am more willing, in a safe environment to speak . . . and to speak is to heal."
Seen from one angle, breathwork looks like therapy and from another it more closely resembles a spiritual technique. As a therapeutic technique without a therapist directing the process, it has the advantage of not encouraging the development of dependence on a therapist or imposing any outside system or doctrine on the client's unfolding self-awareness. The border between therapeutic and spiritual is getting harder to define. At least one major magazine focuses on the interface between spirituality and therapy. Many books and articles describe the therapeutic value of spiritual practice.
For centuries, ancient traditions have viewed the spiritual as the key to healing and the root of much illness. Psychologists and psychiatrists in the Western world are just beginning to study Chinese, Native American, Aryuvedic (Indian), and other systems of healing that view spiritual harmony and balance as crucial to physical, emotional, and mental health. Most such systems pay attention to the state of harmony or disharmony not only within the individual, but within her community, and between her community and all other living things. These systems measure our spiritual harmony or disharmony by the condition of our relationships.
The Twelve Step tradition is one of the few Western models that has recognized the importance of this. The Steps themselves are considerations of the state of our relationships: our relationships with our Higher Powers, our relationships between our values and our actions, our relationships with other people, and our relationships with our communities. Effective psychology usually focuses on these relationships as well: our relationships with our sources of inspiration, our internal communication with conflicting desires, our work and love relationships, our relationships with our bodies (health), and our life purposes within the human community.
When we make the breathwork one of our personal spiritual practices, we schedule sessions regularly, just as we would practice any discipline systematically. Three interesting results may occur from this approach. The first result is that we strengthen our will and intention on our personal path by consistently making inner exploration a behavioral priority no matter how we are feeling about it at the moment.
The second result is that we become increasingly adept at moving from non-ordinary states of consciousness to ordinary states of consciousness. The spiritual practice of breathwork builds integration muscle and flexibility in dealing with our expanding belief systems and the normal changes of ordinary life.
The third result is that, when we adhere to a practice with regularity, even if it is something as non-ordinary as breathwork, the repetitive practice becomes "ordinary." The ritual retains its meaning for us, but at some very subtle level, without even realizing it, we drop our guards and surrender. When this happens we are often surprised by an experience of grace that we could not achieve by seeking it intentionally.
Quite a few people make monthly group breathwork workshops part of their personal practice for a year or two or even more. They and those who know them are usually quite satisfied with the speed and depth of their personal and spiritual growth during that time period.
Some couples and partners make breathwork a regular part of their activities together. Breathwork, or any non-ordinary state of consciousness work, adds a special dimension to a relationship between two people. When two people feel they are each on a spiritual path, breathwork provides a structure for them to be present for each other. This kind of presence increases the intimacy between them. They share emotion, sit for and care for each other, and have profound experiences in the same context of sacred space and time. Without quite understanding the reasons for the change in her relationship, one woman reports:
"Breathwork has brought us closer together and bonded us. Things have more of a tendency to work out in our relationship even if we don't consciously work at it. The commitment appears strengthened."
Thomas Merton Brightman reported on the impact of breathwork on relationships from his experience facilitating 700 people in breathwork sessions:
"One couple prepared separate lists of what they wanted to do to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The top item on each list was to do a Holotropic Breathwork session as partners. Another couple chose to spend the last four days of their honeymoon doing breathwork."
Brightman goes on to say:
"Friends, males and females and mixed, use the process to expand their friendships. Even couples who have divorced and married others have done very effective work being in the same room with their former spouses."
The spiritual partnership is any close relationship that encourages and strengthens each partner's commitment to a spiritual path. Breathwork is one model in which partners have a context to support each other on their individual journeys.
38 Miller Ave, PMB 516, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tel: 415-383-8779 | Email: gtt@holotropic.com | Website: www.holotropic.com/
The Grof Transpersonal Training trains and certifies practitioners of Holotropic Breathwork. It provides the public with referrals to certified practitioners located throughout the world and publishes a schedule of Grof events. A description of the Grof Transpersonal Training can be found in Appendix D.
Association for Holotropic Breathwork International
PO Box 7169, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-7169
Tel and Fax: 650-325-4254 | Email: office@breathwork.com | Website: www.breathwork.com
Membership is open to all who are interested in breathwork. The Association for Holotropic Breathwork International holds conferences and publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Inner Door, that contains articles on research, theory, and applications of the work.
East-West Retreats
2309 Edna St., El Cerrito CA 94530
Tel: 510-232-3098 | Fax: 510-232-4090 | Email: inservice@earthlink.net
Retreats are held in the United States and Europe working with the power of Holotropic Breathwork and Buddhist meditations of the breath and heart. The seminars, featuring Stanislav Grof, author of The Future of Psychology, and Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, and others are intended for personal healing, for professional training, and to bring new understanding to the blend of Eastern and Western psychology.