TRAUMA INFORMED + EXPERIENCED BREATHWORK
Breath is our connection to aliveness
In a world that teaches us to disconnect, bringing intention and attention to our breath is an act of liberation. Breathwork is not just a personal practice— it’s also a collective one. It’s a way of returning to the body as a site of knowing, of power, of resistance. We are taught, subtly and explicitly, to override our needs, suppress our feelings, and ignore our instincts. Breathwork interrupts that cycle. It is a practice of coming home— again and again— to ourselves, to each other, and to the truth that healing is not only possible, but is happening in real time.
To be fully in your body in a world that benefits from your disconnection is a radical act.
When we breathe together, we remember that we were never meant to do this being alive thing alone.
The body remembers and so does the breath. So many of us carry trauma, not just from our individual lives, but from generations before us. Breathwork offers a somatic path for bringing presence to what the body has held onto for too long. It allows us to feel deeply. In the breath, we make space for rage, grief, tenderness, and pleasure. All of it belongs, all of it is information for us to be present to.
This is where healing begins: through connection and remembering perfection is not necessary when being engaged in practice.
Breathwork is not a quick fix or escape. It is a ritual of remembering, a pathway toward wholeness, a tool for personal and collective care, for returning to choice and agency rooted deeply in our bodies.
I first tried breathwork as a participant in 2014. As a survivor of multiple forms of violence from childhood through adulthood, I had a very complicated and challenging relationship to breath. I felt so supported by the practice and wanted to share it with my extended communities.
I began my deeper study and training from there and began working with this modality as a practitioner in 2017 weaving a unique skill set and background into my work. I bring my background in community organizing, social justice and liberation, harm reduction, and survivor advocacy to this work to offer a trauma-experienced, liberatory, politized, and person-centered experience.
I welcome people of all genders, identities, and experiences and I'm dedicated to offering care to queer, trans and gender non-conforming people largely because I know how difficult it is to find safe(r), accessible spaces to move towards a bit of healing and because I know in this fractured world, if we don't do it for each other, who else will!? And I'll be working hard to do this through trauma-informed and harm reduction lenses.
Additionally, I have a background and training within psychedelic work and harm reduction. If you are looking for support before or after doing psychedelic ceremonies and/ or plant medicine work, this practice is an incredible tool for prepping for deep work or integrating the wisdom that came out of it.
I am not in this work to be the one with all the answers or to “heal” anyone. I’m interested in being in the questions with you, bringing curiosity. I’m very aware that the desire and willingness to be engaged in healing (active and ongoing) must be self-motivated for it to be sustainable. I’m interested in supporting people as they reconnect and remember their connection to their own wise inner healer.
If you’re looking to be an active and engaged part of your own healing, breathwork is a great choice! The practice does ask you to dig deep, show up to, and take responsibility for your own healing, with the guidance and support of me. It's powerful! It requires your full participation. It is one of many vital tools for navigating trauma, recovery, and healing.
Engaging in regular, conscious breathing practices can offer:
Emotional health support, including understanding of emotional states and some relief from depression and anxiety
Increased cognitive function, including increased clarity, processing, and concentration
Increased creativity (breathwork is so wonderful before a creative practice!)
Reduced over-response to chronic stress
Deeper sleep
More regular and balanced digestion
More energy
An outlet for anger, grief, and frustration
Clarity in communication through understanding yourself and your emotions
Reduced blood pressure and heart rate
Deeper connection to spiritual and intuitive guidance
A deeper, more compassionate relationship to your body and yourself
Part of why I love breathwork so much is that it reminds us we all, each of us, hold the power within ourselves to shift and heal parts of ourselves and our past experiences even when the world is a mess. It's the little shifts that I'm hoping can ease the pain and grief we carry around. These shifts are literally rooted in our own breath coupled with the radical witnessing and presence of another person. It is for sure breathWORK but in a non-capitalist sense because you get all the benefits turned right back to you and you can take the tool with you to work with at any point. It's not easy: it's a very active and disciplined meditation but it's worth it. There are tools happening but at its core, it's you and the breath; the breath is the medicine. It is a psychedelic and transcendent experience.
What is Breathwork?
In these times of increasing violence and collapse, how’s your breath feeling? How’s your relationship to yourself and others feeling? Is it possible to feel more alive and present to this complex world? Is it possible your breath holds the key to more aliveness and presence? YES, my friends, it is.
Breathwork is the conscious practice of engaging the breath to support the nervous system, feel and process emotion, and access deeper states of awareness, consciousness, and interconnection. It doesn’t require fancy equipment, perfect conditions, or even words. Just your body, your breath, and your willingness to engage in presence and practice.
Transformational breathwork is about building a living and alive relationship with our breath. Doing so has incredible potential to create deep change in our lives as well as allow us to feel more deeply, find some clarity and direction and so much more. While I believe that breathwork is any time we bring intention and attention to our breath, in these 1:1 sessions and workshops we work predominantly with Three Part breath and open and close with Diaphragmatic breath in order to explore a deep, expanded state of consciousness while simultaneously supporting our nervous system.
We aren’t trying to “optimize” here. We are trying to listen deeply to our own internal wisdom as a practice of coming home to ourselves, as a practice of remembering who we are and what we are capable of.
I don’t believe in a hierarchy of lineages or practices. There are so many different lineages and practices of breathwork; breath has been utilized for physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic connection and healing since the dawn of time. The teacher I originally learned this pattern from has historically been evasive and inconsistent around its origins.
Through research, deeper study, and being in conversation with trusted colleagues and mentors, I place the breath pattern within and alongside traditions of ancient, longstanding breath practices like Pranayama (it’s most close to an adapted version of Dirga/Dirgha Pranayama). There is additional influence from more contemporary practices like Holotropic Breathwork and Conscious Connected Breath. The Three Part breath practice I teach exists in the overlaps but at the root, breathwork is deeply informed by indigenous breath technology* and we as practitioners must continue to name this and work to be in right relationship.
In short— it’s a multi-part active breath that touches into an expanded state of consciousness where deep emotional, physical, and spiritual connection and healing can happen.
It's so helpful for connecting to your body (because we all know how hard that can be but how powerful when we can or do), moving stuck energy, opening your heart and connecting to your intuition and embodied wisdom and memory. It is an incredible tool for moving through embodied traumatic experiences, anxiety, depression, blocked emotional energy and so much more. It's for you** even if you have panic attacks, even if you have asthma, even if you experience chronic pain. (And maybe most especially.) You'll feel a sense of clarity, focus, creativity, some calm, connection to your inner wisdom and more. Please feel free to email me with any questions around accessibility or anything else.
*Crediting Christian Totty for the language “indigenous breath technology.”
**The Three Part breathwork practice is not currently recommended for: people in pregnancy (unless you have discussed it with a medical doctor or already have a regular practice), epilepsy, retinal detachment, glaucoma, high blood pressure not controlled by medication, cardiovascular disease, family history of aneurysm, strokes and neurological conditions, and severe osteoporosis. Do check in with your medical provider first or email me with questions. The contraindications are also highlighted at the bottom of this page and you will check a consent box upon booking a session.
What to expect
We'll open with a discussion to set the intention for our work together. I will then introduce two breath patterns:the Diaphragmatic breath to open and close the session and the the active Three Part breath in-between. Following this, we will transition into a 45-minute breath practice guided by me, accompanied by music to maintain focus. Even within these two styles of breath— I will aim to be flexible and adaptive to meet each person on an individual basis meaning you will be invited to shift and adapt the styles as best supports you. We'll conclude with a reflective conversation, exploring ways to integrate the practice into your daily life.
During the practice, individuals may experience sensations such as tingling, vibration, shifts in temperature, a feeling of weightlessness, emotional release, and more. Afterward, you might feel energized, clear, calm, and connected, with possible lingering emotions. This practice is known for its capacity to bring about physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic release and promote a deeper sense of presence and vitality.
Our work together involves ongoing and engaged consent. It’s a two-way agreement. After the first session if we continue working together, each of us can recommit to or move on from this working relationship at any time.
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The Three Part breathwork practice is not currently recommended for: people in pregnancy (unless you have discussed it with a medical doctor or already have a regular practice), epilepsy, retinal detachment, glaucoma, high blood pressure not controlled by medication, cardiovascular disease, family history of aneurysm, strokes and neurological conditions, and severe osteoporosis.
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A breathwork practice can cause strong physical sensations and/or emotional releases. In very rare cases, strong emotional releases have been known to cause amnesia. If having additional support after a group feels important, having a therapist, trusted friend or personal integration practices in place could be helpful. Please feel free to email me with any questions.
The Power of Breathwork
If you’re interested in trying out breathwork on your own or you’d like support building a home practice after working together, you might pick up the book I wrote— The Power of Breathwork: Simple Practices to Promote Wellbeing, written in 2019 and published by Fair Winds Press Quarto in March 2020.
From the description:
Drawing on a multitude of breathing practices from different healing and spiritual traditions, The Power of Breathwork includes 25 simple exercises that you can practice alone or with a partner.
Knowing how to breathe and how to use your breath purposefully has been proven to reduce negative mental and physical issues and actually heal the body and mind. A regular home breathwork practice is an affordable and easy way for you to engage in self-healing practices that can have a profound impact on your overall health. Harness the power of breathwork to:
Facilitate proper immune function
Enhance connection, creativity, joy, and intuition
Reduce physical pain as well as tension, depression, anxiety, and trauma
Author, practitioner, and grief worker Jennifer Patterson begins by explaining what breathwork is, why you should try it, and how it can be used to heal the bodymind. Then, you’ll learn what happens in your physical body, energetic body, and emotional body as you practice it. Before you start the exercises, find useful tips on building an altar, using scent, visualizations and grounding, and somatic writing prompts to help support your practice.
After achieving collaboration and deeper trust with your body through practices such as a nurturing body scan and learning to catch and shift out of breath-holding patterns, return to yourself with these solo breath patterns: 4-7-8 Breath, Energizing Breath, Box Breath, Pursed Lip Breath, Lion’s Breath, Diaphragmatic Breath, Alternate Nostril Breath, Skull Shining Breath, Ocean Breath, and Multi-Part Fast-Paced Breath.
With a partner, use breath to work with witnessing and being witnessed, giving and receiving touch, and navigating conflict. Through these practices, you can breathe into a deeper relationship with another.
For more focused breathwork practice, you will also find exercises that work with themes such as creativity, easing perfection narratives, inviting laughter and joy, cutting energetic ties to harmful dynamics, plus dedicated practices for welcoming the new day and then, when it is done, releasing the day and inviting sleep.
The Power of Breathwork provides you with simple and approachable ways to intentionally and effectively breathe to bring healing and joy.
Cancellation + Rescheduling Policies
Cancellation + Rescheduling Policies
For 1:1 sessions, I have a 48 hour cancellation policy. I will not be able to reschedule you or refund you after 48 hours before your session time.
Because the workshops are recorded and sent to all who register, workshops are non-refundable once you’ve registered. The recordings I send out are of just my face and voice so you don’t have to worry about privacy concerns.
Having this in place allows me to honor my time and continue to offer sliding scale work sustainably. Thank you for your understanding.
Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.
Anne Carson