The Ultimate Guide to Breathwork for Coaches & Therapists

Are you ready to dive deeeeeeep into the fasting, growing wellness trend of breathwork? Breathwork is an ancient practice that has recently gone mainstream, and its popularity is growing exponentially. Coaches and therapists around the world are catching on to the power breathwork has to offer and looking for ways to incorporate breathwork into their practices. Are you one of them?

If so, pull up a seat, Sweet Pea, because we’ve got you covered. This complete breathwork guide is here to provide you with everything you need to know about breathwork, from its history to the different breathwork techniques, benefits, and side effects.

Whether you’re just getting started on this journey or need a refresher on how breathwork works – we gotcha covered! Let’s get cozy and settle in as we explore everything about the most powerful healing modality on the planet; BREATHWORK.

First things first…

The Basics of Breathwork: What is it?

Breathwork is an umbrella term for various breath-focused practices that use conscious breath control to induce a relaxed state of physical and emotional well-being. 

This ancient practice has been used for centuries to heal physical and mental illnesses, boost energy levels, reduce stress and anxiety, and heighten spiritual awareness. 

In breathwork, breath is used as the primary tool to connect to the body and mind and bring about a state of deep relaxation and alignment.

The History of Different Types of Breathwork

Over the years, breathwork has taken many different forms. In its most ancient form, it is rooted in Eastern spiritual disciplines like yoga, tai chi, qigong, and martial arts. Many spiritual paths, like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shamanism, have their own unique breath practices. Evidence suggest that it started in China, India, Japan and Tibet – dating back to 2700 B.C.E in China and 3000 B.C.E. in India.

But it wasn’t until the 1960s and 70s that breathwork, as we know it today, started to take shape. During that time, there were several pioneers of breathwork, like Leonard Orr (Rebirthing Breathwork), Stanislav Grof (Holotropic Breathwork), and Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks (Radiance Breathwork), who developed breathwork techniques that are still used today.

Now in modern times, science is catching up to what spiritual gurus have known all along; breathwork is a POWERFUL healing modality for the body, mind, and soul! And the popularity of breathwork has caught on like wildfire. With more and more research being done in this area, breathwork is now being used for a wide range of therapeutic, physical, and spiritual benefits.

What is Breathwork Used For?

The cool thing about using breathwork is that it can be used to meet the unique needs of your individual clients but also benefit you personally as a coach or therapist. 

Whether you’re looking to deepen the healing of your client’s experience or simply want a breath-focused practice to enhance your own well-being and focus, breathwork can be tailored to fit any purpose.

Here are a few examples of conditions that breathwork can help your clients with:

• Stress and Anxiety
• Trauma Processing & PTSD
• Depression
• Insomnia
• Addiction
• Pain Relief
• Physical and Spiritual Healing
• Self-Awareness and Personal Growth
• Improved athletic performance
• Personal & professional success

The Benefits of Breathwork

As I mentioned, breathwork is a one-stop shop for healing and is HIGHLY adaptable to the needs of the breather. At Pause Breathwork, we have several different types of breath patterns that each have a unique benefit.

Here are just a few of the different benefits for you and your clients…

The Benefits of Breathwork for Your Clients

The number one thing it can help your clients do is to unlock deeper levels of understanding and connection to their bodies. From here, your clients are able to release subconscious patterns that are holding them back, develop emotional intelligence, and even facilitate physical healing.

This process of dropping out of the head and into the body can activate their innate self-healing system, which allows them to experience breathwork’s deeper benefits.

This includes things like:

• Improved mental clarity and focus
• Increased energy
• Strengthened immune system
• Deeper relaxation and better sleep patterns
• Improved relationships with self and others
• Increased creativity and motivation
• Improved mood
• Better emotional regulation
• Heightened spiritual awareness & intuition
• A deeper level of self-trust
• A state of expanded consciousness

The Benefits of Breathwork for You as a Facilitator

As a breathwork facilitator, breathwork can be beneficial to you in several ways. It not only gives you another powerful tool for helping your clients get lasting results but it can also be used as a personal practice to replenish your energy levels and keep your own business and life running more smoothly.

Specifically, breathwork can help you to:

• Recharge your energy
• Connect with your heart & hold better space
• Connect to your intuition and stay more grounded
• Reduce stress, burnout, and overwhelm
• Enhance creativity and problem-solving
• Improve relationships with your clients, yourself, and others
• Experience greater spiritual alignment & connection to the divine
• See patterns & energetic blocks in others more clearly
• Activate your spiritual gifts

The Benefits of Breathwork for Your Business

Incorporating breathwork into your coaching or therapy practice can give you a competitive edge in the industry. Not only will it help you stand out from other coaches and therapists, but breathwork can also help your business make more money (by getting better results for your clients and being more qualified).

By offering breathwork as part of your services, you are able to serve your clients in a more holistic way. You’re also likely to attract new clients who want breathwork specifically and then go on to send you raving referrals. 

This not only helps to increase your income and visibility but also allows you to create more impact in the world – which is ultimately the goal of breathwork and healing.

Plus, breathwork can help you in business by:

• Clearing your personal abundance & money blocks
• Helping you activate your intuition for better decisions making
• Making you a more confident leader
• Opening up inspired ideas to expand & scale with soul
• Helping your overcome impostor syndrome
• Allowing you to release the fear of being seen
• Showing you your divine path and purpose
• Allowing you to build your business in a sustainable way that your body can handle
• Activating your power & voice so you can emit a more powerful healing transmission

So, breathwork not only has amazing benefits for your individual clients, but it can also help you as a breathwork facilitator and your business as a whole.

Now let’s dive into the details of breathwork to find out how the heck it works!

How Does Somatic Breathwork Work?

The most important thing to note about somatic breathwork is that it’s a “bottom-up” approach in therapy. “Soma” means “body” in greek, and so “somatic” is a body-based approach to healing. Breathwork is just one type of “somatic” practice. Other somatic practices include things like movement, dancing, shaking, and primal sounding.

The opposite is a “top-down” approach to therapy, which as a coach or therapist, you’re likely already familiar with. Examples of this type of approach include things like CBT, mindset coaching, and talk therapy.

The reason why a bottom-up approach like breathwork works so well is that instead of trying to fix things from the level of the mind, breathwork works first and foremost by accessing the body’s wisdom. This allows us to bypass the thinking mind and tap into our subconscious patterning. It gets right to the root of the wound and allows us to heal on a cellular level.

Science also shows us that breathwork is extremely effective at regulating the nervous system when done properly. It’s basically like a “reset button” for our nervous system – allowing us to go from a state of stress and dysregulation to relaxation and balance. Once we’re in this relaxed, balanced state, we begin to feel “safe,” and then breathwork can help us to release old traumas, beliefs, and emotions (or “protectors”) that we’ve been holding onto that no longer serve us.

Different Breathwork Techniques

We’ve already touched on the different breathwork techniques a little bit when we got into the history of breathwork, but basically, breathwork comes in many different forms and schools of thought.

Here are some of the most well-known breathwork techniques:

• Holotropic Breathwork
• Conscious Connected Breathing
• Whim Hoff Method
• Biodynamic Breathwork
• Clarity Breathwork/Rebirthing
• Integral Breathwork
• Integrative Breathwork
• Middendorf Breathwork
• Radiance Breathwork
• The Oxygen Advantage
• Pranayama Breathwork
• Reichian Breathwork
• Shamanic Breathwork
• Transformational Breathing
• Vivation Breathwork
• Zen Yoga Breathwork
• And, of course, PAUSE BREATHWORK… we couldn’t forget that one. 😉

What Makes Pause Breathwork Different from other Techniques

The main difference between Pause breathwork and other breathwork techniques is that we’ve developed our own breathwork and coaching techniques to maximize healing and transformation, so we can access deeper states of bliss, peace, and happiness.

There are many breathing practices that aim to just relax you, but with Pause Breathwork, relaxation is actually a side effect of the practice. Our breathwork and coaching techniques help you discover the stuck energy inside of you that stops you from living in your highest alignment. When you release this energy, you can operate at a higher frequency with more ease.

Our programs also focus on four key differentiators:

1. Integration & Embodiment: YOU go first and embody the transformation that you bring to your clients.
2. Results-Based Journeys: each session is optimized for a particular intention to influence healing towards a desired outcome (for clients, this is the intention they bring to the session, and for our Mobile App, this is outcomes like better sleep or recused anxiety).
3. We are Mission Focused: Pause focuses on bringing breathwork to the planet to impact 1,000,000 lives and increase human consciousness while decreasing suffering.
4. We Teach From a Trauma-Aware Lens: Our programs are created by world-class experts who infuse trauma-aware principles into everything that is taught so that you can feel confident creating safer spaces for your clients.

By taking all of these factors into consideration, you can trust that when you’re learning breathwork with Pause, you’re getting the highest quality breathwork instruction available.

Breathwork vs. Meditation

Now that you understand that there are different breathwork techniques and what makes Pause breathwork unique, you may be wondering how breathwork compares to other forms of stress relief, like meditation.

Here’s the answer, Boo…

Breathwork is often compared to meditation because of the focus on breath and awareness it requires. However, breathwork is a more active practice than meditation. It is used to explore the breath and its effects on the body and emotions, while meditation focuses on stillness, silence, and mental observation.

A recent study shared by Dr. Andrew Huberman, a professor at Stanford, found that breathwork is more effective at reducing stress and anxiety, calming the nervous system, and improving mood. While meditation tends to be better for improving daytime focus.

Potential Breathwork Side Effects to be Aware of

Now I know by now you’re probably sold on the idea that it’s time to start offering breathwork to your clients (because its benefits are INSANELY powerful), but before you do, it’s best to be properly trained and be aware of any possible negative side effects.

We’ve created a deep dive blog post here about the side effects of breathwork, but for now, these are a couple to be aware of:

• Nausea, Vomiting, & Dizziness
• Tetany
• Temperature Changes
• Intense Emotional Releases
• The Risk of Re-traumatization
• Dry Mouth/Throat & Coughing
• Uncomfortable Sensations or Pain in Different Body Parts
• Weird Visuals or Psychedelic Experiences

To learn more about how to navigate these with clients, why they happen, and how to create safer spaces for your clients, be sure to check out this deep-dive blog post.

Ready to get Started? Try Our Fave Pause Breath Exercises

Now that you know what breathwork is, its history, the benefits for both you and your clients, breathwork techniques, safety considerations, and breathwork vs. meditation, it’s time to get started with your personal practice! 

Because here’s the thing, it’s so so soooo important for YOU as a coach or facilitator to practice what you preach. If you’re interested in adding breathwork to your professional toolkit, your personal journey with the breath is the best place to start.

To help you out, here are four Pause Breathwork signature breath exercises:

1. The Tri-Active Breath (2 breathes into the chest & belly, 1 breath out)
2. The Halo-Active Breath (1 breath in through the nose, 1 breath out through the mouth)
3. The Bliss Breath (1 breath in through the nose, 1 breath out through the nose)
4. The Blow Breath (1 breath in through the mouth, 1 breath out through the mouth)

If you want to go deeper on how to do these breathing exercises properly (and what each of them is used for), check out this blog post here. This YouTube video also has a live demonstration for you.

In our certification program, we also teach you how to create breath choreography using these signature patterns.

Learn More About our Pause Breathwork Training Certification

Ready to take your breathwork further? We’ve got you covered with our Trauma-Aware Breathwork Facilitator Training.

Our Pause Breathwork certification is designed for coaches, therapists, and facilitators who want to add breathwork to their business or aspiring beginners who want to start a breathwork business. 

We cover everything from the science of breathwork to breathwork facilitation and breathwork techniques. You’ll learn how to guide sessions for 1:1 or groups, as well as events, retreats, and workshops.

Everything in the program is taught from a trauma-aware lens by world-class trainers. We have content developed by a neuroscientist and a trauma expert. Not only will you get an in-depth education on how to hold space for transformation safely, but you’ll also go on your own personal journey of healing. You’re held in a sacred space and community of like-minded healers and light workers so that you can blossom into your own highest self. We put a huge emphasis on your own energetic alignment first.

So if learning how to facilitate breathwork is something you’re interested in, check out our Breathwork Facilitator Training certification and get ready to change the world one breath at a time!

Or get started with our FREE Training → Get Lasting Results for Your Coaching Clients.

Thanks for being here! I hope this Ultimate Guide to Breathwork for Coaches & Therapists has helped you understand breathwork better and opened some possibilities for its use in your personal and professional practice.