1-2-1 Trauma-Sensitive Breathwork Therapy

Core Information at a Glance

What is Trauma-Sensitive Breathwork?

Breathwork can mean many different things. In my practice, it begins with becoming curious about the breath that is already happening: how it moves through the body, how it changes with what we are feeling, and what we notice when we give it some attention.

Sometimes we may simply notice the sensations of breathing. At other times, I might invite you to experiment with a slightly different depth, rhythm or pattern and see what happens. Breath can offer one route into bodily experience, emotion and the present moment — but there is no assumption that focusing on breath will be helpful for everyone, or at every stage of therapy.

Trauma-sensitive describes how I facilitate this work, rather than a particular breathing technique. I pay attention to pacing, choice, nervous-system responses, relationship and what is happening for you in the present. More intensity is not necessarily better. You can slow down, shift your attention, move, talk, orient to the room, change what you are doing or stop altogether.

The aim is not to produce catharsis, an altered state or a particular emotional response. It is to create enough space and support for you to notice your own experience, and to discover what relationship with your breath feels useful to you.

Trauma-sensitive also means recognising that distress does not arise only from within us. Our bodies and breathing are shaped by relationships, environments and material conditions, as well as by past experience. Breath can sometimes help us find a little more space, steadiness or choice within a difficult situation, but I do not assume that changing how we breathe will change — or make acceptable — the conditions we are living in.

Greater resource is not simply about becoming better at tolerating what harms us. It may support rest and recovery; it may also support clearer boundaries, connection with others, creativity, action or change.

What brings people to breathwork therapy?

People are often drawn to working with breath because they want another way into their experience. They may feel stuck in their head, find it difficult to notice or name what they are feeling, struggle with anxiety, or notice that their breathing becomes shallow or restricted when they are under pressure. Others are interested in breath because it already feels meaningful to them, or because they want to explore emotional expression — including anger — in a way that involves the body as well as words.

For some people, breath becomes appealing because it is something they can potentially carry with them beyond therapy: an embodied resource they can return to in ordinary life, rather than something that only happens in the therapy room.

My approach may particularly suit people who are curious about breathwork but wary of more intense or highly cathartic forms. Some people come to me after finding breathwork, meditation, yoga or group practices overwhelming, and want something slower, more individually paced and held within an ongoing therapeutic relationship. Others begin with somatic therapy more generally and discover that breath becomes one useful thread within the wider work.

You do not need to be good at relaxing, meditating, visualising or noticing your body to work this way. We can begin with whatever is actually available to you.

What does breathwork with me actually involve?

I often begin by noticing how you are breathing, without necessarily drawing attention to it. Breath can offer useful information about what is happening in the moment, but I will usually check first whether you have any particular anxieties, sensitivities or difficult experiences connected with breathing before inviting you to focus on it more directly.

If it feels appropriate, we might start very simply: noticing the sensations of breathing around the nose or lips, through the chest, and perhaps into the belly. Sometimes I invite you to place your own hands on your chest or abdomen and notice where the breath moves easily, where it feels less available, and what happens when you give it a little more attention. There is no need to force or deepen the breath.

From there, we may experiment with different ways of breathing for a short time — perhaps a slower out-breath, a fuller breath through the nose, softening the jaw and allowing the breath to move more freely, or perhaps something more expressive when we are working with feelings such as anger. These are offered as experiments rather than techniques you are expected to “get right”. We notice what happens, pause, and decide together whether it was useful.

Breathwork with me usually happens in short periods rather than as a long sustained exercise. It may be woven with other areas of my practice, such as Transforming Touch or Family Constellations, and will always be held within therapeutic dialogue. For some people, breathwork becomes a regular thread across sessions; for others it may only appear occasionally.

If working with breath is something you are particularly interested in, we can give it more space: paying closer attention to your breathing patterns, trying different experiments, and noticing whether any particular breathing pattern we explore in sessions, becomes useful in your life outside therapy.

Is there a “right” way to breathe?

I am less interested in teaching you the “right” way to breathe than in helping you become curious about, and develop a deeper relationship with, your own breath. We might notice how it changes with what you feel, what happens when you give it a little more space, and whether your breathing can become an embodied resource that is available to you beyond the therapy room.

There are many ways of breathing, and what feels useful can vary from person to person and from moment to moment. A slower or deeper breath may feel settling in one situation; at another time, a more energising or expressive breath may feel more appropriate. Sometimes the most useful thing is simply to notice the breath that is already there, without trying to change it at all.

For me, trauma-sensitive practice means that the breathing technique does not take priority over your experience. I may offer an experiment, but you are encouraged to notice what actually happens for you. You can change it, pause, shift your attention elsewhere or decide that it is not useful. There is no benefit in persevering with a particular way of breathing simply because it is supposed to be calming, regulating or therapeutic.

This also means paying attention to more than obvious signs of distress. Becoming very quiet, still or apparently relaxed does not necessarily mean that an exercise is helping. We can keep noticing together what is happening in your body, your emotions, your capacity to stay present and in the relationship between us.

Nothing particular has to happen for the work to be worthwhile. I am not trying to produce a breakthrough, emotional release or altered state. The aim is to support enough curiosity, choice and agency for you to discover what relationship with your own breathing feels useful to you.

What might I experience when working with my breath?

Sometimes very little appears to happen. You might notice one deeper breath, a sigh, a softening in the jaw, a little more movement in the chest or belly, or simply a greater sense of being present in your body. At other times there may be tingling, warmth, a gentle shake, a sense of more energy or a feeling that something has opened up.

Breath can also bring us into closer contact with emotion. Tears may come, anger may feel more available, or there may be an impulse to move, make sound, push, kick or otherwise express something physically. Memories, images or associations can sometimes arise too. When they do, I am interested in how they feel and what meaning they have for you, rather than assuming that they are literal memories or proof of something specific from the past.

For many people, the effects are quieter: feeling calmer, more grounded, less caught in their head, more spacious, more at ease or relieved. These experiences often arise alongside the wider therapeutic work, rather than from breath alone.

There is no particular response I am looking for. A strong emotional experience is not more successful than a subtle one, and nothing needs to be forced. What matters is whether what happens feels useful, manageable and meaningful to you.

Can my breath become a resource outside therapy?

One of the things I value most about working with breath is that it can become something you carry with you. Over time, the aim is not simply to remember a technique I have taught you, but to develop enough of a relationship with your own breathing that you can notice what is happening and experiment with what might help in the moment.

That might mean taking a few deeper breaths before going back into a difficult conversation, quietening your thoughts by noticing the movement of your belly when you can’t sleep, or using your breath as a resource enabling you to pause before reacting. At other times, breath may help you stay with stronger feelings such as anger, frustration or grief without immediately shutting them down or being overwhelmed by them.

For some people, this can also support a greater sense of power and agency. A breath cannot remove a bullying boss, make the rent affordable or end discrimination; it cannot change the injustices in the world that affect how you feel day to day. But it may help you stay connected with yourself: to notice what you feel, recognise what matters, gather enough steadiness or momentum to make a choice, set a boundary, seek support, rest, speak, act or keep going.

In that sense, breath can support both movement and pause. Sometimes the resource is in finding enough energy to act. Sometimes it is in finding enough space to stop, recover and not push through. Neither is inherently more resilient than the other.

The longer-term hope is that breath becomes less something you “do in therapy” and more something you know you can return to — one embodied resource among others, available to support connection with yourself and greater choice in how you respond.

How does breathwork fit within my wider somatic therapy practice?

Breathwork is a core part of my practice, but it is not something I offer as a standalone technique or one-off experience. It sits within a wider process of somatic therapy, alongside therapeutic dialogue, Transforming Touch, Family Constellations, EMDR and other ways of exploring what is happening in our bodies, relationships and wider lives.

For some people, breath becomes a regular thread that we return to across sessions. For others, it may appear only occasionally, or remain mostly in the background. I may notice changes in your breathing as part of understanding what is happening in the moment, even when we are not explicitly “doing breathwork”.

Breath can sometimes offer a sense of agency and a direct way into inner experience. At other times, touch, relationship, talking or external orientation may be more useful — particularly where focusing on breath feels too activating, or simply is not the right route for that person.

My own relationship with breath is part of this too. I use my breathing to notice, pause, ground and stay present in difficult moments, and sometimes clients respond spontaneously to that. In this sense, breath is not only something I teach; it is part of how I practise and how I accompany someone.

My original professional breathwork training was rooted in Rebirthing Breathwork. I found that work powerful and formative, but over time my practice changed substantially through later somatic and trauma-sensitive training, particularly Transforming Touch. The approach I use now is slower, more relational and more individually paced, with less emphasis on producing an intense experience and more on integration, choice and what actually feels useful over time.

I no longer offer Rebirthing Breathwork or long sessions of highly active breathing accompanied by loud music. If breath is something you are especially drawn to, however, we can make it a more explicit focus within the wider therapeutic framework. I am also happy to offer a steady and consistent point of support and therapeutic integration for people who attend more dynamic breathwork groups, psychedelic or shamanic retreats, or other intensive healing experiences. That support can range from helping you integrate whatever feels most useful, through to questioning aspects of an experience that may feel less helpful, confusing or at odds with your own sense of agency.

How to get started

If you are new to working with me, the first step is usually a 60-minute Orientation Session. This gives us space to talk about what you are looking for, any questions you have, and whether working together feels like a good fit.

You do not need to decide in advance exactly which approach you want to use. We can explore together what may be most useful, including whether breathwork, Transforming Touch or other aspects of my somatic and systemic practice feel relevant, and whether regular or ad-hoc, online or in-person sessions are likely to suit you.

If you would prefer to make written contact first, you are welcome to complete the Individual Session Enquiry form or email me (purple buttons below). If you have a few practical questions about availability, fees, location or how the booking process works, you can arrange a free 15-minute introductory call.

You can find current fees, availability, practical information, enquiry options and links to book an Orientation Session on my Bookings, Hours & Fees page.