What is Transpersonal Breathwork? 

Transpersonal breathwork is a practice that integrates breathing techniques with a transpersonal psychology perspective, focusing on expanding consciousness and transcending the ego or individual self. It is often used for personal growth, healing, and spiritual development. The approach combines deep, rapid breathing with evocative music and sometimes guided visualization, aiming to facilitate emotional release, insights, and experiences of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

The concept of transpersonal psychology underpinning this practice explores aspects of the human experience beyond the individual, including spirituality, mysticism, and the interconnectedness of all life. Breathwork in this context is not just about physical or psychological benefits but is also seen as a pathway to spiritual awakening or enlightenment, allowing individuals to explore and integrate various levels of self-awareness and consciousness.

Transpersonal breathwork can draw on various traditions and techniques, including but not limited to Holotropic Breathwork, developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof, which is one of the most well-known forms. Sessions are facilitated by trained professionals in a supportive and safe environment, allowing participants to deeply explore their inner worlds and potentially resolve issues that are typically beyond reach. The practice emphasizes the healing potential of altered states of consciousness and aims to bring about transformation and self-discovery.

What is the overall experience of Transpersonal Breathwork like?

When the group first comes together, members introduce themselves and say a little bit about themselves. Next, is a talk introducing the lineage and practice of Transpersonal Breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and the practical details of a breathwork session. The actual session begins and will last 2-3 hours. Afterward, people draw, paint, and color in a completely free-form, open way. The last segment is an integration circle where people have an opportunity to talk about as much of their experience as they wish with the rest of the group.

What is a session of Transpersonal Breathwork like?

People are paired off in groups of two, one is the "breather" and one is the "sitter." The sitter gives their focused attention to the breather and looks after simple needs by providing water, tissues, blankets, etc. In a subsequent session the breather and sitter exchange roles. The session begins with the group of breathers lying on comfortable mats, with eyes covered to help direct attention inward. A brief guided relaxation exercise by the facilitator helps people relax and then they are instructed to breathe more deeply and more rapidly than normal to progressively intensify their breathing. 

The breather will lie on a mat for the duration of a session. Laying down grounds the breather and gives them the ability to move freely in whatever pose their breath takes them. Evocative music begins to support the breathing process and encourage the breather to enter an altered state of consciousness (similar to having a vivid dream). In twenty minutes to half an hour, most people begin to experience enhanced feelings, enriched imagery, or other non-ordinary experiences. Experience can open to past life events, birth experiences, and even places that transcend personal experience. 

The music starts off with drumming, then reaches a peak and switches to "heart music”, and eventually changes to meditative as the session progresses over the 2-3 hour duration. The session is open-ended, with each person able to derive their own meaning and attain self-discovery in whatever form that means for them. Breathers can move on their mats in any way that they want and make any sounds that feel right to them.

Toward the end of a session, a facilitator may offer simple bodywork to resolve lingering body feelings, such as tension or tightness anywhere in their bodies. There are no specific guidelines or expectations of what must occur. The goal is for the experience to be a catalyst for bringing to the surface the most important issues a person needs to address. Participants are free to work on whatever comes up for them as they enter the altered state.

Afterward, participants draw  mandalas about their experiences and discuss what happened. This could be a corrective experience of past trauma, feelings of joy, or the development of spiritual awareness. 

What kinds of experience do people have in Breathwork sessions?

People can vividly re-experience events from their life history that lie below waking consciousness. They may relive birth experiences from birth, connect with experiences of people who lived in the past or enter archetypal and transcendent realms. In the words of William James, the first American psychologist and founder of transpersonal psychology:

“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch, they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.”

There are many possibilities of experience during a session, but each person’s workshop experience is unique.

Can it be frightening to re-experience traumatic events from the past?

People are helped and supported so that re-experiencing even very difficult events becomes cathartic, instead of distressing.

What is bodywork like?

Toward the end of a Breathwork session, a facilitator will ask a participant how they are feeling and what they notice about the state of their body – such as any tensions, tightness, or other noticeable sensations. If any are reported, the participant is invited to work with the facilitator. In the simplest instance of bodywork the facilitator will place a bracing hand against a place where the participant has indicated some notable feeling, then ask the participant to take some breaths and push, then perhaps to repeat. Repetition can intensify the feeling and bring it more fully to attention, which may help it to open up and become a cathartic release.

What is the effect of the bodywork?

Another major feature of this breathwork practice is the use of bodywork as a practical way of overcoming the mind/body split. Leaving the body out of self-exploration gives an opportunity only to deal with trauma intellectually, even though the trauma may have a strong physical component as well as a psychological one. Theory suggests that a person’s body accumulates tensions over time and suffers physical injuries and afflictions. Major physical and psychic trauma may occur during a person’s birth process. The accumulation of tension and trauma can impede the free flow of a person’s energy. Injuries that have healed physically may still leave an unconscious residue of difficult feelings.

Bodywork can bring such feelings and recollections of trauma to the fore and then facilitate catharsis. Besides bodywork that involves push and release to address things that happened to a person’s body, bodywork may also address things that didn’t happen to one’s body. There may have been a time, for instance, when a child needed to be held and wasn’t, and maternal bonding was impaired. When that strong feeling of absence surfaces in a session, with permission, appropriate physical contact can be particularly corrective. Contact can range from handholding to a full-body hug.

What about sexual feelings?

Generally, when sexual feelings come to the fore, they are being driven by more profound underlying feelings. Bodywork used in these situations addresses the underlying feelings rather than the overt sexual feelings.

Is Transpersonal Breathwork psychotherapy?

Breathwork is deeply experiential and may involve intense and energetic emotional release. It does not substitute for psychotherapy but can significantly deepen and enhance psychotherapy as well as other healing and personal growth efforts.

How do I prepare?

No special preparation is needed beyond the completion of a brief health check form so any potential difficulties can be addressed. If interested, there are various sources of information about breathwork, especially the books of Stanislav Grof, but this is not necessary preparation. 

Are people advised to avoid Breathwork for any reason? 

Pregnant women, persons with cardiovascular problems, glaucoma, epilepsy, or an unresolved history of psychiatric hospitalization are advised to avoid Transpersonal Breathwork. If you have any questions, please contact us before registering.

What are the benefits of Transpersonal Breathwork?

Transpersonal Breathwork can significantly deepen and enhance psychotherapy and other self-discovery, healing, and personal growth efforts.

Can I do it by myself?

This type of Breathwork is best done in a group setting with the attention of experienced facilitators.

Do you provide ongoing support?

The program facilitators will be available to answer questions and ongoing concerns. After the session, we typically offer two group integration sessions as a follow-up to the experience. 

Is Transpersonal Breathwork psychedelic?

No drugs or other substances are used in any sessions, however, breathwork can occasionally engender intense experiences.