What is breathwork:

Breathwork is a type of body-centred therapy that helps connect you to your physical and emotional health. Working with the breath is one of the oldest, direct and powerful means of supporting our bodies to heal, yet most of us only use 30% percent of our breathing capacity. As a result, this lack of oxygen can cause fatigue, diseases and stress.

Often times you can find yourself in a holding pattern of stress without even noticing. This can be considered fight or flight mode. During flight mode, our breath increases to give you more oxygen to allow you to run away and when you are in freeze mode we contract our diaphragm to slow down our breathing- both are built into our system to optimize survival. Your body is smart! This response protects you from overwhelming situations and emotions. However, the problem occurs once the intensity of the actual event passes and your survival energy gets locked in your system. Eventually, you forget the event but your body remembers it is at a cellular level and continues to carry the stress in your system. If you cannot find a way to release this, you start to live with tremendous pressure in your body. This can manifest as chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, stress, digestion problems, sleeping disorders, panic attacks, anxiety or depression.

Ultimately, Breathwork sessions can be used to boost energy, to maintain health, and to create a deeper connection with your authentic self. It can also be used in a series of sessions as a therapeutic tool to fight against stress-related symptoms, such as panic attacks, anxiety, sleeping disorders, chronic pain, and depression.

Re-establishing the Cycle Between Alertness & Rest

The reason you want to create a more regulated nervous system is to restore the natural flow between alertness and rest. When trauma occurs, this cycle is interrupted and an energy charge gets “stuck” in your body.

This energy charge gets continually triggered when you encounter people, situations or anything that reminds us of that earlier experience you never got to “protect” against. You can never fully live in the present when our past has not been processed which mean we can never be fully present

Different Types of Breathwork

Cathartic Breathwork:

In cathartic breathwork, you are guided through a specific, controlled and accelerated way of breathing that triggers profound emotional and physical release. Cathartic breathwork is accompanied by evocative music and sound to deepen the experience.

Holotropic™ Breathwork*, created by Stanislav and Christina Grof, is a form of cathartic breathwork we offer.

* Offered by Helen Loshny

​​Yogic and other Spiritual Breathwork, like “Pranayama”:

There are many spiritual practices that incorporate breathwork, one of the most known is Pranayama. Pranayama is one of the eight limbs of yoga. It’s a formal, controlled way of breathing said to help master the mind-body connection through the mastery of the respiratory system.

* Not offered, check your local yoga studio listings

In many instances, therapists will combine multiple techniques, and even create their own techniques, all depending on your needs as a client.  For example, we offer a unique combination of breathwork techniques such as Diamond Breath and Somatic Pulsation, which combines training from Diamond Breath School in Italy,  Bodynamics and Reichian Therapy (based on Wilhelm Reich‘s body of work). For more information, read more HERE!

​Medical or Therapeutic Breathwork:

Medical doctors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, registered massage therapists and other manual therapists will often help people with the structural and fascial restrictions that cause what is called “breathing pattern disorders.”  

* Offered at Empower Health by Dr. Rae St. Arnault, ND. with the  MELT Method.

Please note that many of these types of breathwork sessions may overlap depending on your needs.