Breathwork: Ethics in Practice
Deep Healing session in mama Bali
Everywhere we turn right now we see articles in magazines about breathwork. We see social media posts about it; about the varying techniques and approaches, and about the huge benefits. So what exactly is conscious breathwork all it’s cracked up to be?
Conscious breathwork is a broad umbrella term which covers everything from pranayama to rebirthing, transformational breath to Buteyko and much more. Each style and technique is typically very different, though within connected breathwork practices the main technique is fairly similar - open mouth, connected dynamic breathing practice.
A few years ago we saw yoga blow up in the public eye, previously empty classes became rapidly filled and suddenly everyone was talking about it. The same seems to be happening now with breathwork, so what did we learn from the massive upscaling of yoga practice in the West that we can perhaps apply to the accelerated growth and practice of conscious connected breathing?
The first thing we learnt was that not every practice is good practice. Not every teacher has the subtle understanding of the importance of not only the spiritual aspects of the work, but also the physical, mental, and emotional safety required when we invite people to ‘open their hearts” (or their bodies) and “let go.” We’ve been in enough wellness spaces now to know that letting go is not always pretty! It’s certainly often far from delicate, and although it can be that, but more often than not when we really get to the core of our belief systems, the letting go requires (metaphorical) blood, sweat, snot and tears. It’s dirty, it’s gnarly and it’s raw!
In opening up the body, deeply buried somatic memory can very easily be re-activated. What this means is that wherever we’re holding trauma, wherever there are blockages, and wherever there is something going on internally that we may not yet be aware of externally, we can be sure that bringing our attention to it will generally find it, and what do we do when we find it?
Creating space too be felt, heard and seen is important…
We read in a recent article how somebody in a yoga class was doing a very activating pranayama practice and suddenly felt the most intense rage bubbling up in his body. He wanted to scream and shout, to release this feeling, to express his anger with the teacher who had activated it (projection), and yet he also recognised that it wasn’t appropriate within the context of that class to do so.
So what do we do if trauma arises, requires expression, and yet necessitates suppression depending on the environment? As breath work facilitators and teachers, we find this enquiry to be very important indeed.
There is an argument here for learning how to hold and contain our emotions. Without that inner mastery would we be given carte blanche to go out and release our anger to whoever happened to be in our path at the time? But what about when we are in a specific class or workshop where we are expected to open up and feel all the feels? Does the facilitator therefore have an obligation to allow that to happen, to manage that with skill, and to provide integration recommendations or referrals that will help continue the work? We believe that we do. Inviting expression needs to be well framed however to avoid an avalanche of unexpressed, unintegrated trauma overwhelming the session.
Sometimes the line between practitioner responsibility and over involvement, or rescuing/fixing/healing for example, is a very fine line to navigate.
Starting from the premise that we are already aware when we are being over involved or rescuing, let’s look at some ethical practice inquiry.
Is it okay to touch someone without their consent?
Do we need training in which areas may be appropriate and which may be inappropriate to use touch?
Do we need training in how to touch someone?
Do we need heightened sensitivity when engaging touch in any area that may hold trauma?
Do we need to be aware of “triggering” language?
Do we allow people to approach others in a breathwork session, especially if the ‘other’ is known to them.
How do we receive a person’s trauma if shared in a group, that will leave the feeling heard, and most importantly, safe?
What if one person’s trauma response activates another’s desire to ‘flee’ from the session?
How long is it reasonable to stay with one breather in a group work setting, and how do you know when to ‘leave’?
In our experience trauma will most often show up in the head, neck, and jaw, the belly, the breasts & chest, the thighs, and the buttocks & genitals. It’s extremely important to be hypersensitive when using touch anywhere around or on these areas, or we are in serious danger of re-traumatising a person. Knowing when to approach and how to touch is important in all sessions where we are asking people to basically trust us with their most tender edges.
The next lesson that we think is important to name is the fact that many people can receive training and yet still not feel competent and confident to hold space for others. We all have to start somewhere of course, and so thorough training, continued enquiry, supervision and mentorship, and humility all go along way to helping us grow.
Working on our own self-awareness and personal growth is important if we are to stay out of the ego and truly be of service to others and to the breath. Walking any kind of healing path that invites us to hold the delicate aspects of another human being is an honour and a privilege and not something to be taken lightly.
We often hear people say there’s somebody for everybody and something for everyone, and whilst we agree with that in principle, what we don’t agree with is when this is used as a whitewash to gloss over shoddy practice, implying in a very new-age way that the person got exactly what they needed. This absolves us of any accountability and is not okay.
Breathwork does incite deep healing. We’ve seen it happen over, and over, and over again. We’ve seen people in transcendent states and we’ve seen them in deep despair, and guess what…both of those were probably us whilst breathing too!
We believe that breathwork is going to become huge, and if it is, let’s be prepared to stay accountable, ethical, and knowledgeable before diving into the deep end of the pool without armbands. We’re going to be writing more about this over the coming weeks and we would love to hear your shares and personal experiences, so please drop us a comment below and let’s open up this important dialogue around all things breathwork and trauma.
What are your thoughts?
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