Many people ask me which style of breathwork is more effective. I hope this page answers this question for you.
My ‘What is Breathwork’ page ended with a description of both ‘ Integrative Breathwork’ and ‘Cathartic Breathwork’. It is important people realize that not all forms of Breathwork are the same.
Integrative Breathwork and Cathartic Breathwork are not the only differences in Breathwork.
The intention for why you are doing it and the facilitators intention for you makes the world of difference.
The skills & experience of the facilitator make a huge difference.
The clarity of the facilitator – whether they are scared or not of their own anger/rage, deeper grief or fear, their sexual energy or whether or not they have even got to the point of uncovering their own guilt & shame and are at a level of comfort with these emotions enough to take you into your versions of these makes a huge difference.
Whether they spend their life in ‘spiritual/ energetic/ angelic/ physical immortality/ enlightenment’ realms and are doing so in order to escape being grounded, entering their material body fully and the emotional pain the material body holds makes a huge difference where you will go in your session.
The style of breathing, whether Nasal – Integrative or Mouth breathing – Cathartic will make a huge difference.
Where in your body you focus the breath – lower lungs and stomache area, upper lungs and upper chest area, the speed of breath makes a massive difference.
The fullness of breath and intensity of breath – whether it is a shallow or semi full, gentle meditation/ relaxing breath to calm the nervous system or whether it is a faster, more energetic and intense breath to hyper stimulate the central nervous system to ‘shake up’ all the emotional baggage in the nervous/emotional system will make a huge difference.
The length of the breathing cycle – 30 minutes or 2 &1/2 hours will make a huge difference where you will go.
All of these factors make a major…major, major difference in the outcome of the session.
But, to simplify things and break Breathwork down into 2 main catagories, we have:
Integrative Breathwork – I use this if I want my medium to long term clients to have a more gentle, subtle session to integrate their emotional energies if the emotions are already opened up and the ‘wound’ needs to be ‘sutured’.
Integrative Breathwork, if you liken your ‘emotional block’ to a block of concrete, is like getting a chisel and a hammer to the concrete block to break it down… slow, frustrating, costly of time & money
Cathartic Breathwork – I use with people who are ‘stuck’ in life and need an ‘emotional enema’. Which is 99% of the population really. This style of breathwork, for those who have the courage to really face their ‘shadow self’ will break down the ‘bodymind’ armouring and effectively displace the defence/barrier between conscious and unconscious mind and help people open up the real core of their life issues. 9 out of 10 sessions I do are in this style.
Cathartic Breathwork on the other hand if you liken your emotional blockage to a concrete block is like getting a sledge hammer to the concrete block… a few hits and it crumbles. For those ready to stop wasting time and kidding themselves it can be done quietly, neatly with no mess.
I believe the more gentle style can be taught to people so as they can do them on their own, even though the first few times support and coaching is needed as it can still be so powerful that it opens up deep and painful emotional memories just as effortlessly as the cathartic version.
At the end of the day each Breathworker has their own ‘healing/ facilitation paradigm’.
This paradigm is a personal reality within which they work as a ‘therapist’ or ‘spiritual healer’ or ‘agent of change’.
Each paradigm is different, hence the results will be different.
Look for experience.Look for grounded clarity. Look for someone you feel you can connect with genuinely and they are not putting on an ‘act’ of being happy, vibrant, confident… you can tell the difference. Look for success in relationships and success in life overall in your facilitator.For no matter what paradigm a breathworker works within, we all subscribe to our inner world being reflected in our external world. If a facilitators outer world flows, so too will most likely their inner world and that means they are clear enough to clear others efficiently.
