The Importance of Working with a Trauma-Informed Breathwork Practitioner

When we hear the word ‘trauma’, we often picture something catastrophic: war, serious accidents, or acts of violence. Few recognise that trauma can also arise from more subtle or ongoing experiences that may not seem life-threatening but can still overwhelm our capacity to cope over time. This was once my understanding too, and before breathwork found me, I never would have described myself as someone who had experienced trauma.

There is no way to sugarcoat that working somatically (with the body), in any capacity, is a vulnerable experience. Before I understood what ‘working with the body’ on a somatic level meant, I remember my early experiences with yoga and how I would go from warrior pose to weeping by the end of a class. Teachers would comment that ‘women hold a lot of emotions in their hips’, but that was about as far as the conversation went. My entry into breathwork followed a similar pattern; using a method without guidance, support, or trauma awareness led me down a scary path of nervous system overwhelm, and I had no idea what was happening to me.

Why Trauma-Informed Practice Matters

It was during the beginning stages of my breathwork training that I finally began to uncover things I had unknowingly ignored and hidden away, and I soon realised I had a much closer relationship with trauma than I thought. I finally got the clarity and answers to questions I had been seeking for years because for the first time, I was held in a trauma-informed environment where my body felt safe enough to connect the dots and open to greater awareness. I now understand what was missing from those early experiences of working with my body: self-awareness, an understanding of my own physiology, connection to my history with trauma, and a titrated, trauma-informed approach.

Getting into this work can begin the process of unravelling, and things can come to the surface that we didn’t know were there. This is one of the key reasons why it’s so important that anyone who steps into the role of supporting others does so with integrity, self-awareness, and a solid grounding in trauma-informed practice. When things within us come to light, the person holding space needs to be able to support that process in a safe, titrated, and grounded way. This is what differentiates trauma-informed practitioners from those who simply mean well.

Trauma and the Nervous System

For anyone carrying the unresolved impacts of stress or trauma, it's important to work with a practitioner who understands how trauma affects the nervous system. Trauma is not the event itself, for example a car accident; it is the body's response to the event and the imprint it leaves on the nervous system. Two people can live through the same experience and be impacted in completely different ways depending on the level of stored survival stress. A trauma-informed practitioner should understand this and their approach should prioritise your safety, respect your unique capacity, and support your system in a way that never pushes you into overwhelm or beyond your window of tolerance.

Over the last ten years, I tried many different approaches before finding breathwork. I’ve experienced them personally and trained in some of them, and what I found was that the vast majority of coaches and courses had little to no education or understanding of trauma or the nervous system. Through my own experience, I’ve come to believe that anyone working with the body, whether in therapeutic, somatic, or movement-based professions, including those within the fitness industry, should have a foundational understanding of trauma and the nervous system.

Lived Experience Alone Is Not Enough

We are living in the era of the influencer, where anyone with access to the internet and social media can call themselves a coach or a ‘healer’. If you happen to find someone who describes themselves as the latter, proceed with caution and dig deeper into their credentials. Holding space for another human being is not something that can be improvised or claimed simply through life experiences. To hold trauma-informed space requires proper training from a reputable, accredited organisation and a recognised qualification. Someone who has lived through traumatic events does not automatically qualify to support others in their healing. Lived experience can absolutely bring empathy, resonance, and understanding, but alone it does not enable you to safely hold space for someone else.

To put it gently, trauma is complex, and many of us are unaware of what we are holding within our lifetime of layers. It is crucial that a person facilitating any kind of therapeutic process is not only trauma-informed but also has a strong understanding of their own physiology and has engaged in their own healing work. This foundation, built through self-exploration and developing self-awareness, is what allows a practitioner to remain regulated and grounded while supporting someone else. It takes commitment to introspection, working with your own triggers, and increasing your capacity to sit with and integrate your experiences. Without this deep work, a practitioner risks becoming activated by someone else’s story, leaving both people in a vulnerable place. This does not mean a practitioner needs to be perfectly ‘healed’, free of trauma and triggers; such a person doesn’t exist. Healing and rewiring at the nervous system level is not a one-and-done event, it’s a lifelong journey. What matters most is the practitioner's capacity to notice their own responses and regulate in the moment, ensuring the environment remains grounded for all involved.

The Importance of Proper Training in Breathwork

Over the past few years, breathwork has become increasingly popular and is starting to feature more in the mainstream media. With that rise in visibility has come the weekend workshops, retreats and short trainings that quickly qualify you as a ‘facilitator’. On the surface, these offerings can look appealing, with strong social media marketing, a large follower count and promises of transformation, but when we’re working with real people who carry real trauma, this kind of training can be dangerous for both the facilitator and the client. The depth of personal work and education required to hold space safely simply can’t be condensed into a few days.

When I began my training with One Breath Institute, I didn’t know what to expect, and nothing could have prepared me for what unfolded. The process wasn’t just about learning techniques and committing things to memory in order to regurgitate them to others. It was about meeting my whole self for the very first time, without the masks, the learned behaviours, the fear, or the years of judgement I had been carrying. This would not have been possible without the presence of trauma-informed guidance, care, and support from the team and the founders. The training is recognised by the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA), and combines trauma-informed education with science, anatomy, and both the theory and practical application of breathwork in a safe and embodied way.

Before any student begins their training, they’re required to complete The Personal Journey, a 12-week process that begins with the breath but inevitably leads you deeper into yourself. This journey marked the beginning of developing a relationship with my breath, one I could trust without force or pretence, and it naturally deepened into a relationship with my body and my whole self. Over those twelve weeks, what began to unfurl was everything I had been holding and avoiding; and I came face to face with the limiting beliefs and patterns that had been living in my body.

That journey changed everything for me. It didn’t just open the doors to healing; it gave me the clarity and safety I needed to move into the practitioner training in a way that felt grounded and responsible. I came to understand that breathwork isn’t about prescribed techniques, performance or intensity, but about presence, self-awareness and nervous system regulation. It’s not something you guide another person through until you’ve learned how to hold yourself first.

What Does Trauma-Informed Breathwork Look Like in Practice?

Not all breathwork practices are the same. While many modern approaches draw inspiration from ancient pranayama, their intentions have evolved in very different directions. Where pranayama was traditionally about regulation, awareness, and expanding consciousness, many contemporary interpretations focus on intensity or spectacle, which can take us away from the true essence of working with the breath safely and intentionally.

Introspective Breathwork® Therapy (IBT®) is entirely client-led, meaning you have full agency over your experience at all times. You’re encouraged to follow the natural rhythm of your breath, which can change depending on a number of individual factors such as your energy levels or what’s present for you that day. You will never be guided to force the breath or directed to change how you’re breathing unless it becomes necessary to ensure your safety. A facilitator can never truly know what is happening internally for another person during a session, which further highlights the importance of trauma awareness. More often than not, forceful practices can bypass the body’s signals, leading to overwhelm and in some cases, exacerbating nervous system dysregulation.

At its heart, trauma-informed breathwork is about honouring the body’s intelligence and developing a relationship with your inner healer through the innate wisdom of the breath. When held with trauma awareness, breathwork becomes a grounded and supportive practice. Without it, facilitation risks becoming unsafe for both client and practitioner.

Seeking support is a vulnerable step for anyone to take, and the practitioner you choose can make all the difference to your experience.

Last updated: 31/10/25