Breathwork and Body Centred Counselling

Our culture has inherited a map of the human inner world which is missing many critical elements. We don’t understand the inner world. We can’t really explain some of the common things that happen in normal human lives and inner processes without thinking of them as illness and disorder. We have become ashamed of the sometimes painful struggles which grow us, mature us and deepen us.

Our map of normal human-ness has become increasingly limited as intellectual and rational knowledge has gradually dominated other ways of knowing. The subsequent insistence on scientific measurement and proof means that many of our ancient maps have been discarded, making it ever more difficult to fully embrace our real experience of ourselves.

Our inner worlds are not always rational, not measurable, and not predictable. We are wild! The development of wisdom has always depended on our capacity to journey into the wild, into the depths of darkness and into the unfathomable places inside ourselves. We cannot become wise without it getting messy and complicated and hard at times – it’s the nature of being human. We must learn how to journey into our deep sorrows, our pain and our contractions, as well as learning to inhabit the light, the expansive and ecstatic realms of humanness.

I have had the privilege of accompanying thousands of wondrous humans in their times of evolution and internal struggle. Through being with, and expanding my maps as I encounter more ways we do this human thing, rather than trying to get people to squeeze somewhere into the map with the missing pieces, I have learned more of what we are.

I’ve come to understand that we are extraordinarily intelligent organisms. Our systems are constantly seeking balance and wholeness. Learning to listen deeply to ourselves and to trust the process reveals a deep organic intelligence at work. Without exception, our internal processes are always trying to align us with who we really are, and always seeking to re-establish personal balance and wellbeing.

Breathwork combined with a body centred counselling model is, in my experience, the most effective tool available for personal transformation. It encourages the deep listening required, it reveals the intelligence of the inner world, and it shows us the maps and guides us through them. I am passionate about passing on these tools for use in the healing of mind, body and spirit.

Breathwork is a simple and safe breathing method which facilitates mindful attention to what's happening in the body. My work is based on Conscious Connected Breathwork. Suing this simple breath technique, we become finely tuned in to the details of body sensations, of emotions, of feelings and thoughts. By applying this quality of focus, we become able to listen very deeply to the felt sense of life as it moves in us. We tune in to what is trying to happen, the balance that our bodies are constantly aiming to put to rights. And the Breath and the Body show us what needs to happen. 

Applying this attention to the Breath and to the Body shows us information that our minds don't already know.