Holotropic Breathwork®

Holotropic is derived from the words Holos and Trepein and means ‘moving towards wholenes ’. Holotropic Breathwork® is a powerful format for healing emotional and physical problems ánd to get insight in behavioral patterns and thoughts. The healing power of Holotropic Breathwork® can be explained by several important contributors. The format is developed by Stanislav Grof and his wife Christina and combines insights from modern consciousness research, several forms of dept psychology, antropology, transpersonal psychology, eastern spiritual habits and mystique traditions.

What happens during the actual breathing?

Due to the connected breath you reach a non-ordinary state of consciousness. A non-ordinary state of consciousness resembles a trance or dream state and can activate your cellular memory. When in a non-ordinary state of consciousness, your inner healing abilities are strongly activated. This inner healer brings unprocessed and surpressed experiences into your consciousness so processing can take place. Only after fully and completely living through the experience, you can release it once and for all.
When an experience is stuck in your body, a little help might be needed. With a specific form of bodywork we enable you to release.

Integration of experiences after the breathing

Within the format of Holotropic Breathwork® there is room for integration. The integration of your experience begins in two ways. You start your emotional integration by drawing a mandala. The cognitive integration starts by sharing the golden moments of your experience during a sharing circle.

The experiences, insights, emotions, feelings and thoughts during Holotropic Breathwork® can be further integrated in daily life in several ways. You can write about it. Also walks in nature, dance or meditation are good methods. In addition, several forms of therapy are recommended. When you don’t work actively with your experiences, a big part will, just like a dream, fade away. Therefore it is of great importance to actively work with it to benefit as much as possible. Stanislav Grof states the most optimal form of therapy is a combination of:

• the work in a non-ordinary state of consciousness like Holotropic Breathwork®
• Forms of psychotherapy or psychosocial therapy like Gestalt, psycho-analysis, Voice Dialogue, creative therapy
• Bodywork like Emotional Bodywork, different forms of massage, acupuncture

Therefore it is advised to look for a therapist to help you with integration of your experiences. Look for a therapist which is open to the work of Stanislav Grof and transpersonal psychology. If you are from this area, you can of course always come to my practice, see www.free-your-energy.nl

Duration

Stan Grof has done extensive research to the effect of different durations of the actual breathwork sessions within the format of Holotropic Breathwork®. This is his conclusion:
To activate your inner healing process, the optimal duration is 3 hours. Of course during the session a big part of the process is taking place. You can look at it as a kickstart. After the breathwork session, your process continues for days, weeks and sometimes even months. Sometimes you can be very aware of this, sometimes it happens completely unconsciously. By working actively with your experiences you optimize the effects!

Safety

The more safe you feel, the deeper you can get in to a non-ordinary state of consciousness. A few factors can add to a sense of safety:

• A proper introduction to this work.
  As a certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator I am a strong advocate of a thorough introduction. This contributes to your emotional safety. During this introduction you will receive information about the realms of non-ordinary states of consciousness, the experiences you can have in that state and how we will deal with those during your breathwork session. Also you will receive information about physical and psychological contra-indications and if participation in your situation is safe.
  In addition you will receive information on physical and psychological contra-indications and we will assess if participation for you is safe.
• time to arrive on location and settle on your breathing spot
• plenty time for your breathing session (3 hours)
• a thorough check-out
  At the end of the session we will check if you are back to your ‘normal’ consciousness. When you’re not, we will work with you until you are. Even if this takes a few hours.
• time to make a start with integration of your experiences
Doing artwork to integrate your experience without words and a sharing circle to express what needs to be said and what needs to be heard.
• a trained and certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator, an assistant who's in training to become a certified facilitator and your sitter.

Why a sitter?

Holotropic Breathwork® is charactarized by the fact we work with sitters. During the opening circle the participants form couples. Of course you can also register as a couple. One of you breaths during the morning session and the other during the afternoon session. The other fullfils the role of sitter. As a sitter you are with full attention and awareness present for your breather. You see the other in his or her proces. It is very important for people to be seen in their pain, often for the very first time in their life. You contribute in this way to their healing. It also contributes to a sense of safety, to have someone next to you.

in addition, it is very important how safe you feel within yourself. My experience is the more you breathe, the more this feeling of safety grows.

Stimulation

Holotropic Breathwork® is accompanied by evocative music. Music evoces memories and emotions. When unprocessed emotions or memories are touched, they can come in to awareness where you can process them. Some music will evoce your memories and emotions, other music will not. The music does not steer your process.
In other forms of breathwork facilitators may talk to yoy. In Holotropic Breathwork we believe words activate your cognition and that this way limit your process. We believe your Inner Healer is not activated in this way so therefor we refrain from using words as much as possible.

Grof states: ”It [the music] mobilizes emotions associated with repressed memories, brings them to the surface, and facilitates their expression. It helps to open the door into the unconscious, intensifies and deepens the therapeutic process, and provides a meaningful context for the experience. In Holotropic Breathwork® sessions that are usually conducted in groups, music has an additional function - to mask the noises made by the participants and weave them into an esthetic gestalt.”

Exactly for the reason the Inner Healer determines what is brought into Awareness, you best refrain from having expectations of the result. The advize is to let go of all expectations.
And….my experience is that the results exceed any expectations you might have thought of.

Below you read some of the results people report by participants of Holotropic Breathwork®:

• awareness of the cause of- and change in emotions, feelings and thoughts
• trauma’s being healed
• awareness of the cause of- and change in psychosomatic complaints
• psychosomatic and phycological complaints are diminishing or completely healed
• contribution to personal and spiritual growth and development
• you meet your true Self
• no more holding back in living your true Self
• more acceptance of yourself and others

This work is suitable for you if….

• you search for spirituality in your life.
• your complaints remain although you have/had mental health care.
• you suffer from psychosomatic complaints, like cramped neck or shoulders, migraines, eczema, psoriasis, stomach aches etc.
• you are sensitive to addiction.
• you have unresolved trauma, consider also trauma by omission like unfulfilled needs of safety, bonding, acknowledgement etc.
• you suffer from depression or you feel often down and depressed.
• you suffer from anxiety or you often feel afraid.
• you suffer from- or are aware of prenatal or birth trauma

This work is less suitable for you if….?

Contra-indications

Because Holotropic Breathwork® is so powerful, both in the psychological as the physical field, there are several contra-indications. The severity of the contra-indication is leading in weather you can participate . During the intake we can decide together weather it is safe for you to breathe. When you participate in Holotropic Breathwork®, you are asked to fill out and sign a medical statement.

The contra-indications are:

• Heart and vascular disease
• High blood pressure
• Strokes, TIAs, seizures, or other brain or neurological conditions
• Psychiatric diagnoses or suspicion of borderline, schizophrenia, (sensitive for) psychoses etc.
• Recent operations
• Physical injuries including fractures or dislocations
• Present or current infectious or communicable diseases.
• Glaucoma
• Retinal detachement or other retinal problems
• Epilepsy
• Osteoporoses
• Asthma
• Pregnancy
• Active drugs- of alcohol addiction

Introduction

My experience is that an introduction to Holotropic Breathwork® offers a frame for your experiences and contributes to a sense of safety. When you never experienced Holotropic Breathwork® before, it is necessary to participate in an online introduction to Holotropic Breathwork® before participation in your first workshop or individual session. This introduction lasts appr. 1,5-2 hours. You receive extensive information on the work of Stanislav Grof, the underlying psychology and the types of experiences you can have during Holotropic Breathwork®. Of course there is room for questions.
These introductions are organized monthly in english and on request in Dutch. The dates are here below and you can register via e-mail.

In case you prefer to have this introduction one on one and/or in person, that’s of course possible. This introduction will take place in my practice in Hillegom or online and takes between 1,5 and 2 hours.

Rates for the introduction are published below.

Before the introduction you fill out a medical intake form. In case you have a contra-indication, we discuss by phone if and how you can participate.

Online introductions in English

• 8 February 19:30-21:30
• 4 April 19:30-21:30

To register, please mail to: judith@holotropicbreathwork.nl

Introductions in Dutch
For dates, click here!

Formats

A workshop Holotropic Breathwork® always consists of an introduction round, formation of couples, breathing sessions and sitter sessions, mandala drawing and a sharing circle. Of course a simple vegan and vega lunch are served. In addition to your own Holotropic Breathwork® session, you are present as a sitter for your breather and are a witness of his/her process.

There are 2 types of workshops.

Intensive 2-day Holotropic Breathwork®
This 2-day workshop takes place on Saturday and Sunday with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 participants. Each participants has 2 breathwork sessions and 2 sitting sessions each.
Saturday starts at 08:45 and we close around 18:30. Sunday starts also at 08:45. Than we close around 19:00.

Day workshop Holotropic Breathwork®
A day workshop takes place on Saturday with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 participants. Each participant has 1 breathwork session and 1 sitting session each.
The day starts at 08:45 and we close around 19:00.

Individual session

Of course it is possible if you prefer an individual session. If you like (not a must), you can bring your own sitter. Someone whom you feel safe with. It’s also quit practical, someone who drives you home. Generally on Mon-Thu you arrive around 12:30. Including preparation and closure, the session lasts around 5 hours. On Friday, we start around 10:00.

Rates

Introduction

• Online group introduction: € 150 of which you receive back twice an amount as a discount.
• € 50 discount on your first and € 50 on your second workshop, or
• € 40 discount on your first and € 40 on your second individual session
• Personal introduction face to face or online: see www.free-your-energy.nl

Workshops
Workshop Holotropic Breathwork® with 1 breathwork session p.p.:

• Early bird: € 160 until 4 weeks before the workshop
• Last 4 weeks: € 200

Intensive Holotropic Breathwork® workshop with 2 breathwork sessions p.p.:

• Early bird: € 280 until 4 weeks before the workshop
• Last 4 weeks: € 320

Individual

• Individual session (total duration 5 hours): € 365 or 315 see for more info: www.free-your-energy.nl

Cancellation

An introduction can be cancelled at no charge at all times.

Workshop cancellation

A workshop can be cancelled free of charge until 4 weeks before.
In case you cancel later than 4 weeks in advance, you get a refund minus € 75 administration cost.

Judith Smit

People describe me as a warm, open, honest person with humor and a down-to-earth personality. In 2008, after working for years in corporate business, I came to the conclusion I wanted to work with people. I started with a training to personal coach. Soon I realized that the cause of many personal issues is stored in deeper layers of consciousness and the work needs to be done on these levels to achieve processing and change. At Grof Transpersonal Training I was trained by Stanislav Grof and his staff in transpersonal psychology and certified as a Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator. In addition I was trained in Voice Dialogue, psycho(social) therapy and trauma constellations from Franz Ruppert.
I look at people as a whole, from a cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual perspective.