How do I become a breathwork practitioner?

Throw yourselves to the wolves!

KIDDING.

Throw yourselves to the online wolves!

KIDDING.

Throw yourselves to the online breathwork wolves!

SERIOUSLY.

Training, my friends, training.

And we don't care how you do it (sure we'd prefer you go through our online training so we can quality "control" the content), but put yourself out there. Ask questions! Take a course, why not?! Online breathwork can be just as effective as breathwork teacher training(s) in-person.

What is accredited breathwork teacher training?

Accredited breathwork teacher training, program, whatever you want to call it, can be a breathwork program with students and an instructor (or twenty), with knowledge about professional breathwork sessions using pranayama techniques or any other breathwork course that focuses on the breath. THEN, you'd be a person training with the knowledge of anatomy and would have certification in pranayama techniques. Self-awareness can only go so far, and why not surround yourself with an accredited breathwork coach and a be a certified breathwork facilitator or teach a certification training online yourself through that same group?

You've had a smoothie once so you can be a yoga instructor? Don't get us wrong, we love smoothies, so go be a yoga instructor one Halloween. Oh you really want to be an active yoga teacher? Great, get your ass online and find out about certification or hop into some sessions to see who you want to learn from. Not all sessions are created equal and we put our life on that. Also, not all service providers are created equal. And not all professionals are professional. Ugh.

Research. Research. Research.

^Stay away from assholes, and don't be an asshole.

How would you know what breathwork practices you like or don't without folding those experiences into your life? Breathing exercises can be found in breathwork or yoga alliance networks. A facilitator training is a course of action you could take or get into breathwork sessions with a training cohort or a healing group.

Advanced breathwork is the same in that you have to start somewhere. Are we all students of life? Sessions add to life and life adds to sessions. Wait, yes, school is good. Stay in school, or get your ass into a school. We are not too cool for school.

Teach us what we don't know. See what we did there.

^At the very least, we think we're funny.

Skills learned becoming a breathwork practitioner

Bad jokes, awareness of bad jokes, harnessing sensitivities, debunking biases, anti-racist commitments, cultural humility, the intricacies of transference and countertransference, boundaries, barriers to treatment, trauma and its vast vast complexities, conflict resolution, professionalism, working with diverse communities, when it is appropriate to self-disclose with clients, the need for consent, what consent actually is, why supervision is so important, learning to decipher through people's bullshit, and other hard stuff. No big deal. (This is actually a very big deal.)

Do you want to experience something life changing? Yeah, we all do. Unless you're barely breathing, in which case you could benefit from many types of breathwork. Breathwork techniques vary based on willingness too, which is ugh, gross... self-paced with my nervous system? I'd rather call a friend who is stuck in their problems and eat a whole pizza than delve into self-development. Sometimes personal growth is connected to harm reduction. I digress.

How many hours of breathing does it take to achieve healing? Wait, wasn't this about how to become a professional breathwork facilitator? Again, yes AND you are connected to your breathwork practice and then you will teach breathwork all around the world, no?! Just our goal?! Course correct your way into breathing somehow. Are you holding your breath right now reading this in overwhelm? Don't. Breathwork is your friend, and your enemy, but mostly an ally.

We'd arm wrestle anyone who says being an accredited pranayama breathwork instructor isn't worth it even if that means teaching yourself. Give your life the quality care that you've always wanted. The work has to work on you before it can work through you to others.

What are you afraid of really? Sharks? Clowns? Snakes? Snakes on planes? Living your best life?

We knew it. Mosquito hawks...are something...fierce? Right, scary.

^Any excuse to put a cat into your life. Why do you have biases about black cats anyway?!?

There is just a lot to unpack with all of this. So let's continue...

What career paths are available for breathwork practitioners?

We do not intend to be flippant or snarky here (and we usually are), but YOU NAME IT. What career feels aligned with your soul or your character assets? Start a private practice. Give back to your local community center. Focus on one particular population of people that you love or feel is underserved? Start working with traumatized folx (that sounds so inviting, doesn't it?). Go where you see fit. Incorporate it into an existing business as a mindfulness technique with your current team or future employees. Do virtual sessions only. Do in-person sessions only. In addition to a breathwork certification, get a drug and alcohol counseling credential in your State. Do you know a doula? Partner with a hundred of them. Offer a monthly group to elementary school students in your town. Gift groups to friends or start a nonprofit focused on your values and beliefs for what it means to be alive, well, and thriving in this day and age. Become a licensed therapist or social worker and incorporate it in your therapy. Know a somatic practitioner? Give them a piece of your mind. Coach a soccer team? Bring "the game" into accessible tools that pair with the focus it takes to keep the body/mind centered during high stakes moments. Know a firefighter? Work with their station and those surrounding to help those who are ALWAYS helping others. Essentially, what can help you connect to the meaning of all of this nonsense and bring awareness to those who have no clue they even need this work. Get your yogi pals together and talk shit. Again, do you. You tell us what you need and we will work with you to help cultivate that vision and inch that idea along. It is a bunch of mumbo jumbo to most, but this woo-woo breathy-ness is far from capitalist society constantly surrounded by inundation marketing bullshit. What career paths are available? Make a new one. Start something that is not even in existence right now. Break through the perceived barriers and grab ahold of your inspiration, your intuition, whatever guides you. DO THAT.

And you probably have questions we are not yet mentioning here and that is totally okay.

How long until I can start teaching breathwork?

Well, not today pal.

But for good reason.

Knowledge of a teaching isn't the same as teaching a teaching. Teach 'n to the choir. Woah, that was some profound shit right there. Whatever your personal journey is, join us. In theory and practice, trauma healing isn't going to heal and integrate itself. The physical and mental body/bodies are waiting for your personal healing. Pranayama can help that. Yoga can help that. Facilitator training can help that.

Breathwork teacher training gives you lifetime access to the UNDERSTANDING of breathwork and its techniques through practice, and with certification. Training courses are in place (in our opinion) to get you out of your own way of doing it alone, and to keep the community safe. And this concept in and of itself is a whole other Oprah show. We shouldn't have to incorporate boundaries, consent, and other clinical approaches to this work, but we really are dealing with deep deep healing work here folx.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

And take a gd break for once in your life.

^You needed another cat photo in your lap, we told you!

Helpful tips along the road to becoming a practicing breathwork professional

So what do the 800 hours get me? (Yes, that's a long ass training commitment, and beyond necessary. Welcome to the new standard by the way.) Certification, healing practices, program opportunities, a breathwork coach, and hey...you could be teaching breathwork if you see your personal development leaning in that direction. Whether an online course or training program, it starts with the breath. The breath of life, the breath of this life work, the practice of the breathing techniques to help elevate your Communities. Your breath is a tool. Your breath is available right now. Your breath is a gift, waiting for you to open it. Get into a breathwork session, get into breathwork classes, pranayama your ass off (get in-volved with yourself). Take a breath right now. We're always training; training ourselves or training others how we engage with breathwork in our daily lives.

Will there be videos of sessions?

Some hours will be fulfilled online and others in-person, but we won't get into the grit of it here. Book a breathwork session or consultation with an instructor today. The is not a single dumb question around here. There just cannot be when we're cultivating an environment that is a safe container for this powerful practice.

Live, recorded, group sessions, one-on-one sessions, phone sessions, all of the above.

Get certified. Get certified. Get certified.

^Cats in human form.

This is YOUR life.

Life is what you make while you're busy breathing. Pranayama that is. Breathing practices happen in your sleep, but the knowledge isn't just with your subconscious. The sessions are intentional; physical, mental, spiritual, full-body-breath... breath and breathing, the new PB&J.

Breathing. Breathing. Breathing.

Sacred breath.

Wasn't sure if we mentioned that yet. Great. So do you need more tips about hosting a breathwork session or breathing consciously or yoga alliance? An online course may be for you, or maybe breathing 1x1 with the techniques offer you more of an integrated breathing education? Again, what do you need?

FAQ {slash} WHAT DO I DO NEXT? :

Research the history of breath.
Find breath training courses.
Find a breathwork teacher training or any breathwork training that resonates with you.
Get clear on your values (if you aren't already); choose a breathwork course that has training at the core and not money. Yes, money is an exchange and a valuable one, but get to the breath sooner than later.
Start breathing (conscious and active) on your own or in a training.
Reminder: We're all in training, of course. We're human, we think.
When your training courses are available, get excited!
Remember YOUR breath throughout your course, in course you forgot :P
Try different breathing techniques so you know what type of breathwork is for you. And not every breath type will be offered in course form, so maybe you need to start your own? (You can do it!)
Down the line get into a breathwork teacher training if a breathwork teacher training is the continued path you desire.

Desire is part of this.

Breathwork is growing in popularity, which we love, but what type of breath are you choosing. Choice is part of this. So is access. Have you read about our Breathwork teacher training and Breathwork Clinician Certification? We have a course of breathwork offerings rooted in accessible course mediums and with anti-racist breathwork instructors. And those aren't marketing terms used just so you like us. We BELIEVE firmly in being anti-racist and continuing to do the work necessary to be of maximum service to our clients and our communities.

And remember your breathwork journey itself as you learn more through whatever breathwork training you decide to do your breath course work through. Not everyone will be aligned with the type of training you sign up for or the kind of training you offer through whatever space you choose for holding this sacred breathwork in. And if breathwork teacher training isn't for you, maybe it's advocacy or education, volunteerism or marketing?

Use your breathwork chops to elevate your

...photography course or math course; regulate that nervous system in any course you sign up for, even one of those "we'll teach you to paint the exact same painting as your barstool buddy over a glass of wine" course spaces. No judgment, for real. Breathwork isn't for everyone, but everyone could use breathwork if they knew the course was available or that conscious breathing could set their life on a whole different course of action.

GIVE A SHIT.

Can you tell we care about this?

Of course, you could tell us to f*ck off or you could sign up for our next cohort and course-work which begins again in a few months. Until then, there are loads of ways to connect and get involved. DO SOMETHING. It'll help. Or do nothing and stay stuck or unaware or whatever is currently bringing you joy or some form of harm reduction. Look, do we have to yell to get your attention? We don't want to do that and we won't; we want to regulate that nervous system instead of poke and prod at it. So again, take a breath right now. Is it shallow? Is it deep? Can you breathe deeper than your deepest deep? Oh gotcha, you need science? Get some oxygen into your gd diaphragm and then bring that oxygen up into your lungs and let that shit out, ALL OF IT, through that pie hole and continue that cyclical energy/breath flow.

Share with us.

If any of the above is confusing or too much for you to take in while reading please let us know so we can connect with you directly. Everyone processes information differently; maybe you're an auditory learner or more of a hands-on person, WE GOT YOU. Reach out for crying out loud. You have a question/comment/concern, WE GOT YOU. Let's hop on a call or a Zoom thingy or send voice notes back-and-forth until the wee hours of the night (kidding).

Or get in the bath and sit with yourself to see what comes.

Contact info@breathworkforrecovery.com for general inquiries and meme support.

But do contact us.

Who are we to tell you what you need? We are just here to offer ideas and support along the way. If you have a better idea, you better let us know or else...we'll just be unaware and misinformed in some other regard and we do not want that.

Are we missing something? But are we missing the mark? We can't just be over here in our yard focused on our bushes and shrubs.

What are your roses and thorns in life? What is working or not working for you in this field or heck, any field.

With lots of love, and information,

Team BfR

How Do I Become a Breathwork Practitioner?