Breathwork

Breathing is something we do all the time, yet we rarely notice how much it can change. The way we breathe can shift with emotion, attention, physical activity, stress, pain, relaxation and our sense of safety. Conversely, deliberately changing the way we breathe can influence how we experience our body, our emotions and our state of mind.

This is the starting point for understanding breathwork.

Breathwork is a broad term used to describe practices in which breathing is deliberately observed, regulated, modified or intensified for a particular purpose. These practices range from gentle breathing exercises intended to promote relaxation or attention, through to more sustained and intensive forms of breathing that may produce significant changes in bodily sensation, emotion, consciousness and self-experience.

There is therefore no single thing called breathwork. Different approaches have developed from different traditions and disciplines, and they can have very different aims, methods and assumptions about how change occurs.

Some approaches focus primarily on physiological regulation and relaxation. Others use breathing as a means of meditation, mindfulness or developing greater awareness of the body. Some incorporate breathwork into psychotherapy or other forms of health care. Others deliberately use more intensive breathing to explore emotional experience, altered states of consciousness or questions of identity and personal transformation.

Understanding these differences matters.

Breathwork and psychological change

Breathing is closely connected with the way we experience ourselves. Changes in breathing can accompany anxiety, fear, excitement, sadness, anger, concentration and relaxation. Deliberately changing breathing can, in turn, alter bodily sensations and the quality of attention and emotional experience.

For this reason, breathwork has attracted increasing interest in psychology, psychotherapy, mental health and health research.

But breathwork should not be understood simply as a technique for “calming the nervous system.” Some forms of breathwork are intended to do much more than produce relaxation. Sustained or altered breathing can bring attention to bodily sensations, emotions, memories, conflicts and aspects of experience that may ordinarily remain outside conscious awareness.

This raises important questions about how breathwork is understood and practised:

What is actually happening when breathing changes psychological experience?

What kinds of change can breathwork reasonably be expected to support?

For whom might a particular approach be appropriate—or inappropriate?

What happens when breathwork evokes intense physical or emotional experiences?

What evidence exists for its effectiveness and safety?

These are not questions that can be answered by treating all breathwork as though it were the same practice.

A diverse field

One of the challenges in understanding contemporary breathwork is the extraordinary diversity of approaches described by the word.

Breathwork practices may differ in:

• the pace, depth and duration of breathing
• whether breathing is gentle or deliberately intensified
• whether the breath is regulated or simply observed
• whether breath retention is used
• whether the practice is primarily individual or conducted in groups
• whether the purpose is relaxation, meditation, physical wellbeing, emotional exploration or psychological transformation
• the role given to the practitioner
• the degree of therapeutic structure and psychological support provided
• the way unusual or altered states of experience are understood.

Consequently, evidence for one form of breathwork should not automatically be assumed to apply to another.

A breathing exercise used to support relaxation is not necessarily equivalent to an intensive altered-state practice. A traditional contemplative breathing practice is not necessarily equivalent to a psychotherapeutic breathwork intervention. And a breathwork experience described as transformational does not, by itself, establish that it is therapeutically effective.

The details of the method matter.

Breathwork, altered states and embodied experience

Some forms of breathwork can produce experiences that are quite different from ordinary waking consciousness. Changes in breathing may be accompanied by shifts in bodily awareness, perception, emotion, sense of time, memory and one’s sense of self.

Such experiences are sometimes described as altered states of consciousness.

These experiences can be meaningful, but they also require careful interpretation. An intense experience is not necessarily a therapeutic experience, and a powerful emotional release is not necessarily evidence of psychological resolution.

For therapeutic breathwork, an important question is therefore not simply what experience occurred? but what happens with that experience?

How is it understood?
How is it integrated?
Does it contribute to meaningful psychological change?
And is the process conducted in a way that maintains the person’s psychological and physical safety?

These questions become particularly important when breathwork is used with people experiencing mental health difficulties or significant psychological distress.

Safety and responsible practice

Breathwork is sometimes presented as inherently natural and therefore inherently safe. That conclusion does not follow simply because breathing itself is natural.

Changing breathing substantially can produce strong physiological effects. Depending on the method, people may experience dizziness, tingling, changes in bodily sensation, emotional distress or other significant reactions. More intensive practices may not be appropriate for everyone.

Responsible breathwork therefore involves more than teaching someone how to breathe differently. It requires an understanding of the particular method being used, appropriate preparation and screening, attention to contraindications and the capacity to respond appropriately when unexpected experiences occur.

Where breathwork is presented as psychotherapy or as an intervention for mental health problems, additional questions arise concerning practitioner training, scope of practice, supervision, therapeutic boundaries, informed consent and the evidence supporting the intervention.

Good breathwork practice begins with knowing what you are doing, why you are doing it, and for whom it is appropriate.

Looking at the evidence

Interest in breathwork has grown considerably, but the research literature is still developing. Studies vary considerably in the breathing methods used, the populations studied, the outcomes measured and the quality of the research design.

It is therefore useful to approach claims about breathwork with both openness and critical thinking.

There is a growing body of research examining breathing-based interventions in areas such as stress, anxiety, mood, attention, physiological regulation and psychological wellbeing. At the same time, some broader claims made about breathwork extend beyond what current research can establish.

A useful approach is neither to dismiss breathwork because some claims are unsupported nor to accept claims simply because an experience feels powerful or meaningful.

The more useful question is:

What does the evidence actually tell us about this particular practice, for this particular purpose, with this particular population?

That is the approach taken throughout this section of the website.

Exploring breathwork

The pages that follow provide a way of looking at breathwork from several complementary perspectives:

Understanding Breathwork — what breathwork is, how breathing influences experience, and the different ways breathwork has developed.

Breathwork and Mental Health — the relationship between breathing, psychological experience and therapeutic change.

Different Approaches — an overview of the major ways breathwork is practised, and why approaches should not be treated as interchangeable.

Safety and Responsible Practice — considerations for anyone engaging in or offering breathwork, particularly when significant physical or psychological experiences may arise.

Breathwork Research — what research can and cannot currently tell us about breathwork and its therapeutic applications.

Together, these pages are intended to provide a clearer way of navigating the increasingly diverse world of breathwork.

GRMT sits within this broader field, but it is a particular approach with its own theoretical foundations, clinical purpose, training requirements and practice protocol. Understanding breathwork more broadly provides an important context for understanding what makes Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy distinctive.