Breathwork, trauma integration & SE

It’s a well known fact that intentional breathing can directly influence the autonomic nervous system.

But we are often not taught that long breathwork sessions can lead some people to experience more shutdown and others to experience hyperarousal states (fight/flight).

Looking back on my own journey, knowing what I know now, breathwork used to cause me to dissociate.

We all carry tension and unprocessed fight/flight/freeze responses in our nervous systems. If your system is too contracted, with a small window of tolerance; long breathwork sessions is most definitely not the answer for you. And the chances are you don’t know the state of your system.

The catch is that we only start to get to know our own system once we start deep somatic healing work. It’s an experiential journey.

The beauty of Somatic Experiencing (SE) is that it’s an organic approach. So it won’t push you to breath in certain ways to regulate your nervous system. In the SE approach the breath comes as a natural result of self-regulation. So your breath will regulate on it’s own, without the need to manipulate it with breathwork.