3 Simple Steps for Getting Certified in Breathwork

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e all know how to breathe, but controlling your breathing and mastering different techniques can provide some improvements in your life. Breathwork is becoming increasingly popular in today’s world. It’s a great way to decompress, improve your mental health and even spiritual well-being.

The different methods of breathwork can be taught and you can also become a certified breathwork teacher. There are online or in-person classes you can take, and you can complete some courses in as little as two weeks. So, it’s no wonder why some people turn to it when they need to relax.

Breathwork is a great way to relieve stress and tackle some of your stress from work or everyday life. And with the entire world going through a pandemic and stress levels being at an all high, breathwork teachers are in high demand, and here’s what you need to do to become one.

What Does Getting Certified in Breathwork Mean?

Getting certified in breathwork means you’re a licensed teacher of different breathing and spiritual exercises. Most of the classes are online, but some can be taught in person, depending on the instructor.

What is Breathwork? Well, the teachings first originated in ancient Eastern traditions, aimed at paying conscious attention to the way you are inhaling and exhaling. There are three types of breathwork techniques: Holotropic, Rebirthing, and Clarity.

  1. Clarity: uses a circular breathing technique aimed at dealing with past emotional trauma
  2. Rebirthing: focuses on a self-healing technique meant to deal with internal emotions
  3. Holotropic: deals with emotional issues and personal state of mind.

Different sessions are aimed at certain mental states. Some sessions can be directed at alerting your mental state and address past trauma, others can be used to calm your nervous system. All the exercises are meant to provide some type of mental clarity. Getting a trauma informed yoga certification online can help you understand and teach breathwork to those who have some sort of trauma.

When you become a certified breathwork teacher, you’ll be enlisted with leading a class or group of students helping them control their breathing. Some sessions might seem like controlled hyperventilation others could be a meditative style focusing on breathing in and out.

What can happen for some clients is that these exercises can become good habits and improve their way of life. You’ll also notice some improvements in your day-to-day life after gaining and picking up new breathing habits.

Where Can I Use a Certification in Breathwork?

There are two different settings you could use for your breathwork certification either online or in person. With the pandemic still going on and some people still wary of being face to face, leading classes online would be the easiest way to start your classes.

You can search online for sites that allow you to lead classes and become an instructor. For instance, thebreath.zone offers a course for anyone wanting to become a breathwork teacher. After paying and taking their course you’ll be certified and able to lead classes virtually on their website.

Their courses cover all the fundamentals of breathwork and also breakdowns some of the science behind breathing. They provide courses on how to prepare yourself for teaching, exercises for releasing your own baggage, and give you private lessons on how to market your own business.

There are also other sites such as breathworkonline and alchemyofbreath if you were looking for a different option or wanted to compare prices. All the sites offer different training programs that let you go and teach at your own pace.

If you aren’t interested in doing virtual work, then you could get your certification online and lead classes in person. By hosting in person, you can start off in large groups or by leading private and intimate in-person sessions in the comfort of your home, neighborhood park, or gym.

In-person classes can also give you a chance to build better relationships and see up close what your clients might not help with. This also provides for trust-building, which will allow your clients to be confident in your teachings with them.

3 Simple Steps for Getting Certified in Breathwork

how to get certified in breathwork - infoActually getting your breathwork certification isn’t too hard, thankfully, and there are three basic steps. Let’s go over each one in detail.

Step 1: Gain Experience as a Student

If you’ve never done breathwork, find a local or online breathwork class and see what being a student in a breathwork class is like (if you’re comfortable with it). While going through the course, try to pay attention to the environment and settings.

Look at the students in the class and see how they react to the teacher. These could be tips and motives you could use for yourself when you eventually become a breathwork instructor. Try to watch the teacher too. Recognize some of the key tactics or breathing exercises she uses during her class as they could be valuable too.

Try to pick up on some of the fundamentals of breathwork as this will lay the foundation for your future teachings and could help you with your understanding of some coursework. Take notes at the end of class or make small mental notes of things you noticed your classmates or professor did.

And after the class is over, try to speak with the instructor and ask for tips. Ask the instructor about their journey and some of the steps they took to become a breathwork teacher and about ways to become a good breathwork instructor. Hearing tips from a professional instructor will help your journey to become a breathwork instructor.

It’s also a good idea to find out which breathing exercise you might want to practice first. Do you want to train Holotropic, Rebirthing, and Clarity breathing techniques? Identify which might be easiest to learn first and go from there.

Step 2: Find the Right Program and Certification

Decide where you want to receive your certification, how you want to get your certification, and when you want to start. Take some time and research the different training methods and what each program offers for you.

Identify if you would prefer to take classes in person or online depending on your work schedule. After you’ve decided exactly what forms of breathwork you want to take, pick the best course for yourself and go from there.

If you go the in-person route, it’ll give you more opportunities to see an instructor work in person and stop them whenever you have questions. You’ll also be able to build relationships with classmates and pick their brains about how they’re learning or tips they could give you for your training.

The courses can be done in as little as two weeks depending on your work/life schedule. Online courses offer you the ability to learn at your own pace, so you might be able to finish the certification process sooner if you decided to tackle your certification online.

It may be a bit harder to find in-person classes with the way the pandemic has changed our day-to-day lives. Just search and find what you’re comfortable with.

Step 3: Develop a Class Routine

After you have decided if you want to take a breathworking course online or in person, this is where the real work begins. While going through your course, it’s important to put in work outside of your course.

Develop a solid routine. It could be breathing exercises you do in the morning or some exercises you work on after you have completed a daily course. Practice makes perfect and it’s important that you put in some extra time outside the class. This will only fine-tune your skills and helps create a rhythm for you.

You don’t want to look at this as a job or a chore. This is something that will be life-changing and you’ll have the opportunity to change someone else’s life through what you have learned. You also want to take time to enjoy everything you’re learning.

Among other things, you’ll also want to think of ideas of how you want to build your client base. Talking with friends or family members would be a great first step and there would be enough trust between you and your family to lead a class.

If family and friends don’t seem interested, create a marketing plan. Social media is able to reach so many people, so advertising on Facebook or Instagram wouldn’t hurt. And see about asking your family if they could share your posts. Or you could be old school and hang up flyers around town promoting your teaching sessions.

Some Online Breathwork Certification Programs We Recommend

There are tons of online courses to choose from, so we’ve preselected a couple to help start you on your journey.

Loka Yoga School

Loka Yoga School allows you to work at your own pace. The course is only 20 hours and it gives you all the tools you need to succeed and become a great breathwork instructor. The course aims to teach you 24 life-changing breathing techniques and it’s internationally certified and accredited with the Yoga Alliance.

Within the training, you’ll learn how to reduce stress, increase day-to-day performance and improve your mental clarity. Included in the courses are also a few free bonus guides, such as: Anatomy & Physiology of the Breath, Principles of Breathwork, and the Pranic Body and Breathwork Community Support Group.

The international school does have in-person classes in Bali and has a team of six instructors ready to teach you the ins and outs of breathwork.

It also offers expert teachers and breathwork facilitators to go along with guided practices. The courses start at $349 and can run you as high as $599 with all of them offering lifetime access to the site and its teachings.

Breathwork isn’t the course you can take from this school. You can also get an online yoga certification, meditation training, and more!

The Whole Health Project

The Whole Health Project‘s Online Breath Coach Training is designed to be evergreen and self-paced and can be completed within three months. The Whole Health Project is certified by the Yoga Alliance and the International Breathwork Foundation.

The Whole Health Project also offers in-person or online training and teaches 20 fundamental breathing techniques and breath practices. There are lectures about the physiology, energetic and practical aspects of breathwork. And they give you access to an amazing global community of lifestyle coaches through their private Facebook group.

There are six modules including an assessment at the end, plus a bonus module to give you some extra tips. You can either pay one price of $697 for the course or pay $267 over three months. Plus, this company offers some of the best online yoga classes around.

Conclusion

The steps to becoming a breathwork instructor have all been laid out for you. Even though most courses can be completed quickly, it should be noted that this type of training is going to require lots of dedication.

It’s important to stay the course, gain fundamentals and get ready to gain some new life-changing skills, not only for yourself but to also be shared with others.

Caleb Sharbono is a writer, bio-hacker, wellness advocate, and yogi. Caleb, who grew up on a small Montana ranch, joined the Navy at 17 to study cryptology. He later graduated from the US Naval Academy with a Minor in Mandarin, a Bachelor's in General Engineering, and a Major in English Literature. Caleb's interests and career cover diverse industries and disciplines. Caleb lives in San Antonio and is a Certified Yoga Instructor. He is also studying Zen Buddhism, practicing Holistic Psychology, and working towards his 300-hour yoga teacher training.

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