Breath Work

There are two different types of breath work I may invite into the session- Parasympathetic breathing and Active breathing. Both of these strands bring different experiences into the session and are used with different clients for different reasons.

Parasympathetic breathing-
This style of breath work brings our nervous systems back into safety and connection. These different techniques I believe we should all be doing daily to help regulate our nervous systems but sometimes we weave them into session. I may do this style of breathing if:

• We need to regulate your nervous from a stress response- Fight, Flight, Freeze, Flop or Fawn.

• To support any work we maybe doing around traumatic events and stored trauma in order to keep you safe and supported.

All the different types of breathing are aimed to slow your breath down and regulate your heart beat to try and draw the body into a slightly more settled state. Different techniques we may use are:

• Slowing Down Breath

• Diaphragmatic breathing

• Coherent Breathing

• Box Breathing

• Sigh Breath

• Alternate Nostril Breathing

• Blow out breath.

You can also find most of these practices on my online platform if you would like to practice them regularly or start a simple breath work practice to regulate your own nervous system.

Active Breathing-
In this style of breath work we are working with the sympathetic nervous system to bring to the forefront stagnant or stuck emotions, memories or insight. This style of breath work is not for everyone and I will only invite it into session if we have been working together for a while and I feel it would be the right step for you.

I would recommend never doing this style of breath work on your own, especially if you have experienced unsupported trauma.

In this style of breath work we breath in and out through the mouth to bring more oxygen quickly into the blood stream and alkalise the blood. This is what can cause initial body sensations like tingling and change in temperature.

The breathing techniques we may practice are Conscious Connected Breathing and Transformation Breath. Both these styles of breath work are done lieing now.

Conscious Connected breath is a 2 part breath where we breathe in and out of the mouth aiming the breath to the stomach. Transformation breath is a 3 part breath where we breathe in through the mouth, into the belly and then into the chest, exhaling through the mouth. I invite movement throughout the session which can sometimes spark trembling (trauma body release) as well as sound to help us process any stuck anger.