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Is Breathwork Bad for Trauma?

Updated: Apr 1


Breathwork and meditation are often seen as the gold standard for mindfulness, but the truth is, they can actually be retraumatizing!


Here's how breathwork and meditation can be harmful to the trauma survivor:


  1. Holding your breath could trigger a freeze response, or breathing rapidly could trigger a fight or flight response. 

  2. If your body has been in a stress response for an extended period of time, you might have tightness in your chest or shoulders. This could make breathwork uncomfortable or painful.  

  3. The directive for breathing is often to sit up straight and lengthen your spine. Moving from your natural posture to sitting up straight could also activate a fear response.  This could make breathwork feel unsafe. 

  4. Due to how trauma impacts our beliefs about ourselves, you believe that not getting it “right” is your fault. If you were a better/smarter/healthier person you’d be able to get it right. But it's not you!  Traditional breathwork is sometimes hard for trauma survivors.  

  5. Meditation can lead to dissociation or flashbacks, or could also feel impossible to do. If your system is stuck in a threat response, it might not feel safe to go into a meditative state.  


is breathwork bad for trauma?

So how do we manage these aspects in a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) practice? 


TCTSY offers everything as a choice and an invitation. 


  • If you feel like you would like to try a shape, you can.  

  • If you want to try two different shapes and explore how each one feels, you can. 

  • You can try breathwork and if it doesn’t feel right, you can stop.  

  • You can also change your mind throughout the practice or week to week. If the prior week, breath work didn’t feel good to you but maybe this week it does, that’s ok.  


“What if I don’t know? What if the choices are overwhelming to me?”


If choice making feels too overwhelming, we will narrow all choices down to two choices: Choice A and Choice B. Then we would support you in exploring each choice and gathering information about sensory information you get from each. 


That is how you practice getting back in touch with your body.  


TCTSY also can be modified through dosage and titration.  


You may be offered the option to try a small amount of meditation with movement. Or you might be invited to tune into sensation to whatever degree you feel comfortable. You could explore what it feels like to add breath to movement. And these aspects of the class can be increased or decreased in frequency based on your comfort level.


Lisa Parise, LCSW is a Somatic Trauma Therapist with training in Somatic Experiencing, Somatic Movement Therapy, and TCTSY. She provides trauma therapy intensives at Seeking Depth to Recovery, that specializes in the treatment of complex and non-verbal trauma, using experiential modalities in an intensive format. In as little as one 90-minute intensive therapy session, participants report marked insight into their anxiety, panic, depression, and trauma compared to their previous experience with traditional talk therapy.




 
 
 

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