Healing Breathwork

Breathwork is an active meditation designed to reconnect you with your most authentic self.

Similar to EMDR, many plant medicines, and body-based modalities, breathwork allows you to bypass the mental chatter of the mind and release stuck energies that may be causing dis-ease. Breath is the most intuitive medicine. It is the source of all life and thus, has an intelligence that guides you to deep healing without an agenda. While we may set our intentions and make our desires known, the breath does the work to connect you to soul, self and spirit simultaneously. If it sounds a little bit magical… well, that’s because it kind of is!

People find breathwork beneficial for moving through emotional pain, healing trauma, integrating difficult experiences, embodiment, deepening intuition, opening channels for creative expression, connecting with ancestral lineages, finding their voice, and tending to their inner lives.

F A Q s

What exactly is breathwork?

Great question, glad you asked. Here’s how it goes: You’ll come in to the office and we’ll chat for a little bit about what’s going on and any intentions you may have. Then you’ll lay on a massage table with an eye cover and start a three part breath circut: one breath into the lower belly, one into the upper chest, and then an exhale. All through the mouth. This gets the energy moving! And then you’ll have some spacious time, to rest and integrate, before you complete the practice.

Who is breathwork right for?

Short answer: Everyone. Like any meditative practice, it will enhance the trajectory of any healing path you’re currently on. And if you find yourself thinking, hmm, I don’t know if I’m on a healing path — then all the better! Breath is a great place to start.

What are the risks of breathwork?

Well, the good news is there really aren’t any. Again, breath is a deeply intuitive medicine and knows what you’re ready for. The only risk worth mentioning is that at the start of any healing treatment, sometimes things get a little harder before they get easier. That’s because you’re signaling to your higher self that you’re ready to show up and dig in. One of my teachers always says, it can be hard to heal but its a hell of a lot harder not to… and I couldn’t agree more.

Is this part of your psychotherapy practice?

No, it isn’t. And that’s really important for you to know. There are certain privileges that are extended to psychotherapy sessions (like legally-protected confidentiality) that do not apply to breathwork sessions. But it’s also worth noting that psychotherapy works best on weekly cadence, whereas breathwork is more medicinal — meaning you just take it when you need it. Some people like to breathe with me once a week, while others prefer once a month or just as needed. The rhythm is yours to create!

Can breathwork sessions take place via Zoom?

Yes!

How do I book a session?

Fill out the short form on the connect page and I will be in touch to schedule your session! Starting this particular breathwork practice absolutely changed my life. I’ve been practicing and teaching it for 10 years, and it’s such an honor to share it with you.

What is depth psychotherapy?

Depth Psychotherapy is a therapeutic orientation maintaining that change occurs through exploring and integrating material from both the conscious and unconscious minds. The theory holds that the unconscious speaks through dreams, images, symptoms, intuition, synchronicities and other felt-sense experiences.

Using depth psychotherapy, the client and the therapist create a safe container through which the client is invited to explore connections and meanings that are below the surface of conscious awareness. In this space, the client engages the transpersonal, mysterious and numinous forces of psyche, or “soul.” The soul is the dimension of the person that makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences and deepens the human experience (Hillman).

Goals of of depth-orientated psychotherapy include increasing self awareness and developing a relationship with inner wisdom. Another goal is to integrate “shadow material,” which can be understood as those qualities within oneself that a person does not yet feel prepared to identify with. Shadow qualities can be either positive or negative. For example, in one’s shadow may be their creative or artistic abilities, and there may also be anger or aggression. One way to get more information about what lives in the shadow is to get curious about the places one holds judgement, envy and activation in relationship to others. 

The main goal of depth psychotherapy is to facilitate what is known as Individuation. Individuation, as defined by founder of Analytical Psychology, Carl Jung, is “the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘in-dividual’ that is, a separate, indivisible unity, or ‘whole’” (CW 9i, pars 489-524). Individuation fosters self-awareness through inner and outer exploration of the unconscious, the individual, and the wider community. Through individuation, one discovers a more potent sense of meaning and purpose in life and fulfills their own highest potential.

Depth psychotherapy uses myth, symbolism and active imagination to facilitate the exploration of the unconscious. Active Imagination is an intervention used to amplify, interpret and integrate the unconscious and includes working with dreams and the creative self via imagination, images, etc. This process relies on the client’s undirected observation of their imagination or dreams, allowing the images or dreams to speak for themselves as much as possible without too much influence from the conscious mind.

Myth is also essential to Depth Psychotherapy. Mythology holds the richness and wisdom of humanity played out in wondrous symbolical storytelling, with ever-relevant universality. In ancient myth, we find present dilemmas and the ways in which those before us overcame those struggles. We also examine personal mythologies — the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves — to determine how relevant and helpful those stories are. The therapeutic construction of personal mythologies often allows us to create meaning around our most difficult experiences, aiding us in the integration of those events.

While diagnoses can be an important part of any psychological treatment, depth psychotherapists maintain that listening to the symptoms as the soul’s way of speaking is preferred, as opposed to pathologizing or eradicating symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and other symptoms have something to say  about what the soul needs. Depth Psychotherapists work to reveal the source of the issue that is being presented.

Depth Psychology is open to the phenomenological aspects of life that connect to spiritual and numinous experiences, which often have powerful impacts on individuals and communities. We hold these experiences as being sacred and connected to both collective consciousness and psyche, or soul.

Depth Psychotherapy is often integrated with many other treatment modalities in order to give clients an integrative experience of healing. It is useful for anyone wanting to fully explore their inner landscape and to find purpose and meaning in their lives, at any stage.

Depth-Oriented Theorists, Scholars and Practitioners: Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, James Hillman, Joseph Campbell, Edward Edinger, James Hollis, Lionel Corbett and many more.

Written by Elisabeth Gonella, LMFT & adapted for the journal by Megan Attore, AMFT