Breath psychotherapy

Abstract

Breath psychotherapy is an approach that makes direct use of the breath in healing. There are many forms of breath-based healing: basic breathing and relaxation methods, with or without the practice of psychological skills such as imagery, centring and concentration; expressive physical and emotional techniques; advanced meditation, prayer and other spiritual exercises. Such an approach has been extolled for millennia in the form of various spiritual, wisdom and healing traditions, including ancestor reverence, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam which have holistically equated breath, consciousness, energy and spirit, as well as viewing breath as the vital link between body and mind. This approach distils into a perennial psychology, which recognizes a pre-reflective unity underlying and interlinking the various traditions and forms of breath-based healing and therapy. Accordingly, breath psychotherapy is based on an understanding and healing of the total psyche in the original, holistic meaning of this term. The present article is an appreciative inquiry into more recent forms of breath psychotherapy as promoted and used by modern authors and practitioners.