TRAUMA FOCUSED BREATHWORK CERTIFICATION & FACILITATOR TRAINING

FOR HEALERS, PRACTITIONERS, AND CLINICIANS

Let’s get certified!

Breathwork for Recovery offers a one-of-a-kind 800-hour Breathwork Clinician Certification (BCC) that is a hybrid of online coursework and in-person hands-on facilitation, to be completed in either 2 or 4 years with a time commitment of around 33 hours of work per month. All work until graduation is to be completed virtually.

The breath practice we teach is a two-part breath done through the mouth, not dissimilar to CCB. Its origins are currently unknown, but we are working with a pranayama scholar to uncover its roots. We studied for 12 years under David Elliott* until we left for ethical reasons, and no real lineage of this work was ever taught. It most likely is a modified Kriya technique, but we are on the journey to discover its genesis so we can give appropriate credit to this practice.

BfR’s BCC covers topics that no other breathwork training programs touch — including anti-racism and intersectionality, spiritual bypass, ethics of care, and how to build an equitable breathwork business. It is one of the most thorough programs available.

Over the course of our breathwork training, attendees will learn essential information about breathwork technique, trauma, counseling and communication skills, ethical practice, implicit bias, and group and couples work using an intersectional lens. Attendees will also develop new insight into their own healing — a common result of taking trainings of this kind. We say trauma focused instead of trauma-informed because at its core, breathwork is a trauma remediation technique, so calling it trauma-informed is more of a marketing ploy for SEO.

This Breathwork Clinician Certification (BCC) consists of:

• (11) 8-hour monthly trainings (88 hours)

• (11) 2 hour homework assignments (22 hours)

• (1) 8-hour presentation days (8 hours)

• (1) 4-hour prep for presentation (4 hours)

• (50) 1.5 weekly supervision meetings (75 hours)

• (12) 3-hour monthly breathwork group trainer led (36 hours)

• (50) 1 hour leading peer-to-peer sessions (50 hours)

• (50) 1 hour receiving peer-to-peer sessions (50 hours)

• (10) 2-hour peer led breathwork group (20 hours)

• (10) 1 hour sessions with outside clients (10 hours)

• (50) 15 minute oral or written session notes (12.5 hours)

• Specialized reading list and writing assignments (25 hours)

• 1 in-person hands-on clinic culminating in a graduation ceremony (West Coast, location TBD)

Breathwork for Recovery is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs and LCSWs. Breathwork for Recovery maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. The 800-hour Breathwork Clinician Certification qualifies for 800 CE hours. This can be broken up to eight hours per training, three per group facilitation, 1.5 per supervision)

One full and four partial scholarships are available per cohort to Black, Indigenous, Brown, Asian American Pacific Islander, and People of Color, with priority given to those who are queer or transgender. Any person of Indian descent who would like to attend will be allowed to attend at a “pay what you feel the course is worth” rate. To receive the scholarship, please apply here. After review, faculty will email the scholarship form for you to complete.

2023 Cohort:
Opening Ceremony: Saturday, Sept. 22 9 a.m.-noon PT
Day 1 (Online module 1 start date): Saturday, October 14 9 a.m.-6 p.m. PT
All following online modules take place on the 2nd Sunday of each month from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. PT (unless otherwise specified)

Monthly 3-hour Trainer led Breathwork occurs every 2nd Friday of the month

Monthly 2-hour Student led Breathwork occurs every 4th Sunday of the month

Weekly 90-minute supervision occurs TBD

Students are expected to lead roughly 1 session per week with other cohort members

Students are expected to receive roughly 1 session per week with other cohort members

Cost:
Standard rate: $8,000 per person ($1,000 nonrefundable deposit due at signup*)
Scholarship rate: $4,000 per person ($500 refundable deposit due at signup)

Location: Coursework will take place online via Zoom (no account required). You will need access to a reliable Internet connection and video chat capability. Links and materials will be provided via email 7 days prior to Training Day 1. The final clinic will take place in person at a TBD location on the west coast.

*Deposits are non-refundable unless stated otherwise.

This is a comprehensive training, but with any course of study, there is no way to “complete” an education in breathwork facilitation. This will not be the first or final breathwork training you will need to take to be an effective provider. Recommendations for continued education will be provided upon completion of this program.

Visit our FAQs to learn more about this program, including scholarship guidelines, no-interest payment plans, and CE hours.

*I have studied breathwork actively for more than 15 years. I consider myself a perennial student and I want to forever remain curious and teachable. The folks I consider not only peers but also my teachers in the breathwork field are Jennifer Patterson, Founder of Corpus Ritual, and Chauna Bryant, Founder of Breath Liberation Society.  I would not be the teacher, the practitioner, or the man I am today without the help of these two incredibly skilled and earnest badasses. With them in my life, I felt for the first time I found a community who also cared about the things I felt were so important. They have also helped me be more accountable for my work in the world, and I’ll be indebted to them for the rest of my life. It is also important to say that I learn so much from every instructor that comprises our Breathwork Clinician Certification faculty, and from being in right relationship with my students.

This particular breathwork technique found me in 2009 while I was in treatment for alcoholism and mental health issues including suicidal ideation/attempts. Corrie Murguia (then Borris) introduced it to me, and we are fast friends to this day. It changed my life. After working with it as intimately and as long as I have, I’ve come to recognize that it has its own consciousness, its own intentions, and its own desires. The Spirit of this work deserves more credit than any human and deserves to be recognized as the driving force behind its power and healing, not some “guru.”

As a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor Level II, I am not required to seek continuing Clinical Supervision. However, I voluntarily seek it under Dr. Janoc Vance. Under her supervision, I have become so much better as a counselor, an educator, and as a supervisor. I have learned discernment and differentiation.

I hold a Sex Educator Certificate from Everyone Deserves Sex Education. Its Founder, Anne Hodder-Shipp, is an award-winning sex and relationship educator, and the author of Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love. They are also the great love of my life. As her student, I have learned ways to use the power I have as a white cisgender man to help dismantle the patriarchy, how to prioritize the disenfranchised, and how to identify and take responsibility for behaviors that unwittingly uphold patriarchy, white supremacy, and other oppressive systems. They are one of the most qualified and skillful educators I’ve ever met. I hope I get to continue to learn from her until the last star explodes in its death gasp and the Universe starts all over again. May I return as mycorrhizal network.

I am a student of Hellenistic Astrology as taught by Austin Coppock and Chris Brennan, two deeply knowledgeable scholars of astrology, and of Diana Rose Harper, a renowned relational astrologer and educator who I also have the privilege of calling a close personal friend. I have learned to hope more deeply and consistently with her in my life.

I began developing our Breathwork Clinician Certification in 2015 because there were many gaps in what I and other students were being taught about this form of breathwork. The breathwork program I had completed numerous times was too short and led exclusively by David Elliott, a white heterosexual man with no clinical training, which led to Black, gender expansive, LGBTQIA+, and other important perspectives being deprioritized, appropriated, or absent from the program. The content did not include informed teachings or discussion of trauma, consent, power, identity, diversity, and other topics I consider essential for anyone being trained to provide space for healing. Like most New Age "wellness" trainings, it was white-washed, rooted in characteristics of white supremacy and patriarchy, and blamed the individual as the reason they experience suffering, abuse, or poverty and, as a result, solely responsible for their own healing. As through systemic oppression doesn't exist.

I finished the creation of the Breathwork Clinician Certification in 2022, and it has been some of the most fulfilling work of my life. I hope that I continue to get to share this work in this way.

I would like to thank Breathwork for the People for their labor and shedding light on the many still unaddressed issues within my former mentor, David Elliott, and his breathwork community.

For almost 12 years, I assisted and taught for him and was deeply involved in his community of breathwork providers. In 2020, he was called in by Breathwork for the People in a letter which I signed along with 20+ others before it was delivered to him. Its authors put forth tremendous labor by writing it with compassion and clarity and managing the resulting vitriol and backlash they ultimately received from his community. The change and evolution that Breathwork for the People urged David to make did not happen. Over time, it became clear that David or his other teachers did not plan to rectify any of these issues, and they appeared distrustful and suspicious of community members like myself who advocated for implementing Breathwork for the People's solutions. I left David's breathwork community in 2021.

BfR’s BCC covers a range of core competencies, including: