What makes holotropic breathwork unique from other forms of breathwork?

There are four essential things, in my opinion, that make holotropic breathwork not only unique among the different kinds of breathwork offered today, but also among all the activities offered in the field of personal growth.

The first thing is duration. A holotropic breathwork session typically lasts three hours. Why three hours? Because holotropic breathwork was developed by Stan and Christina Grof in the 70s, while they were in residence in Esalen, California. Around this time, they and other influential people such as Joseph Campbell and Michael Harner formed a veritable group dedicated to psychonautics, i.e. the exploration of the psyche. Some groups met for periods of 30 days at a time and tried out several experiments. Under these conditions, holotropic breathwork could be developed without being subject to conditions of profitability or convenience. The idea was to follow the natural course of the process. Of course, some people seem to emerge a little more quickly and others need more time, but it seems that three hours is a very reasonable average to give the necessary time for something to really emerge from the psyche, without rushing the person.

But, for the reason we’ll see in the second point, a holotropic breathwork workshop consists not of a single three-hour session, but of two. Adding the introductory period, lunch and sharing at the end of the day, a full-day holotropic breathwork workshop lasts a minimum of 10 to 12 hours. If you’ve ever done a holotropic breathwork workshop and the whole thing lasted 3 or 4 hours, it’s because someone falsely represented themselves as doing holotropic breathwork. Sadly, it happens.

The second thing that makes breathing unique, and perhaps my favorite reason, is that you experience holotropic breathwork from two points of view. As I said earlier, during a one-day workshop, there is not one but two sessions of holotropic breathwork. You experience one as the breather and the other as the sitter. A bit like scuba diving, in holotropic breathwork, you always dive in pairs. Because to dive into the unknown, you need a great sense of security. Of course, there’s always a team of facilitators on hand to make sure we can support those experiences that require special tact and familiarity with non-ordinary states of consciousness, but in addition, in holotropic breathwork, each person has a dedicated sitter. No matter what happens, there is always help available at will for the breathers. But the beauty of it is that the roles are reversed.

We in turn watch over the person who has watched over us, or breathe under the watchful eye of the person we have just watched over. It’s an exchange that creates a wonderful balance. Of course, some people arrive with a known partner, such as a spouse, friend or sibling. But it’s not necessary to arrive accompanied. Breathing teams are formed that very morning, and splendid stories of friendships have begun during holotropic breathwork workshops. All other approaches emphasize the experience of breathing, but for many, the experience of sitting s just as transformative. Many people speak of a true revelation. It’s an experience that, to my knowledge, is offered nowhere else but in holotropic breathwork.

The third thing that makes Holotropic breathwork unique is the insistence on letting the person taking part have full power. “Empowerment” is a fashionable term, but for holotropic breathwork, it’s a founding principle. So, we don’t offer holotropic breathwork with a particular goal in mind, and we don’t give the breathing session a theme. Nearly five decades of experience have taught us that what needs to emerge from the psyche eventually does. We trust the person’s inner healing power and, above all, facilitators who’ve known you for just a few hours don’t present themselves as if they know more about you than you do! With this in mind, in holotropic breathwork, we never decide to intervene in a person’s experience unless the person expressly requests it. In Holotropic breathwork, simple consent is not enough: a person must clearly ask for the help of a facilitator. We never take the place of the person’s inner healer in deciding what they need at any given moment. The facilitator’s job is not to direct the experience, but simply to support it. There’s no doubt that disempowered people will often prefer to have someone else decide for them what’s right for them, and after all, we can hardly blame them, because it’s not only the entire medical world that’s built on this model, but even the world of care in general. It’s not that this model is bad, but it is rather monolithic, and I appreciate that holotropic breathwork is a rebel in this respect.

The fourth aspect that makes holotropic breathwork unique is the use of music. Of course, many modalities use music, but when it comes to breathwork, there’s a lot of improvisation and imprecision. In holotropic breathwork, there’s a definite curve to the use of music, and the art has been refined over many decades of collaboration between different practitioners from all over the world. And it’s an art that has grown out of the knowledge developed during the first wave of psychedelic exploration preceding the 70s. In fact, holotropic breathwork has been the repository of the knowledge developed during this first wave, in many respects, of course, but also with regard to music. I’ll be giving a course on the subject starting October 1st. In a holotropic breathwork workshop, you have the chance to discover music in a wide variety of styles and from many different eras and cultures. It’s like a six-hour musical world tour, different for each workshop. Many participants testify that the music alone could justify their attendance at a workshop.

Holotropic breathwork is much more than that, but it’s the elements that are absolutely unique to this wonderful practice. Hoping to see you during one of our workshops soon!