Written by Emily Paterson
I didn’t arrive at breathwork because it was the next shiny wellness trend or because I wanted to look like I “had it all together.” I arrived because my body had run out of options. Years of survival mode had left me brilliant at articulating my trauma, but still unable to live outside of it. I could talk about what happened until my voice went hoarse - yet my chest still locked up at the smallest triggers (especially with my kids!), my heart still raced in rooms that were perfectly safe, and my breath still disappeared without warning.
Here’s the truth the self-help industry often sidesteps: you cannot think your way out of what your body is still holding. No number of affirmations or journal prompts will convince your nervous system you are safe if it never gets to experience that safety in real time.
That’s where breathwork enters - not as a quick-fix, not as a bliss-high, but as a way of slowly, deliberately dismantling survival patterns and inviting the body back into trust. This is not the sexy, marketable kind of healing that sells quick. It’s slower. Deeper. And it’s why most people don’t stick with it long enough to experience the full reclamation.
Trauma isn’t just a memory - it’s a physiology. It’s a change in the way your nervous system fires, in the way your muscles hold tension, in the way your breath patterns shrink to fit the survival story.
Mainstream wellness still talks about trauma as though it’s only a “mindset problem” or an emotional wound that can be solved by “letting go.” That’s not only unhelpful - it’s harmful. Trauma is not about weakness, and healing it is not only about “moving on.” It’s about unhooking the survival adaptations your body created so you could stay alive.
Talk therapy is powerful - I’ve benefited from it myself - but it engages the part of the brain that can speak and reason. Trauma sits deeper, in the primal brain and the tissues of the body. You can’t reason your diaphragm into relaxing. You have to give the body a pathway back to regulation. In my belief and my experience, complete healing asks for both - you have a body and a mind, and each needs to be met in order for your old cycles to come to completion.
When I talk about breathwork here, I mean Conscious Connected Breathing - a continuous, circular breath with no pauses between inhale and exhale. It’s deceptively simple, but it has the ability to reach layers of the nervous system that have often been locked down for years.
Let’s be clear: not all breathwork is created equal. The high-intensity, “blow your mind” breathwork styles you see on Instagram are incredible - but they can be stimulating to the point of overwhelm - and for someone with unresolved trauma, that’s not healing, that’s re-traumatisation dressed up as a breakthrough.
The power of Conscious Connected Breathing lies in its subtlety. It works with the body’s pace, bypassing the thinking mind and letting the breath communicate directly with the nervous system. It’s not about chasing euphoria or catharsis - it’s about building a steady baseline where your body no longer believes it’s in constant danger.
Your body is intelligent. Every trauma pattern you have is the result of your system trying to protect you. Breathwork works because it doesn’t shame or bulldoze those patterns - it meets them with enough safety for them to slowly unwind and therefore create the potentiality of a new way forward.
When you breathe in a connected, intentional rhythm, you create a physiological signal: It is safe enough to feel now. That signal doesn’t just calm you in the moment - it begins to rewire your baseline. This is the part the wellness industry rarely talks about, because rewiring takes time, and time doesn’t sell as well as “instant transformation.”
Breathwork for trauma is not about blowing the doors off your defences. It’s about slowly opening the windows, letting fresh air in, and teaching your body it no longer has to guard every entry point.
I’ve seen shifts in people that no amount of willpower could produce. And they don’t always look glamorous. Sometimes it’s tears. Sometimes it’s trembling. Sometimes it’s simply the first deep breath in years.
Some of the benefits:
Example: A client I worked with hadn’t cried in over 20 years after a childhood of suppression. In her second session, the tears came quietly, without drama. She said it felt like her body had been “holding its breath for decades and finally exhaled.” That’s not performance. That’s nervous system freedom.
Here’s where I will absolutely call out the industry: trauma is not a playground. Facilitators who push clients into catharsis without the skills to hold them there are not doing “deep work” - they’re gambling with people’s nervous systems.
A trauma-informed breathwork space must include:
If your breathwork session feels like a battlefield or a performance for the group, that’s not healing. That’s reenactment.
If you’re ready to explore breathwork for trauma, here’s how to start without falling into the wellness hype trap:
If you’ve been living as though your mind and your body are both your home and your prison, breathwork can be the slow key that begins to unlock the door. This isn’t about chasing bliss or bypassing pain - it’s about giving your body the lived experience of safety, breath by breath.
Creation, exploration, and learning only happen in safety - that’s how our brains work. If that’s what you’re seeking in life, then true, embodied, felt safety is the bedrock it rests on.
This is the work I live for: guiding people back into relationship with the parts of themselves they’ve had to abandon, so they can finally create - and fully live - the life they want and deeply deserve.
Is breathwork safe for everyone?
No. And anyone telling you it is doesn’t understand physiology. If you are pregnant, have cardiovascular, neurological, or certain psychiatric conditions, you must adapt the practice or work with medical clearance.
What if I feel nothing?
Numbness is a survival strategy. The first step of this work might be simply making contact with sensation again. That is huge progress.
Can I do it alone?
Some gentle techniques, yes. But trauma release breathwork should always begin with skilled facilitation - so you have the support to meet what surfaces.
About the Author
Emily Paterson is a Breathwork, Yoga, Pilates, and Meditation Teacher. Through breathwork, movement, somatics, and energetic practices, she creates safe, transformative spaces for healing, deep embodiment, and remembrance. Her offerings include private breathwork journeys, womb-centered sessions, and integrative mind-body practices designed to meet clients where they are.
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