Holotropic Breathwork as a Therapeutic Intervention for Survivors of Trauma: An Autoethnographic Case Study
What Happened? Re-presenting Traumas, Uncovering Recoveries November 8, 2018 DOI: 10.1163/9789004385931_011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Narrative account Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Holotropic Breathwork |
| Duration | Two-day workshop |
| Topics | Breathwork |
| Key points | The author describes participating in a two-day Holotropic Breathwork workshop and explains the practice's principles, including its use of breathwork to access heightened consciousness and facilitate spontaneous inner healing, but no empirical findings are reported. |
Abstract
In June, 2010, I was presenting a paper at an international transpersonal psychology conference in Moscow.1 As part of the experience I had elected to attend a two day Holotropic Breathwork (HB) workshop led by Stanislav Grof, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology.2 As a simple ritualised process, HB harnesses the innate capacity for individuals to realise their potential for deep inner healing through the expression of energies that lead to the realignment and/or correction of trauma.3 Paralleling the humanistic concept of self-actualising, it assumes that willing participation in breath work will permit access to a heightened state of consciousness allowing a spontaneous response to ‘the wisdom of whatever emerges.’4 HB is often facilitated in large groups sub-divided into paired participants alternating between the roles